Maasailand Lions Emergency Fund

Maasailand Lions—A Desperate Situation
National Geographic has created an emergency fund to help avert a potential conservation disaster: the complete loss of lions in and around Amboseli National Park, one of Kenya’s most important tourist destinations. As they teeter on the brink of extinction, these lions do not have the luxury of time. The decline in the lion population in this region has reached a critical status that needs addressing on a major scale.

www.nationalgeographic.com/fiel....html

Loving elephants

Bull elephant Noppakhao paints a picture of another elephant in Ayutthaya province, Thailand.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/224...2008.html

Reverse Graffiti

Isn't this cool? Removing dirt to create "reverse graffiti".

reversegraffitiproject.com/index.html

A New Doc about Pure Evil

From dioxin to genetically modified crops a multinational with your best interests at heart.

Monsanto is the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history. This century-old empire has created some of the most toxic products ever sold, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the herbicide Agent Orange. Based on a painstaking investigation, The World According to Monsanto puts together the pieces of the company’s history, calling on hitherto unpublished documents and numerous first-hand accounts.

Today, Monsanto likes to style itself as a “life sciences” company. The leader in genetically modified seeds, engineered to resist its herbicide Roundup, claims it wants to solve world hunger while protecting the environment.

In the light of its troubling past, can we really believe these noble intentions? Misleading reports, collusion, pressure tactics and attempts at corruption: the history of Monsanto is filled with disturbing episodes. Behind its clean, green image, Monsanto is tightening its grasp on the world seed market, striving for market supremacy to the detriment of food security and the global environment.

nfb.ca/webextension/monsanto/index.php

Strike Against The War, All Out Mayday

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 (SF Chronicle)
Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war
by Jack Heyman

(Jack Heyman is a longshoreman who works on the Oakland docks.)


While millions of people worldwide have marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and last week's New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 81 percent believe the country is headed in the wrong direction - key concerns being the war and the economy - the war machine inexorably grinds on.

Amid this political atmosphere, dockworkers of the International Longshoreand Warehouse Union have decided to stop work for eight hours in all U.S. West Coast ports on May 1, International Workers' Day, to call for an end to the war.

This decision came after an impassioned debate where the union's Vietnam veterans turned the tide of opinion in favor of the anti-war resolution. The motion called it an imperial action for oil in which the lives of working-class youth and Iraqi civilians were being wasted and declared May Day a "no peace, no work" holiday. Angered after supporting Democrats who received a mandate to end the war but who now continue to fund it, longshoremen decided to exercise their political power on the docks.

Last month, in response to the union's declaration, the Pacific Maritime Association, the West Coast employer association of shipowners, stevedore companies and terminal operators, declared its opposition to the union's protest. Thus, the stage is set for a conflict in the run up to the longshore contract negotiations.

The last set of contentious negotiations (in 2002) took place during the period between the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Iraq. Representatives of the Bush administration threatened that if there were any of the usual job actions during contract bargaining, then troops would occupy the docks because such actions would jeopardize "national security." Yet, when the PMA employers locked out the longshoremen and shut down West Coast ports for 11 days, the "security" issue vanished. President Bush then invoked the Taft-Hartley Act, forcing longshoremen back to work under conditions favorable to the employers.

The San Francisco longshore union has a proud history of opposition to the war in Iraq, being the first union to call for an end to the war and immediate withdrawal of troops. Representatives of the union spoke at anti-war rallies in February 2003, including one in London attended by nearly 2 million people, the largest ever held in Britain. Executive Board member Clarence Thomas went to Iraq with a delegation to observe workers' rights during the occupation.

At the start of the war in Iraq, hundreds of protesters demonstrated on the Oakland docks, and longshoremen honored their picket lines. Without warning, police in riot gear opened fire with so-called less-than-lethal weapons, shooting protesters and longshoremen alike with wooden dowels, rubber bullets, pellet bags, concussion grenades and tear gas. A U.N. Human Rights Commission investigator characterized the Oakland police attack as "the most violent" against anti-war protesters in the United States.

And finally, last year, two black longshoremen going to work in the port of Sacramento were beaten, Maced and arrested by police under the rubric of Homeland Security regulations ordained by the "war on terror."

There's precedent for this action. In the '50s, French dockworkers refused to load war materiel on ships headed for Indochina, and helped to bring that colonial war to an end. At the ILWU's convention in San Francisco in 2003, A. Q. McElrath, an octogenarian University of Hawaii regent and former ILWU organizer from the pineapple canneries, challenged the delegates to act for social justice, invoking the union's slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all." She concluded, "The cudgel is on the ground. Will you pick it up?"

It appears that longshore workers may be doing just that on May Day and calling on immigrant workers and others to join them.

May Day protest
WHEN: 10:30 a.m., May 1, followed by a rally at noon.
WHERE: Longshore Union Hall, corner of Mason and Beach (near Fisherman's
Wharf).
WHAT: March to a rally at Justin Herman Plaza along the Embarcadero.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.ilwu.org/ and www.transportworkers.org/ or call (415) 776-8100.

Jack Heyman is a longshoreman who works on the Oakland docks.
Copyright 2008 SF Chronicle


Also see:

ILWU to Shut Down Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan
tribes.tribe.net/nobloodfo...817def77c0

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Of Witches and the Wait for Justice

By MAURA J. CASEY

In 1662, the colonists of Hartford accused 39-year-old Mary Sanford of witchcraft. Based on evidence — drinking wine and dancing around a bonfire — the court pronounced her guilty “for not having the feare of God before thyne eyes.” Sanford was hanged, leaving behind five children and a shaken husband who was later acquitted of similar charges.

More than three centuries later, Sanford’s descendants, 14-year-old Addie Avery and her mother, Debra, of New Milford, Conn., have petitioned the State Legislature to exonerate their distant grandmother and 10 other people executed for witchcraft. The fight has taught them something, perhaps more than they wanted to know, about the mob mentality.

The Averys did not always know they had a forebear accused of being a witch. A relative told them of their lineage and Sanford’s fate before a 2005 lecture on the Connecticut colony’s witch trials, which were sparked by widespread hysteria long before the better-known Salem witch trials of 1692. The lecture led to research, and the Averys took the first small steps toward asking the Legislature for exoneration. Along the way, they have learned what comes of taking a public stand.

Addie, who is home-schooled, researched every witch case in the colony. She was surprised to learn that all but two of the executed were women. Community leaders had presided over trials where the accused were usually the least educated and the least powerful. Women fit that bill nicely.

(Not much has changed there. Of the 170 people Connecticut has executed in over 300 years, only one was a college graduate, said Lawrence B. Goodheart, a University of Connecticut professor of history.)

Soon, the Averys’ lobbying attracted the support of other descendants of those who were accused. But critics spoke out, too, lashing out on Internet blogs. Ms. Avery was shaken to read the harsh comments, which reminded her of the mob frenzy that her ancestor faced. “The world has changed, but people haven’t,” she said.

Addie said she got a new education when she decided to publicly defend her ancestor. To her mother’s amazement, the attacks didn’t bother the suddenly thick-skinned teenager. “There are worse things than mockery,” Addie said. “Now, I’m not afraid to stand up when I see something wrong.”

Connecticut is slow to admit fault. It is not likely to soon join such states as Massachusetts and Virginia in acknowledging the injustice done to those accused in the witch hunts. A legislative committee passed on the issue this year.

But the prospect of returning to the Legislature next year, attending hearings and beginning the process all over again doesn’t seem to bother the Averys, least of all Addie. It may have taken more than 340 years, but finally someone is speaking up for Mary Sanford.

“I’ve discovered myself by honoring Mary,” Addie said.

www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13...13sun2.html

Public Advertising Ban - how cool is that?!

Down in São Paulo, Brazil, the Paulistas completely stripped their public spaces of all advertising including neon signs, electronic panels and billboards as of the start of 2008...

As the corporate media peels back its in-your-face advertisements the city is finally allowed to define its own beauty. Outside of communism, a city this large and expansive has never before been given a blank slate. Over-materialized citizens around the world are watching closely to see how the Paulistas, not the media, will exemplify their city.

In the meantime, as the city cleans up its image, there are heaps of propaganda garbage piling up with no place to go. A collaboration between TOUCH and StraaT turns the forbidden into fashion. Hundreds of banners have been reclaimed from post-consumer São Paulo and are ironically ushering their way out as tote bags. They are highly durable, one of a kind, limited edition relics of what is now history to Brazil's largest economy."

www.re-nest.com/re-nest/ne...-ban-046075

See this!

it is so good

More on US Tap Water

Pharmaceutical drugs in your drinking water.

Yes, according to a five-month investigation by the Associated Press.

The AP found a vast array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - with unknown health effects - in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans.

The AP reported that even though U.S. waterways coast to coast are contaminated with residues of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, there's no national strategy to deal with them - no effective mandates to test, treat, limit or even advise the public.

Now, how did we get to this point in our history?

In 1974, Ralph Nader was instrumental in getting passed into federal law the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The idea was to ensure that the water we drink is safe and regularly and publicly tested for heavy metals and other contaminants.

But years of budgetary neglect by the corporate controlled two parties has eviscerated the law and undermined enforcement.

The corporations and their political puppets have made regulation a dirty word.

And, so, here we are.

Time to bring back some law and order for corporations.

But how?

Help get Nader/Gonzalez back on the ballot in states across the country.

Yesterday, we announced a drive to get Nader/Gonzalez on the ballot in New Mexico.

To give the people of New Mexico a choice for law and order for corporations.

We need to raise $10,000 by midnight tomorrow, Wednesday, to fund the New Mexico effort.

Yesterday, thanks to your support, we raised $5,002.26 from 51 donors.

So, we're halfway home.

Once we hit the $10,000 mark, we'll ship off our eight young volunteers to New Mexico and put Nader/Gonzalez on the ballot there.

The deadline for the New Mexico signatures is April 1.

So, there's no time to lose. We're looking for 100 people to give $100 each for our New Mexico ballot drive. Please help push us over the top now.

Again, thank for your support in this historic effort to challenge the two corporate parties.

Onward

The Nader Team

water