tagged w/ American Apathy
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The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Thursday came out in open against Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympics and has decided to lodge its protest to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
At its general body meeting in New Delhi, the IOA decided that it would seek the removal of Dow Chemical, which bought Union Carbide, responsible for the thousands of deaths during the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. However, the issue of boycotting the event did not even come up for discussion.
Acting IOA president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the IOA will convey the sentiments of Indians to IOC chief Jacques Rogge and London Games Organising Committee chief Sebastian Coe.
"It is IOA's considered opinion that the sponsorship by Dow Chemical is against the spirit of the Olympic ideals. Olympic Games showcase the best of human endeavour, sporting spirit and camaraderie, and to have Dow Chemical even as one of the sponsors negates all these lofty values," said Malhotra.
"IOA's views not only reflect the concerns of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy but the feelings of millions of people all over the world and it is not a partisan demand.
"We in fact are making IOC aware of the feelings of the people who have suffered due to that tragedy. It is not only the Indians who are protesting this sponsorship; there has been an outcry against this world over from various NGOs and other bodies. It is no longer a local issue."
There has been a huge outcry in India over Dow's involvement with the Games. Olympians and the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy have demanded either Dow's sponsorship be withdrawn or India boycott the event.
Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/ioa-to-lodge-protest-over-london-olympic-sponsor-dow/1/164530.html
More at the linkThe Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Thursday came out in open against Dow... more
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A U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change.
The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would ensure that countries will be legally bound to carry out any pledges they make. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.
The deal doesn't explicitly compel any nation to take on emissions targets, although most emerging economies have volunteered to curb the growth of their emissions.
Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Those commitments expire next year, but they will be extended for at least another five years under the accord adopted Sunday — a key demand by developing countries seeking to preserve the only existing treaty regulating carbon emissions.
The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years about sharing the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with changing forces of nature.
The United States was a reluctant supporter, concerned about agreeing to join an international climate system that likely would find much opposition in the U.S. Congress.
"This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it. Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about," said U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern. But the package captured important advances that would be undone if it is rejected, he told the delegates.
Sunday's deal also set up the bodies that will collect, govern and distribute tens of billions of dollars a year for poor countries. Other documents in the package lay out rules for monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests, transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of technical issues.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the deal represents "an important advance in our work on climate change."
But the deal's language left some analysts warning that the wording left huge loopholes for countries to avoid tying their emissions to legal constraints, and noted that there was no mention of penalties. "They haven't reached a real deal," said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. "They watered things down so everyone could get on board."
Environmentalists criticized the package — as did many developing countries in the debate — for failing to address what they called the most urgent issue, to move faster and deeper in cutting carbon emissions.
"The good news is we avoided a train wreck," said Alden Meyer, recalling predictions a few days ago of a likely failure. "The bad news is that we did very little here to affect the emissions curve."
Scientists say that unless those emissions — chiefly carbon dioxide from power generation and industry — level out and reverse within a few years, the Earth will be set on a possibly irreversible path of rising temperatures that lead to ever greater climate catastrophes.
Sunday's breakthrough capped 13 days of hectic negotiations that ran a day and a half over schedule, including two round-the-clock days that left negotiators bleary-eyed and stumbling with words. Delegates were seen nodding off in the final plenary session, despite the high drama, barely constrained emotions and uncertainty whether the talks would end in triumph or total collapse.
The nearly fatal issue involved the legal nature of the accord that will govern carbon emissions by the turn of the next decade.
More at the linkA U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a far-reaching... more
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No real progress to address this climate crisis in Durban is our fault. I guess Americans on the whole just don't care enough about their children and the future to stop talking about BS and get serious.No real progress to address this climate crisis in Durban is our fault. I guess... more
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I know why the U.S. media isn't really covering this conference. The truth is out and their fossil fuel company sponsors want to keep it HUSH HUSH. And I know why Obama and other politicians don't say the words climate change now... can't mention the words in an election year! It's taboo! Got to get those millions in donations to pay for those attack ads! That is surely more important now to them than the 6 degree rise we will now more than likely see in temperature by 2100. That is more important than the prolonged more frequent droughts, floods, storms, erratic rainfall patterns, diseases, glacier melt, crop failure, water scarcity, deforestation, hunger, species extinction, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, climate refugees and deaths we are already seeing globally. Right? We can complain all we want about government but in the end we will have no one to blame but ourselves if we allow them to continue running this world at the behest of their benefactors while we watch this happening.
OCCUPY EARTH.I know why the U.S. media isn't really covering this conference. The truth is out... more
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Ignorance and courage in the age of Lady Gaga
If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times. Such as: How can the Americans remain so consistently brain-fucked? Much of the world, including plenty of Americans, asks that question as they watch U.S. culture go down like a thrashing mastodon giving itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit.
One explanation might be the effect of 40 years of deep fried industrial chicken pulp, and 44 ounce Big Gulp soft drinks. Another might be pop culture, which is not culture at all of course, but marketing. Or we could blame it on digital autism: Ever watch commuter monkeys on the subway poking at digital devices, stroking the touch screen for hours on end? That wrinkled Neolithic brows above the squinting red eyes?
But a more reasonable explanation is that, (A) we don't even know we are doing it, and (B) we cling to institutions dedicated to making sure we never find out.
As William Edwards Deming famously demonstrated, no system can understand itself, and why it does what it does, including the American social system. Not knowing shit about why your society does what it makes for a pretty nasty case of existential unease. So we create institutions whose function is to pretend to know, which makes everyone feel better. Unfortunately, it also makes the savviest among us -- those elites who run the institutions -- very rich, or safe from the vicissitudes that buffet the rest of us.
Directly or indirectly, they understand that the real function of American social institutions is to justify, rationalize and hide the true purpose of cultural behavior from the lumpenproletariat, and to shape that behavior to the benefit of the institution's members. "Hey, they're a lump. Whaddya expect us to do?"
Read Full Article: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/12/america-y-ur-peeps-b-so-dum.html
RELATED ARTICLE:
From American Revolutionary to American ApathyIgnorance and courage in the age of Lady Gaga
If you hang out much with thinking... more
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Live every day as if it were your last . . . and then some day you’ll be right. ~H.H. “Breaker” Morant~
History is not likely to speak well of today’s Americans. While the people of nations around the globe stand up to their oppressors, Americans sit idly by as their government runs roughshod over their life, liberty and property.
As we speak, large-scale protests and mass demonstrations continue in more than a dozen countries as citizens strike back against injustice, criminality and brutal austerity measures imposed by their corrupt governments.
In the UK, more than 50,000 students recently took to the streets to protest a spike in tuition costs.
In Greece, workers clashed with police outside the Finance Ministry over frozen pensions and cuts in their salaries.
In Germany, tens of thousands demonstrated over the weekend to protest government policies and social inequities in advance of Merkel’s Democrat party’s national meeting.
In early October, thousands of Icelanders stormed their parliament with renewed anger over the deepening financial crisis, and against those responsible for it. Many of their politicians were forced to flee out the back door, where they were pelted with eggs, flour and tomatoes.
In France, transportation and commerce was brought to a virtual standstill throughout vast portions of the country, as angry citizens railed against their government for increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62.
Press coverage of these events gets little attention here in the United States. When the press does cover it, they portray the demonstrators as greedy laysbouts who have been become dependant on government handouts. In reality, people of these countries know full well that they are being made to do without in order to enrich powerful central banks that conspired with their politicians to loot their economies. The people have had enough, and they’re letting their governments know it.
If only we had the same spirit. When will the American people recognize the full frontal assault being perpetrated against them? When will they realize that, they too, are being made to do with less, so that their corrupt politicians can fulfill the unlawful arrangements they have made with the very same central banks and financial institutions that are bringing down nations around the globe?
Right now, millions of Americans have lost (or are losing) their homes to foreclosure as a result of the same kind of collusion between politicians and the banking cartels.
In 2008, the banking elite threatened to shut down the U.S. economy unless corrupt politicians in Washington D.C. forced through the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). Though more than 90% of the American public voiced opposition to the bill, their words fell on deaf ears. To add insult to injury, the passage of TARP was actually celebrated by members of congress, who stood at the podium with broad smiles and giggled as they signed the hellish legislation.
Billions of taxpayer dollars went to the bankers to rescue them from foolish investments in mortgage-backed securities. The TARP funds were supposed to be used to clear the bank’s books and free up lending to the American people. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the bankers tightened lending even more and used their newfound wealth to pay debts, acquire other banks, pay huge bonuses to their employees, and engage in more irresponsible investment activities.
To their credit, the American people found the gumption to confront those politicians in town hall meetings across the nation. But the media—being the obedient lapdogs to the federal government that they are—quickly pounced upon these unhappy citizens; labeling them as dangerous upstarts who were working outside the parameters of civil and polite discourse that the government deems manageable. Raising your voice was equated with violence, hoisting signs was considered racist and gatherings were announced as potential staging grounds for domestic terrorism.
How absurd—that the mainstream media would think it could even be possible to kowtow the American people into compliance—especially when you measure these relatively mild examples of public opposition against the large-scale strikes and civil unrest we are witnessing in other countries.
Read Full Article
RELATED ARTICLE:
Beware The Rising Ire of a Forgotten Generation
READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/american-idle.htmlLive every day as if it were your last . . . and then some day you’ll be right.... more
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Various studies suggest that the warming in the Himalayas has been greater than the global average due to which a number of ice packed glaciers are melting or getting displaced from their origin along with reports of glacier sliding due to which the unfamiliar changes are under spotlights in the areas including Northern Areas of Pakistan.
The situation is getting worst as couple of months ago it was reported that a number of glaciers are being melting not only disturbing the ecological balance but also posing the side effects on various sectors. Recent alarming change of this series was the burst of a glacier, 80 km north of Chitral, which was totally unusual and unexpected.
The glacier struck the Sonoghur village and devastated the houses and crops in the area.
Sonoghur village was also inundated last year in June when the same glacier burst away sweeping 140 homes in the area, while fortunately this year due to 150 families already evacuated their homes anticipating after the glacier lake outburst.
A recent summary of the conclusions of Working Group II of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change predicts, "If current warming rates are maintained, Himalayan glaciers could decay at very rapid rates, shrinking from the present 500,000 square kilometers to 100,000 square kilometers by 2030s."
The serious expected consequences includes flooding, more hot temperature in summers and very cold temperature in winters also effecting the timing of the seasons, landslides and mudflows, change in the direction of rivers, decrease in the productivity of biological systems, change in floral composition, spreading of diseases and increase in risk of hunger and famine in some locations, finally putting human security at a high risk.
Glacial runoff in the Himalayas is the largest source of freshwater for the Indus River in Pakistan, contributing much in providing the fresh drinking water along with facilitating the country with water for irrigation and agriculture system which is the backbone of our agro-based economy.
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Glaciers are melting worldwide which threatens freshwater supplies for millions of people. This is what has been set in motion by people not paying attention to important issues.Various studies suggest that the warming in the Himalayas has been greater than the... more
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Forget Leonardo DiCaprio and his Prius. The true face of Hollywood is one of waste and environmental malaise. According to a UCLA report, Tinseltown is a strange mix of green forward thinkers and those entrenched in the old ways. Studios build and tear down tons of set materials without recycling, use thousands of diesel generators, and the industry as a whole emits almost eight million tons of carbon dioxide. Many studios have begun greening programs, but it’s going to take more than a couple eco-celebs to make up for a century of waste.
Popular Science
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-06/five-dirtiest-industriesForget Leonardo DiCaprio and his Prius. The true face of Hollywood is one of waste and... more
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Created by an advertising agency, the satirical Apathy Party's strongly worded 'nonifesto' proclaims "Whatever." Their online store offers PDFs that read "I chose not to chose" and can be printed on iron-on transfers (they were too lazy to print up the T-shirts themselves); an air freshener available in "indifference," "disinterest," and "pine"; a chance to enjoy a meal full of awkward silences with a candidate for $965.25; and an apathy Magic 8 Ball and indecision coin for making decisions. The store does not accept any major credit cards and all items will be shipped whenever.Created by an advertising agency, the satirical Apathy Party's strongly worded... more
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devo64
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added this
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4 years ago
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And of course we see the World Bank involved in this. How soon before Atlanta's water is the same? ENRON was already in Texas years ago before their "fall." Just how much will rich bastards like the Bushes and others control before the boom is lowered regarding our water resources because people are more interested in their distractions than heeding the warnings and the clear signs and do all they can to conserve this resource and hold corporations accountable for sucking this Earth dry?///// This isn't going to go away if we just sit and do nothing. Do you even know who really owns your water? I have to give credit to the people of South America. At least they fight for what they consider to be important, uinlike here where it appears the majority don't care as long as it comes out of the tap, and even if it didn't, would rather spend 5.00 for a crappy bottle of reprocessed tap water than admit they have to do something about it.///// Perhaps should the same scenario happen here over a great swath of this country and we are all paying Coca Cola through the nose for our water, people on the whole will understand what we are allowing to take place elsewhere in this world. I have said it before and I will say it again, the World Bank needs to be investigated for the "loans" they give to these poor countries based on the stipulations attached to them that keep them in debt and do nothing to give therm opportunity or true control of their resources. Water is a human right, and it is time to stand up for it all over this world before the haves own it all and we are paying through the nose for even one drop.And of course we see the World Bank involved in this. How soon before Atlanta's... more
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