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letters to editor » 2007 » September

ENVIRONMENT: Biofuels Boom Spurring Deforestation
September 30th, 2007

Dear Editors,

Thanks for the report. This is something you never see in the mainstream media. Climate protection is indeed public policy by lunatics. Keep informing the public!

Pierre Gosselin
Germany

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ENVIRONMENT: The Chemical That Must Not Be Named
September 30th, 2007

Appreciable IPSNEWS Editors,

Shortly ago, I personally sent a letter to The California State Governor, Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger. On this letter, I indicated my understanding of how problems affecting people are so deeply entwined one to other and then to another problem and how difficult would it be to solve one by one every problem affecting everybody not only in America but everywhere in Our World.
A good example of these is the mentioned use of Methyl Bromide described in your article about it. Who is actually responsible for the excessive use of this chemical? Government? Corporations benefiting from it? Consumers of related production? I dare to blame all those happy and satisfied enough to stand steel to say “We are O.K., it could be worse” I dare to say: there is not a good balance of power in America and in other countries of the world! Balance of power matters.
Please check: www.Ipetitions.com/petition/unionize
Please receive my congratulations for the publication of such good articles.

Sincerely,

Riggo Villafuerte
California, USA

*****

Dear Editors,

Here is a chemical you can name: Methyl Iodine, Idomethane, is the replacement product. It is waiting in the wings being produced by several US chemical manufacturers who specialize in Iodine chemistry. The major US bromine chemical (methyl bromide) producer is also well connected in Washington. They dominate the market. They have the most to lose. The growers know there are substitute materials. They can pass through any increased cost to the consumer, just like the oil companies do on gas. Why doesn’t somebody ask Al Gore specifically to demand that the Montreal Protocol be adhered to completely and force the issue for the sake of the planet Earth.

Jim Lingle

*****

Dear Editors,

Congratulations on your coverage of the Montreal Protocol negotiations, it’s one of few I’ve seen to include the NGO perspective. I work on the promotion of natural refrigerants in Australia, where we expect big changes in the acceptance of CO2 systems in the supermarket refrigeration sector and significant policy shifts from a change of government. Assuming the Montreal Protocol negotiations conclude tomorrow with an agreement to accelerate the phase out of HCFCs these will be welcome measures but much more remains to be done, and Governments need to apply similar urgency to the task of reducing HFC emissions and encouraging the development and use of future proof natural refrigerant solutions under the Kyoto process. Here’s a note distributed by the NRTB in advance of the negotiations, hope this is of interest. I should also note that Coke has announced they will be using 6350 co2 coolers and vending machines at the Beijing Olympics, but the story hasn’t had much of a run yet, see.

Kind regards,

Brent Hoare
Australia

*****

Dear Editors,

How to kill pests without killing yourself or the earth……

There are about 50 to 60 million insect species on earth - we have named only about 1 million and there are only about 1 thousand pest species - already over 50% of these thousand pests are already resistant to our volatile, dangerous, synthetic pesticide poisons. We accidentally lose about 25,000 to 100,000 species of insects, plants and animals every year due to “man’s footprint”. But, after poisoning the entire world and contaminating every living thing for over 60 years with these dangerous and ineffective pesticide poisons we have not even controlled much less eliminated even one pest species and every year we use/misuse more and more pesticide poisons to try to “keep up”! Even with all of this expensive pollution - we lose more and more crops and lives to these thousand pests every year. We are losing the war against these thousand pests mainly because we insist on using only synthetic pesticide poisons and fertilizers there has been a severe “knowledge drought” - a worldwide decline in agricultural r&d, especially in production research and safe, more effective pest control since the advent of synthetic pesticide poisons and fertilizers. Today we are like lemmings running to the sea insisting that is the “right way”. The greatest challenge facing humanity this century is the necessity for us to double our global food production with less land, less water, less nutrients, less science, frequent droughts, more and more contamination and ever-increasing pest damage. National poison prevention week, march 18-24, 2007 was created to highlight the dangers of poisoning and how to prevent it. One study shows that about 70,000 children in the USA were involved in common household pesticide-related (acute) poisonings or exposures in 2004. It is estimated that 300,000 farm workers suffer acute pesticide poisoning each year in the united states - no one is checking chronic contamination. In order to try to help “stem the tide”, i have just finished re-writing my ipm encyclopedia entitled: the best control ii, that contains over 2,800 safe and far more effective alternatives to pesticide poisons. This latest copyrighted work is about 1,800 pages in length and is now being updated at my new website at www.stephentvedten.com/.
This new website at http://www.stephentvedten.com/ has been basically updated; all we have left to update is chapter 39 and to renumber the pages. All of these copyrighted items are free for you to read and/or download. There is simply no need to poison yourself or your family or to have any pest problems.

“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo

Stephen L. Tvedten
Marne, Michigan

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CLIMATE CHANGE: Time For Some Slightly Mad Ideas?
September 29th, 2007

Dear Editors,

Here another mad idea polar cities for the future. See my blog at http://climatechange3000.blogspot.com

Dan Bloom
Director - Polar City Research Project
Taiwan

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RIGHTS-EUROPE: Torture Flights Could Land Again
September 29th, 2007

Dear Editor,

The yellow press is a new dimension! And the governments are all yellow…

Angela Badelt

*****

Dear Editors,

It is very shameful on the part of Portugal and the E.U. to state that they have no legal right to stop those companies rendition flights over European airspace. Actually it makes them criminal accomplices. I refuse to believe that this is the final solution for these criminal acts.

E.Schulte

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VENEZUELA: Anti-Domestic Violence Campaign Targets Men
September 29th, 2007

Dear Editors,

What a Great move in order to stop the domestic violence in your country. Fantastic Improvement that many other countries can learn from as well.

Kindest regards,

Hanne Bille.

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POLITICS: Racism Rife in Malaysia’s Melting Pot – Survey
September 28th, 2007

To whom it may concern,

I am an Indian Malaysian with a lot of love for my country. However certain issues have angered me a lot over the fact that the Malays are spoon fed deliberately over and over again. Isn’t it time the government stopped laying red carpet for them. Back in the 70’s the government came up with a policy to lift up the Malays out from poverty. Today in the next millennium, the Malays are almost out of poverty but of course a lot of help came from the government. The good news is the Indians and Chinese worked and slugged their lungs out. How long more does the government intend to do this all for the Malays. Today I have come to know even the Orang Asli community are highly funded even more than the Indians in order to convert them to Islam.
Malaysia is a great country but sad to say racism rules. Even the whites have changed a lot since the 1930’s. Today I become emotional when I see the whites diverting charity works towards the blacks, Asians, Middle East and etc. What a tremendous change of mindset. Indians and Chinese helped in the up bringing of this country. If it weren’t for the Indians and Chinese, I know Malaysia would have just been another Indonesia. No further comments.

Regards,

Laura Daniel
Malaysia

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PORTUGAL: Brain Drain Still Bleeding Ex-Colonies Dry
September 28th, 2007

Dear Editors,

I would like to see African Americans play a role in addressing this issue. It is truly ironic that while Africans are running from Africa, African Americans are getting DNA analysis to find the country of their ancestral origin, and then running to it. African leaders should make a concerted effort to benefit from the brains of all people of African descent, regardless of how long ago their ancestors were taken from the continent. If one set of Africans will not return to help, find another set of Africans (African Americans) who are educated, and who are willing and able to help develop a country. Some of us would love that challenge, and are ready to accept it, if any African country reaches out to us in sincerity.

Lisa M. Bashir

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FILM-US: How the “Gang of Four” Lost Iraq
September 27th, 2007

Dear Editors,

Your story is incomplete and inaccurate. The gang of four did not lose the war. They had a definite plan to create chaos after the fall of Saddam and they succeeded brilliantly. What you have overlooked is the Israeli foreign ministry plan in 1996 to split Iraq in three parts : Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites and the Neocons carried out the assignment. The proof is the resolution just passed by the senate to split the country in three and I ask you what is the business of the senate to get involved in other countries way of running their political lives and I will bet that the legislation was prepared and written by aipac for the majority run democrat congress to approve it. I am sure that the gang of four are not stupid, they know what they were doing and a lot of planning went into it and they succeeded in carrying out the job assigned to them by higher authority whose identity will not be revealed.

JP Sarkis

*****

Dear Editors,

Well done… Please disperse this as widely as possible. We, the people, need to know!

Sid

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CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘Fifteen Years and CO2 Still Rising’
September 26th, 2007

Dear Sirs,

I can’t help, but think that we are all wasting an enormous amount of time, effort and most of all money with this whole idea of man made global warming. This business of the IPCC has become just that: a business. I read that so far $80 billion have been spent world-wide on this scare, and yet, there is still zero empirical evidence that man is responsible. It remains a theory. Nothing more, nothing less. A deluge of scientific papers have been published in the last few years that clearly reject the theory, but the main stream media elected to ignore them. Apparently it is a much better story if one can headline that Florida will be washed away in 100 years or that hurricanes will become absolute monsters. (They won’t, as a warmer world will see reduced hurricane activity). Since 1998, CO2 levels kept rising, yet temperatures have not. In fact there has been some cooling recorded. The Green clubs all jumped on this story like they found the Holy Grail. Nothing insures fundraising better than a good environmental scare. After all, they need to make sure that collectively the estimated $1.9 billion in annual donations keep flowing into their coffers to stay in business. For those of you who have not seen “the Great Global Warming Swindle” documentary yet, google it on the web and watch it. It’s definitely worth your time. Bring some balance in the story after the pseudo science shown in Al Gore’s film. After watching this Oscar winning material, I decided to check the facts. Just a few mouse clicks will be enough to find out that most of what is presented in this Hollywood drama is inaccurate. 20ft of sea water rises? Even the IPCC finds that too much: their latest report speaks of a 37 cm (a little over 1 foot) which is not out of line with previous centuries. 900 years of stable temperatures followed by 100 years showing a spike skyward due to increase of CO2 levels? Remember the added drama when Al stepped on a scissor lift to reach 1998? This graph was already thrown out by scientists in 2004 when two Canadians audited this work and found that the authors had left data out to make it look like a hockey stick shaped graph, where 900 years of stable temperatures are the shaft and the spike upwards of the last 100 years the blade. Al Gore ignored these findings and proceeded to show the Hockey Stick in his film as “fact” It was inconvenient for the “warmers” that the world had gone through the medieval warming period in the early part of the last millennium and a period of cooling “the little ice age” from 1450 to around 1850. These two periods did not show up in the graph that Al Gore made the centre piece of his film. Very few people know that water vapour (that is right: water vapour) is by far the most important greenhouse gas at 95%. Of the balance 5%, only 4% is attribute of human activity for a whopping. It is so insignificant, yet all we hear is that climate change is all our fault.
People: climate changes all the time, there is nothing new happening. The world has been without polar ice before, and it came back in a huge way. The polar bears are still here, in fact, their numbers increased from 5,000 in 1970 to over 20,000 today (due to reduced hunting. The Green groups deserve credit for that, I support that whole heartedly). They will survive this warming as well. They won’t drown, they can swim very well, up to 190 miles non stop as was recorded. Yet in many schools children are forced to watch “an inconvenient truth” as fact. It is a shame, really. It is utterly annoying that Gore keeps telling everybody “the debate is over, the science is settled”
TIME magazine filled two issues this year alone with Gore’s alarmism. I am now ready to cancel my subscription as I want to be informed in a balanced way. Newsweek is no alternative either, as this magazine is another mouthpiece for the “Warmers” and their agenda. They had a monster story on August 13 unveiling the inner workings of the “denial machine”. The writing was so badly researched and so biased that a week later one of their own editors hurried to publish a column in Newsweek to distance himself from this trash. The debate is not over, the science is not settled.
Gore keeps refusing invitations for a debate. Why would that be one wonders. Could it be the estimated $ 100 million that he meanwhile raked in? It is a shame, really.

Fred van der Velden
Langley, BC
Canada

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ENVIRONMENT: Act Now on Global Warming - Top US Companies
September 26th, 2007

Hi!

I would like to know if you have heard about the Senator Lieberman and Warner draft bill on cap and trade CO2 emissions. And weather you think it can be compare to the Kyoto Protocol logic, weather there are some similarities (cap and trade rights to emit).

Thank you very much.

Laurent Chemineau
France

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RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Ethnic Indians Blame Britain for Sorry Plight
September 25th, 2007

Dear Editors,

I am afraid that it is a matter of time the Indians (Tamils) will opt for the Sri Lankan route. Only brute force seems to make people take notice.

Sincerely,

Maniam Subraniam

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POLITICS-US: Far Right Sells Iraq War to ‘Values Voters’
September 25th, 2007

Dear Editors,

Another aspect of these signers is that they were all identified as extremists assaulting tolerance and pluralism in America.

http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2007/09/religious-right-figures-signing-pro-war.html

Jackie and Mike

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AGRICULTURE-BRAZIL: David, Goliath and Land Reform
September 25th, 2007

Dear Editor,

I really enjoyed your story. I wanted to know if you can help with a question. I would like to know if they is a way to determine who actually owns most of the farm land in brazil?

Thanks

Eric

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INT’L WOMEN’S DAY: Time to Rise Up, Activists Declare
September 25th, 2007

Dear Editor,

In UK million woman rise. Saturday 8th March 2008 London UK. See this: http://millionwomanrise.blogspot.com

Brightest blessings

Sabrina Qureshi

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SURINAME-GUYANA: Maritime Settlement Sparks Oil Rush
September 24th, 2007

SURINAME-GUYANA: Maritime Settlement Sparks Oil Rush
September 23th, 2007-09-24

Dear Editors,

June 2000, Suriname’s Ronald Venetian administration sent gunboats to expel a rig that was drilling. Should read June 2000, Suriname’s Jules Albert Wijdenbosch (1996 until 2000) sent gunboats to expel a rig that was drilling.

Jan Jose

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MEXICO: Church Lashes Out at Sex Abuse Victim
September 21st, 2007

Dear Editors,

It takes a village to protect pedophile priests.
Respectfully,

Mike Ferente

*****

Querido Editor,

El Cardenal Norberto Rivera es un hombre sin compasión como la mayoría de los jerarcas de la Iglesia Católica (No sienten compasión por nadie). Las victimas abusadas por el clero no están poniendo demandas por el interés del dinero. Solamente queremos que se haga justicia.

El clero (regimiento Nazi) es quien ha hecho de la Iglesia Católica una maquina de dinero. A ellos es a quien lo único que les interesa es hacer billones y billones de dólares para su propio beneficio. En México nunca hacen nada por la gente pobre.

Mira Ramirez

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BIODIVERSITY: Wild Parrots Tame the Concrete Jungle
September 21st, 2007

Hello,

I enjoyed this article; however 25 years ago the fire you spoke of occurred at my cousin’s home, Eulah Mima Holt. She had many parrots and other exotic birds. On Fri., Nov. 4, 1983, a fire started in her house. Fire-fighters were called, and most of the birds were freed. I spoke with one of her neighbours recently and she stated that the parrots in Ocean Beach were Eulah’s parrots. They see and hear them often. I don’t know of a pet store burning down, but you can check in two newspapers about this occurrence. (The San Diego Union, Sat. Nov. 5, 1983, front page in the City/County section and in the evening local paper that Fri. evening.) Quite some story! My cousin was known as The Bird Lady of Ocean Beach.

Thank you.

Gina Hammerle
US

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ENERGY-ARGENTINA: Handing Out Concessions ‘In Perpetuity’
September 21st, 2007

Dear Editors,

Please, keep-it-up, get “Las Madres de plaza de mayo” involved in this.

Good luck,

Carlos J. Battisti

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Q&A: “It’s a Brave Politician Who Will Talk About Toilets”
September 21st, 2007

Dear IPS,

“It’s a Brave Politician Who Will Talk About Toilets” Politicians and even some diplomats in Ghana do accept invitations to participate in openings of all kinds of toilets.

Greetings,

Stan Skubisz
NL

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RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Consider Sanctions Says Parliamentarian
September 21st, 2007

Dear Editors,

Thanks and full Credits to Amantha Perera, for an excellent write up. It is very difficult to find unbiased reporting on Srilankan affairs in Indian Media. Let’s hope it changes with this kind of ‘professional’ reporting which we the readers deserve.

Well Done.

Kana Siva

*****

Dear Sir:

I had the opportunity to read your articles regarding human rights violations in Sri Lanka. But last time I was in Sri Lanka I felt where were these violations happening. It is a relatively peacefully country compare to Iraq, Afghanistan Darfo, even peace full than Pakistan. My understanding is it is pro LTTE lobby in Sri Lanka making these allegations in order to stop Sri Lanka’s fight against terrorism in Sri Lanka. Most NGO’s and INGO’s financed by pro LTTE country’s like Norway persuade these NGO’s to make such reports. Otherwise they will loose their funding next time. So most of these human rights violations occur in LTTE held areas where NGO’s make blame to the Government of Sri Lanka. Somebody has to understand how on earth a government can stop human rights violations in an area where it is out of reach to a normal police officer who even cannot deliver summons to a defendant. So only way is to get there through military that is what Sri Lankan Government is doing and that is what those NGO’s and INGO’s wanted to stop. If LTTE is out of the seen there is no way they could get the money from terrorism sponsoring countries like Norway (Believe it! they do, Sri Lankan government has lots of proof but they been so nice so far they are giving chance to diplomacy). So if you think really that you want to stop human rights violations in Sri Lanka let the SL government finish with LTTE. Then we can see that there are no more violations like Child Solders, disappearances, killings etc. The only sad thing is NGO’s will loose there working budget. (What I am saying they will come up with something else. Hope they’ll go to Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine etc.). One more thing; infamous Mano Ganeshen he is the openly pro LTTE figure in Colombo I wonder how he is surviving in Colombo if the situation is so bad there. Oh! his MP friend was killed in Colombo few months ago because he start criticizing Prabakaran (LTTE leader) then do you know what his friends did to his coffin. They took it to Norway embassy and hand over to them telling “You guys kill him!! (Norway)”.I didn’t Mano Ganeshen there. I hope you’ll understand at least a bit more about Sri Lankan politics after reading this letter.

Thank you.

Hasaka Ratnamlala
(Attorney-at-Law)

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TRADE-COSTA RICA: Companies Eye Pull-Outs if CAFTA Flounders
September 21st, 2007

Dear Sir(s):
I am a sort of avg. U.S. citizen who has been to Costa Rica 5-6 times over the past 15 years. My own impression of the country of Costa Rica is characterized by admiration for some political policies made long ago which has put Costa Rica far ahead of other Central American countries. e.g. Education and Social concerns beginning in 1949 with abandonment of a Standing Military and dedication of nearly 30% of the National Budget to Education and Social programs - Highest literacy rate in the New World (N. & S. & Central Am.) is , to me, one achievement which is difficult to either deny or criticise. Ideological conflicts - (Socialism vs. Free Enterprise) which is a constant in U.S. political themes and credos, seems to be present in U.S. relations with Costa Rica. CAFTA it seems to me, offhand at least, is little more than Blackmail with Tariff as bait in exchange for meddling with the internal affairs of Costa Rica. Costa Rica has a National Health scheme, also a Gov. run petroleum refinery as well as a Gov. run telecommunications system.
My cousin, Donald E. Coulter spent 10 years in the Panama Canal Zone working as a Veterinarian for the U.S. Dept. of Defence. I travelled to Panama a couple of times to visit him. We were in Costa Rica together on tours at least twice in early 1990’s. One thing of several I recall was his reaction to gasoline prices in Costa Rica compared to prices “On Base” at U.S. Bases in Panama. Costa Rican gasoline prices were lower than Canal Zone prices in Panama where some major names of U.S. based petrol companies were easily seen attached to filling stations in Panama. Costa Rica imports all of the petroleum it requires, furnishes or runs refineries which produce gasoline for public consumption. Political rhetoric often, or constantly, cranked out in the U.S. political partisan field is that Socialism is a sure loser compared to Free Enterprise Capitalism. There are problems with Telecommunications in Costa Rica. To me, it is at least an open question as to relative benefits of allowing access of Free Enterprise into this operation (many mega Corps. of U.S.A.??) I for example, as a U.S. citizen on High Speed modum for T.V. and Computer hook up (same cable teed off T.V. for Computer) pay way too much for this service. Especially the T.V. part of it–Sometimes as many as 6-8 commercials are run back-to-back on different channels (all I know of) My thought on this deluge of commercials is that I pay plenty for having commercials piped in to my living quarters. Content on T.V. is another matter of concern. Too many programs are merely cheerleaders for partisan political reasons. Religion and News types who seem to take every opportunity to get in a partisan jab are routine in my opinion. Giant Corporations are frequently defended as superior to Gov. run programs, especially by one partisan political party of the U.S.A. To this I say: Partial truth is Specious–and far different from Total Truth. Tax monies collected by the I.R.S. in the U.S.A. fund several entities which qualify as “Socialistic” but get scant attention. e.g. Man on the Moon under Kennedy administration, Military under any and all administrations, 29 Locks & Dams from St. Louis north into Minnesota built by the Corp of Engineers–funded by tax monies? It would appear that promoters of the sanctity of Free Enterprise ideology play the “Pick and Chose” game to promote the “Anti-Socialism” game. Allow me one more observation as a common citizen. Communicating with a human being in giant Corp. world about some product produced by said Corp. is a joke. After listening to a menu of up to 9 numbers to punch on the phone (a recording), another list of menus is encountered, followed by line going dead in my own experience more than once. Exactly how this avoidance or inefficiency of Free Enterprise differs from Gov. Bureaucracy escapes me.

Regards,

David W. Coulter
Humboldt, AZ.

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ENERGY-CANADA: Wind vs. Water in Giant Dam Dispute
September 21st, 2007

Dear Editors,

These are outrageous assertions. There was a wide-ranging - indeed exhaustive - investigative process, also one that included thorough consultation with aboriginal communities that would be affected by this development. All federal Canadian government environmental and Quebec provincial authorities conducted exhaustive. All of which leads to the mystery: Why, long after the horses are out of the barns is it only now that a group of activist American environmental organizations have emerged to form a coalition to stop the project? We’re not talking about what would have been a disaster such as the Great Whale upper Quebec project of many years ago, which Canada’s then prime minister turned thumbs-down on. Also, in the present case, native communities have been fully engaged, in a proper democratic manner. The dissident native Cree groups - a small minority - were vastly out-voted. Personally, I don’t take sides in this matter. I just thing it is ludicrous that a group - let’s say, a bunch or gang - of U.S. NGOs have suddenly woken up to the fact of this project happening - long after open and straightforward processes, utterly transparent, north of the border, have taken place. The horses have been out of the barn for months and months. The prime question then: Where were these folks’ heads at, two years ago, even a year ago or less, when they might actually have influenced the permitting processes under way in Canada? Duncecaps should be handed to all of the NGOs that have lent their names to this endeavour.

Dave Todd

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PARAGUAY: Internet Access? What About Just a Telephone?
September 20th, 2007

Dear Sirs,

On your article titled “Paraguay: Internet Access? What About Just a Telephone? written by Alejandro Sciscioli, I wanted to point out that making ICT available to poor and remote communities also implies telephone lines. ICT is a very wide term not just used to refert to computers but also a wide variety of devices having to do with the processing, transformation and distribution of information.

Best regards,

Ramon Anibal Iriarte Casco
Dpt. of Information Systems Engineering
Faculty of Engineering - Kagoshima University
Japan

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CLIMATE CHANGE: U.N. Braces for New Breed of Refugees
September 20th, 2007

Hi, Thalif Deen

I’m a brazilian social scientist and I’m interested about environmental refugees. Can you talk and write more about it? And if you can, explain more about why the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees still no protects legally the environmental refugees.

My Best Wishes,

Francine Modesto
Brazil

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POLITICS: U.N. to Spend 120 million on Hariri Tribunal
September 20th, 2007

Dear Editors,

Let us hope nobody starts checking into Washington’s past interventions abroad.

Stephen Block Jr.

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MEDIA-US: Cockroach Cartoon Crossed the Line, Iranians Say
September 20th, 2007

Hi,

I am an Iranian cartoonist. After Ramirez’s cartoon I draw this cartoon.

http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/28402/2000524080169822357_fs.jpg

I would like to read your idea about it. I just want to say if your cartoonists want to draw bad cartoons about Iranian, we (Iranian cartoonists) know how to answer them. I don’t want to say that all Americans are bad but this cartoon is an answer to Ramirez. You can click here to see this clip about this cartoon.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OibqioLF68s

See you…

Sayyed Mahmoud Javadi
Iran

*****

Dear Editors,

I saw the cartoon and I’m sure it was meant to offend Arabs Muslims, and specifically Iran since the US undoubtedly has plans to bomb Iran and wants to turn public opinion towards that goal. If I were Muslim, Arab, lived in the Middle East, or had relatives there, I would not resort to violence, I’d fight with the pen. Throw the same cartoon back but change the name of the cockroaches to the US military and the Bush White House. The sewer of extremism is one they have created in the Middle East with their cruelty, greed for Almighty Oil, Christian zealotry, genocide acts, and destruction of the infrastructure in Iraq.

Marta

*****

Dear Editors,

Had the cartoonist depicted a virus it would probably have kicked up no fuss at all and would have been more to the point.

Pete Bollini

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RIGHTS: Hollywood Spotlights Growing Trade in Humans
September 20th, 2007

Dear Editors,

The only way to stop the sex slavery so rife throughout the world is to criminalise paying for sex. There is a lot of talk about law and about the victims and so there should be, but if there was no demand for prostitutes and children to use for pornography, there would be no need for the supply - we are talking about a multi-million dollar business here about supply and demand. Most of what is being done, admirable though it is, addresses the effect and not the cause. If Sweden can criminalise payment for sex, why can’t other countries?

Noela Leamy
Australia

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Remittances for Development
September 19th, 2007

Dear Editors,

The article misses a little bit of background of total remittances from developing country citizens residing abroad, which according to the UN and World Bank, surpasses official development assistance.

Linus
Helsinki

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VENEZUELA: Adios Lenin and Other ‘Exotic’ Names
September 17th, 2007

Hi, I don’t agree with this new law. Although I am from Caracas and I wouldn’t call my child Lexotanil or Superman I believe that one of the most important characteristics of my country’s identity is the ability to re-interpretate other cultures and made them ours and those exotic and creative creations are part of what we are.

Marianna Ferrara
Venezuela

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CENTRAL AMERICA: Gang Violence and Anti-Gang Death Squads
September 16th, 2007

Dear Editor,

This is typical of what the United States wants, freedom of the people, well, just a few people, the rest are expendable trash you might say. This of course is a shining example of democracy in action, freedom to murder those that oppose corrupt governments, or young people lost without a hope of a good future, but again, this is something the United States loves.
God said:
“Woe to those Who write misfortune,
Which they have prescribed
To rob the needy of justice,
And to take what is right from the poor of My people,
That widows may be their prey,
And that they may rob the fatherless.
What will you do in the day of punishment,
And in the desolation which will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your glory?
Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners,
And they shall fall among the slain.”
It is sad that powerful nations never learn that lesson, before it is too late. For a God fearing nation like the U.S., and especially a president who claims to be a Christian, he better have a good look at what he is doing, he controls so many lives.

Paul
US

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