(So ... why're you lookin' over your shoulder then?) Up, Down. Groundhog Day
Contents: Imbecile Euphemisms, Dylan's Tempest, Attawapiskat, Gold:(Belo Sun, Senador José Porfírio, Stan Bharti, Bharti School of Engineering, Guyana Update), Damn Google! Nomenclature, Recently:(Nicholas Stern, Activists you say? Nigeria Shell verdict, Carbon Trading, Al Gore, Barack Obama), Closing Time, Beyond the Zero.
This is lookin' more and more like a basketball game eh? Repeatedly hooped dribbled & dropped. And our Northrop warned us to avoid those imbecile euphemisms: optimistic & pessimistic. Didn't he?
It's like I said about doom a while ago - and I wanted to believe Theresa Spence & Raymond Robinson too, evident shortcomings in their vision notwithstanding. What to believe now that 44 days on 300 calories did not significantly reduce her bulk? Say what you like about Zambonis, Sunshine-and-a-quarter wages, diamond mines, whatever; I find it difficult to walk around pictures like the one there? Very nourishing that fish broth.
What were they up to in the tipi then? Dunno. Doing the necessary to get their share I guess. Share of what? A soon to be worthless stake in k-k-Canadian civilization? Interesting ... Warrior Publications offers forthcoming insights, not naive: Idle No More starts to idle ... by someone who goes by the name of Zig Zag.
"Time reveals the truth," (Seneca); veritatem dies aperit, but not unless you are A) looking for it, B) able to recognize it if you trip over it, and C) able to bear it.
People don't like to think; they have to be driven to it (one way and another).
Even our spiritual anchorman Bob ... f'rinstance: Early on, 1965, in Love Minus Zero, No Limit (the title of which hints at a Pynchon-ian tinge), he sings (with a sneer?), "... read books, repeat quotations, draw conclusions on the wall."
He is more about expanding consciousness through ambiguous & equivocal 'possibilities' of meaning, expanding the zone of uncertainty and suspended judgement, literary; but with an anti-intellectual colour as expected from an American. Maybe this is some of what 'He' was getting at with "Judge not lest ye be judged," (or "Judge not, that ye be not judged," in Matthew 7:1). Don't know, can't say.
And a close reading of Tempest turns up too much coded Christianity, for me anyway, though I don't hold it against him - you do what you must do (and you do it well). It does seem to be a conduit to some fairly straightforward anger (in Pay in Blood): "Come here I'll break your lousy head," and "You bastard! I'm supposed to respect you!" (!) Sing it Bob!
Misdirected anger? Could be, partly. No room for thought so no real decisions - you do what you are driven to do to survive, necessity. And when they have got you up there in the living-room cab of that ginormous (gynormous?) truck makin' sunshine money, well ... What're ya gonna do eh? Don't be talkin' to people like me for one thing.
[On the other hand, as is so eloquently suggested in Talking Heads/David Byrne's
Once in a Lifetime ... water flowing underground. Memory processing and sorting as we sleep, the results blooming suddenly sometimes, unexpectedly like flowers. The days are already getting noticealy longer. Spring is coming. :-) ]
When we were building the Terra Nova in Bull Arm it was tough to find a place to rent anywhere close to the yard, and it was too far to commute from St. John's. I wound up in a garage in Sunnyside for a year or so, not very different from the one pictured above, with 6 other guys, and no big house next door (and not cheap neither).
So ... A wheelbarrow to collect firewood and I would be satisfied. :-)
Gold: I don't understand how anyone can get to know anything about anything beyond the most superficial impression without being able to visualize the ground. None of the Internet tools foster this kind of approach of course - everything is fragmented and presented at meaningless scales. So I go about and try to collect enough of it together to make sense - but a week later I can't remember where Itaituba is, so maybe I'm wrong about this too, oh well.
Belo Sun is not just interested in Volta Grande:
You can noodle around on this map if you like. Google Maps don't provide Creporizinho or the Rodovia Transgarimpeira but I have cobbled them in more-or-less. There is a bit of background on those points of interest here. "Nos anos 80, milhares de quilos ao mês eram retirados dessa região do PA. Hoje o ouro diminuiu, mas ainda é o principal meio de sobrevivência." / 'In the 80's thousands of kilos per month were taken out of this part of Pará state. Today the flow of gold is reduced but it is still the principal livelihood.'
Oh, and there are three zones of interest for Belo Sun in Volta Grande: Ouro Verde, Grota Seca, and South Block.
Recent 'hearings' in Senador José Porfírio, 'information sessions' something like that:
ISA solicita declaração de inviabilidade de projeto de mineração na região do Xingu, copied the next day by Amigos da Terra; a replay from September 2012: Senador José Porfírio discute projeto de lavra de ouro em audiência pública.
A beautiful young woman (at the centre of the photograph) evidently caught the eye of ISA photographer Marcelo Salazar.
The ISA (Instituto Socioambiental) material is here: Análise do Licenciamento Ambiental do Projeto Volta Grande da Belo Sun Mineração. In point form: I. Inability to analyse feasibility in the context of environmental instability (from Belo Monte); II. Defects in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) a. Factually incorrect, b. Impacts on indigenous lands not properly considered; III. Defects in licencing authority (wrong bureaucrats involved).
This news is not well reported (or at least I can't find it) so I still don't know when The MPF (Ministério Público Federal) will make its mind up.
The Stan Bharti connection: I noticed him on the board at Belo Sun and wondered who he is? ... And depite Google's latest revisions to the Image Search interface I was able to fossick about a bit and find him on the garbage heap.
He runs Forbes & Manhattan Inc. aka F&M, a private merchant bank headquartered in Toronto. Pierre Pettigrew calls it a 'junior', Stan calls it 'one of the largest in the world certainly in Canada', so, something in-between I guess.
He's a mining engineer, hale-fellow-well-met (I am sure the guy is a hero up at the Granite Club); sometimes talks (what amounts to) truthfully: on CNBC in September 2011 when gold was about $1,800 he was hoping for $2,500 (it just managed to break $1,900); in an interview with Jargal Dambadarjaa it comes out that Forbes & Manhattan has invested close to 4 billion $ in Brazil; and that gold is profitable at 2 grams per ton @ 400$/ounce (extraction cost $300/ounce) ... and so on, tidbits.
He is also into Peruvian gold with his sidekick Pierre Pettigrew in Sulliden Gold Corporation Ltd.; and coal too: Forbes & Manhattan (Coal) Inc. aka Forbes Coal in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa (east coast around Durban).
So what? The most revealing is an epistle to the graduating students of his Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University in Barrie (the name - at least the name - purchased for ten million in 2011): 6 minute video. Aficionados of the politically correct may think I am being critical because of his use of sexual analogies. Not so, don't mind 'em at all - it is the casual way he recommends that the graduates project a constructed personality and kiss ass as necessary.
Is it any wonder that they mostly seem to do just that?
Guyana update: There is a wee bit of news about the court case: Joan Chang, gold miner, versus Isseneru Village Council, Janette Bulkan, January 21; and, Miners win ruling over indigenous groups in Guyana, Jeremy Hance, January 29.
But in k-k-Canada the latest news from that zone has a different point of view: Guyana Goldfields' Aurora Gold project to cost US$205 million to build, January 11. An interesting tidbit - profitable at $527/ounce cost (?).
More Canadian players: Guyana Goldfields Inc. in Toronto going for the Aurora & Aranka projects on the Cuyuni River in central Guyana; and, Columbus Gold Corporation in Vancouver (approximately? or is that conveniently?) in the Paul Isnard project north of St. Laurent in French Guiana.
I imagine the some of the mis-spelling around Guyana Guiana French Guiana French Guyana etc. is intentional (see Omnibus below) and some of it is due to Canada's devolving educational system.
Here's a map.
[Just to remember the acronyms: EIA Estudo de Impacto Ambiental; RIMA Relatório de Impacto Ambiental.]
Damn Google! Changed their Image Search interface again !!!!!!! AND the Blogger interface again again !!!!!!! If it ain't broke don't fix it. Doh!
Nomenclature: Omnibus is an adjective, like 'dirty', so you can have an 'omnibus bill' but not an 'Omnibus Bill' unless for some reason the government decided to name it thus officially (which they generally don't I think).
The key to understanding is comprising unrelated components. The intention is confusion & social paralysis through complexity.
Bill C-38 is officially “An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012 and other measures.” It is also known as (also officially because this is the official 'short title') the “Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act”. It passed and became law in June 2012.
Inside it is a revised Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, aka CEAA.
THE ombibus bill many people are thinking of when they say it lately is Bill C-45, “A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012 and other measures” aka “Jobs and Growth Act, 2012” passed etc. in December 2012.
Keep in mind that the bill numbers start again with each new session. Information can be found at LegisInfo run by the government & Open Parliament which bills itself thus: "This is not a government site. Not even sort of."
[If it had been me and not Jim Flaherty I would have arranged it to table those bills on February 29 not March. Shame to waste a perfectly good leap year.]
Across this table lately:
Nicholas Stern ramps up his mea culpa's:1) Lord Stern: developing countries must make deeper emissions cuts, reported by Fiona Harvey Tuesday 4 December 2012 (and listed here before); and,
2) Nicholas Stern: 'I got it wrong on climate change – it's far, far worse' reported by Heather Stewart & Larry Elliott from Davos, Saturday 26 January 2013.
3) Some background if you want it at Wikipedia. Everything about him seems tentative (?) I don't know why.
Activists you say?1) Rebuilding optimism of will for effective climate activism, Trent Hawkins, 24 January 2013: "So where do we begin? It is the imperative of the climate movement leadership to rebuild optimism ..." (?) If the leadership could build anything wouldn't it be there already? Dunno.
2) Sierra Club's Michael Brune on Keystone XL and civil disobedience, David Roberts, Tuesday 29 January 2013; this applies to the US more-or-less.
3a) {642 words} Sierra Club Canada to review ban on civil disobedience, with B.C. pipelines in mind / U.S. club announces end of prohibition on peaceful law-breaking, Peter O'Neil, Vancouver Sun January 23, 2013, with a picture.
3b) {860 words} Sierra Club to review ban / Organization considers lifting its prohibition on civil disobedience, January 24.
4) A few days later I get an email (a copy of this blog post: CD or not CD, that is the question ... , John Bennett, Tuesday January 29 2013) asking me to take a survey. An important question on the survey (and the last of six) is to ask if I will continue to donate and if so, more? A quandary.
5) Board meeting January 31; outcome - "at the appropriate time." Here's the Media Release, February 1 2013. I think the real answer is in here: Supporter views on non-violent civil disobedience, January 31; viz. 'the money question' - the troops were soft on Question #6 - not really really soft but ... About 10,000 members in Canada so two in ten answered the survey - except that you didn't have to prove membership to vote.
6) Sierra Club BC - Milquetoasts! Their statement: We are doing all that we can. Bollocks! Not by half! Also reported by Stephen Hui in Georgia Straight, February 1.
7) Some references: Sierra Club US - Wikipedia, website; Canada - Wikipedia, website. Interesting that the National Board of Sierra Club Canada is about anonymous - can't find a list of their names anywhere and no bigger picture of them than that. (?)
Nigeria Shell verdict:1) Before: Shell verdict will determine whether other firms could be tried for oil spills, John Vidal, Tuesday 29 January 2013.
2) After: The CBC uses Dutch court rejects Nigerian farmers' claims against Shell from the Associated Press wire, but with a sub-headline "Subsidiary Shell Nigeria forced to pay village in landmark ruling."
3) An Engineering News website uses Dutch court says Shell partly responsible for Nigeria spills.
4) Bloomberg: Shell Not Liable for Most Nigeria Spill Claims, Dutch Court Says, Fred Pals, January 30 2013.
5) Dutch court rejects most of Shell spill case, Mike Corder, San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press, Wednesday January 30.
6) A while ago I cobbled up this map showing Goi (approximately). That judge has got clean hands eh?
Cap & Trade vs Carbon Tax (vs Fee & Dividend not even mentioned?):1) Should we stop worrying about the environmental impact of flying?, Leo Hickman, Thursday 31 January 2013.
2) Private provision of public goods in a second-best world: Cap-and-trade schemes limit green consumerism, Grischa Perino, January 24, 2013. The title is subtly misleading - the argument is more that green consumerism has little effect.
3) Elsewhere in The Guardian, Luca Taschini, Simon Dietz & Naomi Hicks of the Grantham Research Institute at LSE ask Carbon tax v cap-and-trade: which is better?
4) What about Fee & Dividend Gawdammit?! Storms of My Grandchildren, Chapter 9 An Honest, Effective Path, James Hansen, 2009.
5) A Useful tool: CO2 transportation emissions calculator.
Al Gore:1) The Future by Al Gore – review, John Gray, Thursday 31 January 2013. I can't afford to buy it; lineup at the library but I guess that has to be the way (damned union un-librarians!). Interesting ... the audio book has a lineup too?
Obama Fiddles While Planet Burns:1) Obama Immigration Reform Speech: 'The Time Is Now', Elise Foley, Tuesday January 29 2013. Last time it was Health Reform, now it's Immigration. "An economic and moral case," she writes. Bah! He is just avoiding the real issue, marking time.
2) Beyoncé chose to lip synch national anthem with US Marine Band at Obama’s inauguration, Associated Press, Tuesday January 22 2013. Apt. Perfectly symmetrical. Beyoncé? ... Never heard of her. I wonder how she does orgasms? Ah, she was at Super Bowl too. QED.
I went to a day-long conference thing on Enbridge's Line 9 reversal a while ago. A lunch was provided which was delicious and cheerfully served up. So I went looking for the providers of this lunch - turned out to be an amorphous group called Food Not Bombs but after a dozen emails I could not find anyone willing to accept a donation - cash mind you and no receipt required, spend it on Tequila was my recommendation but they didn't want it. (?)
About the same thing happened again trying to find out who did the lunch at the recent OCAP rally. (?)
Obviously I am doing something wrong. I wish I could figgure out what it is.
As I was thinking about John Bennett and Sierra Club Canada, and Elizabeth May of course who came up through that organization, this was on the front page of the website:
Long story about that banner ... another time, doesn't matter. A short story then: Early on in this Toronto Odyssey I tried to get beside the Green Party - it seemed the natural vehicle, outlet, conduit - whatever. The candidate in my riding didn't wash, so I sniffed around next one over. Seemed to be made-in-heaven, Portuguese spoken and all (which I was longing for). As part of the indoctrination they joined me into an email group. The topic on the go was what to do about nutbars who show up and ... disrupt the flow? I was throwing in ee cummings "staggered banged with terror through a million billion trillion stars" etc., but after a while I noticed that everyone was writing and no one was reading. I withdrew more-or-less quietly. (Boo Hoo. :-) Anyway ... they still don't know how to deal with 'em; and it still seems to me that this would be a good thing for the movement to figgure out.
I did meet someone quoting Milton at the recent OFL rally: "They also serve who only stand and wait." All perfectly derivative; who cares?
"I just don't care what happens next; looks like freedom but it feels like death. It's something in between I guess. It's closing time."
I trust this is useful to some one some where some when. Be well.
Beyond the Zero: I am slowly getting deeper into Pynchon's
Against The Day; excerpts:
Lew Basnight becomes a detective (One, 5), and,
Lake Traverse marries Deuce Kindred (Two, 12).
Anarchists vs The Machine, all very topical.
The cover of the edition I have includes this image - well, not
quite like any of these actually, but maybe closest to the last one on the right. Tullio Crali, an Italian futurist; entitled 'Nosedive on the city'; probably intended no irony when he painted it. No idea if Pynchon had anything to do with selecting it for the cover.
It seems like 300 pages or so is about it for many ... the author of this
diagram in Wikipedia a few years ago didn't even get that far.
The women come and go, talking of Michelangelo ... greatest living writer in English, whatever. I find it hard to remember what's s'pose t'be goin' on - must be the Alzheimer's.
A-and
Beyond the Zero, the first chapter of
Gravity's Rainbow, has been coming to mind for obvious reasons (the Vanishing Point mentioned last time etc.). That
Against The Day cover image establishes a bit of a connection there; and with the conclusion of
Gravity's Rainbow too for that matter.
Hansel & Gretel ...
"Into the blue again, after the money's gone," and that won't be long now, longer if I could quit smoking. :-)
The importance of spatial continuity,
Umwelt ... Could it be that obsessive/compulsive habits are vain attempts at compensation? The mental rats, unable to leave the ship and so trying to balance the cargo? Do you think?
Down.
Jared Diamond is not to be trusted either. A strange looking fellow - no harm in that. I was with him until Chapter 15 of his book 'Collapse' - Big Businesses and the Environment: Different Conditions, Different Outcomes - at which point the whitewash/greenwash of Chevron in Papua New Guinea left me ... gobsmacked!
Next morning I am still breathless. Not because of the scholarship - which I am unsure of (anyway, how would I know?); and not the cogency of the arguments which are not particularly ... more like the day when some little girl finally lifts her dress and you catch your first glimpse of coochie.
My own (simpleminded and sentimental) harmonious dream runs to a meadow, a cabin, a brook, a garden in which to dig & delve, very Thoreau, and as anima an Abishag who at least occasionally smiles. Never to be gentle reader ... once upon a time I offer an onion farm in São José do Norte to a beloved friend and she says "Sou preta mas não escrava / I am black but not a slave." Oh well ...
There are important clues (as to what a real safety net might look like) in the behaviour of Valdenir Munduruku and his friends and colleagues over the past several months as they confront the infernal machine that builds the likes of Belo Monte.
