I’ve been on the Rainbow Warrior for about two weeks now for anti-war activities and yesterday we received this marine satellite safety message, it went out to all ships on the INMARSAT system.
EGC.004 Page 1 UTC Time: 03-02-27 12:09:02
LES 101 – MSG 40 – General Safety Call to Area: All – PosOK
HYDROLANT 447/03(GEN). EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA.
1. U.S. Forces are conducting combat training exercises in international waters off the Northern and eastern coast of Cyprus until further notice. Combat exercise activities may pose a hazard to navigation. All vessels are advised to navigate with extreme caution.
2. Request surface vessels with destinations at ports in southwestern Turkey, north and eastern Cyprus or Syria remain clear of the following designated operating areas:
A. OPERA ONE: 36-12.ON 035-30.OE, 35-50.ON 035-30.OE…
B. OPERA TWO: 35-25.ON 034-40.OE, 35-25.ON 035-30.OE…
3. All ports in this area remain open. Vessels will be able to reach ports in southwestern Turkey, North and Eastern Cyprus or Syria by transiting within 12NM of the coast or in international waters outside the operas identified by the coordinates above.
4. During these combat training exercises U.S. Forces will be operating at a heightened state of readiness and taking additional defensive precautions against terrorist and other potential threats. Surface vessels approaching U.S. Forces are required to maintain radio contact with U.S. Forces on bridge-to-bridge channel 16.
5. U.S. Forces will exercise appropriate measures in self-defense if warranted by the circumstances. Surface vessels approaching U.S. Forces should make their intentions clear and avoid unnecessary initiation of such defensive measures by initiating radio contact as described above.
6. Nothing in this warning is intended to impede or otherwise interfere with the freedom of navigation of any vessel, or to limit or expand the inherent self-defense rights of U.S. Forces. This warning is published solely to advise of the heightened state of readiness of the U.S. Forces and to request that radio contact be maintained as described above.
hmmmmmm.
It has been sunny for weeks here in Amsterdam which, in Febuary especially, must be some kind of record. As I can't upload any sunshine here is something topical that might make the more computer inclined laugh.
Here are a few of the signs that appeared at the recent Washington peace rally:
1) These colors don't run the world.
2) One nation under surveillance.
3) How did our oil get under their sand?
4) Go Solar, not Ballistic.
5) Who would Jesus bomb?
6) Start Drafting SUV Drivers Now.
7) Don't blame me, I voted with the majority.
8) Buck Fush!
9) It's NUCLEAR, not NUCULAR, you idiot!
10) Patriots are idiots - Matriarchy Now!
11) Resistance is Fertile.
12) (Pictures of sheep carrying flags) Stop Mad Sheep
Disease Now.
13) (UFW sign) Pick Fruit, not Fights.
14) (On a five year old) More Candy Less War.
15) Say can you see my democracy?
16) (With pictures of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) Asses of Evil.
17) It's the oil, stupid.
18) War is expensive, Peace is priceless.
19) Read between the Pipelines
20) No More BuShit.
21) Smart weapons, Dumb president.
22) The only thing we have to fear is Bush himself.
23) How many Lives per Gallon?
24) Peace Takes Brains
25) Anything War can do, Peace can do better.
26) Negotiation Not Annihilation.
27) Make touchdowns, not war - Go Raiders!
28) Another patriot for peace.
29) Oh Say can You Cease?
30) Star Spangled Bummer
31) Don't Arm a Son of a Bush
32) Don't do it George, Dad will still love you.
33) Power to the Peaceful
34) The last time we listened to a Bush, we wandered
in the desert for 40 years.
35) (Pictures of Bush, Cheyney, Rumsfeld) Three empty war heads found in
Washington.
36) War: don't buy it!
The Iraq Body Count project plans to display a counter of all the civilian death in Iraq during 2003. This is done gathering information from different news sources. They even have a very detailed database providing info like "Location", "Target", "Weapons" and so on. You can install the counter on your website too and it will be updated automatically. Very good stuff.
Here's one for everone with a brother or sister. I read something similar a while back which claimed most dictators were a second child.
I'm a first child but I like to travel and live abroad so that doesn't fit so well with the authors book? Mind you, dictatorship has never really appealed either...
Read on Nettime:
"A friend's mother, who is a native new yorker, was given the wrong
drug recently and was in a coma for 4 days. Fortunately they realized
it in time and she was brought out of it. They ran an MRI and things
looked good, but they wanted to verify that the woman had not lost
cognitive skills. The doctor asked her:
"What year is it?"
"2003" the woman answered.
"What month is it?"
"February."
"Who is the President"
"I'd rather not talk about it."
I was in Paris at the weekend and being in command of minimal French I couldn't really read lots of the slogans of my fellow marchers. Despite the language barrier, carrying this poster seemed to bring a smile to a lot of people's faces. I noticed how putting a humorous slant on the message helped gets people's attentions. My favourite from the Paris march was a girl with a hand scribbled - "Dear Mr Bush - please stop going to war so I can have my Saturdays back again" Later on the news (unfortunately CNN only in the hotel room) some of the others that caught my eye was "Stop mad cowboy disease", and "The 3 asses of evil - Bush, Blair, Sharon!" but for innovative cheek top of my list was one I read about today - a woman in the London march "The only Bush I trust is my own".
Tim has been pretty busy lately packaging some good info re: war. Last thing I saw is a tip to fax blast Mr. I-like-my-American-buddy-so-much Blair.
Our No war campaign has now a dedicated website. Here you'll find all the info, updates, actions that we (and you) can do in this period. Master Derek helped us putting the site together, so thank this dude for the great work.
Companion to the site, we also launched a No War-blog where you'll find writings and opinions from our No War campaigners. Check it out.
I just came back from the peace rally in Amsterdam. It was nice to see so many people opposing war! It reminded me of the "peace marchs" from the late 70s, early 80s, when I was just a kid and I would march through Paris (France) with my parents!
More than 20 years have passed and here I am again, marching for peace. This time, a bit more "mature".
I took quite a few pictures and I will be getting the film back from the lab tomorrow, so after reviewing the results and scanning the nice ones, I will probably be uploading them somewhere :)
I hope that many people that read this weblog have also been part of peace rallies all over the world!
That's what we needed. Now that the whole world is threatened by all possible kinds of wars, at least we have a way to entertain our children while they're poisoning us.
Genetic engineering seems to be so bad, according to Richard Dawkins.
We're definitely not convinced here and Brian points to a discussion thread on Boing Boing.
Are you on Vancouver island? Stop buying beers to those orcas! Leave them alone!
I often slacked off in geography class, but I'm sure that is not where Switzerland is. You think those CNN reporters will be able to find their way to Iraq?
No logo sent me to this anti-war cyberkit. Clever, and the image is great too. 
According to this NATO site yes.
Yes, it seems the only topic of conversion these days (war that is, not acronyms) but I bet you did not know what BBIV and HUIN have to do with it. About how I feel if I watch anyone from the UK/US government on the news these days.....
Just when you think you've got a handle on the world and all its craziness along comes an article like this: Answering the Unanswerable: A Child's Introduction to Activism
So just how do you answer the question, "That sign says "No War". What does 'war' mean?"
Well, it looks like my "advanced photography" course will force me into working one subject for quite a while. The teacher told us that we will have to come out with a "theme" for the next 3 months and stick with it, we also have to place further restrictions, like if we will work on black & white or color, if we want to "stage" or more spontaneous shots, etc... For me this is quite a challenge as I don't like to be forced into one particular subject, but I guess that's what it's all about, right? Trying to decide one particular subject and work on it until you get something good out of it.
I was thinking of "patterns in small plants" (I am very interested in macro photography) but at the same time I think I could get bored with that. Being in The Netherlands it's not going to be easy to take "wildlife" photography or "alpine landscape" :) so I have to think of something that is close to home and that's not the typical "Amsterdam Canals". Suggestions?
I could do something like "Protest" since I am working for Greenpeace :), I think I could find quite a lot of opportunities on that theme, but I don't know if I am a good portrait photographer or photojournalist...
A cockfight handler, about to release his rooster into the ring to do battle,
with both birds outfitted with razor-sharp steel spikes on their legs, was
killed when the rooster slashed the man's thigh and groin, causing him to bleed
to death (Zamboanga, Philippines, January).
And a 43-year-old man died of a
gunshot wound shortly after telling his wife he was going to use his rifle to
club to death the couple's Chinese shar-pei dog because it had bitten him; with
no other explanation apparent, police suspect that the rifle accidentally
discharged during the clubbing (Winchester, Va., January). [Associated Press,
1-14-03] [Tampa Tribune-Washington Post, 1-25-03]
Thanks News of the Weird
Using photosynthesis and other ways of manipulating grass, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey came up with interesting photo works.
Last night was a bit unusual for me. Every concert I have been to before (Charlatans, Carter USM, Pulp, Blur, Gorky's Zygotic Munci, Air, Coldplay etc etc) I have felt a bit out of place because the average age seemed at least 5 years younger than me. But yesterday I went with my girlfriend to Counting Crows.
Now I missed the whole Counting Crows thing a few years ago. As you can see from the concert list, my natural cultrally inbred Brit aversion to americanism and especially mass produced US 'popular' music probably explains that (we are not all like our spineless so called Prime Minister!)
The concert was full of people my age, barely a teenager in sight! So it must be official - I am no longer 'down with the kids'. My only solace is that normally I would not have gone to the Counting Crows. Oh, anyway they were pretty dam good - for a bunch of American musicians ;-)
Rob @ b3ta sent me another of his creatures. Dance, baby, dance!
This is so funny, ask a group of creative photoshoppers to show graphically a connection between Greenpeace and world peace and this is the result. Please keep me updated of new entries.
Read an interesting article in The New York Times today about the impacts of anti-fur activism on the lives of Native people in Canada. What interested me most was this passage:
Women who wear animal skins for coats and stoles still risk attracting nasty glares from the ecology-minded, who would probably be surprised to hear that their righteous cause has a cost.
Looking around the numerous rallys and impromptu peace gatherings and vigils we've had here in DC in the past few weeks I'm moved to wonder if the people who've used them to futher their own pet causes (anti-globalization being the biggest "piggy back" issue) have thought through the consequences of what they are asking. And did they thing about them when they were buying that Banana Republic jacket or those Doc Martens?
Perhaps if human beings spent a little more time being in harmony with the natural world and less time trying to exploit it we wouldn't do so much collateral damage when trying to fix our own mistakes.
As you probably know, few days ago our ship Rainbow Warrior II started a protest against the (upcoming?) war against Iraq, more actions followed and probably more will come.
In the meanwhile some (actually quite a big number) people hanging around the sci.military.naval newsgroup (most likely not a pacifist gathering place) started a thread with the question "Why did Greenpeace not get shot?" (during those No War actions).
A long thread, many references to the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior I and how the French military "didn't do the RW right the first time" (!) Frankly I'm not surprised by the tone of the discussion, we see these kind of things many times.
Tell you what, I'll go there and ask them to come here on the weblog and tell us more.
Naomi Klein writes about all the sudden interest from politicians towards the World Social Forum. I don't think there'll be a real hijack of the "Another world is possible" message, but let's keep our eyes open.