October 19, 2006
SMH has a brief video interview with Michael Mobbs, the owner of a 100-year old terrace house in inner Sydney, which creates its own energy (sending some back into the electricity grid), collects its own rainwater for drinking and showering, and recycles that water for washing and toilets. The owner explains that if he did that in the terrace house, anybody can do that.
For more details of the project, see http://www.sustainablehouse.com.au
October 15, 2006
Associated Press published a leaked report, as published in the Toronto Star, that the war in Iraq has become a “cause celebre” for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. The threat from Islamic extremists has spread, in numbers, and geographic reach. If the current trend continues, terrorist threats will only continue, and become more diverse.
Now, in Australia, former Defence Chief, General Peter Cosgrove admits that the Iraq war has boosted global terrorism (reported at news.com.au). He is quoted there as saying: “If people say there has been an energizing of the jihadist movement through the protracted war in Iraq – well that’s pretty obvious”.
The Washington Post reports that the UK’s top army commander has ignited a controversy saying that British trips should withdraw from Iraq “sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems”. “We weren’t invited” into Iraq he said, but rather “kicked the door in”, and “whatever consent we may have had in the first place” from the Iraqi people “has largely turned to intolerance”. He as since qualified his remarks by saying that he still wants the British troops to leave, but not until “the mission is substantially done”.
And at the same time, the Washington Post reports an AP Associated Press analysis, showing how President Bush’s reasons for the Iraq war keep on changing, starting from ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to now saying that “we can’t tolerate a new terrorist state in the heart of the Middle East, with large oil reserves that could be used to fund its radical ambitions, or used to inflict economic damage on the West. By helping Iraqis build a democracy… we will deal a major blow to terrorists and extremists”.
Former Secretary of State, James Baker, a Bush family friend leading a bipartisan commission on Iraq, acknowledged that the intelligence used to justify the war was wrong and “now that country could be said to be in civil war… If Iraq was not the front line on the war on terror when we went it, it certainly is the front line of the war on terror now” (reported in Greenwich Time).
Hmmm… an intelligence report and military officials from multiple countries are saying that the war in Iraq has increased terrorism, and yet President Bush is saying that we need to be in Iraq because we can’t tolerate a new terrorist state.
October 14, 2006
Bono and Oprah have gone on a shopping spree launching the (Product) Red line, a collection of products including phones, clothing, and a special-edition iPod to raise money for HIV / AIDs in Africa. There’s a MySpace site about (Product) Red, too. Buy (Red)!
October 14, 2006
Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank have been awarded the Nobel Prize “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below”. The Grameen Bank has provided microcredit loans to more than seven million people, without demanding collateral.
In awarding the Prize, the Nobel committee said:
“Across cultures and civilisations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development,” the secretive five-member committee said in announcing the award.
“Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty,” it said, adding Yunus’s goal was to end poverty in the world.
October 12, 2006
A study by American and Iraqi public health researchers has shown that about 655,000 civilians have met with violent deaths in Iraq since the 2003 US invasion. It is acknowledged that the exact figures are not known, and with a margin of error, the real numbers could be anywhere from 426,000 to 794,000.
That means in a country of about 27 million, about 2.5% of the Iraqi population has died in the invasion and following disturbances.
Before the war, Iraq’s mortality rate was 5.5 per 1000, and that has risen to 19.8 per 1000.
How on earth can any of that be acceptable?
For more details, see the Washington Post article, or as reported in the SMH.
Update: The Guardian has more details, and the following comments from the researchers:
“Although such death rates might be common in times of war, the combination of a long duration and tens of millions of people affected has made this the deadliest international conflict of the 21st century and should be of grave concern to everyone,” write the authors, Gilbert Burnham and colleagues.
“At the conclusion of our 2004 study we urged that an independent body assess the excess mortality that we saw in Iraq. This has not happened. We continue to believe that an independent international body to monitor compliance with the Geneva conventions and other humanitarian standards in conflict is urgently needed. With reliable data, those voices that speak out for civilians trapped in conflict might be able to lessen the tragic human cost of future wars.”
“Absolute despair would be the wrong response. Instead, the disaster that is the west’s current strategy in Iraq must be used as a constructive call to the international community to reconfigure its foreign policy around human security rather than national security, around health and wellbeing in addition to the protection of territorial boundaries and economic stability.
October 11, 2006
Charity Navigator has in-depth analysis on over 400 US charities, and rates them. They also have articles about various aspects of charities. Well worth a review.
October 9, 2006
The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize winners have been announced in a ceremony at Harvard University: Nic Sevenson and Piers Barnes of the CSIRO for research into the number of photographs you must take to ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed.
They beat others to the award (“no cash, but much cachet”), who had researched topics such as:
The Ig Nobels are designed to inspire and educate about science (while making people laugh!).
October 9, 2006
A coalition of aid, development and environmental non-government organisations has researched, and commissioned the CSIRO to research, the effects of climate change on development, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The results of the research showed that the likely effect of rising sea levels due to global warming will be to cause a mass exodus to Australia. The Australian Government is being urged to review its immigration program in light of this.
Australia has made a disproportionate contribution to global warming.
The report found, for example:
World Vision Australia chief executive, Tom Costello, has said that it is the poorest of the poor who will be hardest hit. Climate change “fundamentally change the way we aid the world’s poor. It will undermine the value and impact of current aid spending and will lead to far greater calls for assistance from those hurt most. The impacts of climate change will require Australia to respond far more frequently.”
The World Vision Australia Media Release reported:
Victorian and Tasmanian moderator of the Uniting Church Rev Jason Kioa, himself a Pacific Islander, said global warming was as much a moral, social, economic and theological issue as an environmental one: “We’re deeply concerned about the impact climate change will have on the lives of vulnerable people in our region.”
The report recommends that Australian aid needs help the nations most likely to be affected by climate change to prepare for those changes, and to assist in working towards more use of renewable energy and energy efficiency. And, Australia needs to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, while assisting those displaced by climate change.
For more details, see:
October 5, 2006
An Amish neighbor of the father of the dead gunman (who shot those innocent girls) said “We will forgive you” (according to Lancaster Online).
Funds have been established both for the Amish families affected, and the family of the gunman.
Religion News calls this the “Amish 9/11″. That article talks about how the Amish are emphasizing the need to forgive, and to trust God, regardless of what happens, in humility.
The Chicago Tribune talks about how the Amish community there in Lancaster County has been reaching out to the family of the gunman, and although “the hurt is very great… they don’t balance the hurt with hate”. They said they hoped the family of the gunman stay nearby “and they’ll havea lot of friends and and a lot of support”.
In the Philadelpha Inquirer, the editorial talks about how one College, when hearing of disastrous events, raise funds to help those affected. In this case, though, they’re wondering how best to let the Amish community know they cared. The conclusion of the editor was that money wouldn’t help, but:
If calls for progress, or even old-fashioned charity, don’t apply, how ought we pay our respects? Although I don’t go to church, I think I will leave work early today, and go to the police barricade near the school, and get down on my knees, and pray.
