Exxon/Mobil's see thru greenwashing might not have been so see thru if they had called off their pitbull outgoing ceo a bit earlier.
'Prestige' debacle linked to GP activists trial in Turkey for oil tanker occupation using law meant for terrorists. More to come?
Are our German colleagues on a consultancy contract with the BBC?
While the world's media was caught by Spain's oil spill, Incidentally, the ship accidents also happened off the Hong Kong's and Japan's coast!
A ship carrying 20,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was caught fire on Nov 24 off Hong Kong shore. Hong Kong government officials are hoping the blaze will eventually burn itself out.
On the other hand in Japan, a grounded freighter carrying nearly 4,000 vehicles, burned out of control near Izu-Oshima, an island about 80 miles south of Tokyo.
Are there any campaign points for Greenpeace?
More reports:
Guardian
Daily Yomiuri
This week the homework for my Accessible Web Design class was to install an accessibilty technology and use it as if you were the intended audience.
For me, this meant choosing a screen reader and loading it as if I was blind. Turning off the monitor was an incredibily frightening experience.
Browsing the web, which sounds pretty simple, was a Sisyphissian effort. From having to adjust the pitch and tone of the synthesized voice, to figuring out sites which use nothing but images for navigation (which is quite a few of them), it was a generally frustrating experience. The difference for me is, I can turn the monitor back on.
So, in my quest to find out more, I found some interesting resources:
Building a Barrier-Free Web (New Architect Magazine)
Another vulgar example of McDonald's trying to hoodwink the public by hook or by crook, and this time, they have shamelessly created a partnership with Unicef. Of course, it is not because they genuinely and truly love children, it's all a scam to fool the young public and their families.
This “unholy union” was exposed by EarthRights International and NGOs associated with the Alliance for a Corporate Free UN in a satirical street drama staged outside the Unicef Headquarters in New York City this week.
During the "ceremony", Missy vowed to obey her future husband so long as he continued to hand over the dosh. This is exactly what's happening in real life where McDonald's will continue to contribute to children's charities run by Unicef if these efforts can create a wholesome, warm and wonderful children-loving façade.
It sucks because -- McDonald's is getting away with this in nearly 120 countries, for 47 years, with a total workforce of 1.5 million people, which is equivalent to the population of Brussels.
It really sucks because Hong Kong, being such a small place, has more than 150 McDonalds outlets, with more than 500,000 customers daily and 9000 employees.
It really really sucks because we let ourselves be the suckers, willing to be mesmerised by the golden arches, their meal toy scams, and their lowest standard of food one can get.
Another lesson we should bear in mind: Ronald McDonald and Missy McUnicef. We should not forget the children in developing countries, who are suffering from the dire poverty that is induced by the corporate-controlled "free trade" rules. McDonald is absolutely not the saviour.
Perspective is a wonderful, and frequently shocking thing. Some genius in the U.S. office did this math. I'm glad I take the bus to work. It makes me less embarassed to be an American.
The Prestige held 22 million gallons = 524,000 barrels
U.S. consumption = 19.6 million barrels a day = 817,000 barrels/hour =
13,600 barrels /minute
524,000/13,600 = 38.5 minutes
That means in less than 40 minutes the U.S. uses the same amount of oil that is now flooding the coast of Spain.
And an SVU is a good idea why?
Los diputados argentinos están a punto de aprobar un acuerdo internacional con Australia para permitir el ingreso de residuos nucleares a la Argentina. Está previsto que esto suceda el próximo miércoles 27 de noviembre. Todos podemos hacer algo para impedirlo!
Este acuerdo forma parte de un contrato comercial que negoció la empresa argentina INVAP al gobierno de Australia, que consiste en la venta de un reactor de investigación. La oferta incluye la introducción a la Argentina de basura nuclear para su posterior tratamiento, operación prohibida por el artículo 41 de la Constitución Nacional argentina.
Ver más información en la página de Greenpeace Argentina...
Here is how you can spend a small amount to save an animal's life struck by this week's oil spill disaster in Spain.
Following the devastating "Prestige" oil spill, International Fund for Animal Welfare's (IFAW) Emergency Relief team members have been on the scene doing whatever they can to deal with the aftermath.
According to the latest IFAW report, at least 160 birds are already suffering from the heavy toxic oil and it's a desperate struggle to clean the animals before it's too late. IFAW is going to need substantial funds for more rescuers and critical equipment to arrive in time.
The relief team has been working closely with local authorities, but there's an urgent need for additional equipment, staff, food, medications, seabird rehabilitation pools, water heaters and other key items to be brought in from IFAW-supported shelters in France and Germany.
It is looking really desperate down there.
If you can spare US$100 it will help cover costs for shipping a rescue pool to the scene; US$75 will help buy critically needed medicines or cover a day's expenses for an ER team member. Even US$50 or US$25 could be enough to save an oiled animal's life.
Do something now, for the birds and for the environment.
To all movie buffs out there, here is a blockbuster coming soon to a theatre near you! According to the flyer, it is presented by the Bush administration in association with THE OTHER Bush administration. With this "joined forces" set up, critics say it looks set to be a real successful explosive release worldwide. Thanks RD of the US office for the tip-off.
This week I returned to the office after an intriguing, exotic, relaxing and eventful six weeks in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Taking a long break from work and the looming Northern winter was simply delightful. Laos was definitely the favourite, the people are similar to the Thais but being a landlocked country the complete absence of sun and sea package tourists means Laos remains a sleepy backwater of Asian tourism. It also retains the air of adventure for those who spent more than the standard one week crossing to Vietnam. A river trip along the Mekong or standing alone in the enigmatic plains of jars are a few of the fine experiences Laos has to offer the more adventurous traveler. For anyone with a interest in world politics it’s also a fascinating and often depressing insight into the complex, destructive and often simply perverse power games of the cold war era.
The Angkor temples of Cambodia brought us back down to earth with a bump. Sunset at Ankor Wat was not quite the experience most people were expecting, at times it seemed you could see more people than the actual temple! But as there are many more temples in the huge complex you could always escape the crowds but never it seemed the postcard selling kids. Given the gruesome recent history of the country you have to admire the resilience of the population to rebuild a country shattered by years of war and still haunted by landmines.
Returning for a meeting by the Dutch seaside in November was a bit of a shock after five days by the sea in Thailand but luckily I don't really have to adapt because I'm heading east again but this time for work. So look out for some anecdotes of working in the field rather than the cosy office with maybe a little local flavour thrown in.
I just received two enquiries from Brazil, which is so far away from China, after a TV documentary program about Black Bear was broadcasted. I agree with their concerns but do not know how to deal with the problem.
What I can tell is that some animal rights groups are working on this issue. One of them is International Fund for Animal Welfare. They have a branch in Beijing and should be able to help, as far as I know.
A recent article by Reuters said that Viagra can be used to preserve endangered animal species apart from treating sexual impotence in humans. Yes, it does sound shocking, but, just a minute, the kind of help that Viagra can give in this case is nothing like what you would imagine. But the article also said enlisting the help of Viagra can definitely keep a lot of endangered species off the Chinese menu. Sounds intriguing? Read on.
Eventually the photo exhibition on the Bhopal incident will soon be held in Hong Kong and Beijing. We should give thanks to our Information Officer, Percy, who helped bargain for a discount in renting a venue in HK and posting the photos on the boards. Much money was then saved. Unfortunately, the photographer is unable to come. We have to seek alternative arrangement for that.
Meeting is over but for some of us this means that we start training people in the use of our Content Management System. We are in a small meeting room with 16 people. Imagine computers of all sort, cables, noise, papers on the walls.
These are Greenpeace webbies from all over the world, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Israel, Canada, Philipines, France, Australia ... It's fun to have people with so many different cultural backgrounds, so many different ideas. The feedback to enhance our system has been very good! That's so cool!
On a personal note, I haven't found time to walk around with my camera for a month, I am starting to feel the "need" ... I guess I will have to make time and just satisfy myself :)
Meeting is over, people are still hanging around, rest is needed. One thing that was mentioned was e-pollution, people's obvious concern about the disposal of PCs and the release of toxic material in the environment. This is the usual concept of e-pollution but it's even more interesting (and worrying) the fact that a typical 2-gram silicon chip requires 1.6 kilograms of fossil fuel, 72 grams of chemicals and 32 kilograms of water to manufacture. I still wonder if it's because software companies keep developing programs that require machines more and more powerful, or if it's just my fault for being a computer-addict geek. I feel guilty now.
Weblogs, weblogs, weblogs. The word has become a mantra in the last session. If a weblog was created for each time it was mentioned, then you'll soon see a swarm of Greenpeace weblogs :-)
Yesterday we had a very interesting guest here, giving us some fresh ideas about online activism. I saw a lot of scribbling so I suppose it was appreciated. Unfortunately it was also a sad day since one of our friends received terrible news from his family. We do miss him and we send him a big hug.
I won't go in the details of some discussions I've heard in our after-hours but I'm pleased to see those of us who are parents on the frontline of creative debates.
More to come later.
Yesterday was an intense day of meeting and organizing all the web people participating in the meeting. We had technical IT people as well as all the web-folks from all over the world. It was massive. I had to do a presentation as well.
It's really nice to see the people that you usually communicate with through email almost of a daily basis and to meet as well the new members of the GP community. It's amazing to see how many of these friends are doing all-around web/fundraising/IT tasks. We had very interesting discussions about the reason to have websites, about new projects...
Of course, after all the hard work, it's good to relax and it was the birthday of Helena, a colleague from Australia! It was a lot of fun to gather again (like last year) and party a bit... Actually, it's in those moments, when we are relaxing, that most of the cutting edge ideas come to life! At least that's how we came out with a more detailed idea on how to create the application behind our new website.
We had all sorts of presentations and we will have loads of workshops to discuss topics that we consider as interesting, or we are curious to know more about...
Today the Greenpeace web folks are sharing some sessions with our "brothers" techies. It's always great to see alpha-geeks at work, admiration is the right word, wizards they are. Still, it's quite difficult to talk about many different issues with them...
Somehow we also ended up discussing a lot about kids, it seems many of us are parents or are waiting a baby, amazing!! Best thing as usual, are the post-first-beer discussions, ranging from how to make a massive origami to how cool it would be to do kite surfing. I'm afraid those talks had little to do with Greenpeace but culture diversity is probably one of the best things inside the organisation.
Yesterday's dinner was really disappointing for vegetarians, just carrots and peas!?!? Going to lunch now, hopefully it'll be better.
From today until monday all the Greenpeace web folks will get together to find out how we can possibly involve (and entertain) you all through the web interface. This meeting happens only once a year so it's always great to meet friends who come from the other side of the world.
I'll try to send some updates from the meeting, I wish I could cover it live, but my typing will not make you happy. Besides the most interesting discussions and the best ideas come always in the evening in front of a couple of beers.
In any case, if you want to bring your voice to the meeting, post a comment and I'll make sure it comes up on the projector :-)
You've read about the campaign, you've listened to the anthem, you've even designed the logo.
Now it's time to get your hands dirty.
It seems people are entering the "environmentally-friendly" business with new ideas, including the one of burying your dearly beloved in more natural ways rather than seal their remains in caskets.
A company also promises to "mix someones ash remains with concrete and turn it into an artificial reef to serve as marine habitat for sea life", maybe it's because of me being italian, but doesn't this sound like "sleep with the fishes"?
The first Tuesday in November has always been Election Day in the U.S. The airwaves, both television and radio, are full of campaign slogans and promises; but unless you've been paying close attention, the candidates are virtually indistinguishable.
All are for "the family" (and defining what that means could take eons), better schools, lower taxes (hum...diametrically opposed goals...that should be interesting), less traffic (and the solution is to build more roads?!?!?!?!), and lower crime rates.
Even if you have been paying attention, for most Americans the choice boils down to this . The sad part is, most of us aren't paying attention; as one pundit recently said, regardless of the outcome of the mid-term elections, George Bush will be President for at least another 2 years.
Yesterday I went to lunch with Alex, he's a new member of our team so I thought to give him a soft introduction to the chaotic world of a no-profit organisation like Greenpeace. I have to say he was well prepared for it, so there was no panic.
Whenever someone new join us I think they must be really special people, especially when they end up working in an office where on the door there's a piece of paper saying: "Mad bastards room".
Welcome Alex.
