SEEING THE LIGHT [and] THINKING AHEAD

SEEING THE LIGHT

Sometimes we at A.P.R. come across an article in our daily news-scans that just brings things into focus, about major issues. One major issue is the U.S.'s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, which is going badly, like all imperial "adventures" have in that country for the past 3000 years. Ostenstibly started in 2001 to apprehend the perpretrators of the 9/11 attacks, and punish their supporters, the Taleban, it is in it's tenth year now, with no end in sight. Thousands of innocent civilians have died in that country, and hundreds of U.S. troops. We saw this article today (naturally, not in the US corporate media) , and found it very revealing. See what you think...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/01-6

Afghan 'Geological Reserves Worth a Trillion Dollars'

Karzai exclaims 'very good news for Afghans', but perhaps history tells us that regular Afghans should be very cautious of such news

KABUL - Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, is sitting on mineral and petroleum reserves worth an estimated one trillion dollars, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday.

Miners work in the Anyak copper mine in Afghanistan. While Afghanistan is not renowned as a resource-rich country, it has a wide range of deposits, including copper, iron ore, gold and chromite, as well as natural gas, oil and precious and semi-precious stones. (Afghan Government photo)The war-ravaged nation could become one of the richest in the world if helped to tap its geological deposits, Karzai told reporters.

"I have very good news for Afghans," Karzai said.

"The initial figures we have obtained show that our mineral deposits are worth a thousand billion dollars -- not a thousand million dollars but a thousand billion," he said.

He based his assertion, he said, on a survey being carried out by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), due to be completed in "a couple of months".

The USGS, the US government's scientific agency, has been working on the 17-million dollar survey for a number of years, Karzai said.

While Afghanistan is not renowned as a resource-rich country, it has a wide range of deposits, including copper, iron ore, gold and chromite, as well as natural gas, oil and precious and semi-precious stones.

Little has been exploited because the country has been mired in conflict for 30 years, and is embroiled in a vicious insurgency by Islamist rebels led by the Taliban.

More than 100,000 foreign troops under US and NATO command are battling the insurgents, with another 40,000 due for deployment this year.

China and India have bid for contracts to develop mines, with the Chinese winning a copper contract. An iron ore contract is due to be awarded later this year.

In 2007, China's state-owned metals giant Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) signed a three-billion-dollar contract to develop the Aynak copper mine -- one of the world's biggest -- over the next 30 years.

First discovered in 1974, the site, 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Kabul in Logar, is estimated to contain 11.3 million tonnes of copper.

The Hajigak iron ore mine in Bamiyan province, north of Kabul, is currently under tender, with one Chinese and half a dozen Indian firms bidding.

The contract is for exploitation of almost two billion tonnes of high-grade ore, involving processing, smelting, steel production and electricity production.

© 2010 Agence France-Presse

There were alot of good comments, in the comment section, at the end of the article, on the Commondreams Web-Site. Here are a some of our favourites:

"I suppose the U.S. is in Afghanistan to stabilize what might otherwise be its shaky mineral and petroleum wealth. And that wealth would become unstable if the Chinese took an interest in it."

"Wow, Afghanistan is worth something, imagine that!
Too bad the current residents don't do something with it, you know the world needs cheap copper!
Labor is cheap in Afghanistan, so I imagine U.S. companies are lined up too.
If only the people of Afghanistan had a say, if only the people of the U.S. had a say... how their resources are being stolen."

"i thought imperialists were supposed to make money off their wars. can we do anything right?"

Yes, this article was definitely enlightening. Just as much as our rapidly brightening days here in Interior Alaska, where the sun is blazing at 9 degrees above the horizon now at mid-day.

THINKING AHEAD

Another interesting article that came across the A.P.R. laptop the other day, was this. Give it a read, and then we'll provide our analysis.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/31-3

Pentagon to Rank Global Warming as Destabilizing Force

US defense review says military planners should factor climate change into long term strategy

by Suzanne Goldenberg

The Pentagon will for the first time rank global warming as a destabilizing force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world, in a major strategy review to be presented to Congress tomorrow. The Quadrennial Defense Review, prepared by the Pentagon to update Congress on its security vision, will direct military planners to keep track of the latest climate science, and to factor global warming into their long term strategic planning.

"While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world," said a draft of the review seen by the Guardian.

A fisherman in the dried reservoir of Lam Takhong Dam, Thailand, a consequence of global warming.

The Pentagon says climate change does not cause conflict but it could act as an accelerant. Heatwaves and freak storms could put increasing demand on the US military to respond to humanitarian crises or natural disaster. But troops could feel the effects of climate change even more directly, the draft says.

More than 30 US bases are threatened by rising sea levels. It ordered the Pentagon to review the risks posed to installations, and to combat troops by a potential increase in severe heatwaves and fires.

The review's release coincides with a sharpening focus in the American defense establishment about global warming - even though polls last week showed the public increasingly less concerned.

The CIA late last year established a center to collect intelligence on climate change. Earlier this month, CIA officials sent emails to environmental experts in Washington seeking their views on climate change impacts around the world, and how the agency could keep tabs on what actions countries were taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The CIA has also restarted a program - scrapped by George Bush - that allowed scientists and spies to share satellite images of glaciers and Arctic sea ice.

That suggests climate change is here to stay as a topic of concern for the Pentagon.

The Pentagon, in acknowledging the threat of global warming, will now have to factor factor climate change into war game exercises and long-term security assessments of badly affected regions such as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

Military planners will have to factor climate change into war game exercises and long-term security assessments of badly affected regions such as the Arctic, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia..

"The leadership of the Pentagon has very strongly indicated that they do consider climate change to be a national security issue," said Christine Parthemore, an analyst at the Center for A New American Security who has been studying the Pentagon's evolving views on climate change. "They are considering climate change on par with the political and economic factors as the key drivers that are shaping the world."

Awareness of climate change and its impact on threat levels and military capability had been slowly percolating through the ranks since 2008 when then Senators Hillary Clinton and John Warner pushed the Pentagon to look specifically at the impact of global warming in its next long-term review.

But the navy was already alive to the potential threat, with melting sea ice in the Arctic opening up a new security province. The changing chemistry of the oceans, because of global warming, is also playing havoc with submarine sonar, a report last year from the CNAS warned.

US soldiers and marines, meanwhile, were getting a hard lesson in the dangers of energy insecurity on the battlefield, where attacks on supply convoys in Afghanistan and Iraq inflicted heavy casualties.

"Our dependence on fuel adds significant cost and puts US soldiers and contractors at risk," said Dorothy Robyn, deputy Undersecretary of Defense for the Environment. "Energy can be a matter of life and death and we have seen dramatically in Iraq and Afghanistan the cost of heavy reliance on fossil fuels."

She told a conference call on Friday the Pentagon would seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions from non-combat operations by 34% from 2008 levels by 2020, in line with similar cuts by the rest of the federal government.

In addition to the threat of global warming, she said the Pentagon was concerned that US military bases in America were vulnerable because of their reliance on the electric grid to cyber attack and overload in case of a natural disaster.

The US air force, in response, has built up America's biggest solar battery array in Nevada, and is testing jet fighter engines on biofuels. The Marine Corps may soon start drilling its own wells to eliminate the need to truck in bottled water in response to recommendations from a task force on reducing energy use in a war zone.

But not all defense department officials have got on board, and Parthemore said she believes it could take some time to truly change the military mindset.

Parthemore writes of an exchange on a Department of Defense list-serv in December 2008 about whether global warming exists. It ends with one official writing: "This is increasingly shrill and pedantic. Moreover, it's becoming boring."

© 2010 Guardian/UK

Again, the first thing to notice about this article, is that it is not from any US corporate media source. Isn't it interesting, that the US military, which is the globe's largest greenhouse-gas emitting single entity (not counting actual countries, but militaries and industrial sectors), is recognising the threast global warming  poses to all countries, peoples, and ecosystems? How are all the brownshirts (Teabaggers, Limbaugh/Palin/Beckites) going to fit this into their world-view? Now, if only the US military could be acting to counteract global warming, rather than exacerbating it. Dreams are the beginning of new realities.  

OK folks, time to lay it out again. I know we tend to harp alot on climate change. But your lead editor has acquired some expertise in this area, and we feel comfortable in presenting the state-of-the-science research results about it. And the news is not good.

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-seems-likely-based-on-what-weve.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/23-0

What the latest research is saying, is that the last time the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was 390 ppm, which is what it is today (up from 280 ppm 60 years ago), 128,000 years ago, sea levels were 18 to 25 feet (5 to 7 metres) higher than they are today. [higher than most of Florida]

This was due to naturally occurring volcanism, it is thought, and it is unknown how rapidly they rose to this level. But what would this mean, a sea level, that much higher? If it were to occur relatively quickly, say within 20-30 years (or even 10), could humanity adapt? Because all the major seaports and their infrastructure would be underwater, which is where and how the bulk of the global food and energy is distributed. Would all the different countries be able to rebuild all the transport and distribution facilities on higher ground that quickly? If not, shortages of food and energy would cause great hardship, and could lead to societal collapse, in many areas. It's not inconceivable that this rapid of a sea-level rise could occur.

Research is also showing that the Greenland Ice Cap is shrinking rapidly, especially on the coastal margins. And that large areas of it could collapse quite quickly, within a matter of a few years, which could raise sea levels on it's own, by a few metres. Which would quickly drown many areas like Bangladesh, and low-elevation island countries in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Cheers.

LEGITIMISED SOCIOPATHY

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sociopath

SOCIOPATH:

–noun Psychiatry. a person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

It can be shown that many large corporations, in all the major corporate structures, military-industrial, pharmaceutical/health insurance, fossil-fuel, and agriculture, which generally control and dictate policy to the U.S. Government, act in sociopathic ways. History is replete with examples, from the destruction of indigenous peoples in the 1800s, repression of the labour movement from the 1800s-mid 20th Century, to modern-day struggles, especially in third-world countries, where they support and keep in power repressive, authoritarian governments which torture and murder citizens in them who work for basic human rights (Colombia, Nigeria, Myanmar, Mexico, etc...).

This is because a corporation is chartered to make profits, and will do what is necessary to achieve that aim. Under the anonymity of collective approval (executive board, shareholders groups, etc...), people are able to get away with actions that if undertaken by individuals, would result in imprisonment, and societal disapproval, in every country and culture. This is not to say that all corporations, big or small, act in these ways, but their very reason for existence, makes these actions all the more likely. And some psychologists have argued that people with sociopathic tendencies tend to do very well in the corporate and political worlds. How else can you explain policies where thousands of people are thrown out of work, so profits can be maximised, by moving jobs to countries with no worker's rights, unions, or environmental protections. Or, the proven deliberately-started war of aggression against the sovereign nation of Iraq, which was no threat to it's neighbours, or this one. Which has claimed at least a million innocent civilian lives there, and laid waste to their economy and environment. And from which many American and European large corporations are profiting enormously.

Well, unfortunately, the Supreme Court of the U.S. this week, has rendered a "decision" which will have far-reaching effects, to further support and legitimise corporate power and domination over the political and cultural structure of this country (which of course is already nearly total). This of course, is the definition of FASCISM, as given by Benito Mussolini, considered the politician who really developed the modern form of this nightmaric political structure.

One of the few places in the corporate media where actual news and commentary can be seen and heard, is Keith Olbermann's Countdown show, on MSNBC. Here is an excellent commentary he aired a few days ago on the incredible U.S. Supreme Court decision this week, preceded by some comments from politicians in the past who were able in moments of candour, to describe things as they were/are:

"I hope we shall ... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Thomas Jefferson, 1816

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." Thomas Jefferson

"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the Bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed." Abraham Lincoln

http://www.truthout.org/olbermann-supreme-court-campaign-finance-ruling56311

Transcript:

"Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on the Supreme Court's ruling today in the case titled "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission."

On the cold morning of Friday, March 6th, 1857, a very old man who was born just eight months and thirteen days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted; a man who was married to the sister of the man who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner;" a man who was enlightened enough to have freed his own slaves and given pensions to the ones who had become too old to work read aloud, in a reed-thin voice, a very long document.

In it, he ruled on a legal case involving a slave, brought by his owner to live in a free state; yet to remain a slave.

The slave sought his freedom, and sued. And looking back over legal precedent, and the Constitution, and the America in which it was created, this judge ruled that no black man could ever be considered an actual citizen of the United States.

"They had for more than a century before been, regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far unfit, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

The case, of course, was Dred Scott. The old man was the fifth Chief Justice of the United States of America, Roger Brooke Tawney. And the outcome, he believed, would be to remove the burning question of the abolition of slavery from the political arena for once and for all.

The outcome, in fact, was the Civil War. No American ever made a single bigger misjudgment. No American ever carried the responsibility for the deaths and suffering of more Americans. No American ever was more quickly vilified. Within four years Chief Justice Tawney's rulings were being ignored in the South and the North.

Within five, President Lincoln at minimum contemplated arresting him. Within seven, he died, in poverty, while still Chief Justice. Within eight, Congress had voted to not place a bust of him alongside those of the other former Chief Justices.

But good news tonight, Roger B. Tawney is off the hook.

Today, the Supreme Court, of Chief Justice John Roberts, in a decision that might actually have more dire implications than "Dred Scott v Sandford," declared that because of the alchemy of its 19th Century predecessors in deciding that corporations had all the rights of people, any restrictions on how these corporate-beings spend their money on political advertising, are unconstitutional.

In short, the first amendment - free speech for persons - which went into affect in 1791, applies to corporations, which were not recognized as the equivalents of persons until 1886. In short, there are now no checks on the ability of corporations or unions or other giant aggregations of power to decide our elections.

None. They can spend all the money they want. And if they can spend all the money they want - sooner, rather than later - they will implant the legislators of their choice in every office from President to head of the Visiting Nurse Service.

And if senators and congressmen and governors and mayors and councilmen and everyone in between are entirely beholden to the corporations for election and re-election to office soon they will erase whatever checks there might still exist to just slow down the ability of corporations to decide the laws.

It is almost literally true that any political science fiction nightmare you can now dream up, no matter whether you are conservative or liberal, it is now legal. Because the people who can make it legal, can now be entirely bought and sold, no actual citizens required in the campaign-fund-raising process.

And the entirely bought and sold politicians, can change any laws. And any legal defense you can structure now, can be undone by the politicians who will be bought and sold into office this November, or two years from now.

And any legal defense which honest politicians can somehow wedge up against them this November, or two years from now, can be undone by the next even larger set of politicians who will be bought and sold into office in 2014, or 2016, or 2018.

Mentioning Lincoln's supposed ruminations about arresting Roger B. Tawney, he didn't say the original of this, but what the hell:

Right now, you can prostitute all of the politicians some of the time, and prostitute some of the politicians all the time, but you cannot prostitute all the politicians all the time. Thanks to Chief Justice Roberts this will change. Unless this mortal blow is somehow undone, within ten years, every politician in this country will be a prostitute.

And now let's contemplate what that perfectly symmetrical, money-driven world might look like. Be prepared, first, for laws criminalizing or at least neutering unions. In today's Court Decision, they are the weaker of the non-human sisters unfettered by the Court. So, like in ancient Rome or medieval England, they will necessarily be strangled by the stronger sibling, the corporations, so they pose no further threat to the Corporations' total control of our political system.

Be prepared, then, for the reduction of taxes for the wealth, and for the corporations, and the elimination of the social safety nets for everybody else, because money spent on the poor means less money left for the corporations.

Be prepared, then, for wars sold as the "new products" which Andy Card once described them as, year-after-year, as if they were new Fox Reality Shows, because Military Industrial Complex Corporations are still corporations. Be prepared, then, for the ban on same-sex marriage, on abortion, on evolution, on separation of church and state. The most politically agitated group of citizens left are the evangelicals, throw them some red meat to feed their holier-than-thou rationalizations, and they won't care what else you do to this corporate nation.

Be prepared, then, for racial and religious profiling, because you've got to blame somebody for all the reductions in domestic spending and civil liberties, just to make sure the agitators against the United Corporate States of America are kept unheard.

Be prepared for those poor dumb manipulated bastards, the Tea Partiers, to have a glorious few years as the front men as the corporations that bankroll them slowly unroll their total control of our political system. And then be prepared to watch them be banished, maybe outlawed, when a few of the brighter ones suddenly realize that the corporations have made them the Judas Goats of American Freedom.

And be prepared, then, for the bank reforms that President Obama has just this day vowed to enable, to be rolled back by his successor purchased by the banks, with the money President Bush gave them his successor, presumably President Palin, because if you need a friendly face of fascism, you might as well get one that can wink, and if you need a tool of whichever large industries buy her first, you might as well get somebody who lives up to that word "tool."

Be prepared for the little changes, too. If there are any small towns left to take-over, Wal-Mart can now soften them up with carpet advertising for their Wal-Mart town council candidates, brought to you by Wal-Mart.

Be prepared for the Richard Mellon Scaifes to drop such inefficiencies as vanity newspapers and simply buy and install their own city governments in the Pittsburghs. Be prepared for the personally wealthy men like John Kerry to become the paupers of the Senate, or the ones like Mike Bloomberg not even surviving the primary against Halliburton's choice for Mayor of New York City.

Be prepared for the end of what you're watching now. I don't just mean me, or this program, or this network. I mean all the independent news organizations, and the propagandists like Fox for that matter, because Fox inflames people against the state, and after today's ruling, the corporations will only need a few more years of inflaming people, before the message suddenly shifts to "everything's great."

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh don't even realize it: today, John Roberts just cut their throats too. So, with critics silenced or bought off, and even the town assessor who lives next door to you elected to office with campaign funds 99.9 percent drawn from corporate coffers - what are you going to do about it? The Internet!

The Internet? Ask them about the Internet in China. Kiss net neutrality goodbye. Kiss whatever right to privacy you think you currently have, goodbye. And anyway, what are you going to complain about, if you don't even know it happened? In the new world unveiled this morning by John Roberts, who stops Rupert Murdoch from buying the Associated Press?

This decision, which in mythology would rank somewhere between "The Bottomless Pit" and "The Opening Of Pandora's Box," got next to no coverage in the right-wing media today, almost nothing in the middle, and a lot less than necessary on the left.

The right wing won't even tell their constituents that they are being sold into bondage alongside the rest of us. And why should they? For them, the start of this will be wonderful.

The Republicans, Conservatives, Joe Liebermans, and Tea Partiers are in the front aisle at the political prostitution store. They are specially discounted old favorites for their Corporate Masters. Like the first years of irreversible climate change, for the conservatives the previously cold winter will grow delightfully warm. Only later will it be hot. Then unbearable. Then flames.

And the conservatives will burn with the rest of us. And they'll never know it happened. So, what are you going to do about it? Turn to free speech advocates? These were the free speech advocates! The lawyer for that Humunculous who filed this suit, Dave Bossie, is Floyd Abrams.

Floyd Abrams, who has spent his life defending American freedoms, especially freedom of speech. Apparently this life was spent this way in order to guarantee that when it really counted, he could help the corporations destroy free speech.

His argument, translated from self-satisfied legal jargon, is that as a function of the First Amendment, you must allow for the raping and pillaging of the First Amendment, by people who can buy the First Amendment.

He will go down in the history books as the Quisling of freedom of speech in this country. That is if the corporations who now buy the school boards which decide which history books get printed, approve. If there are still history books. So, what are you going to do about it?

Russ Feingold told me today there might yet be ways to work around this, to restrict corporate governance, and how corporations make and spend their money. I pointed out that any such legislation, even if it somehow sneaked past the last U.S. Senate not funded by a generous gift from the Chubb Group would eventually wind up in front of a Supreme Court, and whether or not John Roberts is still at its head would be irrelevant.

The next nine men and women on the Supreme Court will get there not because of their judgement nor even their politics. They will get there because they were appointed by purchased presidents and confirmed by purchased Senators.

This is what John Roberts did today. This is a Supreme Court-sanctioned murder of what little actual Democracy is left in this Democracy. It is government of the people by the corporations for the corporations. It is the Dark Ages. It is our Dred Scott. I would suggest a revolution but a revolution against the corporations? The corporations that make all the guns and the bullets?

Maybe it won't be this bad. Maybe the corporations legally defined as human beings, but without the pesky occasional human attributes of conscience and compassion maybe when handed the only keys to the electoral machine, they will simply not re-design America in their own corporate image.

But let me leave you with this final question: After today who's going to stop them?"

That was an excellent and concise summation of what we, in the U.S. (and in other countries that will try and follow, if their citizens can't stop them) will be facing, as a result of this ruling. Thanks Keith!

Another thing to remember is this. The five supreme court justices who ruled in the majority on this decision, while nominated by Republican presidents, were approved in Congress by Democrats and Republicans. With little real debate or probing questions given to them.  We think it should be clear now that it doesn't matter which party is in power at State and Federal levels (and soon, even on the local). Corporate power and influence dominates. Is this the kind of society we think is desirable? If not, vote and support alternative political parties. We support the Green Party of the U.S.A., http://www.gp.org/index.php,  but there are many others out there seeking fairness, and a sane, just, and sustainable political and economic system. Please join us!

Finally, here are some good common-sense comments I've seen written in on the Commondreams.org website recently, in articles about the supreme court decision:

Corporations, artificial constructs, have the constitutional privileges of humans, but are not bound by the same laws.

If I throw poison into my neighbor's yard and their kid eats it, dies, and I'm found guilty, I'll be going to jail or possibly executed by the state.

If a corporation does the same thing it suffers only a minor financial penalty and continues with its life as normal.

Why do artificial constructs, corporations, have all the privileges and protections of the law but are not subject to the same penalties as their human counterparts?

How can anyone who argues in defense of Citizens United not be a hypocrite for not also demanding corporations be subject equally to all the laws of human beings?

Every defense, oil and banking company in this country is guilty of the murder of innocent people. If ALL the laws were applied equally, and not just the privileges, such as free speech, they should've been subjected to the death penalty long ago (having their corporate charter dissolved.)

If corporations, are in essence "beings", they MUST be subject to all the laws.

Cheers.

REMEMBERING WHAT HE DIED FOR

"I've decided what I'm going to do," King preached at one of his last sermons at Ebenezer Baptist Church. "I ain't going to kill nobody in Mississippi ... [and] in Vietnam. I ain't going to study war no more. And you know what? I don't care who doesn't like what I say about it. I don't care who criticizes me in an editorial. I don't care what white person or Negro criticizes me. I'm going to stick with the best. On some positions, cowardice asks the question, ‘is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, ‘is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, ‘is it popular?' But conscience asks the question, ‘is it right?' And there comes a time when a true follower of Jesus Christ must take a stand that's neither safe nor politic nor popular but he must take that stand because it is right. Every now and then we sing about it, ‘if you are right, God will fight your battle.' I'm going to stick by the best during these evil times."

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

4 April, 1967:

"In 1957, a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has now justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru.

It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered...

...A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

 

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death...

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.

...These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions.

It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."

...A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: "Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us." Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.

We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says: "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word" (unquote).

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight."

__________________________________________________________________________________

George Orwell, 1984

"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labour power without producing anything that can be consumed...

...But when war becomes literally continuous, it also ceases to be dangerous. When war is continuous there is no such thing as military necessity. Technical progress can cease and the most palpable facts can be denied and disregarded. As we have seen, researches that could be called scientific are still carried out for the purposes of war, but they are essentially a kind of daydreaming, and their failure to show results is not important...

...War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recogise their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word "war", therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that it exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and has been replaced by something quite different. ..

...A peace  that was truly permanent would be the same as permanent war. This-although the vast majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense-is the meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE."

_____________________________

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."   ( President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953)

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

Farewell Address to the Nation (1961)

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

...We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together...

...Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific/technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. 

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war -- as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years -- I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight..."

GETTING THE MESSAGE? [and] GOD'S WILL

GETTING THE MESSAGE?

Every so often, a movie comes out of Hollywood that breaks new ground, technically, and sends a message that needs to be heard. Some good examples of this are Ghandi (1983), Dances With Wolves (1990), Amistad (1998), Ali (2002), and this year, Avatar.

What is it, and what is it saying?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film)

"Avatar is a 2009 American science fiction epic film written and directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri star system.[5] Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi—a race of indigenous humanoids—resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the genetically engineered bodies used by the film's characters to interact with the Na'vi.

Avatar had been in development since 1994 by Cameron, who wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film.[7] Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Titanic, and the film would have been released in 1999, but according to Cameron, "technology needed to catch up" with his vision of the film.[8][9] In early 2006, Cameron developed the script, as well as the language[10] and culture of the Na'vi. He said sequels would be possible if Avatar was successful,[11] and in response to the film's success, confirmed that there will be another.[12]

The film was released in traditional 2-D, as well as 3-D and IMAX 3D formats. Avatar is officially budgeted at $237 million;[2] other estimates put the cost at $280–310 million to produce and $150 million for marketing.[13][14][15] The film is being touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production.[16]

Avatar opened on December 18, 2009 to critical acclaim and commercial success. It grossed $27 million on its opening day in the United States and Canada.[17] On its opening weekend, it grossed $77 million in the United States and Canada[18] and $232 million worldwide.[19] Within three weeks of its release, with a worldwide gross of over $1 billion, the film became one of the highest-grossing films of all time worldwide, exceeded only by Cameron's previous film, Titanic."

When your lead author saw it on the big screen a few days ago, I was stunned. Not just from the dazzling 3-D action, stunning scenery and amazing technical effects, but from the overt message it sends. Which is this:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/12-4

Avatar and the Genocides We Will Not See

Cameron's blockbuster half-tells a story we would all prefer to forget

by George Monbiot

Avatar, James Cameron's blockbusting 3-D film, is both profoundly silly and profound. It's profound because, like most films about aliens, it is a metaphor for contact between different human cultures. But in this case the metaphor is conscious and precise: this is the story of European engagement with the native peoples of the Americas. It's profoundly silly because engineering a happy ending demands a plot so stupid and predictable that it rips the heart out of the film. The fate of the native Americans is much closer to the story told in another new film, The Road, in which a remnant population flees in terror as it is hunted to extinction.

But this is a story no one wants to hear, because of the challenge it presents to the way we choose to see ourselves. Europe was massively enriched by the genocides in the Americas; the American nations were founded on them. This is a history we cannot accept.

In his book American Holocaust, the US scholar David Stannard documents the greatest acts of genocide the world has ever experienced(1). In 1492, some 100m native peoples lived in the Americas. By the end of the 19th Century almost all of them had been exterminated. Many died as a result of disease. But the mass extinction was also engineered.

When the Spanish arrived in the Americas, they described a world which could scarcely have been more different from their own. Europe was ravaged by war, oppression, slavery, fanaticism, disease and starvation. The populations they encountered were healthy, well-nourished and mostly (with exceptions like the Aztecs and Incas) peacable, democratic and egalitarian. Throughout the Americas the earliest explorers, including Columbus, remarked on the natives' extraordinary hospitality. The conquistadores marvelled at the amazing roads, canals, buildings and art they found, which in some cases outstripped anything they had seen at home. None of this stopped them from destroying everything and everyone they encountered.

The butchery began with Columbus. He slaughtered the native people of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) by unimaginably brutal means. His soldiers tore babies from their mothers and dashed their heads against rocks. They fed their dogs on living children. On one occasion they hung 13 Indians in honour of Christ and the 12 disciples, on a gibbet just low enough for their toes to touch the ground, then disembowelled them and burnt them alive. Columbus ordered all the native people to deliver a certain amount of gold every three months; anyone who failed had his hands cut off. By 1535 the native population of Hispaniola had fallen from 8m to zero: partly as a result of disease, partly as a result of murder, overwork and starvation.

The conquistadores spread this civilising mission across central and south America. When they failed to reveal where their mythical treasures were hidden, the indigenous people were flogged, hanged, drowned, dismembered, ripped apart by dogs, buried alive or burnt. The soldiers cut off women's breasts, sent people back to their villages with their severed hands and noses hung round their necks and hunted Indians with their dogs for sport. But most were killed by enslavement and disease. The Spanish discovered that it was cheaper to work Indians to death and replace them than to keep them alive: the life expectancy in their mines and plantations was three to four months. Within a century of their arrival, around 95% of the population of South and Central America had been destroyed. 

In California during the 18th Century the Spanish systematised this extermination. A Franciscan missionary called Junipero Serra set up a series of "missions": in reality concentration camps using slave labour. The native people were herded in under force of arms and made to work in the fields on one fifth of the calories fed to African-American slaves in the 19th century. They died from overwork, starvation and disease at astonishing rates, and were continually replaced, wiping out the indigenous populations. Junipero Serra, the Eichmann of California, was beatified by the Vatican in 1988. He now requires one more miracle to be pronounced a saint(2).

While the Spanish were mostly driven by the lust for gold, the British who colonised North America wanted land. In New England they surrounded the villages of the native Americans and murdered them as they slept. As genocide spread westwards, it was endorsed at the highest levels. George Washington ordered the total destruction of the homes and land of the Iroquois. Thomas Jefferson declared that his nation's wars with the Indians should be pursued until each tribe "is exterminated or is driven beyond the Mississippi". During the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, troops in Colorado slaughtered unarmed people gathered under a flag of peace, killing children and babies, mutilating all the corpses and keeping their victims' genitals to use as tobacco pouches or to wear on their hats. Theodore Roosevelt called this event "as rightful and beneficial a deed as ever took place on the frontier."

The butchery hasn't yet ended: last month the Guardian reported that Brazilian ranchers in the western Amazon, having slaughtered all the rest, tried to kill the last surviving member of a forest tribe(3). Yet the greatest acts of genocide in history scarcely ruffle our collective conscience. Perhaps this is what would have happened had the Nazis won the second world war: the Holocaust would have been denied, excused or minimised in the same way, even as it continued. The people of the nations responsible - Spain, Britain, the US and others - will tolerate no comparisons, but the final solutions pursued in the Americas were far more successful. Those who commissioned or endorsed them remain national or religious heroes. Those who seek to prompt our memories are ignored or condemned.

This is why the right hates Avatar. In the neocon Weekly Standard, John Podhoretz complains that the film resembles a "revisionist western" in which "the Indians became the good guys and the Americans the bad guys."(4) He says it asks the audience "to root for the defeat of American soldiers at the hands of an insurgency." Insurgency is an interesting word for an attempt to resist invasion: insurgent, like savage, is what you call someone who has something you want. L'Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican, condemned the film as "just ... an anti-imperialistic, anti-militaristic parable"(5).

But at least the right knows what it is attacking. In the New York Times the liberal critic Adam Cohen praises Avatar for championing the need to see clearly(6). It reveals, he says, "a well-known principle of totalitarianism and genocide - that it is easiest to oppress those we cannot see". But in a marvellous unconscious irony, he bypasses the crashingly obvious metaphor and talks instead about the light it casts on Nazi and Soviet atrocities. We have all become skilled in the art of not seeing. 

I agree with its rightwing critics that Avatar is crass, mawkish and cliched. But it speaks of a truth more important - and more dangerous - than those contained in a thousand arthouse movies."

Avatar also sends a very strong anti-militaristic message, with strong parallels to the current illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of the sovereign nation of Iraq, which posed no threat to the U.S., or any other country. It was quite interesting when one of the hardened ex-soldiers working for the RDA Corporation, mentions that he had just had seen actions in wars in Venezuela and Nigeria. Two of course very oil-rich nations, which could very well be next on the Imperial radar of the U.S. Especially Venezuela, since it's current freely and fairly elected government has the audacity to use some of it's oil wealth to benefit the poorest people in it, with the aid of a nationalised oil industry. 

Of interest also is the plot line whereby the main character, Jake Sully, a former marine working for the RDA corporation, is hired to serve as a controller of one of the genetically created Avatar bodies, used to interact with the indigenous inhabitants of the planet. He then interacts with this culture, which is very much like all the indigenous cultures on Earth, learns to respect, and eventually love it, and a woman in it. Very much like what occurred in Dances With Wolves. Many instances of this have occurred since the Western Hemispheric genocide began 500 years ago, when soldiers and colonists went over to the indigenous peoples, joined their culture, and even fought to remain in it. Because they recognised it as a healthier alternative to the culture from whence they came.

There are some things about Avatar we at A.P.R. found disagreement with. The most important was that this movie was set in the year 2154, with scientific achievements like human hibernation, and near-light speed space travel to adjacent star systems (which still took several years). Yet the attitudes of the soldiers and members of the RDA Corporation were very much like what you would see in conservative military and corporate personnel in today's U.S.A.

It is our contention at A.P.R., that this is impossible. Humanity will not make it to 2154 with any kind of scientific/technical culture, as long as the bulk of people, and politicians, in the U.S. (and other countries) continues with this kind of mindset. To offset this, James Cameron wrote in his screenplay, that the Earth was ruined, and hence resources from other worlds on other star systems were needed. We don't think humanity will escape massive die-offs from global resource depletion/overpopulation, and catastrophic climate change though, unless massive changes occur in the basic outlooks and political/economic systems of the "developed" nations within 20 years, at most. Incorporating the indigenous cultures basic world-view of the sacredness and inter-relatedness of all the parts of the Earth, and its ecosystems.

The ending of the movie, whereby the indigenous Na'vi, with the aid of a few sympathetic humans, are able to fight off and send packing back into space the corporation and soldiers, was outrageously unrealistic. A large starship, bristling with nuclear missiles and lasers would instead have come to the humans aid, and destroyed the Na'vi. Just as all resistance from the indigenous cultures in the Western Hemisphere was met and destroyed by the sheer numbers and destructive weaponry of the Europeans, our ancestors.

Nevertheless, we highly recommend you see this movie. Because it has an important message, and should remind you of how our countries came to be, in North and South America. And to remind you of the cultures that were almost destroyed (and still are being so, in South America, and Africa).  Cultures that must be protected, and embraced, if humanity is to have any kind of healthy future on this planet.

GOD'S WILL

The heartbreaking earthquake yesterday in Haiti, which may have killed 100,000 or more people, is indeed a cruel event, to this poor country, beset by so many tragedies, political unrest, and massive poverty, in the last several decades.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/jan/13/haiti-earthquake

But this is not the entire story. Why did a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, which has occurred across many areas of the globe, cause so many casualties, and why is Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere? For a good explanation why, we have this:

What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)

by Carl Lindskoog

In the hours following Haiti's devastating earthquake, CNN, the New York Times and other major news sources adopted a common interpretation for the severe destruction: the 7.0 earthquake was so devastating because it struck an urban area that was extremely over-populated and extremely poor. Houses "built on top of each other" and constructed by the poor people themselves made for a fragile city. And the country's many years of underdevelopment and political turmoil made the Haitian government ill-prepared to respond to such a disaster.

True enough. But that's not the whole story. What's missing is any explanation of why there are so many Haitians living in and around Port-au-Prince and why so many of them are forced to survive on so little. Indeed, even when an explanation is ventured, it is often outrageously false such as a former U.S. diplomat's testimony on CNN that Port-au-Prince's overpopulation was due to the fact that Haitians, like most Third World people, know nothing of birth control.

It may startle news-hungry Americans to learn that these conditions the American media correctly attributes to magnifying the impact of this tremendous disaster were largely the product of American policies and an American-led development model.

From 1957-1971 Haitians lived under the dark shadow of "Papa Doc" Duvalier, a brutal dictator who enjoyed U.S. backing because he was seen by Americans as a reliable anti-Communist. After his death, Duvalier's son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" became President-for-life at the age of 19 and he ruled Haiti until he was finally overthrown in 1986. It was in the 1970s and 1980s that Baby Doc and the United States government and business community worked together to put Haiti and Haiti's capitol city on track to become what it was on January 12, 2010.

After the coronation of Baby Doc, American planners inside and outside the U.S. government initiated their plan to transform Haiti into the "Taiwan of the Caribbean." This small, poor country situated conveniently close to the United States was instructed to abandon its agricultural past and develop a robust, export-oriented manufacturing sector. This, Duvalier and his allies were told, was the way toward modernization and economic development.

From the standpoint of the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Haiti was the perfect candidate for this neoliberal facelift. The entrenched poverty of the Haitian masses could be used to force them into low-paying jobs sewing baseballs and assembling other products.

But USAID had plans for the countryside too. Not only were Haiti's cities to become exporting bases but so was the countryside, with Haitian agriculture also reshaped along the lines of export-oriented, market-based production. To accomplish this USAID, along with urban industrialists and large landholders, worked to create agro-processing facilities, even while they increased their practice of dumping surplus agricultural products from the U.S. on the Haitian people.

This "aid" from the Americans, along with the structural changes in the countryside predictably forced Haitian peasants who could no longer survive to migrate to the cities, especially Port-au-Prince where the new manufacturing jobs were supposed to be. However, when they got there they found there weren't nearly enough manufacturing jobs go around. The city became more and more crowded. Slum areas expanded. And to meet the housing needs of the displaced peasants, quickly and cheaply constructed housing was put up, sometimes placing houses right "on top of each other."

Before too long, however, American planners and Haitian elites decided that perhaps their development model didn't work so well in Haiti and they abandoned it. The consequences of these American-led changes remain, however.

When on the afternoon and evening of January 12, 2010 Haiti experienced that horrible earthquake and round after round of aftershock the destruction was, no doubt, greatly worsened by the very real over-crowding and poverty of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas. But shocked Americans can do more than shake their heads and, with pity, make a donation. They can confront their own country's responsibility for the conditions in Port-au-Prince that magnified the earthquake's impact, and they can acknowledge America's role in keeping Haiti from achieving meaningful development. To accept the incomplete story of Haiti offered by CNN and the New York Times is to blame Haitians for being the victims of a scheme that was not of their own making. As John Milton wrote, "they who have put out the people's eyes, reproach them of their blindness."

We encourage everyone to donate funds, supplies, or even aid, if you are able to get there, to help in their search, recovery, and rebuilding efforts.

Finally, one of America's leading right-wing luminaries has put this tragedy in perspective, and offered some unique and incisive commentary on it for our edification:   http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/01/13-14

PFAW Condemns Pat Robertson’s Comments on Haiti Earthquake

Religious Right Leader says Haiti “swore a pact to the devil”

WASHINGTON - January 13 - People For the American Way President Michael B. Keegan today condemned a statement made by Religious Right leader Pat Robertson (VIDEO), who said that the nation of Haiti has been cursed ever since it “swore a pact to the Devil.”

In discussing the earthquake, which the UN says has killed thousands of people, Robertson said:

"And you know Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, uh you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True Story. And so the Devil said "OK, it's a deal." And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island is Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc.. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. Uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God and out of this tragedy. I'm optimistic something good may come."

Michael B. Keegan, president of People For the American Way, issued the following statement:

“Pat Robertson’s comments about the victims of this earthquake are reprehensible. Unfortunately, they fit right in with his history of mean spirited attacks accusing his opponents of causing natural disasters and terrorism. To blame the victims of this disaster for what they’ve been through is appalling. Regrettably, Pat Robertson can’t be written off as an eccentric aberration of the right-wing—he’s still a leading figure in the conservative movement."

“At a time when our attention should be focused on helping the victims of this disaster, Robertson’s comments are beyond the pale.”

###

People For the American Way is dedicated to making the promise of America real for every American: Equality. Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. The right to seek justice in a court of law. The right to cast a vote that counts. The American Way. Our vision is a vibrantly diverse democratic society in which everyone is treated equally under the law, given the freedom and opportunity to pursue their dreams, and encouraged to participate in our nation’s civic and political life. Our America respects diversity, nurtures creativity and combats hatred and bigotry.  Cheers.

WRANGELLMANIA [and] WHAT DO WE CALL THIS?

WRANGELLMANIA

Your lead editor had a four day break starting New Year's eve, last week. We decided there would be no better way to spend it than to go spend time skiing and exploring with the best friend of the Alaska Progressive Review. Erik Hursh, lead pilot and CEO of Nunatak Air Service. http://www.nunatak-air.com/

He has a nice little cabin on a 10 acre plot, off the Old Edgarton Highway, near Copper Center. It sits on a bluff above the Copper River, with an incredible view of the river valley, giving way to the volcanoes of the Wrangell Mountains, which are protected in Wrangell/St. Elias National Park.

We had grandiose plans of flying around in Erik's Super Cub, but the weather turned unfavourable. It was too cold, below about -24C (-10F), the fabric covering the plane can crack.  On all three days we were there, the temperature stayed below that, so we were shut out from flying.

Oh well, it's such a beautiful area, we weren't too unhappy. 

This is the view looking north from the bluff to the Copper River below. 3661 metre Mt. Drum, an active volcano, would be visible further back, but for the low clouds. We were glad they were there, as without them, instead of about the -29C temperatures we were getting, it could easily have dropped to -40 to -45C. Which makes a big difference in the amount of face protection, and layering needed to be comfortable and safe, moving for hours out in that. 

Once it does warm up, the Super Cub will be up and flying. These amazing little planes can land and take off in very short distances, enabling access to places not possible with larger float or ski planes.

Erik's cabin has a nice outhouse. You might notice that there is no door.

That's because it has the nicest view I've ever seen from one. It was hard not to want to stay and enjoy the view whilst answering the call. But since it was around -29C or about -20F, there was some incentive to make it quick.

We spent New Year's Eve at the Tonsina Lodge, a nice bar/restaurant owned by a Russian couple. But frequented by locals, a few of whom know Erik. We played pool, then at midnight, got to light off some fireworks given out by the bartender. Unfortunately, poor old Homer is not too crazy about them. He and Mattie had to stay in my car, and after the fireworks were over, all 37 kg of him was wrapped up in a tight ball by the gas pedal and clutch.

One of our aims for the weekend was to ski straight from the cabin, down to the Copper River, and toward the Dadina River. Erik had seen a cabin up that flying around once, and we wanted to see how accessible and far that might be.  

So, friday morning, we lit out from the cabin. It was about -27C when we left. We had to stay on the rim of the bluff for about 6 km or so. 

This is because there is a snowmachine trail that drops down a ravine in the bluff to the Copper River. Otherwise, it's just too steep to go straight down the bluff, and there's no path to the river, bushwhacking to it through the Taiga would be a chore.  This is Erik on the way back up, you can see that it is too steep and narrow for skiing on, unless we put climbing skins on our skis. Which we did not have. So, we just took off our skis for the trip down, and back up. 

 It took about 90 minutes to ski the 6-8 km along the bluff, then drop down the ravine, and get onto the river. I was a little uneasy about the river ice. The Copper flows fast here in summer. And this winter hasn't been real cold. But we listened for the sound of running water, and couldn't hear any. Thus, we reckoned that the ice was at least 25 cm thick, and that there were no snow-covered leads lying in wait on our route. Of course, Mattie and Homer went ahead of us too. So, we made it across just fine. When we got to near the Dadina River comes in, it was time for a food/water break. So, we took a short break on the other side of this jumbled mass of ice. It was then we realized, it's quite a bit colder on the river, than in the woods adjacent, and certainly than higher up on the bluff. Homer and Mattie both were hopping a bit, their feet were cold. And, our hands and feet were getting cold too. We think it was probably about -33C (-28F) down on the river. One thing always to keep in mind during winter traveling in Alaska is that cold air always drains down rivers, just like water. In the absence of any opposing winds from weather systems, there will always be at least a light down-river drainage wind. And, if the general wind flow is aligned with this, it will be much stronger. At temperatures of minus 20C and colder, this can be a serious safety issue. We were all getting cold at our food/water stop, and the day was getting along. It was after 1400 hours by the time we were refueled. Time to start heading back. It was a nice five hour/30 KM day. Which was pretty slow, since we had to walk part of it, up and down the ravine, and break trail, on the river.

On the agenda for the next day, Saturday, was a drive to the little town of McCarthy, which lies at the end of a 120 km road from Kenny Lake, the nearest "town" to Erik's cabin. The part of this road from Chitina, to McCarthy, used to be the bed for the railroad that delivered copper ore from the mines of Kennecott, out to the world. Thus it is very narrow. The plan was to park near McCarthy, then ski up the 13 km to the "ghost" town of Kennecott, where the old mines and town, which were abandoned in 1938, are. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott,_Alaska. 48 km from McCarthy, we were warned that there was "overflow" on the road. This is when groundwater seeps up and constantly freezes, building up a large mass of ice. Blocking trails often, leading to cursing and groaning sometimes when backcountry skiing.

This big mass was at least 15-20cm thick over the road, but slightly spongy. So, Erik gunned the A.P.R.'s trusty 4WD Ford Escape, and just as we neared it, let off the gas. We just glided right across. A bit of a relief, as the ice sloped down toward a drop-off on the south side of the road there. There were very few people to be found in McCarthy for the winter, it is mostly a summer tourist destination. But Erik had a pilot friend to visit briefly there. We put our skis on, and started up the trail around 1400 hours, a little later than we wanted. Since by 1600, it is almost dark. 

The trail up from McCarthy was a nice, fairly wide one, packed down by snowmachine traffic. Ideal for a fast trip. Kennecott lies near the mountains in the far distance. It was a steady, but not real steep 10 km ascent up. 

By the time we got up to the mines and buildings,  it was almost dark. There are actually private residences mixed in, just before the mines, and a few of them had smoke coming out their chimneys. So a few hardy people must overwinter there. It was about -28C (-18F) for our ski, so I got iced up pretty good, working hard on our fast ascent.

We didn't spend too much time exploring in Kennecott, since it was almost dark. But it was very beautiful and peaceful there, and the old wood-fired powerplant and mine buildings were interesting. Sometime in February or March, when the days or longer, and it's warmer, we'll go back, and into the back-country behind, and around there. Some beautiful routes around glaciers and through canyons are accesible by ski from Kennecott.

It was a shame having to leave sunday, after having such good times skiing and exploring the area. But we decided to at least get a short 10 km run in on the bluff that day, before heading back to the World. It stayed cloudy, and about -28C, so we couldn't see the Wrangell volcanoes, but were not too sorry, since we'd rather run in -28C than -40C any day. That area is truly beautiful, and we will be doing some real, multi-day back-country ski trips around it later this winter, when we have longer days.

WHAT DO WE CALL THIS?

I found this article the other day, describing the Senate's version of the health-care "reform" legislation. Give it a read, and we'll offer our commentary on it.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/04-14

Federal Enforcement To Be Used Against You, But Not To Protect You From The Insurance Companies

by Jon Walker

There is no better proof that the Senate bill is a massive giveaway to the health care industry than the radically different enforcement mechanism for the individual mandate and the new insurance regulations. This Senate bill will force you to buy insurance from only private insurance companies. It will use the power of the federal government in the form of the IRS to make sure you buy private health insurance.

While the Senate bill will technically put some new regulations on the books, it will not use the power of the federal government to make sure the health insurance companies are following them. Enforcement of new regulations is left completely up to the states, which, for the most part, have an extremely poor track record at this function.

This Senate bill will use the power of the federal government to force you to buy a very expensive product, but it refuses to use the power of the federal government to ensure this product meets even minimum standards of quality. It uses the sledge hammer of federal power to force middle class families to hand their money over to private insurance corporations, but handles the extremely powerful insurance companies with the soft kid gloves by leaving regulation enforcement up to the states. The imbalance of power between middle class consumers and insurance companies produced by this bill is shocking.

The House bill uses the power of the federal government in three ways to hold the insurance companies honest. It creates a national exchange with a national insurance regulation enforcement mechanism. It creates a national public health insurance option to serve as a check and benchmark for the private insurance companies. And, finally, it repeals the health insurance companies’ anti-trust exemption. These tools help put regular Americans on a more even footing against the private insurance companies.


It is both immoral and financially reckless to do what the Senate bill does. It uses the power of the federal government to force people to buy private insurance and gives the private insurance companies hundreds of billions in federal funds. Yet it does not use the power of the federal government to police the insurance companies to make sure they are not wasting the billions in federal funds they receive, or abusing their millions of federally mandated customers.

No one left, right, or center should accept this system which puts regular people in such a weak position compared to the private corporations with which they are force to do business. Attempts to justify the individual mandate by comparing it to Swiss, Dutch, or Belgian health care ignores the reality of those systems. Not other country forces people into such a powerless, subservient position compared to private companies. The Senate bill does not create social contract guaranteeing quality, affordable health care for everyone in exchange for mandating the buying of health insurance. It just forces people to buy a poor-quality product from an extremely wasteful, predatory, and poorly regulated industry.

© 2010 FireDogLake

OK, having read the above article, now take a look at these commonly agreed upon:

Early Warning Signs of Fascism



Powerful and Continuing Nationalism


Disdain For Human Rights


Identification of Enemies as a unifying cause


Supremacy of the military


Rampant Sexism


Controlled Mass Media


Obsession With National Security


Religion and Government Intertwined


Corporate Power Protected


Labor Power Suppressed


Disdain For Intellectuals & and the Arts


Obsession With Crime & Punishment


Rampant Cronyism & Corruption


Fraudulent Elections

Remember, Benito Mussolini defined fascism as the marriage of corporate interests with the state, held by force, against any opposition. Where do you think the U.S. lies now, according to these signs and definitions. Are you alarmed? WE ARE.  Cheers.

WHAT SEEMS LIKELY BASED ON WHAT WE'VE SEEN

Once again, the power of the U.S. corporate media to hide the truth, and control the discourse on their terms, is illustrated by the following article, published by a more left-leaning U.K. newspaper. But seen nowhere in the mainstream media in this country, unfortunately, since it is highly important.

Published on Monday, November 23, 2009 by The Independent/UK

Antarctic Ice Loss Vaster, Faster Than Thought: Study

The East Antarctic icesheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, has lost billions of tonnes of ice since 2006 and could boost sea levels in the future, according to a new study.

Scientists believe that Antarctica could lose more ice than Greenland within a few years. (Photograph: Momatiuk-Eastcott/Corbis)Published Sunday in Nature Geoscience, the same study shows that the smaller but less stable West Antarctic icesheet is also shedding significant mass.

Scientists worry that rising global temperatures could trigger a rapid disintegration of West Antarctica, which holds enough frozen water to push up the global ocean watermark by about five metres (16 feet).

In 2007 the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted sea levels would rise 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches) by 2100, but this estimate did not factor in the potential impact of crumbling icesheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

Today many of the same scientist say that even if heat-trapping CO2 emissions are curtailed, the ocean watermark is more likely to go up by nearly a metre, enough to render several small island nations unlivable and damage fertile deltas home to hundreds of millions.

More than 190 nations gather in Copenhagen next month to hammer out a global climate deal to curb greenhouse gases and help poor countries cope with its consequences.

University of Texas professor Jianli Chen and colleagues analysed nearly seven years of data on ocean-icesheet interaction in Antarctica.

Covering the period up January 2009, the data was collected by the twin GRACE satellites, which detect mass flows in the ocean and polar regions by measuring changes in Earth's gravity field.

Consistent with earlier findings based on different methods, they found that West Antarctica dumped, on average, about 132 billion tonnes of ice into the sea each year, give or take 26 billion tonnes.
They also found for the first time that East Antarctica - on the Eastern Hemisphere side of the continent - is likewise losing mass, mostly in coastal regions, at a rate of about 57 billion tonnes annually.
The margin or error, they cautioned, is almost as large as the estimate, meaning ice loss could be a little as a few billion tonnes or more than 100.

Up to now, scientists had thought that East Antarctica was in "balance," meaning that it accumulated as much mass and it gave off, perhaps a bit more.

"Acceleration of ice loss in recent years over the entire continent is thus indicated," the authors conclude. "Antarctica may soon be contributing significantly more to global sea level rise."

Another study published last week in the journal Nature reported an upwardly-revised figure for Antarctic temperatures during prior "interglacials", warm periods such as our own that have occurred roughly every 100,000 years.

During the last interglacial which peaked some 128,000 years ago, called the Eemian Period, temperatures in the region were probably six degree Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than today, which is about 3 C (5.4 C) above previous estimates, the study said.

The findings suggest that the region may be more sensitive than scientists thought to greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere that were roughly equivalent to present day levels.  [due to volcanism then, it is thought, eds.].

During the Eemian, sea levels were five-to-seven metres higher than today [Higher than most of Florida!, eds].

© 2009 The Independent

 

Ok, folks, let's look at this. What this research is saying, is that the last time the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was 390 ppm, which is what it is today (up from 280 ppm 60 years ago), 128,000 years ago, sea levels were 18 to 25 feet (5 to 7 metres) higher than they are today. This was due to naturally occurring volcanism, it is thought, and it is unknown how rapidly they rose to this level. But what would this mean, a sea level, that much higher? If it were to occur relatively quickly, say within 20-30 years (or even 10), could humanity adapt? Because all the major seaports and their infrastructure would be underwater, which is where and how the bulk of the global food and energy is distributed. Would all the different countries be able to rebuild all the transport and distribution facilities on higher ground that quickly? If not, shortages of food and energy would cause great hardship, and could lead to societal collapse, in many areas. It's not inconceivable that this rapid of a sea-level rise could occur. Research is also showing that the Greenland Ice Cap is shrinking rapidly, especially on the coastal margins. And that large areas of it could collapse quite quickly, within a matter of a few years, which could raise sea levels on it's own, by a few metres. Which would quickly drown many areas like Bangladesh, and low-elevation island countries in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

So far, all the global climate models have been too slow in predicting things like the decreasing Arctic summer sea ice, changes are occurring more rapidly.

Here are some things your lead editor has seen in my 23 years of experience as a professional meteorologist, tracking the day to day weather, and studying the climate of North America, and the rest of the World.

1. Summers are longer, warmer, and drier, throughout the Western U.S., Western Canada, and Alaska. Leading to increasing trends in wildfire acreages in all these areas. Sensitive high-elevation tree species like Subalpine Fir and Lodgepole Pine have been decimated by bug infestations and diseases, caused by drought and warmer winters. Lower elevation tree species like Douglas Fir, are moving up in elevation. Increasing wildfire acreages are in themselves, a positive feedback to the climate system, since more CO2 is released.

2. Winters are slightly shorter, but have much greater swings in temperature in the higher latitudes, than even just 30-40 years ago. More frequent southerly flow/high pressure ridging episodes occur between cold spells now, raising average temperatures. Since less of the deep cold air forms here, less is transported south into southern Canada, and the U.S. Leading to warmer winters there, and skimpier mountain snowpacks in the West. Which in turn aggravate drought conditions, since they melt off earlier, weakening the more sensitive forest species, and leaving them more vulnerable to bugs and diseases.

3. More frequent droughts, and floods. Long-term warming manifests in the short-term of daily and weekly weather as stronger, and more persistent high pressure ridging. Exactly like our first-ever near-rainless July this year here in Fairbanks. If a high pressure ridge parks over an area for a month, as it did over interior Alaska this past July, you have warm, dry conditions. To either side of a stationary high pressure ridge, there are low pressure troughs. Containing cool, wet weather. If these persist long enough over an area, there can be heavy rains and flooding. Think of the climate patterns we had 20 years ago, as moving north, and more rapidly now, in the coming decades. The climate of Southern California 20 years from now will likely be similar to what is seen in central Baja California. The climate of Northern California and Southern Oregon, then, will be more like what is now seen in Southern California. The climate of Idaho and Montana, will become more like that seen in southern Nevada, and Northern Arizona/Southern Utah. Don't even ask what southern Arizona will become like! These are the trends that are occurring, and which will amplify, since we will see an increase to 500-550 ppm CO2 now in just 25 years or so.

The tragic fires in Australia last February, documented in our article:

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/03/warning-lights-are-flashing-australia.html

serve as a stark warning of what will become more the norm, in a few decades. An unprecedented heat wave there, combined with strong winds to create fire behaviour not ever likely seen by humans for many thousands of years. Fire plumes burning through their thick, volatile Eucalypt forests reached into the stratosphere, 18 KM, generating lightning, which started more fires. Temperatures were 38-48C (100-116F, with relative humidities of 2-6%), combined with winds of 40-80 km/hr. Fire Danger ratings of 50-80, which is considered extreme, soared to unprecedented levels of 200-300, causing their Bureau of Meteorology to have to change the scale, incorporating a "Catastrophic" category now, for ratings above 100. These kind of conditions there will become much more frequent in the next few decades.

 

Here in North America, similar trends are occurring. We've burnt 6.4 million hectares (16 million acres) from wildfires in Alaska since 2004. 11 million in 2004 and 2005 alone. During the extremely large fire season of 2007 in Idaho/Montana, 35 days occurred in Missoula, where the temperature reached or exceeded 95F (35C), and 11 days, where 100F (38C) was reached or exceeded. In the 8 years I lived there, from 1990-98, I saw it reach 100F, just once! The average July and August high temperature in Missoula is 29C (84F).

 

So we will be seeing conditions like this increasing in frequency, and duration, over the next few decades. That's the reality folks. Since the climate conferences in Copenhagen produced very little of substance, guaranteeing at least a 3C rise in global average temperature by mid-Century:

Copenhagen: Just a Cop Out?

Despite its disappointments, the climate summit in Copenhagen marks a turning point—the end of denial. What's next is recognizing that our climate problem is really a justice problem.

by Tom Athanasiou

Copenhagen was obviously a failure—if you judge it by "the numbers," the formal emission targets and financial commitments that are needed to support a fair, effective, emergency global climate mobilization. If you judge it, that is, by what is necessary.

The more pressing question, though, is whether Copenhagen was a failure when judged against what was possible. This is a much more difficult question, and has far more to do with judgment than with calculation. And much more to do with the immediate future of climate politics.

The good news is that the truth is coming out, and that people all over the world are seeing it. Everyone, and I imagine this includes Barack Obama, knows a hell of a lot more about the climate crisis, and its politics, than they did a year ago. Not, to be sure, that we didn't already know that climatic destabilization is triggering a planetary emergency. This has been obvious for years. The difference now is rather that—thanks to the 350 movement, and here I mean not only the folks at 350.org, but also Mohamed Nasheed, the President of Tuvalu and a whole lot of terrified scientists—we know that we know it. And that we know it with appalling, quantitative confidence.

The bad news is that after Copenhagen, we also know that the elites are at their limits. That what is needed, as the Copenhagen street had it, is "system change not climate change," and that lacking system change, our governments are quite incapable of organizing a decisive response to the climate crisis. The bad news, more particularly, is that if we in "civil society" are to do better than our putative leaders, if indeed we are to help the elites break their own chains of powerlessness, we're going to have to actually dare to assign a bit of responsibility for the Copenhagen fiasco. The bulk of which, alas, will have to go to the wealthy world.

The NGOs grouped into CAN, the Climate Action Network International tried to come to Copenhagen prepared. They even had a scenario analysis close at hand, one that categorized the possible outcomes with names like Breakthrough, Foundation, Greenwash, and Collapse. It was a useful exercise, but the power of the Copenhagen drama, as it finally played itself out, defeated all attempts at easy characterization. I suppose that if you had to pin it down, the outcome would have to be placed somewhere between Greenwash and Collapse. Or, to put a finer gloss on it, in the "not done yet" territory, which is how CAN decided to frame the result.

Looking at the generalities of the Copenhagen Accord and the 2010 negotiating schedule, this may be fair enough. Obama himself took the same line, in a late-night press conference that was actually pretty badly received, calling the accord a "meaningful agreement", but adding that "This progress is not enough," and "We have come a long way, but we have much further to go." Which is a fairly obvious point, given that the accord, such as it is, seems (see for example the Climate Scorecard) to condemn us to about 3.9 degrees Celsius of warming. This is the "Four Degree World" scenario, and it's a fairly magnificent understatement to say that we want to avoid it at almost all costs.

But of course Copenhagen is not the end of the game. The negotiations will continue, as will the organizing, and with the next major climate conference scheduled for Mexico City in November of 2010, they are quite certain to have a major impact on the United States. And if, in the meanwhile, we in America can manage to pass halfway decent climate and energy legislation, we may yet discover that the Obama strategy—which John Holdren, his chief science adviser, characterized during Copenhagen as, simply, "getting started"—offers a plausible way forward, one that can make real progress even in a nation overtaken by insane right-wing ideologues.

The difficulty here is that understanding can too easily degenerate into accommodation. Yes, we are paralyzed by our right wing, and yes this constrains our choices, but the fact remains that, by not paying our way, by refusing to accept anything like our proper share of the responsibility for the crisis now threatening to overcome us, we make the dithering and dysfunction inevitable. Which of course brings us to the equity side of the story, and here there are several key points to report.

One is that, in a signal development, several self-defined vulnerable country blocs emerged in Copenhagen to play extremely significant roles, and managed to do so while protecting not only their local interests, but the interests of the developing countries as a whole. The first of these vulnerable blocs, of course, was AOSIS, the Association of Small Island States, which face rising seas and, in extreme cases like Tuvalu, actual short-term inundation. But Africa, which has discovered the extent of its own vulnerability, also played a critical role, and by so doing helped to protect the South as a whole from being blamed for Copenhagen's failure to deliver.

Not that the right-wing press won't blame it anyway, but at this point I doubt that the gambit has real legs. For while the African people are among the world's most innocent, in terms of their historical contributions to the climate crisis, they will also be among the most brutally impacted, and this is an injustice too obvious to easily set aside. Witness the open letter that Desmond Tutu sent to all heads of state during Copenhagen, a letter that noted that:

"If temperatures are not kept down then Africa faces a range of devastating threats such as crop yield reductions in places of as much 50 percent in some countries by 2020; Increased pressure on water supplies for 70-250 million people by 2020 and 350-600 million by 2050; The cost of adaptation to sea level rises of at least 5-10 percent of gross domestic product."

With these sorts of prospects at hand, it's difficult to be too sympathetic to the North's domestic political problems. Which is why—and this might perhaps just be wishful thinking—I believe that the rich world will fail to effectively evade responsibility for Copenhagen. There are counter-arguments, of course, and gross media distortions by the score, but so far the failure to reach a better deal is not being blamed wholly on the South. And given that the large "emerging economies" signed onto the accord, it's unlikely that it will be.

Indeed, given the wealthy world's failure to adopt strong domestic emission reduction targets, and its equally egregious failure to put a decent mitigation or adaptation support package onto the table, the Copenhagen endgame—in which the emerging economies agreed to the Accord while the weaker and more vulnerable states balked-may well have been the best possible outcome. (Watch the final, 3:10 a.m. plenary here; you won't regret it!)

In this regard, it may not be absurd to hope that, as Copenhagen passes into history, the overall framework by which we understand rich-world commitments will shift in significant ways. For one thing, and despite a clear desire to do so (it inconveniently requires them to "act first" to significantly reduce their emissions) the rich countries did not succeed in setting the Kyoto Protocol aside. But while Copenhagen laid out a two-track negotiating process, including a "Convention track" in which both the US and China can, perhaps, both be eventually coaxed into accepting their fair shares of the global effort, the "Kyoto track" has also been extended. This gives us a clear mandate—to continue the battle to force the wealthy countries to make commitments on the scale demanded by the science, and by their own historical responsibility and capacity to pay—and just as importantly it gives us a context within which to do so.

The road ahead is clear enough. The next big date is February 1, 2010, by which time countries of all kinds are expected to pledge their emissions reductions. When they do, the battles will predictably, and quite properly, flare up all over again.

For the moment, let me add only that Copenhagen, for all its disappointments, marked a turning point. The need for a global emergency mobilization is obvious, and with it, a set of social and political challenges that can no longer be denied. These challenges will get clearer in the days and years ahead, but the essential situation is already before us, ready to be discovered—with the atmosphere's ability to absorb carbon now critically limited, we face the greatest resource-sharing problem of all time.

The climate problem, in other words, was and remains a justice problem. If we fail to solve it, it will be in large part because we refuse to see it as such.

Tom Athanasiou wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Tom is the author of Divided Planet: The Ecology of Rich and Poor, and co-author (with Paul Baer) of Dead Heat: Global Justice and Global Warming. He is the executive director of EcoEquity, a core member of the Greenhouse Development Rights team, and a coauthor of The Greenhouse Development Rights Framework: The right to development in a climate constrained world.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

Is all hope lost? Are we doomed to see 3-5C or greater temperature increases globally, with sea levels rising 5 or 10 metres, or more, in several decades (and all the ensuing problems resulting from that)? There are some good ideas out there, like Dr. James Hansen's proposal, outlined here, again in the British media, but not in the U.S.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/27-2

As long as Corporate-dominated media continues to distort reality, and as long the bulk of the population in this, and other countries, gets their information from it, it will be very difficult to force politicians to regulate capitalism and sponsor renewable energy development and implementation. All the countries, cultures, and religions of the World are going to have to trust each other, and work together, to prevent the worst effects from occurring, and soon, within ten years. If not, this is what we'll see. This is an amazing bit of science fiction, written in 1973 by Ursula K. Leguin, in a book called The Dispossessed.  About a planet in the Tau Ceti star system, 11 light years from Earth, which has an Earth-like planet named Urras, and a barely-inhabitable moon about it, called Annarres, which was settled by radical socialist/anarchists. In this passage, the main character, from the Anarchist moon, on the run from the Urran authorities, talks with the Terran Ambassador, hundreds of years in our future, who explains what happened on her (our) planet, in her (our) past:

"Now, you man from a world I cannot even imagine, you who see my paradise (Urras) as hell, will you ask what my world must be like?"

"My world (Earth), is a ruin. A planet spoiled by the human species. We multiplied and gobbled and fought until there was nothing left, and then we died. We controlled neither appetite nor violence; we did not adapt. We destroyed ourselves. But we destroyed the World first. There are no forests left on my world, Earth. The air is grey, it is always hot. It is habitable, it is still habitable, but not as this world is. This is a living world, a harmony. Mine is a discord. You Odonians (on Annares) chose a desert; we Terrans made a desert.... We survive there, as you do. People are tough! There are nearly a half billion of us now. Once there were nine billion. You can see the old cities still everywhere. The bones and bricks go to dust, but the little pieces of plastic never do-they never adapt either. We failed as a species, as a social species. We are here now, dealing as equals with other human societies on other worlds, only because of the charity of the Hainish. They came; they brought us help. They built ships and gave them to us, so we could leave our ruined world."

This is what our future holds, unless we all decide to do something about it. Cheers.

SOLSTICIO de INVIERNO en EL DESIERTO de GRANDE SUBARCTICO [y] MAS BUENAS NOTICIAS de AMERICA del SUR

The English translation of our latest article is:

WINTER SOLSTICE IN THE GREAT SUBARCTIC DESERT [and] MORE GOOD NEWS FROM SOUTH AMERICA

Since I plan on re-visiting America del Sur someday, I need to keep using and learning more Espanol. Please bare with us...

Winter solstice in Interior Alaska at 65 Degrees north Latitude has great meaning for many of us who feel environmentally connected here.

The shortest day of the year, of course, when here in the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth is tilted furthest away from sun in it's progression around the axis, tilted 23.5 degrees from the vertical.

So, our sun is only 2 degrees above the horizon on this day, and up for about 3 hours 45 min. But we will slowly start re-gaining more and longer light soon, by March, six minutes a day!

We here at A.P.R. also like to view Winter Solstice in reverential terms, as our ancient ancestors did in all of Europe, before they were "Christianised" by force of arms (by the Romans after 325 a.d.), much as were the Indigenous people on the this continent, much later (and more recently, by...the U.S., England, and Spain). Which is to say, to celebrate it as the nadir of the darkening trend, and a new beginning for a year. We are not adherents to any specific religion at A.P.R., viewing all organised ones that claim to have "the truth" to the exclusion of others, as detrimental to us, and the World at large, in this age of global problems/concerns, and weapons of mass destruction.

So, we wanted to be outside all day, to savour our 3:45 daylight, and greet the New Year, which for us, has arrived.

We decided a ski from dawn till dusk would be a great way to do this. So, we arrived at the McKay Creek trailhead, off the Steese Highway, 90 KM NE of Fairbanks.

The White Mountains are somewhat protected by a BLM National Recreation Area, but at a price, as you'll see.

It was just barely getting light when we began a steep at times 7 KM ascent of 430 metres, from the Steese Highway, up to the high point of this portion of the trail. After about an hour, there was enough light to see this view, looking east, at the new day rising. This entire area was right in the middle of the 243,000 hectare Boundary Fire, the largest one in the state, in our record 2004 fire season. A time of great worry and unhealthy air for the Alaska Interior.

We quickly began seeing these trap markers on the side of the trail, sometimes every 30 metres or so. Right on the trail. It was scary, because snares and leg clamps are present, but covered in snow. And Mattie kept trying to check them out, since they are baited. I had to continually yell at her to keep away. Fortunately, Homer knew better, and I never had to get after him. A snare can kill a dog, as they struggle, it tightens. If you don't have wire-cutters, you will have to watch your dog die slowly, in agony. In addition, some people bring small children on snow machines or dogsleds. As we all know, diverting our attention only a minute or two to deal with a tangled team, or broken machine, is all it takes for a small child to wander off and get into trouble...

The notification, below, appeared about 9 KM in.

I don't know about you, but we think this is wrong, that these dangerous traps, are right on the trail. Since these are federally managed lands, we plan on writing to the district administrator of this area, in Fairbanks, stating our request that these should be at least 30 metres from the trail. That would keep most dogs (and errant children!) out of harm's way. Bob_Schneider@blm.gov

We don't want to shut trapping down, but feel dog-oriented people should be allowed some say in the management of the area, for their safety. Perhaps having these snares and traps further away from the trail, and more continuous presence of people, would entice more animals to them. What do you think? If you support us, and like dogs, join us, and write in!

Homer, with his striking blue eyes on his black face, shows his wisdom quite overtly. At his age of 13 he's seen it all. Mattie, being two, and growing up as a babe in Kodiak, hasn't. It was a struggle keeping her away from the traps, and my voice was hoarse, by day's end.

The interior is really akin to a Great Desert in winter. Receiving only about a centimeter each winter month of liquid-equivalent, in the form of snow. And, cold as it is, the air is very dry. Looking out from 800 metres, across the valley of Nome Creek, toward the 1400 metre "peaks" of the White Mountains, almost gives that impression. The scraggly black spruce are almost-cactus like. These are the predominant tree in this elevated plateau area. Because it is so cold here, permafrost underlies most of it, and it is very swampy, with poor drainage. Bug hell in summer, and often cold and windswept in winter. Though the coldest temperatures of -40 to -55C occur in the valleys, after a cold airmass settles in, and skies clear and winds drop off, when an upper-level low moves south and east through the region.

Today though, under southerly chinook flow (our fourth episode already this winter, imagine that!), it was only -5 to -10C! Or, about 15C above average.

It feels great, but we know it's coming at a price. Since it's been occurring so much lately.

Unfortunately, a poor little Marten got snagged, not long after we passed a trap toward our low point near Nome Creek. After turning back, at out 1300 hours turn-around time, and heading back up, it was in it's death throes. No more than a metre or so off the trail.




Death is a part of nature, of course, but this slow way of death just seems very cruel. About an hour later, we came to the trail junction, for our lunch spot. It was getting windy here, so we just ate quickly, while I put a dry hat and down jacket on to stay warm. I put the jacket back in my pack, and quickly warmed back up, once we got moving again.







By 1430 hours, our weak, feeble sun was starting so set. But with our long twilights here, good usable light lasts until almost 1600! Homer was enjoying the orange glow, as we began heading down the 7 KM steep section back to the trailhead. That was sure fun, like a green alpine run, not too fast, and mostly wide enough to snowplow the steepest sections. It only took 30 minutes going down, but 75 minutes, going up! Our 40 KM trail day ended at 1530 hours, so we had a nice six hour Solstice outing. Once again, we were happy to see 13 year old Homer running strong and happy the whole time, he must have done 50-60KM, and Mattie, 80 or more, with all her side-trips.

MAS BUENAS NOTICIAS De AMERICA Del SUR

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/22-1

Yasuni Park Trust Fund Will Keep Ecuador's Oil Underground

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Ecuador's initiative to protect the climate and the rainforest of Yasuni National Park by leaving its largest oil reserve in the ground will be supported by a new multi-donor trust fund to offset lost oil revenue, Ecuadorian and United Nations officials announced last week in Copenhagen.

Pristine rainforest in Yasuni National Park (Photo courtesy Ecuador-Travel.net)Ecuador's Foreign Minister Fander Falconi and Minister of Natural and Cultural Heritage Marie Ferdinand Espinosa, launched the new trust fund together with Helen Clark, the former New Zealand prime minister, who now serves as administrator of the UN Development Programme.

"Yasuni National Park is a fantastic project and a big contribution to save our climate," said Clark at a news conference in Copenhagen announcing the UNDP cooperation with the Government of Ecuador.

The Yasuni Trust Fund will be managed by the UN Development Programme. It will focus on reducing carbon dioxide emissions by permanently foregoing extraction of fossil fuels from the park; developing alternative energy; protecting indigenous groups; and reducing poverty and inequality through sustainable social development.

In exchange for keeping the crude oil in the ground in the Ishpingo, Tampococha, Tiputini (ITT) region, the Ecuadorian government has asked for compensation of $350 million a year for 10 years.
The Yasuni-ITT initiative was proposed in 2007 and has been met with widespread international interest, inspiring the government to extend the deadline for the initial $350 million down payment until December.

The initiative aims to prevent the extraction of an estimated 850 million barrels of crude oil in the ground beneath the park. This would prevent the release of 407 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and would also protect the indigenous peoples and unique plants and animals that inhabit the park.

The park is designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and is home to indigenous peoples who live in voluntary isolation to protect their way of life.

Matt Finer of Save America's Forests has lived and worked as an ecologist in Yasuni National Park. "The establishment of the trust fund is a critical, and long-awaited, step towards making the Yasuni-ITT Initiative a success," he said.

"For the first time in the initiative's 2.5 year life span, donors will actually be able to make financial contributions. So we will soon see what countries are serious about backing this revolutionary initiative," said Finer.

"Moreover," he said, "the UNDP's involvement adds a lot of credibility for any interested, yet previously skeptical, donor."A bird in Yasuni National Park (Photo by Josh Bousel)
Ecuador's selection of the UN Development Programme to administer the fund is based on UNDP's record of efficient, transparent and accountable administration of over 30 multi-donor trust funds in over 70 countries, the UN agency said.

Covering nearly 2.5 million acres of primary tropical rainforest at the intersection of the Andes, the Amazon and the equator, Yasuni National Park was created in 1979. It is the ancestral territory of the Woarani people, and two other indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation, the Tagaeri and the Taramenane.

Described by scientists such as Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. E.O. Wilson as one of the world's most biologically important tropical rainforests, Yasuni is critical habitat to 23 globally threatened mammal species, including the giant otter, the Amazonian manatee, the pink river the giant anteater, and the Amazonian tapir. Ten primate species live in the Yasuni, including the threatened white-bellied spider monkey, together with a wealth of unique birds.

As a result of its unique location, Yasuni contains what are thought to be the greatest variety of tree and insect species anywhere on the planet. In just 2.5 acres, there are as many tree species as in all of the United States and Canada combined.

The government has launched a countrywide campaign to raise small donations from civil society. The fund will also accept private and public sector donations, debt swaps, carbon bonds issued in the voluntary carbon market for avoided CO2 emissions, and direct investment in specific government development projects, which would have been financed by ITT oil revenues.
The Ecuadorian government has received many international offers of support. On June 26, the German parliament unanimously approved a resolution backing the initiative and committing the government and Chancellor Angela Merkel to financially and politically support of the initiative, as well as promoting it among EU countries and the Club of Paris.

It was at the request of the German Parliament that Ecaudorian President Rafael Correa extended the deadline to secure funds until December.

Additional support has come from the Spanish government, which contributed an initial $4 million dollars towards Yasuni conservation.

President Correa announced at the UN General Assembly in September that Ecuador would permanently maintain its crude oil, estimated at one billion barrels of heavy crude reserves, underground putting social and environmental values first, thereby preventing the emission of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

"This is a great step in both the battle to save Yasuni and to move Ecuador towards a new post-petroleum development model," said Esperanza Martinez of Accion Ecologica, which has been leading the civil society campaign in support of the initiative. "While we believe that all of Yasuni National Park should be off limits to oil drilling and that the proposal should consider financial options other than emissions trading, we welcome this development and hope it leads to the permanent protection of what is really the lifeblood of the Amazon."

© 2009 Environment News Service

What an inspiration for the rest of the World. As we said a few weeks ago, great things are happening en America del Sur, and we often look to it for inspiration! About the only good thing, to have come out of the global climate change initiative meetings in Copenhagen, the last few weeks. A.P.R. will have more to say about that later. Cheers, and Happy Solstice!

CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN [or] RECLAIMING THE CONTINENT

CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN [or] RECLAIMING THE CONTINENT

The words below are comments written about this article, http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/11-9, which describes President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech:

"Like all good politicians, Obama is adept at paying homage to multiple, inconsistent views at once, enabling everyone to hear whatever they want in what he says while blissfully ignoring the rest."

The fact is, a permanent state of war will define the US for the forseeable future and there is and always has been a bipartisan consensus on that.

We couldn't agree more. The current administration more and more seems to be just an extension of the Bush regime, with a more eloquent speaker at the head, being the only substantive difference.

Obama's speech to the nation about surging 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan, for a pointless, immoral, and futile war, sounded very much like what would have come out of the previous adminstration.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/07-10

There are all the economic advisors, the men from the largest financial institutions whose greed and short-sightedness nearly destroyed the Global economy, chosen to lead the new administration in its economic policies.

And of course, the ridiculous "health care reform" which will end up costing hundreds of billions of dollars, while still leaving out most of the currently uninsured people, and further enriching the soul-less death machines we call "Health Insurance Corporations". Who put profits before all else, continually pushing the envelope in denying coverage and benefits for those in need.

But there are other countries, where Change We Can Believe In, is actually occurring. Many are in South America, where over the past ten years, more left-wing politicians have been elected, in response to the aspirations of the poverty-stricken people in their countries, who have suffered greatly from the 1960s-1990s under often fascist, repressive regimes, sponsored by this country. No longer. One of the most striking, and dynamically changing countries is the one I had the fortune of visiting for three weeks last year, Bolivia. The poorest country in South America, mainly because 65 percent of its population is indigenous, of Aymara, Inca, and Amazon tribal extraction.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, the subject of great admiration, here at the Alaska Progressive Review, was re-elected to a second five-year term this week.

Here he is last year in La Paz, at a political rally, when I was able to get within 10 metres of the stage. That's him with the flower garland around his neck.

Published on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 by BBC News

Bolivian President to Deepen Social Revolution

by James Painter
"President Evo Morales seems set to push ahead with the implementation of a new constitution to place indigenous peoples at the heart of Bolivia's government and society after his victory in Sunday's presidential election.

VP Alvaro Garcia and President Morales have been in power since 2006. (AP Photo)A poor result for the opposition suggests an easier passage for social reforms and a lessening of demands for secession by departments traditionally opposed to Mr Morales, according to analysts.
Preliminary results say that Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian and Bolivia's first indigenous president, won at least 61% of the vote, easily defeating his conservative opponents.

That is a higher percentage than he won in 2005 when he was elected for his first mandate.If his victory is confirmed, it would also be the first time in Bolivia since 1964 that an incumbent president has won a second term - an unusual event in a country often synonymous with military coups and political instability.

The key electoral battleground was for seats in the new Plurinational Legislative Assembly. In the previous Senate, the opposition had a small majority which allowed them to block new legislation.

Under the new constitution which was ratified in a referendum last year, the method of electing senators has changed.

Exit polls suggest that Mr Morales's party, the Movement to Socialism (MAS), has won at least 24 seats in the new 36-seat senate, which would give him a two-thirds majority.
However, it is unclear if the MAS has won enough seats in the new Chamber of Deputies to win a similar majority and ensure an easy passage for the 100-plus laws necessary to fully implement a new constitution.

Final official results will be known later this week.

Breakaway regions

The preliminary results suggest that the MAS has increased its vote in the wealthier eastern departments, where the opposition to President Morales has traditionally been based.
In the Santa Cruz department for example, exit polls suggest that Mr Morales' party increased its vote to 40% from 33% in 2005.

In Tarija, Beni and Pando, MAS also improved its vote significantly.
According to Oxford Analytica, a research organisation, the degree of support in these areas "means that the prospect of secession is ever more remote".

In 2007 and 2008 there was considerable speculation that Santa Cruz and other departments might break away from the highland, more indigenous, departments where support for Mr Morales is overwhelming.

John Crabtree of Oxford University says the improved performance of the MAS was due in part to the priority the party gave to Santa Cruz in its campaigning.
"Another element was the lessening of the climate of fear amongst the migrant population there," Mr Crabtree says. "It also helped MAS that the opposition was divided and had lacklustre candidates."

Likely changes
President Morales is expected to make the implementation of the new constitution his main legislative priority at the start of his second term.

Amongst the most important changes envisaged are:
* More indigenous rights and more indigenous participation in politics* A reworking of the judiciary, whereby indigenous systems of justice will enjoy the same status as the official existing system; judges will be elected, and no longer appointed by congress* Power decentralised into four levels of autonomy - departmental, regional, municipal and indigenous.

The key to Mr Morales' success has been his appeal to the 65% of the population who define themselves as indigenous and who see him as "one of theirs".

They have also been the recipients of increased social spending boosted by high international prices for hydrocarbons, and more taxes on foreign oil and gas companies.

Cash payments have been made to poor families to encourage school attendance.
Extra pension payments have been to the elderly, and pre-natal and post-natal care bas been extended to mothers without health protection.

Two women in El Alto, Bolivia, 25 NovMorales has vowed to deepen reforms focused on Indian power

Some estimates suggest that the payments reached a quarter of Bolivia's 10 million people this year.

According to recent analysis by the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), government revenue has increased by almost 20% of GDP since 2004.

The Morales government has spent massively in recent months to counteract the effect of the global recession.

CEPR says that from a fiscal surplus of 5% of GDP in early 2008 (worth several billion dollars), recent government spending meant this became a fiscal deficit in 2009.

The Bolivian economy is set to grow this year by between 2.5% and 3.5%, one of the highest anywhere in the Americas.

The IMF's director of Western hemisphere countries, Nicolas Eyzaguirre, has praised the Morales government for what he called its "very responsible" macroeconomic policies.
More state intervention?

Morales supporters say that the greater state control of the oil and gas sectors helped to boost government income.

His critics say that state intervention may work well for redistributing income, but not for encouraging investment, technical and managerial expertise and the eradication of corruption.
Government ministers say they want to attract foreign investment into new areas like the development of Bolivia's large deposits of lithium and iron ore.

"We want partners, not patrons" is the oft-repeated slogan.

"One priority for the coming years is industrialisation," says Mr Crabtree, "by which the government means adding value to raw materials by processing them."

Analysts say one key test will be whether the queue of foreign companies interested in developing Bolivia's huge reserves of lithium will turn into a concrete deal between a private company and the state.

Lithium is seen as critical for developing a new generation of battery-driven cars."
© 2009 BBC News

This is great news! Because Evo Morales' administration has truly been working to use the natural wealth of their country to ease the poverty there.
Which is very evident, travelling by train to the south of the country, poor little villages like this were a common sight. Though they all did have electricity coming in, much of which had just been done over the past few years, thanks to the Morales administration.

On my attempted climb of 6530 metre Volcan Illimani (21,230 ft), (derailed at 5600 metres by my dreaded Soroche, altitude sickness) for which I paid 450.00 USD, we had local villagers hired as porters. These young women from the village at the base of the mountain hauled up the first two 30 kg loads up to the 4400 metre low-camp on horseback. The homes in their village are of the common adobe, reed-roofed, low-walled construction, with earthen floors (though they do now have electricity!). Other than that sporadic employment, these villagers struggle to coax meagre crops of potatoes, quinoa, and other crops from the cold thin soils at 4000+ metres, as well as herding horses, sheep, llamas, and alpacas. A very arduous, difficult way of life, with little hope of improvement.

The U.S. corporate media tries to portray Evo Morales, and Hugo Chavez, of Venezuela, as dictatorial, bent on maintaining power endlessly (as "our" previously sponsored fascist regimes did!), and intent on moving their countries into Socialism along Cuba's model. Yet this is decidedly not so.

One look at the skyline of La Paz (with Illimani gracing it with her majestic presence!) tells the story. Private enterprise is very strong here, all the modern skyscrapers are occupied by banks, telecommunications industries, and other large corporations. There are large auto dealerships, supermarkets, and everything else we associate with a modern "developed" country.

The main difference though, is that this modernity is surrounded by massive poverty. The slums of El Alto, at 4100 metres (where the airport is), are cold and drafty, on the high altiplano, while the city of La Paz drops down in a canyon, 500-1000 metres lower, warmer, and protected from the wind.

Bolivia only has a population of around 11 million, but over 3 million of that is in and around La Paz. Much of it's modern growth, over the past 40 years, in the slums of El Alto and La Paz itself, has been from people in the cold villages of the high Altiplano, trying to find a better, less arduous life, in the city. Which has not worked out for most, and so many struggle working in crowded little shopping stalls, selling whatever they can, or the least fortunate, begging on the streets. A daunting challenge, for any government, willing, and trying to change and better the living conditions for these people.

Yet these people are descended from a culture that was able to build this amazing temple site of Tihuanaco, at least 4000 years ago, of massive multi-ton rock slabs, which fit together perfectly. And which were somehow hauled 100 KM to the site from the shores of Lake Titicaca.

It was hard not to feel sorry for these people, whose lives are so difficult, in comparison to ours, and who aren't able to travel like we are, and experience other cultures. Not to mention, have the basics of good food, housing, and medical care.

Most of the people I talked with in Bolivia were very much in favour of the Morales administration, and their stated goals of using the country's natural wealth, to raise the standard of living of the populace.

One thing we of European descent, in the Western Hemisphere need to understand is this: capitalism/"the market"/free enterprise/private property, are alien concepts and constructs in indigenous culture. Before their cultures were nearly destroyed by the Spaniards/Portugese, in Latin America, and other European countries, in North America, they lived more communally, sharing work, responsibilities, and the wealth of their areas together. Thus, since the Morales Administration is attempting to reflect the values of their Aymara/Inca culture more, they are and will be acting in ways that seem "Socialistic". That is their culture. The other countries in South America are and will also be changing in these ways more with time, and hopefully some day, Mexico (since it still has a large indigenous population).

The "bad old days" of corporate-sponsored U.S. subversion and control of Latin American countries are over (the U.S. embassy in La Paz looked like a bunker, with little slits for windows, surrounded by barbed wire. The only one like it, all the other countries had friendlier-looking ones). Massive popular support of the more left-leaning governments, as evinced by the thousands at this march in La Paz last year, is increasing.

The Alaska Progressive Review is greatly excited by this. Because we feel that their way, in these countries, especially Bolivia and Venezuela, of combining Indigenous culture and its more holistic World-view, with modern technology, will enable humanity to over-come the looming threats of overpopulation, resource-depletion, and climate change in the decades to come. If it were to become more widespread.

We think it's especially interesting, and ironic, that here in the amazing Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flat), the World's biggest desert saline lake, at an elevation of 3600 metres, lies the Earth's largest, and most easily accessible source of Lithium, in the form of the salt. Which is needed if Lithium-ion battery technology for electric vehicles is to improve and become widespread, replacing internal combustion engines.

Let's hope the Morales Administration will be able to find global partners who can sustainably, and responsibly harvest this valuable resource, for the betterment of the planet.

We plan on re-visiting Bolivia when we can, as it's incredible diversity of natural beauty, interesting and friendly culture, and exciting political/social change are captivating, and worthy of reporting on. We also want and need to visit the surrounding countries of Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brasil, and Venezuela. Great things are happening in much of South America, and we need to get the word out! Cheers.

GOING WITH THE FLOW

GOING WITH THE FLOW

The Alaska Progressive Review staff felt compelled to spend Thanksgiving weekend in the Alaska range, cross-country skiing, and hiking.

Because we were in a southerly flow aloft at that time, which brings mild maritime air northward from the Gulf of Alaska. Usually raising temperatures throughout the Alaska Range and Interior to as warm as 0 to -15C (+32 to +5F). Which in late November and December is a good 10-20C above average. This allows us to be outside doing whatever we like, with much less protection, and worry, from cold weather hazards. And it sure feels great!

So, Thanksgiving day we lit out early for the just over three hour drive to Paxson, 120 KM south of Delta Junction, on the Richardson Highway. I had long seen cabins for rent there at the junction where the Denali Highway starts, on it's westward direction to Cantwell. This looked like a perfect base to use for nordic skiing all around the area, in the nice mild conditions.

The drive down was exciting, through the Alaska Range. The strong south chinook winds were howling through 1500-2500 metre deep canyon of the Delta River, probably 60-80 KPH. The road would occasionally become obscured when visibility in blowing snow dropped abruptly, and we'd have to nearly stop, and get our bearings. Two mangled cars, one upside down, were on the side of the highway near Black Rapids. Fortunately, no one was in them, but they obviously were either driving too fast, or didn't have good tires, for the conditions. We got to Paxson around 1230 and drove up to the "Denali Highway Cabins".

http://www.denalihwy.com/
These "Denali Highway Cabins" are actually quite nice and plush inside. As good as any hotel room you'll find anywhere, for it's price. Since it was winter though, the plumbing was turned off, so no shower or sink, but buckets of water were provided so the toilet tank could be filled, for flushing. And, drinking water was also provided. They of course had oil stoves for heat, and electricity, for all the other amenities. Amazingly, our cell phone even worked better here than in Fairbanks!

The owner, Dr. Audobon Bakewell, and his wife greeted us, and showed us our cabin. It looked like we were the only ones staying that day, in the five cabin complex. Audie, as he likes to be called, must have a PhD in a biological science (we forgot to ask), as he advertises giving nature tours, in the area.

We just wanted to get on the trails though, and get out in the mild -5C air. But first, Homer wasted no time checking the place out and getting comfortable. He is 13 now, which for a canid, is equivalent to 85-90 in human terms, and so appreciates his creature comforts, such as a warm room with soft carpeting, and quick access to me, so he can nudge me with his big black wet nose, when he needs something.



One of the first things I noticed, when we got there, is that the Gulkana River, right next to the cabin, was still open and running fast. In fact, Audie said that it always is, and is one of the only rivers in the Alaska Interior that does, because it is so steep here. He said it takes a week of -45C temperatures to create a thin skim of ice on top, but as soon as it warms to -40C, it opens right back up! We sure loved listening to it, missing that sound from the years of living in Juneau and Missoula, MT, where it was ever-present.


After a hasty unpacking and lunch, we hit the trails around the area. Audie said that there are about 32 KM of trails, on both sides of the Richardson Highway, around the Alaska Pipeline, and around the Denali Highway. I classic skied for a couple hours in the dim afternoon sun, while Mattie and Homer ran free, something they really appreciate. Snowmachines packed down some of the trails, making for easy gliding, though we did break some trail occasionally, on smaller ones, to get to a small lake.

Although we could have given thanks that day with friends, we just couldn't pass up being in the mountains like this, when it's warm, so after skiing, we just had a regular backpacking meal, along with some good red wine, and watched a movie, on the little TV/DVD player in the cabin. Not bad! And walked around occasionally by the rushing Gulkana River, savoring that sound, as it will be a long while before we get to hear it again.

One plan of mine was to skate ski the next day, on the Denali Highway. This highway stretches 250 KM west to Cantwell, south of the crest of the Alaska Range, with only a few lodges on it, no towns. Very beautiful and relatively wild. I had hoped to be able to ski at least 34 KM in to the Tangle Lakes, then back, that day, which if conditions were right, could be done in 8-10 hours, maximum. But, friday morning, I skated up about 4 KM or so, and had to turn back, there just wasn't enough snow on the highway, there were many bare spots, and cars and trucks were still driving on it. Not wanting to jeopardise Mattie and Homer's safety as well, we turned back. The road is technically closed to auto traffic in winter, so once more snow accumulates, it will be. There is enough snowmachine traffic on it to keep it packed down, allowing skiers to skate, which is the fastest, most efficient form of nordic skiing (but also the most vulnerable to bad weather, a heavy snowfall, or abrupt thaw can make it miserable and slow).

That was a disappointment, but we'll get back there in Feb. or March (or April!) and do some skating there when it is car-free, with good snow conditions.

So, I put on my classic skis, and we went exploring for a few more hours around Paxson, on some other trails around the area. We came upon this about 1KM long lake, just south of the Denali Highway, Homer and Mattie loved running all around and across it. There wasn't enough trail distance though for an all-day outing, so we drove back north up the Richardson highway, after lunch, to ski up toward the base of the Gulkana glacier.

As we came around a curve on the side of Summit Lake, Caribou were blocking
the highway, and we had to stop. A herd of about 20 of them just walked across the highway, and onto the lake. Mattie was going wild in the car, jumping and crying. She sure wanted to get out and make chase, but that was not going to happen.

Kilo for kilo though, or little assistant editor has as much energy and drive as any canid I've ever seen. She would have given them a run for their money!

I classic skied in the warm -8C air on some snowmachine trails, northeast, toward the base of the Gulkana glacier. Unfortunately, the snowpack was rather skimpy, only about 10cm, and I was hitting some rocks occasionally, on my newer back-country skis. Not wanting to ruin them, we turned back, but not before Homer and Mattie discovered a porcupine. I'm not sure if either one of them has experienced being quilled, but I yelled as loud as I could at them to get them back, and fortunately they listened. It would have been a miserable time for them, had they gotten a face full of quills. All the more reason to get back after just a two-hour outing.

So, having been disappointed in our skiing twice that day, we just decided to do a short 90 min. run up and back, on the Denali Highway, to end the day. That sure felt good, in the mild evening, turning to night, since we finished around 1800. Homer ran about six hours that day, without tiring at all. What an inspiration! I want to be able to do that, when I reach 85-90, his equivalent age!

The plan for the trip back saturday was to stop at Rainbow Ridge, and hike around on it, which is on the way back to Fairbanks. This is a beautiful, multi-coloured ridge that rears nearly vertically 1500 metres up on the east side of the Richardson Highway, about 90 KM south of Delta Junction.

There wasn't a whole lot of snow on it, since the chinook winds scoured much of it way on Thanksgiving and Friday.

We reached the base around 1100, and just started walking up the talus slopes, at the foot of the ridge. The only 8-10 cm of wind-packed snow actually stabilised the talus, so it was safer footing than in summer, and faster! It was still fairly mild, -13C, with not a hint of a breeze, that felt great!








We just hiked up about an hour, to get up about halfway up the ridge, and enjoy the view, before heading home. This is looking north, the higher 3000-4000 metre, eternally white, peaks of the eastern half of the Alaska range are in the far distance.

What a treat, to be able to enjoy ourselves for three days, in the mild weather in the Alaska Range!

While we greatly prize, and make the most of the mild winter weather, when we have it, it is becoming more frequent. While that makes it easier, and more enjoyable for us living and recreating here, it's coming at a price.

This southerly flow pattern, with a high pressure ridge in the jet stream pumping mild maritime air northward, is occurring much more frequently now in winter, as Global Warming asserts itself more strongly.

The greatest magnitude of the warming seen over the past 30-40 years in the Arctic, has been in winter, for this reason. And this makes perfect sense. Since our sun angle in winter this far north is so low, the only way mild weather (defined arbitrarily, by me, thank you very much, as -15C or warmer) can occur is if warmer, maritime air is circulated north by the jet stream. Since there is more heat energy being retained in the atmosphere now that the atmospheric CO2 level is 390 ppm (up from 280 70 years ago, and rising 3-5 ppm annually), this method of global heat re-distribution occurs more frequently, is more persistent, and of greater magnitude now, than say, 30 or more years ago.

The warmer winters then don't allow as thick of ice cover to develop over the Arctic ocean, snow cover over the land is generally not as thick and persistent, and when the deep cold spells (-25C to -50C) do occur, they don't last as long. Which is why permafrost is also melting rapidly now, especially in the southern half of the Arctic. Which in itself, is a "positive feedback", since vast amounts of CO2 and methane is released when it thaws and melts.

An excellent example of this occurred just yesterday around interior Alaska. A very strong southerly chinook flow, pushed mild, maritime air, above freezing in the lower levels, north across the Alaska Range. Temperatures around Fairbanks popped up to 3-4C, and strong south winds surfaced in a few areas, which is very unusual.

Even more unusual, is this 5-day forecast height of the 500 millibar pressure (a level in the atmosphere generally between 4900-6000 metres, depending on the temperature, the higher these heights, the warmer the airmass), right. Which is from the generally most accurate numerical weather forecast model, the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting). Because all the western European countries pool their best researchers and funding, this model is the World's premiere tool for looking out 3-7 days ahead. The U.S. medium range model, the GFS (Global Forecast System) is also quite good, but the ECMWF usually tends to outperform it slightly in the higher latitudes. What this is showing, is an incredibly strong, nearly record-breaking, warm summer-like high pressure ridge, developing over Alaska at Day 5 (wed. 02DEC09) (the flow is parallel to the countours, clockwise around a high pressure ridge).

If this occurs, which seems likely, it will bring our second, even warmer, above-freezing episode to Interior Alaska this winter. Temperatures could conceivably reach up to 6-10C! Which would break some daily records, and begin to melt our snowpack, since at least two days of these conditions may occur.

Since it is winter, the airmass is not as warm, with a ridge of this magnitude, as it would be in summer, when solar insolation heats the ground. If this ridge were over Alaska in June or July, temperatures would easily reach 30-36C (86-95F), instead of the just 6-10C (43-50F) expected next week. Still, this would be 20C above average, for this time of year!

Many people have been asking me about the more turbulent weather we've been getting in Interior Alaska over the past 20 years, stronger temperature cycles, more thunderstorms, and more extremes in general, in drought, and heavy precipitation. I don't hesitate to tell them, this is just a taste of things to come. Because if this is what we're seeing from an increase of 330 to 390 ppm CO2 over the past 30-40 years, what will we be seeing when we reach 500-550 ppm CO2 in 20-30 years?! Cheers.

OPTING OUT

OPTING OUT

I cut up my Alaska Airlines credit card today. Which I've had for nine years now, and through which I've accumulated thousands of Alaska Airlines "frequent flyer" miles. One mile is given for each dollar spent with the card. This gave me an occasional "free" flight, first-class upgrade, and MVP status, occasionally.

But it all came at a price. Because that card is really from the Bank of America, one of the largest financial institutions in the World, one that was "too big to fail", even though they were one of the many large players engaging in greedy, exploitative, risky and reckless financial policies which led to the current global depression. They also received many of the 700 BILLION dollars in "bailout" funds given over to them from your tax dollars, as a reward for their criminally greedy and destructive behaviour. This article from Common Dreams today summarises the current situation with Wall Street, "your" government, and where we stand.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/25-7

Still Doing God’s Work on Wall Street
by Robert Scheer

"Jail, anyone? Perhaps that's too harsh, and at any rate premature, but is anyone ever going to be held accountable for the behind-the-scenes sweetheart deals that passed tens of billions of taxpayer dollars through the AIG shell game to the very banks that caused the financial meltdown? Or for the many other acts of double-dealing that left one out of three American homeowners owing much more than their houses were worth while the folks who swindled them were rewarded with hundreds of billions in public money?

Undoubtedly not, since the same folks who are most culpable wrote the laws that made this, and the other scams at the heart of the banking collapse, perfectly legal. And guess what? They're back at work in the government, writing the new laws that will, they claim, prevent us from being had once again. As a telling example of that process at work, check the official response of the Department of Treasury to the devastating report by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Neil M. Barofsky, titled "Factors Affecting Efforts to Limit Payments to AIG Counterparties." The main factor was that Timothy Geithner followed the lead of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd "I'm Doing God's Work" Blankfein in crowding the lifeboats with bankers.

Geithner, now treasury secretary, was previously the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY), where he negotiated the deal to pay Goldman Sachs and the other top banks in full to cover their bad bets on securitized mortgages. Barofsky's report concluded that Geithner's scheme represented a "backdoor bailout" for the financial hustlers at the center of the market fiasco. Noting that Geithner denies that was his intention, the report states, "Irrespective of their stated intent, however, there is no question that the effect of FRBNY's decisions-indeed, the very design of the federal assistance to AIG-was that tens of billions of dollars of Government money was funneled inexorably and directly to AIG's counterparties."
Not surprisingly, the Treasury Department that Geithner now heads defended his actions in not forcing "haircuts" on the full dollar-for-dollar payoff by AIG to the banks while he was at the New York Fed: "The government could not unilaterally impose haircuts on creditors, and it would not have been appropriate for the government to pressure counterparties to accept haircuts by threatening to retaliate in some way through its regulatory power."

Nonsense, argues Eliot Spitzer, who as New York attorney general was way ahead of the curve in challenging Wall Street arrogance. Writing in Slate on Monday, Spitzer points out: "Pressuring Goldman and the other counterparties to offer concessions would have forced them to absorb the consequences of making suspect deals with an insurance company that was essentially a Ponzi scheme."

The Ponzi scheme was based on the collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) in which the bankers traded and which AIG had insured with the credit default swaps (CDSs) that they sold but failed to back with adequate funding. Now Geithner's Treasury concedes that AIG "should never have been allowed to escape tough, consolidated supervision." But none of AIG's scams were regulated, nor were any of the others at the center of the larger financial debacle, because of laws pushed through Congress by Geithner's boss, Lawrence Summers, when they both were in the Clinton administration. Specifically, they prevented regulation of those opaque CDOs and CDSs that would come to derail the world's economy.

As the inspector general's report stated: "In 2000, the [Clinton administration-backed] Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) ... barred the regulation of credit default swaps and other derivatives." Why did the financial geniuses of the Clinton administration seek to prevent that obviously needed regulation? Because the Clintonistas believed the Wall Street guys knew what they were doing and that what was good for them was good for us lesser folk. As Summers, who is the top economic adviser in the Obama White House, put it in congressional testimony back then: "The parties to these kinds of contracts are largely sophisticated financial institutions that would appear to be eminently capable of protecting themselves from fraud and counterparty insolvencies."

Sounds nonsensical today: The inspector general's report notes that AIG, because of the deregulatory law that Summers and Geithner pushed through, was "able to sell swaps on $72 billion worth of CDOs to counterparties without holding reserves that a regulated insurance company would be required to maintain." But why, then, is Summers once again running the show with Geithner when both have made careers of exhibiting total contempt for the public interest? Because there is no accountability for the high rollers of finance, no matter who happens to be president."

© 2009 TruthDig.com
Robert Scheer is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle

Below each article on this site, people occasionally write in comments, and we at A.P.R. often do as well! I thought this one was particularly insightful...

"Isn't the myth that unfettered capitalism has made America rich now being debunked by China's regulated capitalism?"

I think this image I included in my last (and most ominous) climate change post presents a good picture of how things are in this country, and in the rest of the "developed" World.

http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/08/ac-cu-iii-update-it-gets-worse-and-can.htmlhttp://counterpunch.org/lindorff11252009.html

Which is this. These large wildfires, this one behind the major city of Los Angeles last August, are increasing in frequency and intensity globally, thanks to global warming. Which is occurring because our consumerist, capitalist culture is incapable of not "fouling the nest" with greenhouse gasses and other pollutants, without strict regulation and oversight. Oversight, which though desperately needed, will not occur unless strong pressure is applied by great amounts of people, in various ways. Most of these large skyscrapers are owned and populated by the major financial institutions at the heart of all this, in Los Angeles, and most cities world-wide.

One way in which we all can help decrease the importance, influence of, and damage done by these greedy, criminal financial institutions, is to BOYCOTT THEM. Thus, we here at the Alaska Progressive Review, have finally divested ourselves of the last piece of this destructive system today, our Alaska Airlines credit card. Sure, we won't be getting as many free airline miles and trips anymore, but that is a small price to pay, for peace of mind, knowing that we are not supporting these institutions. Now, our mortgage for the Chena Ridge Research Centre, our auto loan, bank accounts, and credit card, are all with local Credit Unions. We implore all of you, to do the same. Conduct all your business with non-profit Credit Unions, and BOYCOTT the greedy large banks. You'll be doing yourself, family, community, nation, and the World a big favour!

I came across this article today in the Counterpunch web-site.

http://counterpunch.org/lindorff11252009.html

"Working the War Up Since Early 2002"

The Blair-Bush Conspiracy on Iraq

By DAVE LINDORFF

"Most Americans are blissfully in the dark about it, but across the Atlantic in the UK, a commission reluctantly established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown under pressure from anti-war activists in Britain is beginning hearings into the actions and statements of British leaders that led to the country’s joining the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Even before testimony began in hearings that started yesterday, news began to leak out from documents obtained by the commission that the government of former PM Tony Blair had lied to Parliament and the public about the country’s involvement in war planning.

Britain’s Telegraph newspaper over the weekend published documents from British military leaders, including a memo from British special forces head Maj. Gen. Graeme Lamb, saying that he had been instructed to begin “working the war up since early 2002.”This means that Blair, who in July 2002, had assured members of a House of Commons committee that there were “no preparations to invade Iraq,” was lying.

Things are likely to heat up when the commission begins hearing testimony. It has the power, and intends to compel testimony from top government officials, including Blair himself.
While some American newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, have run an Associated Press report on the new disclosures and on the commission, key news organizations, including the New York Times, have not. The Times ignored the Telegraph report, but a day later ran an article about the British commission that focused entirely on evidence that British military leaders in Iraq felt “slighted” by “arrogant” American military leaders who, the article reported, pushed for aggressive military action against insurgent groups, while British leaders preferred negotiating with them.

While that may be of some historical interest, it hardly compares with the evidence that Blair and the Bush/Cheney administration were secretly conspiring to invade Iraq as early as February and March 2002.

Recall that the Bush/Cheney argument to Congress and the American people for initiating a war against Iraq in the fall of 2003 was that Iraq was allegedly behind the 9-11 attacks and that it posed an “imminent” danger of attack against the US and Britain with its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Of course, such arguments, which have subsequently been shown to have been bogus, would have had no merit if the planning began a year earlier, and if no such urgency was expressed by the two leaders at that time. Imminent, after all, means imminent, and if Blair, Bush and Cheney had genuinely thought an attack with WMDs was imminent back in the early days of the Bush administration, they would have been acting immediately, not secretly conjuring up a war scheduled for a year later. (The actual invasion began on March 19, 2003).

As I documented in my book, The Case for Impeachment (St. Martin’s Press, 2006), there is plenty of evidence that Bush and Cheney had a scheme to put the US at war with Iraq even before Bush took office on Jan. 20, 2001. Then Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill in his own tell-all book, The Price of Loyalty, written after he was dumped from the Bush Administration, recounts that at the first meeting of Bush’s new National Security Council, the question of going to war and ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was on the agenda. Immediately after the 9-11 attacks, NSC anti-terrorism program czar Richard Clark also recalled Bush ordering him to “find a link” to Iraq. Meanwhile, within days, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was ordering top generals to prepare for an Iraq invasion. Gen. Tommy Franks, who was heading up the military effort in Afghanistan that was reportedly closing in on Osama Bin Laden, found the rug being pulled out from under him as Rumsfeld began shifting troops out of Afghanistan and to Kuwait in preparation for the new war.

It is nothing less than astonishing that so little news of the British investigation into the origins of the illegal Iraq War is being conveyed to Americans by this country’s corporate media—yet another example demonstrating that American journalism is dead or dying. It is even more astonishing that neither the Congress nor the president here in America is making any similar effort to put America’s leaders in the dock to tell the truth about their machinations in engineering a war that has cost the US over $1 trillion (perhaps $3 trillion eventually when debt payments and the cost of veterans care is added in), and over 4000 lives, not to mention as many as one million innocent Iraqi lives."

Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and now available in paperback). He can be reached at dlindorff@mindspring.com

Once again, we can see how the corporate media in this country deliberately keeps hidden important news like this. There may actually be some accountability demanded from British politicians, for their involvement in the mass-murders of a million or more civilians in Iraq, and thousands of U.S., British, and other nation's, soldiers killed in a war based on lies, conducted for greed, and maintenance of political power.

It's quite clear now that we have two right-wing parties in this country, since the new Democratic administration is continuing the illegal and immoral wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, continuing to increase the defense budget, and has staffed all the most important economic and financial posts in it with the same people who were responsible for the current depression.

Thus, we here at A.P.R. feel it is absolutely essential that everyone with a social conscience, OPT OUT of "the system". That is, do not do business of any sort with large corporations, support the commercial, corporate media, and educate yourself and others to the current political/socio-economic situation. Only support political parties like the Green Party, that work for social/economic/political/environmental justice. Our job here at the Alaska Progressive Review, is to provide you with a quick reference, and source for material that can help you understand what is happening in our World, why, and how we can change things for the better. Spread the word!

This does take time, and effort on our part, and we occasionally need a break, to recharge, reconnect with the Natural World, and our place in the Cosmos.

So, for the next few days, we will be in the Alaska Range, heading south down the Richardson Highway,

To ski for miles and miles in and around the mountains, and maybe

even do a little climbing in these beautiful mountains. Alaska is currently in a very mild, southerly chinook flow weather regime. This weather pattern occurs more frequently now, with global warming, and is how most of our greatest increase in annual temperatures manifests. Instead of temperatures in the -15C to -40C range, this pattern brings us mild temperatures of 0 to -15C, perfect for winter recreation of all sorts. But it still can and does get much colder here, especially from now through mid-March, so we have to make most of this warmth, when it does occur. Cheers.

SIGN OF THE TIMES [and] SLIDING INTO WINTER

SIGN OF THE TIMES

I came across this article today in the Truthout news-site. Hunger is on the rise in the U.S. Because of the rising jobless rate in our low-grade, but persistent depression, brought on by the unregulated greed of the financial industry, and out-sourcing of jobs by large corporations, from this country over the past 20 years.

NEARLY ONE IN SIX CITIZENS WENT HUNGRY IN 2008

http://www.truthout.org/1117093

Washington - As the World Food Security Summit got under way in Rome Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) disclosed that nearly one in six U.S. households went hungry at some time during 2008, the highest level since it began monitoring food security levels in 1995.

Altogether, 14.6 percent of households, or some 49 million people, "had difficulty putting enough food on the table at times during the year", according to the report, "Household Food Security in the United States, 2008".

That marked a sharp increase from the 11.1 percent of households, or 36.2 million people, who found themselves in similar straits during 2007, according to the report whose lead author predicted that the percentage was likely to be higher in 2009 due to the ripple effects of the financial crisis that erupted 14 months ago.

Among the 17 million households that experienced hunger – or "food insecurity", as the report referred to it - during 2008, about one-third suffered "very low food security", meaning that the amount of food of at least some household members was reduced and their normal eating patterns were substantially disrupted. Such households experienced such disruptions for at least a few days during seven or eight months of the year.

The other two-thirds were able to obtain enough food to avoid substantial disruptions by using a number of coping strategies, such as eating less varied diets, participating in government food and nutrition assistance programmes, or obtaining food from community food pantries or emergency kitchens.

And the number of households in which children, as well as adults, were subject to "very low food security" rose steeply – from 323,000 in 2007 to 506,000 last year, according to the report.

President Barack Obama released a statement from China, his latest stop on a week-long swing through Asia, which called the latest findings "unsettling".

"This trend was already painfully clear in many communities across our nation, where food stamp applications are surging and food pantry shelves are emptying," he said.

"It is particularly troubling that there were more than 500,000 families in which a child experienced hunger multiple times over the course of the year. Our children's ability to grow, learn, and meet their full potential – and therefore our future competitiveness as a nation – depends on regular access to healthy meals," he said, noting a number of steps taken by his administration to "revers(e) the trend of rising hunger."

Of the 49 million people who faced hunger on at least one occasion last year, 16.7 million were children, according to the report. That was 4.2 million more than in 2007 and the highest on record since 1995.

"The data released today is not surprising," said David Beckmann, the president of Bread for the World, a national anti-hunger group that also carries out programmes in poor countries. "What should really shock us is that almost one in four children in our country lives on the brink of hunger."

Feeding America, the largest U.S. food-relief organisation, said the USDA's latest statistics squared with its own experience in local communities where it runs some 200 food banks that feed more than 25 million people each year.

"It is tragic that so many people in this nation of plenty don't have access to adequate amounts of nutritious food," said Vicki Escarra, the group's president and CEO.

"Although these new numbers are staggering, it should be noted that they reflect the state of the nation one year ago, in 2008," she said. "Since then, the economy has significantly weakened, and there are likely many more people struggling with hunger than this report states."

She noted that some of the group's food banks, which supply food pantries, soup kitchens and emergency feeding centres, have reported increases of more than 50 percent in requests for emergency food aid over the past year.

"National socio-economic indicators, including the escalating unemployment rate and the number of working poor, lead us to believe that the number of people facing hunger will continue to rise significantly over the coming year," Escarra said.

The official unemployment rate exceeded 10 percent last month for the first time since the early 1980s, while former Labour Secretary Robert Reich estimated the "unofficial" unemployment rate – which includes people who have given up looking for work or who are under-employed – to be as high as 20 percent.

"Research on previous recessions indicates that people who fall into the grips of poverty in a time of recession do not recover financially," Escarra said. "Many of those people are likely to be in need of our services now or in the future."

Food insecurity, according to the new report, correlated closely to households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line of some 22,050 dollars for a family of four, single-parent households, and African-American and Hispanic households.

It found that food insecurity was more common in large cities and rural areas then in suburbs and was most prevalent in the southeastern part of the country.

Under Obama, the government has significantly increased funding for food stamps, emergency food aid, and school lunch programmes. In his statement, Obama said he hoped to provide more support next year.

"The survey suggested that things could be much worse but for the fact that we have extensive food assistance programmes," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday. "This is a great opportunity to put a spotlight on this problem."

Beckmann agreed. "The recession has made the problem of hunger worse, and it has also made it more visible," he said. "Increased public awareness and the administration's commitment give me hope. To end hunger, our leaders need to strengthen nutrition programmes and provide steady jobs that allow parents to escape the cycle of poverty and feed their families for years to come."

We here at A.P.R. see nothing on the horizon that would improve the jobless situation in this country. No real effort has been made by the Obama administration to restore important regulatory powers by the federal government of the financial industry first started by the F.D.R. administration in the late 1930s (to prevent another financial melt-down), but gutted ten years ago (during the Clinton administration!). The incredibly blatant taxpayer robbery of 700 billion dollars, with even more proposed, to prop up the same greedy, short-sighted financial institutions that have caused a global recession, continues apace. No significant federal efforts for job growth have been undertaken.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." ~Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

You've seen this quote before here in a previous post. Why is our government spending two to three billion dollars a day on illegal, immoral, and destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Wars that were based on lies. Think what that money could be doing in this country, and others. For just 40 billion dollars, or 20 days of war, clean water could be provided GLOBALLY to the people who needed it. What do you think would do more to promote U.S. national security, 20 days of war on defenseless countries, or that?

Federal jobs programmes to develop and implement renewable energy sources on a large scale, shore up our crumbling infrastructure (roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, etc.), and develop high-speed rail links between all our major cities could employ millions gainfully, for many years. And help combat global warming.

"When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered......True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring......A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Maybe MLK's words have come true. Is it too late?

SLIDING INTO WINTER











This past monday, while running errands around the UAF campus on a cold, dim early winter day,






I came across these inspiring, caring UAF students, camped out in the middle of campus. It was about -32C (-25F) overnight, warming to about -25C by day, and they had been there for four days. Trying to raise money for local shelters and awareness about homelessness, in our community, and all over. It's hard staying warm, just standing around like that! Our hat is off to them, and contributions too. Good on 'ya!

We had some time the following day for a short jaunt into the backcountry. The White Mountains, 70 Km or so northeast of Fairbanks beckoned. This is where the trail system that links a nice set of cabins is located, that many nordic skiers, dog-mushers, and snowmachiners go into throughout the winter.

We had had a nice 16 cm snow-dump at the Chena Ridge Research Centre last week, and we wanted to see how much occurred in the Whites, and how the trails were. When we got to the trailhead at 1pm, things were looking up! I'd estimate a good 30-40 cm snow base here. It sure made for beautiful scenery on the usually ugly black spruce. Because these trails run through the higher terrain at 800 to 1200 metres, when we have a cold-weather pattern, they are often in the clouds. Rime ice builds up thickly on all the tree branches, this combined with the snow from last week, made for quite a nice scene.

We wasted no time getting up the trail to Lee's Cabin, 12 Km southeast from the trailhead on the Elliott Highway. Homer and Mattie sure had a great time running in the -28C cold on the snowmachine-packed trail. I couldn't go as fast as them in that cold, slow, snow, on my waxless classic skis. Still, there was some decent glide on the downhill sections, since the trail was packed down.






The view looking north, about halfway to Lee's Cabin, toward Wickersham Dome shows the nice, thick snow base. I'm guessing they must have picked up double the amount of snow last week, that Fairbanks received. These trails are in prime shape now for any winter adventuring, good to know!



It took me a slow 90 min. to go just the 12 Km in to Lee's cabin. Just near there, the trail forks, this branch, heading east into the heart of the Whites, takes you into the network of cabins in the higher mountains, to the east. We'll be getting in there later this season, for sure.

Sunset comes by 4pm now, and was quite nice, with all the new snow. After a quick food/energy break near the cabin, it was time to head back. Since it was clear, that meant it would be getting much colder than -28C soon, so we were not going to take our time. I had to stop several times to whirl my arms, to force blood into my fingers, since they were getting cold and numb at times.

It took us another 90 minutes to make the return trip back to the trailhead. Homer sure has our admiration. For his advanced canid age of 13, he hasn't slowed down at all. He ran the entire 24 km, more even, since he kept going back and forth, so he probably ran 35-40 km, with no sign of tiring. Keep it up! Mattie of course was just going wild, she must have run 50 Km or more. She never shows any sign of tiring until she runs at least 90-100 Km.

We got back to the trailhead just as darkness was setting in. I managed to snap this picture with my ice buildup just in time.

I tried something new this time. I've seen UAF ski racers use these respirator face masks before when training in the deep cold of -20C or colder. These pre-warm the air above freezing as you inhale.

Inside our lungs, the surface area of air-exchange is very large, and with bitter cold air, a great amount of heat can be lost when breathing hard. Years of this can sometimes make the lungs more sensitive as well, inducing asthma in some people. To prevent that, I thought I'd give the mask a try. It worked great. Normally when working hard in the deep cold, I cough a little, not at all this time. And, after our 3 1/2 hour trip, my lungs felt just as good as when we started. I think this will be mandatory for all my runs and skis when temperatures drop below -20C. It's always nice to find some new way of adapting to the cold, so that we can be as active as we like. Cheers.

WHY WE ARE HERE [and] THE ONLY ONE

WHY WE ARE HERE

In part of our previous post, the "Getting Boulderised" section, we may have mislead you to think we didn't like living in Fairbanks, or that it is an inherently regressive, dark place.

This is definitely not the case, so here are a few reasons why the staff of the Alaska Progressive Review has chosen to remain here, continuing the furthest north stand for peace and justice!

First and foremost, is the presence of the University of Alaska, main campus, situated on the western edge of Fairbanks. Billed as "America's Arctic University", it has over 13,000 students, and most of the common degree programs one associates with a major public university.

The large student body and associated researchers, professors, and support staff, along with former students, does exert a significant, and beneficial impact on the Fairbanks North Star Borough (boroughs are what counties are called in Alaska, and the FNSB is home to about 100,000 people, while the city of Fairbanks has about 45,000).




UAF is one of the leaders in Arctic environmental, biological, and cultural research globally. For example, many of the authors of the definitive scientific assessment of global warming, the U.N. sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), http://www.ipcc.ch/,
are researchers at UAF. Atmospheric scientists, climatologists, statisticians, glaciologists, biologists, and many others.




Your lead author is privileged to be studying there, and finishing my M.S. in natural resources management/forestry, conducting research into global warming's effects on future Alaska wildfire seasons.

Like many public universities, UAF often sponsors thought-provoking and conscience-raising events:

Presentation and Book-signing:
The New GI Resistance
Dahr Jamail
Sunday November 15
Schaible Auditorium (Bunnell Bldg, UAF) 7PM - book signing to follow

Independent journalist and author of "The Will to Resist," DahrJamail, will share stories from the growing number of active dutymilitary personnel who are refusing to participate in what they see ascriminal wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. These GI's arefinding comfort in the discomfort of truth despite the reprimand theyface for their dissent, and many come away from their armed servicededicated to working toward a rapid and responsible end to the occupations.

Jamail's Alaska tour is being sponsored by the UA Foundation Gene Sharp Lectureship on Nonviolent Action and he will be visiting all three UA campuses. Jamail's visit to Fairbanks is being hosted by the UAFairbanks Coalition for Peace and Justice, the Alaska Peace Center, North Star Veterans for Peace, and the Unitarian UniversalistFellowship of Fairbanks. For more information about Dahr and to seehis work, please visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com.


And, we even do have a local peace group, as mentioned above, the Fairbanks Coalition For Peace and Justice, https://lists.uaf.edu:8025/mailman/listinfo/fairbankspeace-l

I have helped staff their booth at our annual Tanana Valley Fair each August, and participated with them in candle-light vigils on the first and second anniversaries of the illegal, and immoral invasion and occupation of the sovereign country of Iraq, a country not threatening this one. Which has cost the lives of at least a million innocent civilians, there, and over 5000 U.S. soldiers, and destroyed their country.

That UAF would sponsor, much less allow, Dahr Jamail, to give his presentation on-campus speaks highly for it, and is the major reason why the A.P.R. remains in Fairbanks!

And although our progressive community is more widely dispersed, and smaller, than places like Missoula, MT, or Boulder, CO, it is present, under the radar, so to speak, of the dominant oil industry/military power centres here. One significant sign that the Fairbanks progressive community is slowly growing and increasing in prominence, is that a new cooperative natural food market, is well on it's way to fruition. http://fairbankscoop.wordpress.com/

This will be a welcome addition to Fairbanks, as natural food stores, wherever they are, serve as a nucleus for progressive culture, in addition to providing healthy, sustainable foods and other products.




Winters are cold here, there is no doubt about that. Our average high and low at the Fairbanks airport in January is -19C/-28C (-2F/-18F). And the sun only nudges 2 degrees above the horizon for 3 1/2 hours in the few weeks around the winter solstice. Producing beautiful lighting effects, on our snow-draped boreal forest landscape.

The long winters, sometimes cold (but not always, there are warm spells where temperatures warm up to near freezing between our periods of deep cold), produce a snowpack that gives us some of the best conditions in the World for nordic skiing. A pursuit we at A.P.R. avidly enjoy, and pursue every chance we get.

Nordic skiing trails were developed around the UAF campus as early as the 1930s. There are about 25 km of trails there now, groomed and set for both skating and classic skiing. Across town, just to the east of downtown Fairbanks, lies Birch Hill, the larger nordic skiing centre. It has a world-class set of about 35 Km of trails, and races at different times of the season attract athletes from all over the World. This is probably the second main reason why we like living here!

Today in fact, was the first day I had off, when our snowpack was deep enough for good conditions at Birch Hill.

So, I had to get out and skate about 25 Km, and then switch to my classic skis (the snow was a little stiff today, so the glide for skating was not as good as it could be, at the mild temperature of only -8C), for another 18 Km or so.

The trails at Birch hill wind their way predominantly through stands of birch trees, intermixed with white spruce, and black spruce on the permafrosty north-facing aspects. Some days I'll skate or classic ski 50-70 Km here, when the conditions are supportive.

We have nice, locally-dominated races as well. In late March every year, a 50 Km race called the Sonot Kkhazoot, starts downtown on the Chena River. We all go 10 Km up the Chena to a large hill, ascend that, then ski most of the trails in the Birch Hill nordic ski area, then descend back to the Chena, and slide back in to the start.




There are usually several hundred racers each year for this, and I've done it three times, getting a little faster each time (I'm still taking lessons, and probably will be for the rest of my life!). And since we have much longer days in March, and usually, warmer temperatures, it is a great time to be out enjoying a fast ski with hundreds of others!

And, in summer, all of the trails by UAF and at Birch Hill, serve as running and hiking trails, which we liberally take advantage of. We also have a very strong and large running community in Fairbanks, www.runningclubnorth.org, which we interact with quite a bit, running in many of the races, and in our annual Equinox marathon.

So, we do have some progressive culture in Fairbanks, with more on the way, along with an environment that is conducive for outdoor recreation of almost every conceivable sort. To say nothing of being within a few hours of all the other wilderness activities Alaska has to offer.

THE ONLY ONE

As you may already know, the U.S. is the only one of the 25 industrialised nations without some kind of national health coverage. A.P.R.'s take on the Obama administrations attempt at "health care reform" can best be summed up by this article, from the Counterpunch web-site. http://counterpunch.org/demoro11102009.html

Another Big Bail Out
The Truth About the House Health Care Bill
By ROSE ANN DeMORO

Of all the torrent of words that followed House passage of its version of healthcare reform legislation in early November, perhaps the most misleading were those comparing it to enactment of Social Security and Medicare.

Sadly no. Social Security and Medicare were both federal programs guaranteeing respectively pensions and health care for our nation's seniors, paid for and administered by the federal government with public oversight and public accountability.

While the House bill, and its Senate counterpart, do have several important reform components, along with many weaknesses, neither one comes close to the guarantees and the expansion of health and income security provided by Social Security or Medicare.

By contrast, if the central premise of Social Security and Medicare was a federal guarantee of health and retirement security, the main provision of the bills in Congress is a mandate requiring most Americans without health coverage to buy private insurance.

In other words, the principle beneficiary is not Americans' health, but the bottom line of the insurance industry which stands to harvest tens of billions of dollars in additional profits ordered by the federal government. Or as Rep. Eric Massa of New York put it on the eve of the House vote, "at the highest level, this bill will enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry, period."

Further, while Social Security and Medicare, two of the most important reforms in American history, were both significant expansions of public protection, the House bill actually reduces public protection for a substantial segment of the population, women, with its unconscionable rollback of reproductive rights in the anti-abortion amendment.

Why then so much cheerleading by many progressive and liberal legislators, columnists, and activists?

* Passage of the bill was a clear defeat for the Republican opposition and those on the right who have so mischaracterized what boils down to modest reform that looks more like a "robust" version of the Medicare prescription drug benefit or the state children's health initiative.
* Proponents of the bill, starting in the White House and running through the Democratic leadership in Congress, with the assistance and support of many in labor and liberal and progressive constituency groups, have so lowered expectations on healthcare reform that with eyes wide shut they can call this a sweeping victory.

To be sure there are commendable provisions in the House bill that bear note. Among the most important are:

Expansion of Medicaid to millions of low income adults.
Reduction of the "doughnut hole" in the Medicare drug coverage law making drug costs more affordable for many seniors.

Increased federal funding for community health programs, such as home visits for nurses and social workers to low income families.

Additional regulation of the insurance industry, mostly targeted to people who are presently without coverage rather than those with existing health plans. Those include limits on insurers ability to drop sick enrollees or refuse to sell policies to people with prior health problems, extending the age that dependent children can be on their parents' plan, and repeal of the anti-trust exemption for insurers.

Extending the same health benefit tax benefits available to married couples to domestic partners.

A progressive tax to help pay the bill through a surcharge on wealthy earners and required contributions from large employers, in sharp contrast with the Senate proposal to tax health benefits on misnamed "Cadillac" plans, comprehensive coverage available to many union members, for example.

But the acclaim now flowing from some quarters would have been better deserved had these provisions been enacted on their own -- not accompanied by the many shortcomings of the legislation. To cite a few:

Healthcare will remain unaffordable for many Americans. The bill does not do nearly enough to control skyrocketing insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospital costs. Indeed, by various estimates, with no effective limits on the insurance industry's price gouging, out-of-pocket costs for premiums, deductibles and other fees by some estimates with eat up from 15 to 19 percent of family incomes by several accounts.

No meaningful reform of the rampant insurance denials of medical treatment the insurers don't want to pay for.

Little assistance for individuals and families who presently have employer-sponsored health plans and face frequent erosion of their coverage and health security. No help for the healthcare cost-shifting from employers to employees.

Minimal expansion of consumer choice. The much debated public plan option will be available only to about 2 percent of people under age 65, mostly those now not covered who buy insurance on their own (it may or may not be expanded in 2015). Further, no additional plan options for those in the many markets dominated by one or two private plans, and no additional choice of doctor or hospital within existing plans.

The new limits on abortion extended to poor women.

Ultimately, the combination of the mandate to buy insurance, federal subsidies to low income families to purchase private plans, failure to adequately control insurance prices or crack down on the abuse of insurance denials make the House bill -- and its Senate counterpart -- look a lot like a massive bailout for the private insurance industry.

Don't be misled by the howling from insurance industry which has been spending some $1.4 million a day to steer the direction of legislation. They would have preferred the status quo, but will be more than happy to count the increased revenues coming their way.

As Rep. Dennis Kucinich said on the House floor, "we cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem."

While some people will have improved access, the final accounting will be an even firmer private insurance grip on our healthcare system, with the U.S. remaining the only industrialized nation which barters our health for private profit.

Months ago, the Obama administration pre-determined this outcome by ruling out the most comprehensive, most cost effective, most humane reform, single payer, or an expanded and improved Medicare for all. Single payer proponents were shut out of White House forums, blocked from most hearings in the Senate, and single payer amendments stripped from the final House bill. Yet, through grassroots pressure, single-payer advocates forced consideration by the House of an improved Medicare for all until the very end.

But nurses and other single payer proponents who have heroically fought for this reform for years will continue the campaign, next in the Senate, where single payer amendments are expected to be introduced. The scene will also shift to state capitols, where vibrant single payer movements remain active and will escalate.

Proponents of comprehensive reform will never be silent, and never stop working for the real change we most desperately need.

Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the California Nurses Association.

I think everyone knows someone with health care horror stories. My brother Greg in San Diego had a bad surfing accident in 2006, when his surfboard shot up out of the water from a large wave. As it came down, and he came up from the water, the skeg sliced open the side of his head, severing his temporal artery. He would have bled to death, but fortunately, lifeguards were nearby, and were able to keep direct pressure on the wound until paramedics arrived.

His whole ordeal, the ambulance ride, vascular surgery, etc.. cost over $16,000. The charges on his bill were incredible for things like the pain-killers, etc. He doesn't have health insurance. It seems they charge more to people without insurance! Now he has to pay an inflated amount monthly for this unfortunate accident, for many years.

Back when I was 25, in February, 1990, and still learning to alpine ski, I had my first of five near-death experiences, on beautiful Mt. Hood here, near Portland OR.

Whilst skiing at the Mt. Hood Meadows ski area on a day where the snow was very icy, I got out of control and flew off a ledge, hitting a tree in mid-air, and descending through the trees 10-15 metres. Unconscious for a few hours, my first memory returning was laying ensconced in blankets on a sled, while the ski patrol peered down at me. Had some other skiers not heard my weak moaning emanating from a grove of mountain hemlocks beneath a ledge, and investigated, I surely would have froze overnight. This was followed by a 150 Km ambulance ride, x-rays and consultations with a plastic surgeon to plan the fix of my caved-in eye socket around the left eye, and then an arduous five-hour operation, whereby tantalum metal plates were used to re-shape the orbital socket (which also saved the vision in that eye, it had been made blurry by the accident).

Remember, this was in 1990. The total for all this, the ambulance ride, emergency room exam, plastic surgeon consultations, and the operation/hospital stay was $13,000. Of which, I only had to pay my Blue Cross calendar-year deductible of $250.00. Because they covered emergencies fully, at that time. Now, in 1990, federal salaries, and probably most private-sector salaries, were about 1/2 to 2/3 what they are now.

What do you think would be the total for this event, if it happened today? I guarantee you it would be at least 6 to 8 times what it cost in 1990. Even though wages generally have not even doubled since then. So you can imagine the plight of people without any health insurance coverage, or those who have serious diseases like cancer or need organ transplants, that insurance won't fully (or at all) cover. Medical bills like these are the major reason for personal bankruptcy in the U.S.

Is it really ethical, and healthy for us as a nation, to require health care to be a for-profit concern? What do you think? If not, join with progressive movements to press for single-payer health coverage for all, like in all the other industrialised nations.

IDENTITY CORRECTION [and] GETTING BOULDERISED

IDENTITY CORRECTION

Your lead editor first became of the Yes Men a few years ago, after reading of some of their interesting, and important performances.

What are the Yes Men? A band of merry hipsters, hundreds in number, of indeterminate gender, who go around posing as different important figures in large corporations or supporting government agencies. They do some of these performances at large conferences, and present factual, yet completely contrary and/or outrageously outspoken information to what the real figures would present. Highlighting corporate excesses, hypocrisy, and the destructiveness of our unregulated capitalist system, which if left unchecked, will poison the planet and bring catastrophic environmental changes.
http://theyesmen.org/

In their words, they perform:

Identity Correction

Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.

and:

The Yes Men agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce, ask questions, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. In other words, the Yes Men are team players... but they play for the opposing team.


http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/09/entering-circle-shamanic-thoughts-and.html

We first alerted you to one of their hijinks in our 9/20/09 article, "Shamanic Thoughts [and] We're Screwed!" Whereby they and a group of collaborating activists created a fictional New York Post, describing a real official N.Y. City report on the effects global warming would have upon it. They then printed HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of copies, and distributed them in NYC! It caused quite a stir, since most people initially thought they were the real New York Post's for that day. Quite a service, of time and money, to put information out that our corporate media suppresses. A.P.R. applauds their devotion to performing this important public service. And we'd like to describe a few of their other performances, which can be found here:
http://theyesmen.org/hijinks

This one is, we think, the most outrageous, funny, but also, downright creepy, from 2007:
http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/vivoleum

Here is what went down:

Exxon's Climate-Victim Candles
Overview
Impostors posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC) representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen at GO-EXPO, Canada's largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta, today.

The speech was billed beforehand by the GO-EXPO organizers as the major highlight of this year's conference, which had 20,000 attendees. In it, the "NPC rep" was expected to deliver the long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, who is also the chair of the study.

In the actual speech, the "NPC rep" announced that current U.S. and Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive exploitation of Alberta's oil sands, and the development of liquid coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil industry could "keep fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of people who die into oil.

"We need something like whales, but infinitely more abundant," said "NPC rep" "Shepard Wolff" (actually Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men), before describing the technology used to render human flesh into a new Exxon oil product called Vivoleum. 3-D animations of the process brought it to life.

"Vivoleum works in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of fossil fuel production," noted "Exxon rep" "Florian Osenberg" (Yes Man Mike Bonanno). "With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will continue to flow for those of us left."

The oilmen listened to the lecture with attention, and then lit "commemorative candles" supposedly made of Vivoleum obtained from the flesh of an "Exxon janitor" who died as a result of cleaning up a toxic spill. The audience only reacted when the janitor, in a video tribute, announced that he wished to be transformed into candles after his death, and all became crystal-clear.

At that point, Simon Mellor, Commercial & Business Development Director for the company putting on the event, strode up and physically forced the Yes Men from the stage. As Mellor escorted Bonanno out the door, a dozen journalists surrounded Bichlbaum, who, still in character as "Shepard Wolff," explained to them the rationale for Vivoleum.

"We've got to get ready. After all, fossil fuel development like that of my company is increasing the chances of catastrophic climate change, which could lead to massive calamities, causing migration and conflicts that would likely disable the pipelines and oil wells. Without oil we could no longer produce or transport food, and most of humanity would starve. That would be a tragedy, but at least all those bodies could be turned into fuel for the rest of us."

"We're not talking about killing anyone," added the "NPC rep." "We're talking about using them after nature has done the hard work. After all, 150,000 people already die from climate-change related effects every year. That's only going to go up - maybe way, way up. Will it all go to waste? That would be cruel."

Security guards then dragged Bichlbaum away from the reporters, and he and Bonanno were detained until Calgary Police Service officers could arrive. The policemen, determining that no major infractions had been committed, permitted the Yes Men to leave.

Canada's oil sands, along with "liquid coal," are keystones of Bush's Energy Security plan. Mining the oil sands is one of the dirtiest forms of oil production and has turned Canada into one of the world's worst carbon emitters. The production of "liquid coal" has twice the carbon footprint as that of ordinary gasoline. Such technologies increase the likelihood of massive climate catastrophes that will condemn to death untold millions of people, mainly poor.

"If our idea of energy security is to increase the chances of climate calamity, we have a very funny sense of what security really is," Bonanno said. "While ExxonMobil continues to post record profits, they use their money to persuade governments to do nothing about climate change. This is a crime against humanity."

"Putting the former Exxon CEO in charge of the NPC, and soliciting his advice on our energy future, is like putting the wolf in charge of the flock," said "Shepard Wolff" (Bichlbaum). "Exxon has done more damage to the environment and to our chances of survival than any other company on earth. Why should we let them determine our future?"

Amazing, and inspiring! Then there was this one, where they posed as Halliburton officials at a "Catastrophic Loss" conference in Florida, in 2006 :

Halliburton solves global warming!
Overview

SurvivaBalls save managers from abrupt climate change
An advanced new technology will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible.

"The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way," said Fred Wolf, a Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida. "This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate change," he said to an attentive and appreciative audience.

Most scientists believe global warming is certain to cause an accelerating onslaught of hurricanes, floods, droughts, tornadoes, etc. and that a world-destroying disaster is increasingly possible. For example, Arctic melt has slowed the Gulf Stream by 30% in just the last decade; if the Gulf Stream stops, Europe will suddenly become just as cold as Alaska. Global heat and flooding events are also increasingly possible.

In order to head off such catastrophic scenarios, scientists agree we must reduce our carbon emissions by 70% within the next few years. Doing that would seriously undermine corporate profits, however, and so a more forward-thinking solution is needed.

At today's conference, Wolf and a colleague demonstrated three SurvivaBall mockups, and described how the units will sustainably protect managers from natural or cultural disturbances of any intensity or duration. The devices - looking like huge inflatable orbs - will include sophisticated communications systems, nutrient gathering capacities, on-board medical facilities, and a daunting defense infrastructure to ensure that the corporate mission will not go unfulfilled even when most human life is rendered impossible by catastrophes or the consequent epidemics and armed conflicts.

"It's essentially a gated community for one," said Wolf.

Dr. Northrop Goody, the head of Halliburton's Emergency Products Development Unit, showed diagrams and videos describing the SurvivaBall's many features. "Much as amoebas link up into slime molds when threatened, SurvivaBalls also fulfill a community function. After all, people need people," noted Goody as he showed an artist's rendition of numerous SurvivaBalls linking up to form a managerial aggregate with functional differentiation, metaphorically dancing through the streets of Houston, Texas.

The conference attendees peppered the duo with questions. One asked how the device would fare against terrorism, another whether the array of embedded technologies might make the unit too cumbersome; a third brought up the issue of the unit's cost feasibility. Wolf and Goody assured the audience that these problems and others were being addressed.

"The SurvivaBall builds on Halliburton's reputation as a disaster and conflict industry innovator," said Wolf. "Just as the Black Plague led to the Renaissance and the Great Deluge gave Noah a monopoly of the animals, so tomorrow's catastrophes could well lead to good - and industry must be ready to seize that good."

Goody also noted that Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society was set to employ the SurvivaBall as part of its Corporate Sustenance (R) program. Another of Cousteau's CSR programs involves accepting a generous sponsorship from the Dow Chemical Corporation.

Their latest escapade is getting them in some hot water, specifically, a lawsuit against them filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, because of:
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/10/20-0

The Yes Men Pull Off Prank Claiming US Chamber of Commerce Had Changed Its Stance on Climate Change

The business community got a shock on Monday when its leading advocacy group appeared to make a startling announcement. A statement purporting to come from the Chamber of Commerce said the group had dropped its opposition to congressional climate change legislation and would now even support taxing carbon emissions. The news wires quickly picked up the story, and within minutes it was being reported on the websites of outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post. It also made its way onto cable news, including the Fox Business Network. It was all a prank pulled off by the Yes Men.

We here at A.P.R. are inspired and captivated by these activists, using creativity, and real, factual information, to shine a light on hypocrisy and publicise important issues. They have a movie out, which we have not seen yet (it probably won't show in Fairbanks...), but will at our first opportunity. http://theyesmenfixtheworld.com/

Visit their web-site, http://theyesmen.org/, see the movie if you can, and join us in encouraging and supporting their highly important activities!

GETTING BOULDERISED

A few months ago, I was asked if I wanted to attend a winter weather forecasting workshop in Boulder, Colorado, put on by the Meteorological Services, Canada, in conjunction with our NOAA/National Weather Service. I was initially not enthusiastic, as it meant I would only have five days back at the Chena Ridge Research Centre with Mattie and Homer, after returning from my California/Florida trip.

However, once I got there, I was in for a treat. Boulder is probably the original "latte town", home to the large, University of Colorado, main campus. This is a disparaging term some conservatives use for progressive, public-university dominated cities like Boulder, CO, Missoula, MT, Berkeley, CA, Eugene, OR, Athens, GA, Burlington VT, and many others. Because they try and polarise the more blue-collar types outside of them in their states, to make them think the people of these college-towns are selfish and elitist. When it is just the opposite.

"Latte Towns" all share these characteristics: A large public university is located immediately in or closely adjacent to a small city. The large body of educated people associated with it who live, study, and continue living in it after graduating (if they can find jobs!) shifts the prevailing culture so that they become more progressive, sustainable communities. Focusing local activism on environmental, and socio-economic/political issues. This also leads to large diversity in cultural activities, concerts, art galleries, funky, interesting multi-ethnic restaurants, and a stronger sense of community. Unfortunately, Fairbanks doesn't qualify as one, because our University of Alaska campus is on it's outskirts, and so it's influence is limited on the prevailing military/oil industry/tourism culture here. North Dallas we like to call it sometimes, alas.

It's always refreshing then to take a break from taking a stand for peace/justice in Fairbanks, and spend time in a place were we feel culturally at ease and supported. I still feel that Missoula, MT is the place I felt culturally most at home with. As it is a hotbed of environmental and political activism, with enough wilderness and outdoor activities available close at hand, for quick refuge from the stresses of modern living. My years there in 1990-98 are what really helped expand my social conscience, meeting so many concerned, and active people engaged in meaningful activities to promote peace and justice.

The biggest drawback to living in, or wanting to live in a "latte town" is this: Because they are special, sustainable, and progressive, with a strong sense of community, more and more people want to live there. This drives up prices, leads to rapid growth, and a very tight job market. Which is why I had to leave Missoula, in 1998. While living in Missoula, around 1992-93, it became apparent that this was happening there. I used to tell people then, "Oh God, Missoula is going to become Boulderised!".

And it did, by 1996, the large beautiful Victorian houses on the sugar-maple lined streets near the Univ. of Montana were selling for 600K. In 1990, when I first arrived, one could be had for 80K! And the population had almost doubled there between 1990 and 2000.

I remembered this when I arrived in Boulder, thinking it would be just a massively crowded and incredibly expensive place. I was pleasantly surprised. It still is three times larger than Missoula, almost as large as Anchorage, with a population close to 200,000. And it has heavy traffic, and numerous noisy freeway-like expressways. However, it became expensive in those idyllic Mork and Mindy days of the late 1970s-early 1980s, so much of the development was done with some forethought. Instead of single-family homes on large lots, much of it was in the form of condos and townhomes, linked by bike trails. So I could run to different areas of the city, even up to the foothills, without having to be on the busy streets for very long. And, needless to say, there were multitudes of good restaurants, brew-pubs, and interesting ethnic stores in the downtown area.


There is a beautiful park on the southwest portion of town, up against the base of the Rocky Mountains, called Chautaqua Park. Containing many KM of trails which can take you from the base at 1900 metres, all the way up to 3000 metres or so, into the forested mountains. Anomalously warm weather greeted us all on our first day there (imagine that!), sunday 10/18, with temperatures near 30C, about 8C above average.

It gradually cooled off after that, and after the first week our our workshop, I had to get on those trails! On that sat., the 24th, I did a nice 30 KM semi-fast pack where I had this picture taken. Running about 12-14 KM on the flats and downhills, and walking the steeper uphills, due to the altitude. It was fairly warm still though, 18-20C, except at the very end of the day, when an upper-trough came through, and westerly winds of 120-140 KPH came roaring through, and I thought I'd meet my end from flying tree limbs.

Sunday the 25th though dawned calmer, but cooler. I decided I had to see Rocky Mountain NP. http://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm

From lush valleys to craggy peaks

This living showcase of the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, with elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 feet at the weather-ravaged top of Longs Peak, provides visitors with opportunities for countless breathtaking experiences and adventures.

I had to go through Estes Park first, to get there, a large town at it's base, with apparently very rapid growth, judging by all the newer condos/townhouses I saw there. I drove in to the Storm Pass Trailhead on the Bear Lake Road (trailhead elevation 3000 metres!), and hiked about 8 km in to Emerald Lake, here to the left, at 3500 metres! An amazingly beautiful spot, the equal of anything we have here in Alaska! It was cold and windy here, about -5C with a stiff 40 kph west wind. The sun would come out between snow showers and light up the crags briefly. Had to be fast with the camera!


Leaving the park late in the afternoon, I drove south on beautiful CO Highways 7 and 72 through Meeker Park, Nederland, and Coal Creek Canyon, at elevations of 2500-3000 metres, returning to Boulder at 5 pm in the evening. There had been a little bit of snow that day, and I had to get in some more trail time there at Chatauqua Park. This is looking back north over Boulder, with the front range of the Rockies to the West. Man, it would sure be something to live in one of those nice old houses, a few blocks from this park!


One of the main draws to the trails around Chautaqua is that they provide access to the Flatirons, these large, imposing rocks rising 100-200 metres vertically. Rock-climbing and hiking around them are highly sought-after. They were always beautiful in the different lighting, at different times of the day. I just spent another 90 min. or so racing around those trails that sunday, getting in some last-minute pictures, before darkness set in.





The highlight of my time there, beside learning very useful and important information about winter weather forecasting, and meeting and interacting with the Canadians, was our big snow storm from 10/27 to 10/29. We all saw it coming in the numerical forecast models for several days before-hand, in class, and it was the topic of much debate. We had a snow-forecast contest. Of all the students, my forecast of 51 cm for the event was closest. But we received 60 cm! Here is right outside our building that the conference is in, thu. morning 10/29 as the snow was starting to wind down. Beautiful, and refreshing. Temperatures started out near freezing intitially on the evening of 10/27, and the snow was heavy and slushy. But by mid-day of wed. 10/28, it was -2 to -3C, and the snow was a nice light powder, with a 14:1 snow to liquid ratio.

My classmate Charles Creese, from Trenton, Ontario, and I knew we had to make the most of this. We rented nordic waxless classic skis that wed., and after class that day had a beautiful night ski around the trails in Chautaqua Park in 45 cm of powder. The next day, thu., after class, there was 15 cm more, and we hit the trail a little earlier, around 1730, when there was more daylight, and got some great pictures in:














All that heavy wet snow, followed by the powder, was caked on to those huge Flatiron rocks, and was draped over the Ponderosa Pines and Douglas Fir. Some of them had torn limbs from the heavy weight of all that snow.

'We skied in just about 8 km on the Mesa Trail, then took off our skis and walked a little further up a steep rocky section, where we found some great evening photo-ops, around 1815. It was getting dark then by 1830, so we had to act fast.

The dim lighting and heavy snow was really interesting on those rocks, as well as the heavily-loaded trees.


Almost surreal-looking, to be sure. Those rocks are 200 metres high. A northerly light breeze at times caused a few avalanches off the trees, one of these was really powerful. The wind gust coming from it (it was about 20 metres away from us, thank god!) was quite strong. Good thing it didn't come down on us, it would have been painful.

While we were there, a manic-looking lad of about 20 or so came down the trail. He had seen a mountain lion a kilometre back, and they stared each other down, about 15 metres apart! Fortunately, the lion retreated, they rarely attack adults. If one appears imminent, the suggestion is to make yourself look as large as possible by extending your arms and jumping up and down. But our Univ. of Colorado student didn't have to do that.

All in all, visiting Boulder, CO and all it's "Latte Town" amenities was highly refreshing, and that area of Colorado, which I had never before seen, is now one that I look forward to returning to. As well, our friends Matt Klick and Lalida Crawford had just moved to Denver last summer, and I got to visit them in their beautiful, interesting, funky, Berkely neighborhood on the northwest side of the city. It's mix of nice older homes and good restaurants in close proximity reminded me favourably of West Seattle, or parts of Southeast Portland. Good stuff!

CAPITALISM'S DIRTY WARS/(SECRETS)

It has been many years since your lead editor has come across information, which is so shattering, and important, as to fully capture my attention for many days. And which requires sharing, to as wide an audience as possible. Not just through this article, but in my day to day life, interacting with friends, and other interested people.

What is this information? It is a book, published in 2007, The Shock Doctrine-The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, written by a Canadian, London-trained economist, Naomi Klein.

http://www.amazon.com/Shock-Doctrine-Rise-Disaster-Capitalism/dp/0312427999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256613012&sr=8-1

Here are what a few leading progressive voices have to say about it:

"Naomi Klein is an investigative reporter like no other. She roams the continents with eyes wide open and her brain operating at full speed, finding connections we never thought of, and patterns which eluded us. This is a brilliant book, one of the most important I have read in a long time." HOWARD ZINN

"Naomi Klein is one of the most important new voices in American journalism today. She has turned globalism inside out, and given us all a new way of looking at our seemingly unending disaster in Iraq, and a new way of understanding why we got there." SEYMOUR M. HERSH

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x369448

Here is the book description, from the publisher:

"At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq's civil war, a new law is unveiled that will allow Shell and BP to claim the country's vast oil reserves. Immediately following September 11, the Bush administration quietly outsources the running of "The War on Terror" to Halliburton and Blackwater. After a powerful tsunami devastates the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts. New Orlean's residents, still scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals, and schools, will never be reopened.

These events are examples of what Naomi Klein calls "the shock doctrine": the use of public disorientation following massive collective shocks-wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters-to push through highly unpopular economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don't succeed in wiping out all resistance, a third is employed: that of the electrode in the prison cell or of the Taser gun.

Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting in disaster zones, The Shock Doctrine explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Disaster capitalism-the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies that are reeling from shock-did not begin with September 11, 2001. In this courageous new book, Klein traces the intellectual origins of disaster capitalism back to the University of Chicago's economics department under Milton Friedman, whose influence is still felt around the World. The Shock Doctrine draws new and surprising connections among economic policy, "shock and awe" warfare and the covert CIA-funded experiments in electroshock and sensory deprivation [begun in the 1950's, eds.] that shaped the torture manuals used today in Guantanamo Bay.

As Klein shows how the deliberate use of the shock doctrine produced World-changing events, from Pinochet's coup in Chile in 1973 to the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, she tells a story radically different from the one we usually hear. Once again, Naomi Klein has written a book that will reframe the debate."

When I was in Mr. Wilson's fourth grade class, at Euclid Elementary, in San Diego, in September, 1973, we had a "current events" period every friday, for an hour. Each student was required to bring a newspaper or magazine article, read parts of it aloud, and moderate a discussion with the rest of the students about it. I always liked that part of our school day. On 12 September, 1973, I brought in a very small, one-column article, of about three paragraphs, from the San Diego Union, our main newspaper. It was entitled "Coup in Chile", and briefly described the chaotic and terrifying events of the previous day, which occurred, in that poor country (and which Naomi Klein documents in great detail, in The Shock Doctrine).

I was too young to really understand then what had happened there, and why, and my mother, who for many years was an anti-war/peace activist, tried to explain to me. Over the course of the years to come, as I grew into adulthood, my mother kept me abreast of what was happening in South and Central America. How vicious, fascist, right-wing governments took and maintained power, with aid and support from the U.S., in the 1970s and 1980s. These governments tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of suspected "leftists" in their respective countries, people whose only "crimes" were that of supporting trade unions, worker's rights, ending torture, and working for basic human rights (or even just being indigenous). She used to give me copies of Amnesty International reports from people who had survived imprisonment and unspeakable torture, in these countries.

Particularly vicious were the governments of the "Southern Cone" of Latin America, in the 1970s and '80s, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. Many movies and books have appeared since then, documenting the tragedies that occurred in those countries, and throughout this hemisphere. I had always assumed, from the articles/reports I had read, that pressure from U.S.-based multi-national corporations was the reason our government supported these murderous governments (who can forget the murders of Catholic priests, archbishops, and nuns, in El Salvador in the late 1970s/early 1980s, because they spoke out). But Naomi Klein's research documents that this was not the full story. That not only were these governments aided by ours to keep and maintain power so that corporate-friendly policies would be maintained, this was done with the expectation that these countries would be re-made, with completely unregulated, free-market-based economies. By any means necessary, including torture, and murder, to intimidate the peoples of these countries to accept policies that would never have been allowed under a democracy.

What kind of policies were these? Complete de-regulation of all sectors of the economy, complete privatisation of all formerly-government-controlled sectors such as power generation, water purification/distribution, mining, social services, and transportation. Which when undertaken by these countries, led to massive unemployment, inflation and extreme hardship. Poverty rates increased greatly in all these countries when their repressive governments forced these policies upon their terrorised populations. The repression was not just confined to their respective countries either. A vicious terrorist attack occurred on the streets of Washington D.C. in 1976. Orlando Letelier had been Chile's ambassador to the U.S., under Salvador Allende's administration, from 1970-73. When Gen. Augusto Pinochet led the right-wing coup there, and took power, after 11 September, 1973 (the first 9/11!), he fled the country, and eventually wound up in Washington D.C., working for a human-rights organisation, and began writing articles and giving speeches to expose the repression under Pinochet's regime.

On 21 September, 1976, as he was driving through the heart of the embassy district of Washington D.C., a bomb planted under his car seat exploded, severing his legs, and killing instantly his 25 year old passenger, Ronni Moffit, a colleague of his. Orlando died before reaching the hospital. The FBI investigated and traced the bomb to a member of the Chilean secret police, who was convicted and imprisoned for the attack. The assasination team had been admitted to the U.S. on false passports, with the knowledge of the CIA.

The Shock Doctrine, besides describing the sad and terrifying repression that occurred in Chile and Argentina, during the "Dirty Wars" of the 1970s/80s, then also describes how governments in other countries were forced to enact massively unpopular deregulation and privitisation policies, which impoverished their populations.

I had never fully understood what had happened after the Soviet Union collapsed, in 1990-91, and how they made the transition to a capitalist economy in the years following. Klein describes in detail how Mikhail Gorbhachev, while he was still in power in 1989-90, actually had wanted to have his country transition to a benevolent social democracy, in the model of Norway, Sweden, or Finland. But, because of great economic difficulties, and the need for emergency loans from the World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF), he was forced to rapidly enact shock doctrine policies in his country. The results are plaguing Russia to this day, the highest death-rate from alcoholism in the World, massive unemployment, and a decreased life-span, especially for men. This was very sad to read, as Russia is a country rich in history and natural resources, and if it had been allowed and encouraged to develop a Social Democratic government, it could have become an inspiration to the World, and it's 200 million people would have had much better living conditions.

Klein also describes what happened in South Africa after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in 1990, to lead the African National Congress in it's peaceful transition to majority rule, ending the apartheid minority white-ruled regime. Mandela and the ANC had wanted to enact massive public-works programs to build housing for the millions of impoverished blacks living in shanty-towns outside the major cities, as well as to increase government spending on other employment-creating programs. But, because their economy was facing collapse at that critical time, they were forced by the IMF and World Bank in the early 1990s to enact massively unpopular and destructive economic policies, aka, the shock doctrine. The results continue to this day. There are actually fewer households with electricity now, in South Africa, than in 1994, and none of the promised millions of new, modern, housing units with basic sanitation, have been built for the millions of shanty-town residents.

The Shock Doctrine spends the greatest amount of time documenting the immoral and illegal attack on Iraq by this country, expanding upon the ideas presented by Greg Palast, in his ground-breaking expose, Armed Madhouse.
http://www.amazon.com/Armed-Madhouse-Baghdad-Orleans-Sordid-Secrets/dp/0452288312/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256873012&sr=8-1

In this book, Palast, after posing as an oil industry spokesman, and interviewing numerous people in the US government and in powerful positions in major oil companies, lays out the reasons for the Iraq invasion. Namely, that it was undertaken, not for the direct acquisition and control of Iraq's oil, but to remove Sadaam Hussein's control over it, with Saudi Arabia's blessing. Because Sadaam Hussein had been manipulating Iraq's oil production and exports against the wishes of OPEC, and was causing turbulence in the oil market price.

Klein goes further though, documenting that another important goal was to create a "free-market" paradise in the Middle East, where unregulated capitalism would allow foreign corporations to get in on re-developing Iraq's infrastructure, and aiding in restoring and maintaining it's oil industry and production (which under Hussein's government had been nationalised).

So, the illegal, and immoral invasion and occupation of that sovereign nation, which posed no threat to this one, or it's neighbours, and led to the deaths of at least a million innocent civilians, and caused 3-4 million more to flee to neighbouring countries, was also undertaken to enforce a "shock doctrine" upon it. Klein describes in great detail the policies of deregulation and privitisation which were rapidly enacted in 2003-04, after the US began ruling the country. Hundreds of thousands of government employees in Iraq were fired, local corporations and construction companies were shut out from providing supplies and labour for the country's reconstruction, and attempts (ultimately unsuccesful) were made to privatise it's national oil company.

These were the policies that led to the resistance movements there, and which continue to this day, and are why there is still unemployment of 50 percent or more there, along with only sporadic access to power and clean water in most of it's cities. It's heartbreaking reading, because the suffering in Iraq is so palpable, and un-necessary. And the criminals that caused it are walking around free and prosperous, in this country, because our corporate-controlled media will not allow information like this to appear.

So, we at A.P.R. urge you all to get a copy of The Shock Doctrine, read it, and spread the word (and the book).
http://www.amazon.com/Shock-Doctrine-Rise-Disaster-Capitalism/dp/0676978010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256873896&sr=1-1

Your understanding of our capitalist system, and how it is maintained and spread will be greatly enhanced. Only by opening our eyes to the causes of the massive social, economic, and political injustice that are present in this world, can we begin the process of changing it. Cheers.

ALASKA SLED DOGS - The Edge of the Wild?

For as long as your lead author can remember, I have always been captivated by Husky and Malemute dogs, even though I grew up in the sunny southlands of San Diego.

Maybe it was because I read the "Call of the Wild" at least ten times by the time I was 12. I got to know many great ones living in Montana in the 1990s, though I had an amazing feral chow/german shepherd canine companion, Coyote, then (we found each other at the Missoula pound in 1991). Who would routinely hunt and eat whole, rabbits, marmots, and squirrels, on all our wilderness jaunts in Montana, and here in Alaska, before he passed away late in 2003, at the age of 13.

Alaska "sled dogs" are a mix of breeds, husky (Alaskan and Siberian), malemute, and various domestics (lab, shepherd, etc...). http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/sleddogs.htm

They are bred by dog mushers for speed, endurance, and docility, so that they will be able to relate to people and generally not be too quarrelsome amongst themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Husky

Many of them also come from the hundreds of Alaska Native villages, where they live outdoors all year, and even around Fairbanks and other major road-based settlements they also live outdoors, since most serious mushers will have 25-50 dogs, or more. On the edge of the wilderness. This also means that traveling wolf packs, if a female sled dog is in heat, will breed with them, if no precautions are taken. Hence, many sled dogs have a detectable wolf influence, both in their physical characteristics, and in their demeanor.

Since they are born and bred for speed and endurance and to live and thrive in our harsh sub-arctic environment, they make excellent companions for anyone with an active, outdoor-based lifestyle, here in Alaska, or anywhere where colder winter temperatures occur. A typical active sled dog is easily capable of running up to 160 km (or more!) a day, at average speeds of 20 kilometres per hour! And most effectively/efficiently when temperatures are -15 to -40C!

Unfortunately, with so many dog mushers in Alaska, with so many dogs, the many that "don't work out" as racers, or effective members of a team, have to find other homes, or face euthanasia or dumping at the nearest animal shelter. This link shows the dogs available at our Fairbanks North Star Borough animal shelter. Note that most of them are husky's or mixed husky breeds (sled dogs). It is estimated that just here in Fairbanks, 300 or more of these beautiful, hardy beings are turned in to the animal shelter every year. Most of them never get adopted...

http://www.petfinder.com/shelterSearch/shelterSearch.cgi?&shelterid=AK12&Animal=Dog&sort=Identifier&preview=1

Therefore, here at the A.P.R., we feel it is our duty to always have two of these wonderful companions, so at least they will have a new lease on life, and return to us manyfold, the love, care, and protection that we give to them.

All that said, I'd like to introduce to you to the previous sled dogs I've been fortunate enough to have lived with, since moving to Fairbanks in 2001. This was Stikine, a beautiful fluffy little girl, of mixed husky and wolf origins. She came from the kennels of my friend Rebecca Chandler's then-husband, Eric Nicolier. Who was a musher training for the Yukon Quest, in the early 2000s. After losing Coyote in 12/03, I decided I should have two sled dogs for companionship. Stikine was born in Jan. 2004, and she came to live with me that summer.

She grew quickly, surpassing 20 kg by the time she as 4 or 5 months old. Homer, our research assistant, here at A.P.R., is Stikine's uncle. Her mother Elizabeth, is Homer's sister. Stikine had the same blue eyes and fur thickness/colours as Homer, and would probably reached his large size, had she been able.

I also adopted another beautiful sled dog at this time, Frost, a nine year old classic Alaskan Husky. More about her later.

Frost and Stikine grew to be great companions, in all our outdoor adventures, and during our routine neighbourhood runs.

She loved to sit on my lap while I drove, between my arms, looking out over the steering wheel. I tried to discourage this, as she grew, but she really loved being there.

Unfortunately, like many sled dogs, she had a penchant for running off, if allowed, returning a half hour to hours later. I tried limiting this possibility. But one evening in November, 2004, I opened the door of our little house we were living in, which is just off the busy Goldstream Road, in the Goldstream Valley, north of Fairbanks. She rushed out the door, and wouldn't come back. After calling out, I decided to wait, figuring she'd be back, like the many times before. But it was not to be. About an hour later, I saw cars stopped on the road, and flashing state trooper lights. Not knowing what was up, I went back to my evening. But a little while later, someone called from Ivory Jacks, the nearby bar/restaurant. Stikine had been struck and killed by a hit/run driver. My phone number was on her collar.

This was a big blow, she had been such a beautiful and loving companion, to Frost and I, and had a very strong, dominant personality. Frost was just as grief-stricken as I, but we helped each other through that winter, along with our other friends.

The next summer, 2005, I wanted another companion for Frost and I. While running on the Denali Highway near Maclaren Summit, I ran into Zoya Denure, a musher, who is married to John Shandlemeier, one of Alaska's mushing stars. He and his teams had won the grueling 1000+ km Yukon Quest race a few times in the 1990s. http://www.yukonquest.com/

They have a large summer-time sled dog kennel operation near Maclaren River Lodge, where they give tours to groups on tour buses. They also take in "rescue dogs", ones that have been taken from abusive and neglectful mushers or homes. They introduced me to Nahanni, the little black beauty here, at their lodge.

She was only six months old, and had been rescued from a very abusive situation. She was very skittish and afraid when I brought her home in July, 2005. It took me weeks of gentle conversation and treat-handing, to re-domesticate and bond with her. She took to running though with Frost and I immediately, greatly enjoying it. She never ran off while we ran together, or were in the wilderness.

She grew to be about Frost's size, 25 kg or so, while she was with us. But she was very independent, always wanting to run off, if we were just around town. In Nov. 2005, whilst the Chena Ridge Research Centre was under construction, she wouldn't return to our van, as we were leaving the job-site. So, Frost and I just took off slowly in the van. She followed us on the back dirt roads of Chena Ridge. I'd stop every now and then, she'd edge up close, but then back away, when I tried to grab her. Finally, I decided to try something different. We sped at a higher speed of 50 kph for several km. She ran at full speed after us. After about 15 minutes of this, I stopped, opened the sliding door, and she popped right in!

She also had a very strong, independent, domineering personality, a true "alpha". For those not in the know, wolf and dog packs are led by a dominant pair, an "alpha male and female". They call the shots and maintain discipline in the pack.

Of course, Nahanni loved running in the cold with Frost and I, the colder the better. Always amazing to me was that we could rush out our cozy 19C house, into the -40C winter air, and run for 1-2 hours. Me in my four layers, but them with nothing! And they couldn't be happier.

Unfortunately for Nahanni, her independence also proved to be her undoing. In February, 2006, after a beautiful snowfall of 15 cm or so of fresh powder, I wanted to snowshoe around the neighbourhood with Frost and her. I only had her out of my sight 30 seconds while adjusting a strap on my snowshoes, and she ran off. Frost and I combed the neighbourhood for half an hour with no success. Then we saw a truck stop on Goldstream Road, 150 metres from the house. We knew. We raced up there. She was lying in the ditch, severely injured. She had been lying there for some time, while we were searching. I rushed her as fast as possible to the animal hospital.

The vets there did their best. But her thorax was crushed and she had uncontrollable internal bleeding. She screamed and cried out in her terror and pain, for 20 minutes or more, before she departed. When the vets could do no more, they came out, in tears to tell me the news. But they didn't have to. I came home from the hospital to Frost without Nahanni. She ran out to Nahanni's little house and let out mournful howls. Frost was already 11 years old at this point, and Nahanni's loss hit her very hard. She lost some of her energy and drive after this.

Of all my canid companions to date, Frost was my favourite, and most loyal and loving. She came from my friends Doug and Lea Hutchinson, who were recreational mushers, with sixteen dogs. They were going to be leaving Alaska in 2005, so were trying to find homes for their sled dogs. Frost was the cream of their crop. She had been the lead dog on their team for many years. Her parents were both veterans of the Iditarod and Yukon Quest, from prestigious musher Rick Swenson's kennel. When I took her in with Stikine, in summer 2004, at the age of nine, she was in her last heat! I regret not having her bred, she would have produced beautiful, strong puppies, and been a loving mother to them. But I was not ready to sacrifice the time and energy to deal with 3-9 puppies, so had her neutered.

Frost was extremely loyal, but also very timid. She rarely ever ran off, and was always by my side, wherever we were. In her prime, as lead dog on the Hutchinson's team, she would run 150 km or more a day at times, at speeds of 20 kph. On all of our long runs and skis, at least before mid 2006, when she startedto slow down, I was incapable of tiring her out.

Her timidity though, required vigilance on my part. Sled dogs, more than domestic breeds, often have extreme jealousy issues. This may be a combination of their wolfiness, and lack of adequate human interaction when living in a large dog-yard.. On several occasions, I would gave attention to a different dog, then leave off, and turn to Frost. The other dogs attacked Frost, sometimes savagely. The worst was in April 2006, while we were running around Chena Ridge. A larger sled dog, outweighing her 5-8 kg, after I petted him, and we ran past, set upon her brutally. She was in a ball, while the other dog went for her throat. I didn't have time to think, I beat and kicked him off her with all my strength. He ran off, leaving Frost screaming and quivering on the road. I had to gently talk to her for a few minutes before she got up, and were able to resume our run. Fortunately she wasn't seriously injured.

A few weeks later, she returned the favour. My friend Jeff Gordon and I decided to just do a short day-ski/snowshoe on the frozen Delta River, through the Alaska Range, on a bright sunny, Easter sunday, 2006.

Here she is, midway through, helping us break trail through 30 cm or so of heavy packed powder.

The Delta River flows through a 1500-2000 metre deep canyon of the Alaska Range, funneling north or south winds through it. On this day, we began our outing with light south chinook winds.

But, three or four hours later, after lunch, we decided to head back, as the winds were increasing. By the time we got back near the river, after going up a side canyon, we could see we were in for a rough go.

You can see the blowing snow on the river there, with 3000 metre Mt. Silvertip looming above.

Jeff was ahead of me on snowshoes, retracing our route, while I followed behind, after stopping for a late lunch. When we caught back up to each other on the river, the winds were easily 80-100 kph sustained, and all the snow was being scoured off the river, creating a ground-blizzard, with near-zero visibility at times. It was difficult getting back across the river, because the snow was completely scoured away in spots, and edging across the sheer river ice on skis in that wind was a chore. There were also some open-water leads to skirt. Jeff and I got separated a few times, but Frost kept us together, by going back and forth between us. Thus, making our return trip much easier and safer! I had to stop and get her the biggest steak I could find, on the way home, for that.

She was starting to slow down though that year, and she even had some breast tumours removed in fall 2006. By April 2007, she was very slow and frail, in part due to another grief incident (more on that later) several months previous. Finally in May, 2007, she became very ill, and I rushed her to our vet. She was shaking and quivering, trying to run off into the woods and die. Her abdomen was filled with inoperable cancer, and she expired that month. Never to be forgotten, for her loyalty, affection, strength, and endurance.

After Nahanni's passing, in February, 2006, I wanted another companion for Frost and I.

That May we went to the Fairbanks animal shelter, and were captivated by this large, beautiful, gentle being.

His name was Nimbus, and he was just two or three years old. All that was known about him, was that he had been dumped after-hours at the pound with a note, saying he "didn't work out" as a sled dog. He was large, about 37 kg, and thought to be McKenzie River Husky/Wolf hybrid.

He came home with Frost and I in mid-May, 2006, and we had quite a challenge. He obviously had suffered hard times at the hands of other men, as he would shrink away from my approaching hand. And, not even take an offered treat, but would only eat it if I threw it to him, then looked away, while he ate it. He was also not housebroken. So it took weeks of gentle persuasion and encouragement to domesticate and bond with him. While keeping him roped to me at all times, out of doors. It took him a few months, before he would not run off for hours, if he accidentally got away.

He took to running with Frost and I immediately though, and was a majestic sight, with his wolfy appearance and plume of a tail. On our longer runs, up to 32 km or so, he wouldn't even drink water (at temps. of 15-25C!), though I tried to encourage him to do so.

He loved all our wilderness outings, as well our regular in-town runs and hikes. His large size and wolf background belied an amazingly gentle and timid demeanor. He always backed away from other dogs, if challenged (requiring my intervention at times). And never barked, just let out squeeks, if he needed something. He really took to women as well, perhaps because of his earlier experiences.

Unfortunately, his previous abuse at the hands of other men, proved to be his undoing. On 04 November, 2006, I rushed home to the Chena Ridge Research Centre, from work and bounded up the stairs, to change, so we could go for a run. But Nimbus always was perched at the top of there, that was his lair. Not knowing who I was, he panicked and bolted down the stairs. He tripped and broke a leg, and plummeted past me, too fast for me to grab. When his head reached the tile floor at the bottom of the stairs, it folded under his body, breaking his neck. I got to him and held his head in my hand, as he left this world, for the next. It took only a few seconds. Frost was there at our side, and she knew what happened. I rushed him to our local vet, just down the road, hoping for some miracle, but when I got there, we all knew it wasover. But Dr. Jean Battig worked on him just the same, more for my benefit than Nimbus'.

He was only three. But he had six good months at least, before his untimely end. I have to tell you what happened next, even though it is very graphic and sad. Dr. Battig said I could take Nimbus body to the pound for cremation. So in my shocked state I did, and asked the staff there what to do. When I came back with Nimbus' loose 37 kg body in my arms, they opened a door and had me put him in there. There were 20-30 other dead dogs on the floor in there. I almost dropped straight-away. It was the bi-weekly quota of dogs that didn't make it, that couldn't find homes. At least half of them were sled dogs. If this is happening here in Fairbanks, think what it is like in Anchorage, or other large cities in the lower 48. I stumbled and lurched out of there to my car, and collapsed for a few minutes in the driver's seat, before I could get it together for the drive home.

Frost was never the same after that, she became withdrawn and much less energetic that winter, and her end to cancer then came in May, 2007. I found myself dogless that summer, of 2007. Which did not feel right, and I knew that would change. My friend Jeff Gordon was thinking about adopting one, so after we got back from running the Whitehorse marathon in early August, we went to the animal shelter. He didn't find a dog there that really grabbed him, but my attention was quickly caught by this little beauty.

She was named Jinga at the time, by the shelter staff, and was thought to be two. She had been dumped at the shelter, limping on her back legs, and starving. I immediately was attracted to her beauty and sweet smile. I had her checked out by Dr. Battig, who said she would recover from her injuries.

So, a week later, she came home to the Chena Ridge Research Centre, with a new name of Kiana. After a village in northwest Alaska, known to be a very friendly place. What I didn't know, was anything about her past (which was surely very abusive). My room-mate at the time, Sabine, a very sweet German graduate student, had a timid little blue-eyed Siberian Husky named Ophie, a girl of eight. As soon as I brought Kiana in the door, and she saw Ophie, she charged! Straight for her neck! I grabbed Kiana in mid-air and threw her out the door.

It took weeks of attention, discipline, and treats, to get her to accept other dogs, and bond with her. But, as with all the others, she took to running with me right away, and greatly enjoyed it.

Here she is in her prime, September, 2007, after we bonded and she became accepting of other dogs.

In late September, 2007, we, along with my friend Janice, went for a hike up to the Gulkana glacier, in the Alaska Range. Just a half-hour after Janice took this picture, I slipped on some snow-covered ice, with boulders studded all round. I fell full-force, jamming my left knee onto a knobby rock. The pain was incredible, I fell to my back, writhing and gasping, trying to get my pack off, because I thought I was going to vomit. After about 5-10 minutes of pain and gasping, I was able to collect myself, and Janice (a radiologist!) and I assessed the damage. There was a hole in the kneecap down to the fascia, and it was rapidly swelling. I was able to get up, and with the aid of my trekking poles, was able to stumble the ten kilometres back to our car, with Janice and Kiana helping me as needed. Kiana was always by my side, whimpering and concerned.

With a broken and bandaged knee, I was unable to run or hike much for several weeks. So, two weeks after the injury, we drove up the Dalton Highway, to Atigun Pass and back, 13 1/2 hours in one day. We had never been there. I was able to stumble around in the tundra for about an hour near Atigun Pass, and Kiana had a great time. When I got back and looked at my pictures though, this one set me on edge. She looks like a spirit, flitting over the tundra, and with the past history of my otherdogs...

Jeff Gordon moved back in as my room-mate that fall, and brought Mattie with him, our now assistant-editor. He had gotten her from the pound on the Emerald Isle of Kodiak, when he lived there for a year. Mattie and Kiana had a great time that fall and winter together, and grew to be great companions.

On a mid-January evening of 2008, when this picture was taken, Mattie, Kiana, and I went for our usual 90 min. neighbourhood run. A few kilometres of which is on Chena Ridge Road, which has a 90 km speed limit, meaning most people are doing 110 or better.

When we were on a straight stretch of that road, Mattie pulled me hard, and I let go of Kiana. She got out into the traffic lane. I immediately went after her, but it was too late. A large 4WD truck was bearing down at us, easily going 120 kph. I got out of the way just in time, and felt it brush my shoulder. It went right through Kiana, and her remains ended up on the other side of the road. The tan/white mid 1990s Ford 4WD extra-cab never slowed or stopped. I was dressed in bright reflective red, and Kiana had alot of white on her, so the driver had to have seen us. I ran over and just lay with her in the road, not caring what happened, at that point. A nice older man in another truck stopped, came out, and helped us all into the bed of it. He took us the two km home. I called my friend Rebecca, and she came over to help me deal with the situation, and took Kiana's remains for me to the pound. Mattie of course was traumatized as well, but her recovery was much faster than mine.

It took me a few months before I could look again at large trucks without great fear and anger, and drive or run past that spot on the road without re-living the experience.

Jeff decided he couldn't take very good care of Mattie, and asked me if I would adopt her. I was happy to, she was and is a very sweet, loyal, and extremely brave and tough companion.

When she was just 15 months old, and weighed 25 kg, we went for a short pack trip in the Alaska Range in August, 2008. At our campsite, by this pond, just after I took this picture, around 2000 in the evening, I heard a snorting and pawing sound, while in my tent. I rushed out, hoping it was not a bear. A large bull caribou, easily more than 2 metres tall, and weighing 180-200 kg, was displaying displeasure that we were in his area (I had seen large amounts of caribou scat there when we were setting up camp earlier).

Before I could stop her, she charged after him, barking and running circles around him. I couldn't believe it, and the moreso, because he ran off! He could have easily dispatched her with one kick. After that surge of bravery and protection on her part, she could do no wrong in my eyes!
She has incredible endurance, even though she is half-lab. When our friend Erik Hursh and I skied in to the Chris McCandless bus on the Stampede Trail last March (about 68 km round trip), Mattie ran along. Going back and forth, constantly. So, we figure she must have easily ran about 140 km that day. She was a little tired at the end, but the next day, was not sore at all!

We were thinking another canine companion would be a good idea, over the past year. Then our friend Rebecca notified me that her 12 year old boy, Homer, needed a new home. Rebecca had moved to Oregon last year, leaving Homer with another family. Who couldn't give him the care and attention he needed. So he came to us this past June. After just a few weeks of running with us, he had shed at least 3-4 kg, and was looking, acting, and feeling much better.

Since Homer had lived with Rebecca and her ten year old daughter Isabell his whole life, he was fully trained and domesticated, in spite of his wolfiness. Which is quite apparent in his long legs and method of running; he lopes along much like a wolf.

He and Mattie quickly bonded, and are now inseparable, as we work and play in and around the Chena Ridge Research Centre, or go on outings in
more wild settings.

Such as this beautiful area, on the Mt. Healy trail, in the Alaska Range, near Denali N.P. This was late last July, when he surprised a young hiker, who thought he was a wild wolf, before he saw me and Mattie.

In spite of his relatively advanced age, for a canine, of 12 or 13, Homer is in very good shape, physically and mentally. He participates actively in all our activities, and has run as far as 30 km with us. We think we'll have the pleasure of at least a few more

good years with his strong, yet gentle presence.

Which brings us to the end of this narrative. In spite of all the misfortune of losing Stikine, Nahanni, Nimbus, and Kiana, so quickly, and at such young ages, I don't regret having taken them in at all. For they all at least had several good months to ayear, before they were taken from us.

And their love and affection was real and strong, greatly enriching us. They always reinforced strong ideas for me too, interacting with them. For they never worried about past or future events overmuch, living much more in the moment. And when tragedy has struck, while grief-stricken for a short while, they have always recovered much more quickly than I.

For those of you living in Fairbanks, if you don't already have a canid companion or two, please think of adopting one of these hardy, strong, loyal and affectionate beings.

http://www.petfinder.com/shelterSearch/shelterSearch.cgi?&shelterid=AK12&Animal=Dog&sort=Identifier&preview=1

Even though some of them may require focused work and attention, to bond with and re-domesticate them, it will be well worth it. They may even save your life, if a bear or other large animal becomes aggresive. You can count on that! And for routine companionship, especially if you like to run or hike alot, they can't be beat, the colder the better!

If you don't live here, but are just visiting, consider visiting our animal shelter, and taking one or two home with you. You won't regret it! We never have. Cheers.