Archive for the ‘Aid / Trade’ Category
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Geoff Strong; 16/12/08
They are well and truly with us, the shopping mall glitz and supermarket carols, Yankee accents dreaming of a white Christmas. I don’t dream of a white Christmas — a wet one, perhaps, and this year is looking promising. I do dream of Christmas, though. I am an enthusiast for a time when we break from the functional to decorate and illuminate. A balmy festival of lights, tinsel, a greater than normal effort in the kitchen and getting on with the family. However, it is time for a Christmas redesign. In its current form it does seem out of place in modern Australia, for many reasons. We know what’s behind the push to celebrate. Christians still cling to the fantasy that it belongs to them, but we know its real importance is the annual economic stimulus, a retailing free-for-all when we are expected to drink, eat and shop more than we should.
(more…)
Tags: Australia, Christianity, Christmas
Posted in Aid / Trade, Australia, Christianity | No Comments »
Monday, December 15th, 2008
15/12/08
The Marau Sound communities of East Guadalcanal have turned to seaweed farming and land agriculture as alternative means of income generation while Marine Protected Areas rejuvenate. The decision to establish Marine Protected Areas (MPA) was deemed necessary by the Marau Sound people because of a general reduction in marine food species in their traditional fishing grounds. A statement from the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International, FSPI says this undesirable marine ecological status was caused by human population increases, heavy harvesting and the effects of climate change.
(more…)
Tags: Environment, Solomon Islands
Posted in Aid / Trade, Environment, Solomon Islands | No Comments »
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Jim Wallis: 11/12/08
This week GM printed a full page ad in Automotive News magazine to make a public apology. They said: “While we’re still the U.S. sales leader, we acknowledge we have disappointed you. At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs become lackluster. We proliferated our brands and dealer network to the point where we lost adequate focus on our core U.S. market. We also biased our product mix toward pickup trucks and SUVs. And we made commitments to compensation plans that have proven to be unsustainable in today’s globally competitive industry. We have paid dearly for these decisions, learned from them and are working hard to correct them by restructuring our U.S. business to be viable for the long-term.” This gesture could easily be interpreted as “too little too late,” a desperate P.R. campaign, or as a “bizarre” and “pointless exercise” as some analysts have put it.
(more…)
Tags: Finance, Trade, USA, Workers
Posted in Aid / Trade, Human Rights, USA, Workers | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Peter Korugl; 10/12/08
Barrick Gold Corporation was carrying out extensive exploration on the hillside where a landslide occurred and killed 10 people, a government team that visited the disaster area found yesterday. The Government team, headed by Inter Government Relations Minister Job Pomat, saw that the land slide, although not very big, started a few metres below the two drilling sites on the hillside at the Kora exploration camp. Exploration activities at the disaster site were suspended but the government team, including officials from the National Disaster and Emergency Service saw that there was a lot of activity on the hillside before the landslide. Barrick Gold Corporation yesterday informed the team that “extreme rainfall” during that night triggered the landslide at about 5.45pm on December 4.
(more…)
Tags: Human Rights, PNG, Trade, Workers
Posted in Aid / Trade, Human Rights, PNG / West Papua, Workers | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Anne Davies; 10/12/08
Iraqi victims of an allegedly unprovoked shooting in Baghdad last year have demanded the death penalty for five Blackwater Worldwide security contractors, who were indicted on 14 charges of manslaughter over an incident in which they opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers on unarmed civilians. The Justice Department, which unsealed the indictments on Monday, said the five guards fired a grenade into a girls’ school, shot an unarmed civilian point-blank as he held up his hands and used machine guns on bystanders in Baghdad’s crowded Nisour Square. If convicted, the five face decades in jail but not the death penalty. A sixth Blackwater guard has admitted to killing at least one Iraqi in a plea bargain and is likely to be one of the prosecution’s main witnesses.
(more…)
Tags: Iraq, Mercenaries, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Aid / Trade, Human Rights, Iraq, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Tom Arup; 10/12/08; http://www.theage.com.au/national/gunns-to-pay-critics-legal-fees-20081209-6uzw.html
Tasmanian logging company Gunns has been ordered to pay $91,000 in legal fees to environmentalists, including Greens leader Bob Brown. Senator Brown, former Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt and author Helen Gee were among 16 parties targeted by Gunns for $6.9 million in damages relating to anti-logging campaigns. The case was later thrown out of the Supreme Court of Victoria by Justice Bernard Bongiorno. Gunns has attempted to sue Senator Brown and others twice since without success. The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the Tasmanian company to pay the legal fees for the three in all three cases. Senator Brown yesterday welcomed the decision but said he was still extensively out of pocket. “Gunns are a nasty company that have caused a lot of hurt to patriotic Tasmanians,” he said. Senator Brown called for national laws to ban strategic legal cases designed to stop activists.
Tags: Australia, Environment, Trade
Posted in Aid / Trade, Australia, Environment | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Debbie Guest; 10/12/08
When elders allowed their picturesque island off the Kimberley coast to be mined two years ago, they were determined the pay-off would be a positive future for generations to come. Unlike some communities in the Kimberley, which have squandered royalty money on fast cars and booze, the Worrorra elders placed a strict ban on vehicles and decided that half of their $70 million in royalties would not be touched until mining on Koolan Island ends in a decade. The other 50 per cent will be spent on community projects and whitegoods and furniture for families in need. As elder Joy Morlumbun told The Australian, many of the people demanding cars would not have valid licences, setting them up for trouble with the police. “Most people don’t keep up their licence,” she said. “Responsibility is very important. The money won’t always be there — it has to be used in the proper way.”
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Trade
Posted in Aboriginal, Aid / Trade, Australia, Human Rights | No Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
8/12/08
Many attempts made by the landowners inside the Kumusi / Saiho Timber Permit Area (TPA) to get the Forestry Department to release their project development levies (PDL) totallning K3 million are falling on deaf ears. Landowners for the project in the Oro Province last week called on the National Forest Authority managing director to explain whether their levies were still kept in a trust account. The landowners raised the issue after waiting for a long time for the forestry office to conduct meetings as stipulated under the by-laws to inform them of the status of the PDL funds.
(more…)
Posted in Aid / Trade, Environment, Human Rights, PNG / West Papua | No Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
8/12/08; (3 Items)
A group of five private security guards who allegedly killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad have been ordered to surrender themselves to the FBI within 24 hours.
The order was given on Sunday and lawyers for the men, who were working for the private contractor Blackwater in Iraq, said they would hand themselves in on Monday. The details over the group’s identities and charges against them had been kept secret for more than a year, but were released on Sunday. The men are all decorated war veterans who were contracted to protect US diplomats in Iraq.
(more…)
Tags: Bush apology or Out of Touch, Iraq, Mercenaries, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Aid / Trade, Arms, Human Rights, Iraq, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
Nicolas Rothwell; 8/12/08
It was just a year ago that the most mesmerising new star of western desert art, Lydia Balbal, walked into Broome’s Short Street Gallery and announced, in brisk, determined fashion, that the time had come for her to paint. Over the weeks that followed, with an air of utmost confidence, Balbal launched herself into a fast-paced artistic evolution. Her first canvases depicted the remote northwestern reaches of the Great Sandy Desert, the home domain of her own Mangala language group, close to the dazzling, salt-encrusted Perceval Lakes. Dark-bodied creator serpents writhed across the roughly painted background of these earliest works; the sandhill contours were sketchily filled in. But soon a softer, more sensuous style began emerging, and a tendency towards abstraction. The creator beings vanished and strong, sombre colours appeared: deep tawny reds and purples, counterpoised against vibrant mossy greens and blues, with loose, scattered overdotting in an incandescent whitish shade.
(more…)
Tags: Aboriginal, Art, Australia
Posted in Aboriginal, Aid / Trade, Australia | No Comments »
