These communities suffer from some form of mistreatment from the hands of the dominant communities. One of the reasons for this is that in all the countries where these communities live the law is not exercised in a fair and just way. While in India there are good laws proscribing the evil practice of untouchability against the dalits, the sad fact is that these laws are sometimes enforced by upper caste men and therefore do not receive the fairness required in enforcing such laws in favour of the dalits.

Regarding one community at least, the author has made a misjudgement. I don’t think the Muslims are treated unfairly in any way in the UK. Britain is a country where the laws are enforced justly and fairly for all irrespective of a person’s ethnic background. It is not easy even for a white person to commit any kind of crime against the Muslims and get away with it.

On the contrary we read about Muslim young men who have developed immoral relationships with white girl children and have exploited them sexually. We read about this in the newspaper reports in the Blackpool and Derby area.

Apart from this aberration Ms Whitman has written a timely article.

Sincerely yours,
Ravin Royer

Hello,

Thank you for your service.

In this article, which is interesting and relevant, it states that

“Unlike most aquifers the NSAS is a non-renewable resource, and over extraction or water mining could cause rising sea levels.”

I must say that this statement makes no sense. I imagine draining the aquifer would cause increase salinity in areas near the coast, such as it has in Saudi Arabia in the Al-Ahsa Oasis region.

Other than this statement, I appreciated the content.

Bill Goedecke
San Francisco

Read the complete story.

Dear Editor,

Although it is mentioned in the title of the story, your article on the U.S. heli-base in northern Okinawa only barely mentions the Okinawa Woodpecker, also known in Japan as Pryer’s Woodpecker or Noguchi’s Woodpecker.

It should be noted that this woodpecker species is probably the most endangered woodpecker in the world, with only 100-200 birds remaining in the forests of northern Okinawa. It would be a shame for U.S. military development to put any further pressure on this species.

Woodpeckers are keystone species in the regions they inhabit, meaning that they provide a critical ecological function in the health of their respective ecosystems. In particular, the Ryukyu Scops-Owl is a cavity-nesting owl that depends on the Okinawa Woodpecker for its own nest sites.

The Okinawa Woodpecker is considered a natural treasure of Japan and is the prefectural bird of Okinawa. This places the species in a regional and national context as one to be revered and protected.

Thank you for bringing further attention to the issues concerning conservation of its habitat.

Stephen Shunk
Paradise Birding
P.O. Box 547
Sisters, OR 97759
www.paradisebirding.com

Read the complete story.

Dear editor,

What I see here is lack of information.

The client is partly to blame for not enquiring which financial institution can lend to them affordably, considering their lack of collateral. But we, as financial institutions, have not done enough to inform customers about the products available. And when we have advertised, we have perhaps used the wrong media where the intended group of people cannot get the message - issues of language barriers (always in English) or technology challenges (no television) come in.

However, we tend to always focus on having more credit sales and forget about the poor borrower. What is the point of selling a loan to a customer who will eventually fail to pay because all of his little income is choked with interest?

The most important thing we really have to work on in Zambia, if the poor are to have access to credit, is to try and reduce the cost of lending. But this has many issues - interest is just one of them, but there is also the issue of operational costs.

I will speak for my institution, for instance. We have branches in all nine provinces in the country and in most areas where commercial banks are not present. Why are they not present? Simple: the cost of doing business there is high, therefore there are no returns. The cash in transit (CIT) costs, for example, are so exhorbitant that for a rural branch, they can take up half of the month’s profits or more.

But we are there anyway to try and ensure financial inclusion.

Mary M Munansangu
Head - Advances
National Savings And Credit Bank
P.O Box 30067
Lusaka
Zambia

Read the complete story.

Like most people living in other parts of Japan who have never been to Okinawa, I assumed that Okinawans were happy to have the military here. That’s the P.R. line we are given.

Since moving here five years ago, I have discovered an entirely different picture. Many Okinawans are reaching the end of their patience.

They are sick of the Honshu government going into a huddle with the American diplomats and making agreements and then informing the Okinawan public after the fact. They do not represent the people here. This is not democracy.

The American military do not make good use of the land they occupy. They could easily get by with one-tenth of the land. The last couple of days has been particularly noisy with jet fighters and helicopters destroying the peace. To cap all of this, the recent U.S. administration is volatile and aggressive, creating, not solving problems.

Time for them to leave.

John Davis

Read the complete story.

Our sincerest apologies for the lapse in publishing letters during this time period. The posts will now resume.

We also encourage you to visit our official IPS Facebook and IPS Twitter pages, where you can join, or start, discussions about the issues and stories we cover.

Dear Ms. Cariboni:

I’m writing to thank you for your excellent coverage of the climate debates in and around COP16 in Cancun.

I have the utmost respect for IPS and truly value your important journalistic work.

Thanks so much

Jen Soriano
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
La Alianza Popular para la Justicia Global

In your story about the African Blackwood conservation project, you mention that dalbergia melanoxylon is on CITES appendix 2. That is not correct, this tree is not on any CITES appendix. Please look it up for yourself on the appendices at www.cites.org.

Thanks, and just thought I would help you with fact checking. Also, note that this tree was not on the appendices at the time of writing of this article as well. Not sure where you got that information, but it wasn’t from CITES.

James Griffin
Griffin Exotic Wood llc
USA

EDITORS REPLY:

Greetings and thanks for drawing this error to our attention. You are right that Dalbergia melanoxylon has never been on a CITES watch list. A 1994 proposal by Germany and Kenya to list it as endangered was withdrawn in the absence of adequate data to confirm level of the threat (and to avoid damaging economic interests). We will correct the story on the site.

Read Complete Story

Dear Ms. Grogg

Just a short note to say how much I am enjoying
your excellent coverage of economic issues in Cuba.
All the best,

Larry Cata Backer
W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar & Professor of Law,
Professor of International Affairs
Pennsylvania State University
239 Lewis Katz Building
University Park, PA 16802
SSRN Author page: http://ssrn.com/author=259226

Read Complete Story

Hi Mohammed,

I just read your article: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53144

I work for an organization called Save a Child’s Heart, based in Israel. SACH is an Israeli-based international humanitarian project providing life-saving heart surgeries and follow-up care for children from developing countries.

Since its inception in 1996, the Save a Child’s Heart medical team has provided life-saving open heart surgery for over 2,400 children and has examined and evaluated more than 5.500 children from 41 countries around the world. Over half of these children are from the Palestinian Authority. A cardiology clinic is held at the Wolfson Medical Center every Tuesday for Palestinian children from Gaza and the West Bank.

Can you please send me more information regarding “two-year-old Israa Tabsh”? Perhaps we can help her at Save a Child’s Heart.

A child is a child and a heart is a heart.

Thanks,
Shirlee

–
Shirlee Harel
Director of International and Public Relations
1 Borochov Street
Azur 58012, Israel
www.saveachildsheart.com

Thank you for a positive story on Sri Lanka, and on how the divisions caused by the war are being bridged. Just a little concerned though that the title might play into the (erroneous) thinking that is still prevalent in some quarters, that all Tamils are Tigers, despite your ‘inverted commas’. It’s a catching title I agree but don’t think we should leave any room for triggering any negative thoughts even in readers’ subconscious.

Priyanthi Fernando

Dear Sir/Madam/Editor,

I read IPS every day amongst other media for global news and would like to say congratulations to IPS for their journalist Mohammed Omer and his latest award from Norway. You have some very good, on the ground, writers.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=319671

Mel Filban(USA)

Dear Editor:

Concerning article on Climate Activism

According to the article, Klimaforum 09 in Copenhagen, Denmark should have received close to 125 million dollars from the Danish government.
That figure is, of course, highly exaggerated.

While it is true that Klimaforum was mostly paid for by the government - after a long and nervewrecking struggle between Klimaforum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the sum received was only 1 million euros, or 1.2 million dollars.

Best wishes,
Kenneth Haar
ATTAC-Denmark (one of many Danish organisations behind Klimaforum 09)

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

The current need to promote environmental initiatives course content, to correct the ecological imbalance created by the action hearted man for decades of economic and industrial development behind the concept of sustainability, and the urgency in the introduction and spread of new systems energy that are satisfactory to the demands of the current economic and social order, and are able to reconcile the appropriateness of the energy source that seeks to promote in relation to goods that are trying to preserve, along with an inescapable duty to save the inputs, forcing the government but also to the citizens to be aware and responsible initiatives on energy.

It is clear, first, that the Administration has the duty to promote responsible initiatives, because it is the Administration who is responsible for the organization and conduct of society, and to that extent it is understood that have or should have a clear awareness of needs and must act to address them.

With its performance management not only makes what should be done, but, as you well know, his performance has an exemplary value to citizens.

But also in this area citizens have a duty to act in responsible and can seek to promote initiatives, either individually or range of value, either value or scope, is necessary in this case, perhaps, seek the involvement of the Administration as a result of the special nature of the initiative that seeks to promote.

In this approach is that we need to ground on the draft energy efficiency and ONTIN_SOL, which presents the trading company of import and export Ontinyent SA.

The lighting is an important part of total electricity consumption in cities, close to the estimated 50% of the total planned spending. The actions in this area have materialized to date in the replacement of the
type of bulbs the lights, in order to achieve a significant reduction of light pollution from cities and ensuring the use of materials that are best suited to preserve the environment. This is to introduce a new large-scale street lighting technology that is absolutely incardinaría on the criteria of maximum efficiency, saving energy and sustainability. For this implementation is the development of a pilot
experiment in which the Administration to verify the suitability of the proposed project, and economic opportunity, social and environmental impact of its implementation.

The system consists of the introduction of solar lamps and in some cases fitted with a mixed system with a small wind turbine, as well as with their LED lighting system that can stay connected to the existing network for cases of emergency, but that due to its technical characteristics can be located well isolated network to meet the needs of lighting the area in which they are located

This pilot study and verification of results must be dovetailed into the local environmental policy or strategy to bet on renewable energy in its various manifestations. To do this, it is suggested that local government, sensitive to environmental needs and energy, to propose the signing of a cooperation agreement with the company that raises Ontin-SOL Project, to assess field performance efficiency and energy savings that arise in the study, one or more areas and at a predetermined period of time.

Enrique Garcia

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

Excellent work and one that needs to be widely disseminated. The plight of these creatures is not sufficiently known in India.

Ravi Singh

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

Shame, this is a most horrific practice. Had these girls or the families benefitted from an education, it might never have happened, but Mugabe’s rule has reduced a country which once produced more Rhodes and Beit Scholars to a gibbering mass of deeply bigoted and stupid people. It will take generations to fix. The whole country has been denuded of intelligent civilized beings , they have joined the great diaspora and less than monkeys run the government and armed forces, only believing that Might is Right. My land is ruined by greed and stupidity.

Miles Anderson

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

The influence of religion is seldom considered in research and education for sustainable development. Perhaps this is not surprising, as religious issues tend to be controversial. But ignoring the influence of religion in sustainable development is like assuming that religion has no influence, which is probably the worst assumption to make. This is especially true when sustainable development is considered from a “human-centric” perspective, i.e., when human development is viewed as the core of sustainable development.

A series of opinion surveys about critical issues pertaining to education for sustainable development (ESD) has recently (April to August 2009) been completed. This is an independent initiative of PelicanWeb, and there is no presumption that the online surveys used meet the requirements of scientific sampling. However, a total of 1002 responses have been collected for five successive monthly versions of the survey, and there is a consensus that (1) gender inequities are a significant obstacle to sustainable development, and (2) the root cause of gender inequities is a mix of inseparable cultural and religious factors.

The analysis of survey responses, in conjunction with analysis of other surveys, maps on the geographic distribution of world religions and other factors such as poverty, human development, and gender equity; and review of the scientific literature, the arts, and real life examples collected from news sources, leads to an inference that the exclusion of women from roles of religious authority is an obstacle to the integral human development of both men and women. An overview of all the evidence and analysis has been posted to the web: http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv05n09page1.html

Take care,
Luis T. Gutierrez, PhD
Editor, PelicanWeb Journal of Sustainable Development

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

I was interested in your article about Fair Trade in Eastern Europe. Thank you for publishing this important information.

One of the statements repeated in your article, that there are no direct fair trade products imported from the South, is not entirely accurate. I refer to the quote below,

“However, as Szambelan explains, for the moment the products are not directly imported from countries in the global south; rather, they are bought from Western European fair trade companies, such as German GEPA and El Puente and British Divine Chocolate.”

Ten Senses Ltd (based in Bratislava (still the only accredited Eastern European member of the World Fair Trade Organisation) for 18 months has been importing Fair Trade macadamia nuts direct from Kenya under the Ten Senses brand (recently available for purchase in Poland as well), and this week is launched the first directly imported fair trade coffee into Eastern Europe from Ethiopia, under the Samay” brand.

Regards,
Allan Bussard
Ten Senses Ltd.
Bratislava, Slovakia

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

My name is Natina McAndrews-Miller. Once married to a Japanese gentlemen and went by the name of Natina Mazaki. I am from what is called in the States a bicultural family of Japanese and American descent. My father being in the military most of my youth I grew up in Japan. During my youth I enjoyed the two cultures very much and my parents emphasized on learning about the good parts of Japanese culture. I grew attached to my mother’s side, the Japanese side, and decided that I was going to make Japan my home.

I met my previous husband who was from Hiroshima and we lived in the northern outskirts of the prefecture. Being young and naive, I jumped right into the life of “dokyo”; living together with ones in-laws, especially of the oldest son. I went through such a culture shock you could not believe.

The longer I stayed and the more I got involved with community activities, from town council to PTA membership, the more I thought about the role of the women and the more puzzled I got, the women are like busy bumble bees. Why are there no men at these meetings? So I asked, the Japanese mother replied, then we wont be able to make our own decisions and men don’t get involved with community activities. Japan’s is run by the women but at the “shimin level” I thought to myself Japan would be even a better, bigger and wealthier country if some of these women were at the top.

But at the “shimin level” Japanese tend to hesitate to express themselves and people who raise their hand first to volunteer for a position in PTA were looked down on as an outcast. This is where I learned the Hiroshima dialect, “deshyabari” But I look up to those women and say, You are a leader, you should be a politician. My favorite politician is Ms. Takako Tanaka, former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka’s daughter. She said, “Everytime I wanna go forward something is holding me back so I look back to see and someone is stepping on my skirt. “Stop stepping on the woman’s skirt and let her do her job. I don’t know if a male politician is stepping on her skirt she didn’t say but the ratio of men and women is very obvious.

I use to have conversations with women in my neighborhood about my dream and they would laugh. My mother-in-law would make comments like, “so are you asking me to die?”
I interpret this as to say, As long as I am livingYou can’t do anything but attend to the duties of “Oyome” of the “Ie”. Why can’t I be “Oyome” and have a dream?

I don’t have much knowledge of the Japanese politics and law. But Japanese women need to be taught they can fight for their rights; more vocal and need to be educated on their rights from an early age.

How can you allow the phrase, said by an actor well known to be a player, “Furinwa bunka” become a fad.

I was married for 25 years to my Japanese husband and we ran a business together. I went to family court to claim what was righfully mine. But since everything was in my husband’s name I could not claim anything. I would have to take it to a higher court and fight for what I wanted. I wish I were more educated and had knowledge of how I could get my name on a title. Unfortunately, I didn’t have control over this. Even if I had the knowledge the male is very dominant over decision making. I hope Japanese men don’t get offended when I say that but in my case that was the situation.

This is a more domestic matter than a political topic. Well maybe it will become a political matter. My husband submitted our divorce papers without my knowledge so in other words, he forged the divorce papers and submitted it to the ward office. I went to the ward office to retrieve it and was told it has been sent to our record holding place the Prefecture Office so I went to get it but I was declined. I need to obtain a document from a judge giving them permission to release it. How true this is I don’t know but Japanese government administration offices’ are pretty professional. Until this day I can not find out who are the two witnesses that’s needed to complete a divorce document. The mediators at family court told me that since I am agreeing to the divorce it shouldn’t be an issue. Because of certain circumstances I had no choice but to agree to the divorce..

I was working my butt off and had no bank account in my name, none of our cars or homes that we were paying for were in my name. My husband would not disclose our books to me. So I learn another Hiroshima dialect term, “saifuwo nigiru”; the person who controls the accounts. The more I tried to stand up for my rights the more I was mistreated. When I went to a friend for advice her advice was.. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, “She told me to stash cash when I can; steal from my husband? So I learn the word, “hesokuri”
Being so stressed from fighting I started to fall ill and to protect my health I decided to divorce and return to USA.

From this experience I am all guards up working forward to a degree in accounting. I’m gonna be my own accountant and even open my own office to help other woman with their finances. I just wish I could’ve done it in Japan.

I love Japan and it breaks my heart to see that women can not gain a higher position at a firm, bank or company when they have the potential to do the same job.

Come on! Give them a chance to prove themselves and I know you will see drastic change.
Good example is probably the supermarket that hires housewives as managers. The supermarket is making money. Why? Cuz Japanese women got what it takes to make achieve goals and succeed. That is what I believe.

Natina Miller

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

I was touched by your article: Women on Front Lines of Climate Week. However, I do come from another atoll/islands (Mortlock Islands) in Bougainville, (Papua New Guinea) that is very much effected by the Global Warming and is in a far more serious situation than the Carteret Islands, but is hardly mentioned in the media, internationally. It makes me sad that the media only focus on certain group of islands rather than all islands that are worse effected by the Global Warming.

How can I get my people’s voices heard about the difficulties and struggle that they have gone through in terms of been victimized by the Global Warming?

Best Regards,
Mrs. Linda Fitina
Housing & Administrative Officer
Dept of Human Resource Management

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

The story at this link http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48291 - which read as “The three countries have a total combined population of nearly 1.4 million people and a combined GDP of more than 3.2 trillion dollars.” should have read as “The three countries have a total combined population of nearly 1.4 billion people and a combined GDP of more than 3.2 trillion dollars.” (billion not million).

Damtew Teferra

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

How can Peace be made with the Jewish nation that” Deliberately” set out 60 years ago, to force out the Palestinians who already occupied the land? Was that their intentions in other countries?

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

Thank you for your article about the fertilizer subsidies being tied to voter registration this year. This greatly concerns me because I work with a program in the US that helps raise funds to help the
vulnerable agogo of Malawi who are caring for orphaned and vulnerable children. In the last few years with the government subsidy and our help with the remaining cost hundreds of these agogo have been able to feed their grandchildren. What a sad day for Malawi if the very ones who are most vulnerable and doing the hard work of caring for children are left out of this life saving program. I certainly hope this will be reconsidered based on real need.

Concerned,
Leslie Lewis
US Coordinator for Gogo Grandmothers

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

Regarding this article, I feel that President Obama is doing his very best to live up to the commitments to peace that he outlined in his campaign, but he is not Superman, he is in a really difficult situation, between entrenched opposing forces that have a history of, to put it mildly, not cooperating in the least to find real solutions to the existing problems. He needs all the support, both politically and from the media, if he is going to have even a modicum of success in dealing with these most complex issues. The question remains, as I read this article, “Where are you putting your support?”

Kathleen Epstein

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

What the United States did was nothing less than Criminal.

Both Obama and Clinton should apologize to the world and to the Honduran People. The actions taken by the Congress and the Supreme Court were in full compliance with the constitution, and to the letter of the law. If the international community cannot appreciate the legal acts of Honduras as a true nation dedicated to the rule of law, then we are doomed to tyranny throughout the world.

Richard Knudson

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

A man who is hit by a woman is not a “battered husband,” by the proper use of the term. Battering does not just mean beating or hitting. I don’t mean to diminish the wrong done to a man by a violent spouse, but in current legal parlance, a battered spouse is subjected to far more than just battering. The victim is subjected to repeated threats and a cycle of violence that leaves her or him feeling helpless. It’s called “learned helplessness” and it’s far more pernicious than “simple” beating.

It does a tremendous disservice to the tens of thousands of women who are subjected to this cycle to post a piece on “battered husbands” without discussion of the more pernicious aspects of battering.

Jennifer Van Bergen
Gainesville, FL (USA)

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

It seems that the issue misses the best and most fundamental point. The residues from Municipal Solid and Liquid Waste (and Other Typical Wastes) after recycling in Mauritius (and for example anywhere else for that matter) is an organic based material which is often called BMW or the Biodegradable part of Municipal Waste and this is a raw material that can be readily converted in to the biofuels for transport - such as ethanol - and such a fuel is one of those that is required across the World to be blended with gasoline at the ratio of 10% by 2020.

Whilst, you will know from the statistics in Mauritius which you seem to refer to there is but a large amount of this BMW material available from the Municipal sources (indeed if we are not clear on the issue it is I think over 68%) which I suggest might equate to 400,000 tonnes per year. It is thus significant! What sees to be missed is also there are large quantities of other Wastes which equally contain a similar Biodegradable content, for example from agriculture and food production.

With waste being a major talking point in Mauritius or Europe and the wider World arena it seems to me as a layman that the objective here and the bane of contention is the fact that what has been offered in the incineration offer (where waste is burnt) with the idea that it can produce a modicum of electricity is somewhat near-sighted. Why? Simply put this raw material the Biodegradable part of the various wastes which are either obtained from Municipal Solid Waste or any other sources are worth SIX TIMES more to the economy as a replacement fuel for transport than electricity.

Be aware that there are already plants being built and proposed to treat the Biodegradable material from these wastes to the fuel ethanol for use in transport across the world. They include the UK in Yorkshire, the USA in Kentucky, the Netherlands and in Viet Nam. You might also like to know that even India and Malaysia and Turkey have realised this and have awoken to the potential.

Using waste as a source of raw material to make the fuel ethanol avoids the use of food crops which has been the source of concern across the world since the Americans and Europeans targeted food crops as the raw material for making ethanol. Now with the EU restricting subsidies to such sources of production of these fuels everyone is moving non-food sources of biodegradable material to make such fuels: Malta could do the same.

The reality is that the case for this solution is compelling and can’t be ignored. The proposed waste to ethanol plants do not emit the smoke odour dust and particulates that are common-place with all incineration projects and they leave no unusable residues. Importantly for the public though they are considerably cheaper to build and operate. For Mauritius though that has had serious times with the issue of producing ethanol from sugar cane it would revitalise that industry and bring back to use the plants that were not thought to be viable using sugar cane. Thus it would happily fit within the aspirations of reinventing an industry that has fallen onto hard times whilst at the same time resolving a major issue.

This I suggest would be a better environmental solution than the current policy as all the products entering the system would be converted to products that have a higher net value than those going in! There would as reported be no harmful emissions from the process at all as all products in manufacture would be of value. And economically the proposal would be significantly better than an incineration plant of equal capacity - approximately 40% capital wise and capable of delivering a pay-off period of
less than 7 years whilst working within a gate or treatment fee of less than say $25-00/€20-00 per tonne. This is surely an option and a way forward without equals.

This is surely a win-win solution which cannot be ignored as it would resolve the waste programme for Mauritius at a stroke.

Thank you
Carol Horner

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

Wasserman-Schultz is behind the times, just like most (if not all) of the Florida Democrats. Here, in Florida, the Democrats behave more like moderate Republicans than anything else. If Wasserman-Shultz isn’t comfortable with supporting main-stream, progressive Democratic Party endeavors, she ought to get out of politics (or at least the Democratic Party) and let us move forward in Florida.

Of course, she is undoubtedly wishing to ‘keep her cover’ in order to successfully run for re-election. I am one Florida progressive who would never vote for her if a more progressive candidate presents him- or herself for election. I would actively volunteer to help the campaign of any other progressive candidate opposing her position, even though I do not live in Wasserman-Schultz’s district.

Wasserman-Schultz needs to decide in which political party she wishes to be a member and act accordingly.

Sincerely,

Larry Zollner
Valrico, Florida (USA)

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

Juan Ramon Duran’s Sept. 22 report on the coup regime’s response to President Zelaya’s return to Honduras ends: In the eyes of some political observers, Zelaya’s return to Tegucigalpa paves the way for a prompt solution to the political crisis. For others, it spells the end of his political career and has generated stronger support for the de facto government and the elections.

The first group of political observers would appear to include Secretary Clinton and Pres. Arias, based on their statements Monday afternoon at the UN, as well as Laura Carlsen, whose post on Monday is entitled in almost those exact words.

But I’m curious to know who the other “political observers” are to whom Durán refers. Who has expressed stronger support for the coup government and the elections since Zelaya’s return? I’d very much appreciate being pointed to some examples of their statements. As far as I know, only one government in the world, the conservative administration in Panama, has said that it will recognize the results of this November’s elections. Was the Panama government’s statement made before or after the coup government’s violent response to Zelaya’s presence in the capital?

I’m particularly interested to know who has made the assessment that this “spells the end of [Zelaya’s] political career”, given that most commentators have grasped that the events leading up to and in response to the coup have almost nothing to do with Zelaya personally.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,
Nell Lancaster
Lexington, Virginia (USA)

Read Complete Story

Dear Editor:

A few thoughts in response to the article by Jim Lobe and how we might go forward and build a better future.

We need to reduce our output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but that may not be enough if we have already crossed key tipping points that will result in the belching of monstrous volumes of methane into the atmosphere from Arctic permafrost and ocean floor, which will also help to melt more polar ice. We may be in luck and pull the problem back to a manageable crisis, but we shouldn’t be gambling with the future of our children, nestling all our eggs in one Earthly nest, where global heating could rot the lot.

If we would like to consider a Churchill-like emergency plan to save the Earth, ensure our future survival and keep the wheels of our civilization turning, we may need two pages to work with that are mutually supportive. On the left page will be the sustainability plan for human habitation of Earth, describing the shape of the society that would allow a healthy environment indefinitely into the future. On the right hand page would be the natural extension of our civilization and technology into space. Securing a sustainable presence in space may prove to be the insurance policy that we cannot afford to live on Earth without, as from a confident survival presence in space, we would have the choice to work for a healthier Earthly environment. Should human civilization be dragged back in time to a new Stone Age, or worse, by slow or fast global heating induced catastrophe, or simply our indecision and lack of vision, what choice would we have but to join the Age of Stupid paid-up members club.

Links across the page that take us to a survivor role on Earth and in space could be an adjustable sunshade in space at Lagrange 1 and the construction of solar power stations in space that could provide all Earth’ energy needs and and leave fossil fuels as fossils. I hope the people of Earth vote for a two page solution to our present planetary emergency, as a focus on the Earthly nest alone could prove to be the royal road to the extinction of the human species. Unfortunately many seem to have given up hope and are waiting for the end in some black fantasy of collective suicide. We don’t need to go there. We live in an age where we need a vision of hope for our survival, on Earth and among the stars.

Yours sincerely,
Kim Peart
Australia

Read Complete Story