Friday, August 10, 2012

PROGRESS BATTLE LINES DRAWN


Unesco watches Fiordland
tunnel project in New Zealand
By Tracey Roxburgh
6:26 AM Friday Aug 10, 2012
Milford Sound

Unesco is keeping a close eye on the Fiordland and Mt Aspiring National Parks and their status as a World Heritage site may be under threat from two controversial commercial proposals.
If the Dart Passage Tunnel, proposed by Milford Dart Ltd, or the Fiordland Link Experience, proposed by Riverstone Holdings Ltd, gain approval, Unesco may send a monitoring group to New Zealand to assess the impacts of the developments.
This could lead to the Te Wahipounamu heritage site being deleted from the World Heritage list. It could be added to the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Unesco public relations division media relations chief Sue Williams said yesterday the organization became involved after receiving "a number of reports by third parties" earlier this year.
It contacted the New Zealand authorities, requesting information on both proposals, "including their legal status and stage of implementation", Ms Williams said when contacted at her base in France.
Doc confirmed the two proposals had been "approved in principle" and provided Unesco with copies of impact studies and proposed mitigation measures.
Milford Sound Airport
Unesco's World Heritage Centre and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, an international environmental group, were assessing the information.
The next step could be the preparation of a report to be considered at the next World Heritage Committee session, in June or July next year.
From that meeting, officials could be asked to visit the area to assess the impact of the proposals.
"The World Heritage Centre has requested the New Zealand authorities keep it informed of any development, including the outcome of the public hearings," Ms Williams said.
Late last year, Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson announced her intention to grant concession applications to both companies. Submissions were then called for and were heard over several weeks this year by a Doc hearings panel in Queenstown and Te Anau.
Doc media adviser Reuben Williams said yesterday Unesco had no legal jurisdiction over the concession applications process.
Unesco was interested in world heritage but "they won't be in a position to be involved ... in the decision making".
Doc was still preparing reports on the applications to be forwarded to the delegated decision-maker, Doc operations deputy director Sue Cosford, he said.
"No formal decisions have been made ... it could be some time off."
Milford Dart Ltd director Michael Sleigh said he "just can't see how" the 11.3km tunnel could jeopardize the World Heritage Status. It would have a "minimal impact" compared with other developments at Milford Sound.
"If they [Unesco] were coming, they should be having a very close look at what the various Te Anau-based stakeholder groups [in] the Milford village [have done] in terms of the 6ha of native forest they removed to allow for commercial expansion.
"It's far more dramatic than anything we're proposing.
"They should also be talking to the people at Gunn's Camp and the mayor about recent support for the Haast-Hollyford highway and what impact that will have on the World Heritage status."
Riverstone Holdings Ltd director John Beattie said Unesco would be "absolutely satisfied" with his company's project, which would be an "exemplar for future activities inside the Department of Conservation estate in New Zealand".
He likened the project to the 7.4km Kuranda Scenic Railway which traversed native rain forest in Cairns.
"I'm advised by the operators ... that the benefit, they believe, of the infrastructure to the World Heritage status position - the knowledge and understanding of the rain forest - has been considerably improved ... as a result of the infrastructure being in place.
"We expect the monorail will be no different in that regard and we'd expect, having been through a detailed eight-year process, which has been extremely robust, with Doc ... that Unesco will respect the integrity of the Doc process and this will cease to be an issue."
Unesco World Heritage sites:
*962 sites worldwide, including three in New Zealand.
*Te Wahipounamu ("Place of Greenstone") covers the Aoraki/Mt Cook, Fiordland, Mt Aspiring and Westland National Parks; included in 1990.
*Tongariro National Park included in 1990, New Zealand Subantarctic Islands in 1998.
*To be included, sites must be of "outstanding universal value".
The proposals:
*Dart Passage Tunnel: An 11.6km, commercial bus tunnel from the Routeburn road in the Mt Aspiring National Park to the Hollyford road in the Fiordland National Park. Cost: $150m.
*Fiordland Link Experience: A catamaran trip across Lake Wakatipu to Mt Nicholas, an all terrain vehicle trip to the Kiwi Burn, then a 43km monorail journey to Te Anau Downs, on Lake Te Anau. Cost: $175m.
By Tracey Roxburgh

Debate: Fighting over Fiordland2

By Dianne Blumhardt and Bob Robertson
Tourism developers want to put a monorail into Fiordland, shortening the journey from Queenstown. Bob Robertson defends his scheme, and Dianne Blumhardt urges the Government to turn it down.
Bob Robertson: FOR
In a few weeks the Minister of Conservation, through his department's general manager of operations, will decide whether to grant a concession for the "Fiordland Link Experience", a privately funded, $170 million eco-tourism proposal of national significance.
The decision comes as the head of the Tourism Industry Association, Martin Snedden, is calling for the industry to adapt its offerings to what visitors want. Though the project ticks all the boxes, a collection of small special interest groups is working to kill it off.
This raises a question: if even green projects like this run into this kind of opposition, what is the future for investment and development throughout New Zealand?
Visitor numbers to Milford Sound have decreased every year since 2006. The project would reverse this by replacing the 580km round trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound with a combination of catamaran, all-terrain vehicle and monorail travel, and shave hours off the trip.
The monorail would be the longest in the world and powered entirely by renewable energy. The monorail track would be carefully laid to avoid significant beech trees and stay outside the boundaries of the Fiordland National Park.
Only 22ha of the 46,750ha Snowdon Forest would be affected - less than 0.05 per cent.
The investors have spent $3.5 million consulting the Department of Conservation. At a time of strained government budgets, the project would be entirely funded by local developers. It is expected to create at least 40 engineering and construction jobs and around 65 permanent jobs once the project is operational.
Concessions paid to DoC would contribute to its work and extensive overseas advertising by the investors would help the wider tourism sector.
Despite all this, a small number of people want to stop the project. They can be divided into three groups: those who want to keep the area for themselves, those with competing business interests, and those who oppose any development.
The first group comprises existing recreational users of the Fiordland area. They are concerned that the footprint of the monorail will disrupt their use of the land. As this is a matter of perception, we have to take their word for it. However, the area in question is vast and multiple uses can easily co-exist.
The second group run existing businesses that would compete with the Fiordland link. The degree to which they will be affected depends on the choices of visitors to the region.
The overriding point, however, is that commercially self-interested parties should react to competition by improving their visitor offering, not by knee-capping potential competitors with cynical objections at the consenting phase.
The third group has parachuted in from out of town. It appears opposed to development for ideological reasons and advocates encouraging people to stay longer and walk more. That is easier said than done for those who are time constrained or who lack the physical strength to go on walks. They include many elderly visitors.
The decision each of us now faces is whether we get behind projects like this or bow to pressure from a few special interest groups.
Do we want to create jobs and enable more people to see more of our beautiful country, or keep the environment the preserve of a select few?
Bob Robertson is managing director of the Infinity Investment Group.
Dianne Blumhardt: AGAINST
The fate of parts of pristine Fiordland hangs in the balance. Proposals by two different development companies to shortcut the road journey from Queenstown to Milford Sound are being considered by the Department of Conservation.
One of them proposes a tunnel in Mt Aspiring National Park, beyond Glenorchy where the stunning Routeburn wilderness walk begins. It would take private buses underground to the Hollyford Rd in Fiordland National Park, then on to Milford Sound. The other proposal is a monorail that would cut a swathe through DoC's Snowdon Forest, also aiming to condense the journey through to Milford.
DoC, established in the 1980s to protect the diminishing natural assets of New Zealand, is being lured by the dollar to grant concessions to these two invasive private enterprises.
Already the conservation estate is peppered with businesses that operate fairly unobtrusively, generating income through a strictly monitored relationship. So why the fuss over the proposed monorail and tunnel?
Look at the jobs they will create felling trees, bulldozing roads and in their main construction. Think of the revenue pouring into the local economy and Government coffers.
Yes, big companies will benefit, as will huge hotel consortiums (New Zealand-owned?) to accommodate targeted Asian tourists who will come to see as much as possible in as short a time as possible.
But what about small businesses throughout New Zealand?
With the loss of integrity, yet again, for our "100% Pure NZ" image, real travelers, prepared for real journeys seeing, and experiencing the raw natural beauty of real New Zealand, will recoil from travelling here. Such travelers embrace our perceived respect for the grandeur we guard.
The real loss is beyond monetary consideration. It reaches into the heart and conscience of anyone with enough humility to see beyond self-gratification. To allow all senses the chance to absorb the aura of this untouched world is a humbling experience indeed.
What arrogance would even consider meddling here? But DoC needs money, and conservation and tourism are strongly linked, so let's look for solutions within tourism.
Tourism ranges from the high-end, top lodge, private jet set through the organized hotel-staying bus tours to self-drive retirees who stay in small motels or bed & breakfasts, campervan users and backpackers.
All enjoy our conservation estate to a greater or lesser degree but how many contribute directly to DoC?
As a retiring bed & breakfast operator, a hiker and a caring citizen, I have sought an answer to this problem. Through discussion with the thousands of tourists over the past 20 years, I have discovered that not one of them would be averse to paying a small levy going directly to DoC.
Obviously charging to enter a National Park is not worth consideration, whereas a small levy (say $20) charged at our border to anyone travelling on a foreign passport, should provide revenue. We don't need to sell our soul.
Regardless of where we live in New Zealand we all have a duty to defend what is left of its natural assets. Kiwis who leave city comforts, and visit our wilderness areas, will understand this plea: Don't stuff up any more of Real New Zealand, this is our heritage.
Dianne Blumhardt of Thames is a retired school teacher and bed and breakfast operator. The real loss is beyond monetary consideration.

Peter’s Comment

First, let’s look at UNESCO. Here in part is what Wikipedia has to say about UNESCO:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (French L'Organisation des Nations unies pour l’éducation, la science et la culture: UNESCO; Description: play/juːˈnɛsk/) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN). Its purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter.

Listed among the agency’s wide ranging activities is also the responsibility for registration of World Heritage Sites. The aims of UNESCO would appear to support the projects as aids to international collaboration and understanding through education, science and culture. Isn't that what tourism is all about?

The article above by Bob Robertson is the view of a business investor and one would expect him to come out on the side of the developers. But he argues with logic that is hard to dispute.

Dianne Blumhardt on the other hand argues with the logic of someone who wants to save the whole world from itself. She seems to be a believer in the theory that everything should be turned back to the first ten seconds of evolution so that the world would be a perfect place for right thinking people like her.

I think the reality of the two new Milford Sound access routes is that both will do more to preserve this world heritage area than the existing means of getting to this remote location.

It is well known in the tourism industry that attractions at the end of a no-exit road never attract as many visitors as attractions that have more than one route in and out.

In addition, there is the time problem. It’s all very well to say that tourists should be encouraged to walk everywhere, but they don’t have the time. Most visitors to Milford Sound go there and back in a day from Queenstown. That’s a 680 kilometer round trip on a road that is one of the most dangerous that we have. Few people have time for an extra night in Te Anau to break the journey.

More people need to realize that we can’t stop the clock ten seconds after the start of evolution. We can’t stop the clock at any point in history and we can’t stop it to take effect at midnight tonight. We live in a world that is still evolving and man and his creations are part of the evolution.

Both projects will be good for New Zealand and good for our World Heritage sites.

WEIRD HEADLINES








Thursday, August 9, 2012

HIGHWAY HANK GOOD


The frustrations
of interstate trucking

Highway Hank Good's HG 2

“Here I sit for another night, in the back of the Petro shop, waiting for a new turbo, oh and now it looks like the APU has totally quit too. It won't stay running, just like the alternator. It went out also,” says Highway Hank Good on Facebook from somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Hank is a popular and well-known veteran of US trucking who takes great pride in his rigs. But as any old hand will tell you it doesn’t matter how thorough the maintenance is, you can still get caught out and sometimes it’s just a pile of things one on top of another.

Cheers, Hank. Before you know it you’ll be cruising the interstates again and doing what you love.


I hope Hank has some good reading material to help pass the time


BEAUTIFUL SWITZERLAND


Why Swiss steam is back 
on the rails 
By Anthony Lambert
5:00 PM Tuesday Jul 24, 2012 New Zealand Herald
Anthony Lambert takes a trip on a lovingly-restored cogwheel steam locomotive route through the Swiss Alps.


A steam locomotive negotiates the Steinstafelviadukt on the picturesque Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke in Switzerland. Photo / Creative Commons image by Wikimedia user David Gubler
Tran Dinh Hung travelled 8850 kilometres because of his childhood dream. He came to Switzerland from his native Vietnam to work on the steam locomotives his father drove before the Vietnam War.
"Every day I saw him on a steam locomotive and heard the beautiful sound from the locomotive. So I wanted to follow him when I grew up."
But, after the war, the railway into the mountains at Da Lat remained closed and the Swiss-built engines languished in a jungle embrace.
Then in 1990 Hung was given the job by Vietnam Railways of helping a dozen Swiss volunteers move the derelict locos 120km to Ho Chi Minh City for shipment to Hamburg and, finally, Switzerland, as part of the revival of a remarkable line between Realp and Oberwald. Now retired, he was on his third visit to work on the railway when I met him last August.
Until 1982, this section of line was one of the highlights - and highest point - of the Glacier Express line between St Moritz and Zermatt. Then a 14.5km "base tunnel", cut through the foot of the mountain, opened which permits year-round operation.
Previously, the threat of avalanches forced closure from October to late May. Indeed, one bridge had to be dismantled every autumn to prevent it being swept away.
Ordinarily, once the new, faster, year-round route opened, the old line would have been forgotten. But a group of Swiss railway buffs thought this section was too impressive to lose.
It offered the experience of climbing to the Furka Tunnel at 2160 metres and seeing the Rhone Glacier across the valley. So they set up a body in 1983 to save it.
The practical and financial challenges were so great most dismissed the idea but, section by section, the Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke (DFB) was rebuilt.
The DFB reopened last month for its short season, with daily trains until mid-August followed by Friday and weekend services into October.
The Rhone Glacier itself has been admired since the start of Swiss tourism. In 1836, the poet Henry Longfellow described the great tongue of ice that spawned the Rhone River as "lying like a glove with its palm downwards, and the fingers crooked and closed - a gauntlet of ice which centuries ago winter threw down in defiance of the Sun".
Visitors back then came by horse-drawn postbus to the hamlet of Gletsch, lost among the mountains, to walk to the glacier.
Later in the 19th century, two hotels were built overlooking the glacier; the now-closed Belvedere which featured in the 1964 James Bond filmGoldfinger, and the huge Glacier du Rhone Hotel of 1860, which the 1895 Baedeker travel guide book described as "first class but not quite satisfactory in some respects".
Some might say the same today, chiefly because there are no en-suite bathrooms - but I found it a delightful step back in time.
The hotel's livelihood was threatened when the railway arrived in 1914, but the savvy owner insisted that in return for giving his land for the railway, midday trains would stop for lunch and evening trains would stay the night. So, a cavernous dining hall with brass chandeliers was built to augment the more intimate dining-room. It still fills up with the cyclists, bikers and motorists who converge on Gletsch from the Goms Valley and the Furka and Grimsel passes, as well as the DFB's passengers.
The DFB stations at Realp and Oberwald are a few steps from the stations of the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, which operates trains over the western part of the Glacier Express route between Zermatt and Disentis.
A converted coach forms the cafe at Realp where most passengers take a coffee or hot chocolate before boarding the period-style carriages. First-class passengers sink into upholstered seats while, in traditional manner, second-class passengers sit on wooden slatted seats, but they are perfectly contoured for comfort.
The journey begins with a blast on a pea whistle from Gerhard Bissinger, who had come from Hamburg to act as a volunteer guard for a fortnight. The climb up the Furkareuss Valley resembles a Scottish glen in its heather-clad slopes. Waterfalls and occasional cows crop the hardy grasses. Huge boulders in the river hint of the perils of spring melt and a rock the size of a tipper truck forms one wall of a cow barn.
Such gradients can be climbed only with the help of a central rack rail, engaged by a cog on the engine which lets it claw its way up the mountain. Having to maintain the rack rail to a tolerance of one-12th of an inch is just one of the many complications facing the DFB. Another is the 1.6km-long summit tunnel and the expense of repairing the effect of freeze and thaw on the tunnel lining.
The western exit from the tunnel is breathtaking, with roads that zig-zag up the mountain slopes to the Furka and Grimsel passes, the distant buildings of Gletsch in the valley and the lip of the Rhone Glacier. The pause at Gletsch is a chance to admire the immaculate locomotive. Nearly all of them are centenarians, painted in blue or black livery with plenty of brightly burnished steel and brass.
The final descent from Gletsch to Oberwald begins in a spiral tunnel to allow the railway to corkscrew down the mountain. It emerges to cross the Rhone and edge along the valley slope in a forest of larch and firs, with campanula and saxifrage among them.
The risk of sparks igniting the undergrowth prompted the DFB to install 84 trackside sprinklers which are automatically set spinning by ascending trains.
As the train approaches Oberwald, a view opens up along the broad Goms Valley, birthplace of the "king of hoteliers", César Ritz.
The steam loco whispers to a halt at Oberwald station where trains head west to Brig or east through the Base Tunnel to Realp and on to Andermatt, taking just 21 minutes rather than the 130 minutes of the old route.
Slow travel - but Tran Dinh Hung and thousands every year savour every minute.


For the pleasure of great reading


PO Box 110, Ngatea 3541, New Zealand

A TRUCK THAT RUNS ON SMOKE



Guess 
what the 
driver
is having
for 
lunch




Wednesday, August 8, 2012

VENOMOUS SPIDERS

White-tailed spiders and 

Daddy Long Legs: An urban myth

Today I spent most of the day at a First Aid course as well as a couple of hours driving a school bus, so not many new posts on the blog today. Sorry about that, readers.
A Daddy Long Legs spider
During discussions at the First Aid course the subjects of poisons came up and in particular the Australian White-tailed spider which can give a nasty bite. For many years it has been claimed that the White-tailed spider is venomous because it eats Daddy Long Leg spiders and the Daddy Long Legs is actually the world’s most venomous spider, but with fangs not powerful enough to penetrate human skin. This claim was also mentioned today.
When I suggested that the connection between the White-tail and the Daddy Long Legs may just another urban myth, the tutor replied that it was a definite known fact that the White-tail is only venomous because it eats the world’s most venomous spider, the Daddy Long Legs.
So when I got home I went on the internet and did the research. Here is part of what I found.

White-tailed spider
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
White-tailed spiders are medium-sized spiders native to southern and eastern Australia, and so named because of the whitish tips at the end of their abdomens. Common species are Lampona cylindrata and Lampona murina. Both these species have been introduced to New Zealand.[1]
A White-tailed spider

White-tailed spiders are vagrant hunters who seek out prey rather than spinning a web to capture it. Their preferred prey is other spiders and they are equipped with venom for hunting.
They are known to bite humans and effects may include local pain, a red mark, local swelling and itchiness; rarely nausea, vomiting, malaise or headache may occur. Ulcers and necrosis have been attributed to the bites, but a scientific study by Isbister and Gray (2003) showed these were probably caused by something else, as the study of 130 white-tailed spider bites found no necrotic ulcers or confirmed infections.[2]


AND from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Is a Daddy Long Legs the most poisonous spider?
Possible envenomation
Is there any truth to this oft-repeated tale?
Daddy-longlegs (Opiliones) - these arachnids make their living by eating decomposing vegetative and animal matter although are opportunist predators if they can get away with it. They do not have venom glands, fangs or any other mechanism for chemically subduing their food. Therefore, they do not have poison and, by the powers of logic, cannot be poisonous from venom. Some have defensive secretions that might be poisonous to small animals if ingested. So, for these daddy-long-legs, the tale is clearly false.
Continued below . . . . .


Available now from Smashwords
HAPPY READING

Daddy-longlegs spiders (Pholcidae)
- Here, the myth is incorrect at least in making claims that have no basis in known facts. There is no reference to any pholcid spider biting a human and causing any detrimental reaction. If these spiders were indeed deadly poisonous but couldn't bite humans, then the only way we would know that they are poisonous is by milking them and injecting the venom into humans. For a variety of reasons including Amnesty International and a humanitarian code of ethics, this research has never been done. Furthermore, there are no toxicological studies testing the lethality of pholcid venom on any mammalian system (this is usually done with mice). Therefore, no information is available on the likely toxic effects of their venom in humans, so the part of the myth about their being especially poisonous is just that: a myth. There is no scientific basis for the supposition that they are deadly poisonous and there is no reason to assume that it is true.
What about their fangs being too short to penetrate human skin? Pholcids do indeed have short fangs, which in arachnological terms is called "uncate" because they have a secondary tooth which meets the fang like the way the two grabbing parts of a pair of tongs come together. Brown recluse spiders similarly have uncate fang structure and they obviously are able to bite humans. There may be a difference in the musculature that houses the fang such that recluses have stronger muscles for penetration because they are hunting spiders needing to subdue prey whereas pholcid spiders are able to wrap their prey and don't need as strong a musculature. So, again, the myth states as fact something about which there is no scientific basis.
In summary
For true daddy-long-legs, the opilionids, the myth is certainly false, and for the daddy-long-legs spiders it is certainly not based on known facts.
And then from Burkemuseum.org
Myth: The daddy-longlegs has the world's most powerful venom, but fortunately its jaws (fangs) are so small that it can't bite you.
Fact: That is a full-fledged Urban Legend, with no basis in fact whatever. This legend is so widespread that many people believe it who should really know better, including some teachers and TV documentary producers.

Three different unrelated groups are called "daddy-longlegs." Harvestmen (below left) have no venom of any kind. None at all! Same with crane flies (below right). Pholcid spiders (below center) have venom (like almost all spiders) but there's nothing special about it; in fact, a recent study showed that pholcid venom is unusually weak in its effect on insects. This myth is debunked at greater length on Rick Vetter's web site.
So getting rid of Daddy Long Legs spiders from your house is not the way to get rid of the White-tails. It would be better to use a recommended insect repellent in all the dark corners of the house including inside the roof.

PAKISTANI POLITICS

Pakistan court summons
PM over contempt
New prime minister summoned to face possible contempt charges, after he failed to open graft probe against president.
Last Modified: 08 Aug 2012 08:58  from Aljazeera

Pakistan's top court has summoned the new prime minister to appear later this month to face possible contempt charges, escalating a wrangle over corruption cases against the country's president.
Pakistani Raja Pervez Ashraf

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court - which has already dismissed the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, over the issue - summoned his successor Raja Pervez Ashraf on August 27 for ignoring a request to ask Swiss authorities to reopen cases against the head of state, Asif Ali Zardari.
It is the latest episode in a two-and-a-half-year saga in which the government has resisted demands to have Zardari investigated, arguing that as president he enjoys immunity.
The government is due to become the first in Pakistan's history to complete an elected, full five-year mandate in February 2013, but the showdown could force polls before then.
The court had previously given Ashraf until August 8 to write to Switzerland asking it to reopen the multimillion-dollar graft probes.
"We issue notice to Raja Pervez Ashraf under [the] contempt of court act 2003, read with article 204 of the constitution to show cause as to why he may not be proceeded (against) in contempt of court and [is] not complying [with the] relevant direction of the court," said Judge Asif Saeed Khosa.
"He shall appear in person at the next date of hearing. Hearing adjourned until August 27," the judge added.
'Personal vendetta'
Critics of the judiciary and members of Zardari's main ruling Pakistan People's Party accuse the court of over stepping its reach and waging a personal vendetta against the president.
The government had wanted the case adjourned until September. Irfan Qadir, the attorney general, said he needed time "to bridge the gap" between the two sides, and "find an amicable solution".
Experts say Ashraf will be asked to explain his position on August 27.
If the court is not satisfied, he risks being summoned to be indicted for contempt, precipitating the second contempt trial against a sitting prime minister in just months.
The allegations against Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his wife, late premier Benazir Bhutto, were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder $12 million allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs
inspection contracts.
The Swiss shelved the cases in 2008 when Zardari became president and the government insists the president has full immunity as head of state.
But in 2009 the Supreme Court overturned a political amnesty that had frozen investigations into the president and other politicians, ordering that the cases be reopened.
Zardari had already signed the contempt law, which sought to exempt government figures, including the president, prime minister and cabinet ministers from contempt for acts performed as part of their job.
Imtiaz Gul, an analyst, told AFP that Wednesday's decision showed the court was refusing to back down. "The logical consequence of the court's position is the disqualification of any prime minister who refuses to write the letter," he said.
Peter’s Comment
The judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court must be the only honest and corruption free people in the whole country.
What a pity that they have to be the stage managers for a comic opera called Deals Within Wheels for the Big Wheels.


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

THE TRUTH ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE


Climate Change: It has been around
longer than humans

The chart below shows how average earth temperatures have changed over the last 2 billion years. It can be seen at a glance that the world has been recovering from an ‘Ice House’ period since just before humans inhabited the planet.

There are smaller cycles too (not shown in the chart) and a significant one was the Little Ice Age from 1400-1850 AD when average temperatures started rising again.


The chart also shows how several Ice Ages occurred with an average earth temperature of 10 degrees C. It is important to realize that in an ice age, ice does not usually cover the entire earth’s surface, but is more an encroachment of the polar caps into temperate zones.

On the high side average temperatures have reached 25-27 degrees C and since we are dealing with averages, maximums will have have been far higher than anything recorded by modern day meteorologists.

As world average temperatures continue to rise (naturally) the arid areas like central Australia and the Sahara will not become drier, as is predicted by alarmists, but will have a warmer moister climate. Other areas at present too cold for agriculture will be brought into production. In short, as the climate warms, the world will be capable of producing more food, not less as predicted by the alarmists.



The climate during the Miocene Age was similar to today's climate, but warmer. Well-defined climatic belts stretched from Pole to Equator, however, there were palm trees and alligators in England and Northern Europe. Australia was less arid than it is now.



Global climate during the Late Eocene Age was warmer than today. Ice had just begun to form at the South Pole. India was covered by tropical rainforests, and Warm Temperate forests covered much of Australia.




The chart above shows more than 2 billion years of completely natural climate change. 


WARNING!
Climate change alarmists will have 
you worried into an early grave
for no good reason

RELAX WITH A GOOD BOOK

Monday, August 6, 2012

MALAYSIAN CENSORSHIP

'Un-Islamic' book trial opens in Malaysia
Bookstore raids raise concerns about the rule of law in the southeast Asian state.
Kate Mayberry Last Modified: 06 Aug 2012 08:47











Since 1971, 1,517 books and other publications have been banned in Malaysia [AP]
It was a quiet Wednesday evening towards the end of May when Malaysia's religious authorities paid a surprise visit to the Borders bookshop in one of Kuala Lumpur's more upscale shopping malls.
The three officers from the Federal Territories Islamic Affairs Department, better known by its Malay language acronym JAWI, were courteous but brought with them 20 other men. They milled around the shop, browsing the shelves and taking pictures on their mobile phones. The officers asked the employees whether the shop was selling Allah, Liberty and Love, the newly released book by New York-based Canadian academic Irshad Manji.
Understandably, the staff, dealing with a raid by the religious authorities for the first time, was nervous. They lead the men to the shelf where the offending book was on display. After confiscating a couple of copies, the officials asked for the manager.
Stephen Fung, a Malaysian Chinese and non-Muslim, who buys the books and distributes them to the six Borders branches in and around the capital, was the first to speak to the men. But then they asked to see the most senior Muslim member of staff. The store manager, Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, a 36-year-old Malay woman planning for her wedding and in the midst of a marriage course at her local mosque, happened to be on shift.
Accusations 
"They singled out the Malay women and asked them if they were married," Borders Books' Chief Operating Officer Yau Su Peng told Al Jazeera. "Those who said they were single were then accused of being a lesbian. Some were in tears."
Nik Raina and Fung were then ordered to appear at JAWI's offices the next day. When they did so, Nik Raina's lawyer was turned away, denying her a right to counsel that's enshrined in Malaysia's constitution.
All this happened even though at the time, on May 23, Allah, Liberty and Love wasn't actually banned.
Some groups had expressed disquiet about the book and Borders had been forced to cancel a "meet-the-author" session with Manji earlier in the month following threats of violence, but no fatwa had been issued. Borders said it had been given no indication that there was a problem with selling the book. Indeed, it was on sale at other shops in the same shopping complex.
With its Muslim Malay majority and large communities of non-Muslim Chinese, Indian and indigenous people, Malaysia has long prided itself on its ethnic diversity and religious tolerance. For decades, Shariah courts, with jurisdiction over the personal lives of the country's Muslims, have operated alongside the civil system with the Federal Constitution as the country's supreme legal document. But as Islam has become increasingly politicized and the religious authorities more assertive, the system has come under increasing strain.
Religious authorities 'emboldened'
The case "is symptomatic of an alarming trend in which religious authorities have become increasing emboldened by the lack of proper oversight and a secular 'leash'", Azrul Mohd Khalib, who writes a column for the online newspaper the Malaysian Insider and works on HIV/AIDS issues, told Al Jazeera.
Nik Raina is charged with distributing a book that's offensive to Islam, even though her job doesn't involve choosing the books for the store or stacking the shelves. Due in court on Tuesday, she faces not only the prospect of a 3,000 ringgit fine ($1,000) and a two-year jail term, but a criminal record. "There was no fatwa, no communication, not even so much as a phone call," Yau said. "Nik Raina is being persecuted because she's a Muslim."
The Borders raid took place nearly three weeks before the Home Ministry's Publication and Quranic Text Control Division published the ban, declaring the book "prejudicial to morality and public order". JAWI, which ultimately reports to the Prime Minister's Office, says it doesn't need a court order to raid a bookshop like Borders if it suspects it's selling "un-Islamic" material. It's a view that's echoed by Jamil Khir Baharom, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department and the man responsible for Islamic affairs in the government.
Lawyers acknowledge that laws governing the religious authorities in individual states are quite broad. But there is skepticism about the charges that have been brought.
"It seems the religious authorities have had to find someone who is a Muslim within the Borders organization to be charged," said lawyer Andrew Khoo, the co-chair of the Malaysian Bar Council's Human Rights Committee. "The question is whether the appropriate person has been charged or whether she's the unwitting scapegoat of people trying to enforce the unenforceable." As a company Borders can't be charged, and neither can Fung. JAWI's officers admitted as much as they handed Fung a summons.
After Nik Raina had been charged and a date set for the Shariah hearing, Borders learned it had secured a judicial review to challenge the raid in the civil court. The hearing was set for a couple of weeks before the Shariah case. But then JAWI asked to have its hearing brought forward, a move it said was in the public interest. JAWI did not respond to emails or phone calls requesting comment on the raid and its aftermath.
Book seizures
It's not only Borders, a company controlled by ethnic Chinese business tycoon Vincent Tan, which has turned to the civil courts. The publisher of the Malay language edition of the book, ZI Publications and its owner/director Ezra Zaid, also sought a judicial review. As with Borders, at least 20 people turned up at ZI's offices looking to seize the book. "The concern for me, and especially for my staff, was the legal jurisdiction in which they were operating," he said.
Raman Krishna has run Silverfish Books in a Kuala Lumpur suburb since 1999. It's a small operation specializing in Malaysian books and the kind of writing that isn't on the bestseller lists. JAWI visited Silverfish on June 1. While the two officers were polite and showed Raman the gazette of the soon-to-be published ban when he asked to see it, they warned him that if he had any Muslim staff on the payroll they would be at risk of prosecution if the book were discovered.
"The other part of this is censorship by harassment," Raman said in an interview at his shop. "We have a name for it, 'budaya samseng' - a culture of gangsterism. It's absurd. No civilized society would tolerate this. I don't understand why Malaysians do."
After JAWI's visit, Borders wrote to the appropriate ministers to express their concern over the circumstances of the raid and the continued prosecution of Nik Raina. It's not just Nik they're concerned about.
The company, which bought the rights to the Borders' name when the US parent company folded, employs 150 people, 77 per cent of them Muslim. It has yet to receive any response, although the consequence of Nik Raina being found guilty could have serious implications for all Malays simply trying to earn a living; whether an ethnic Malay crew member serving wine to a non-Muslim passenger on a Malaysia Airlines flight or a waiter serving food to non-Muslim Malaysians during Ramadan fasting hours.
"We have the government rhetoric of Malaysia being a progressive democracy and a center for moderate Islam, but then you have the political action on the ground, the lack of political will to tackle issues like this and a backsliding into medieval times," said Imtiaz Malik Sarwar, a constitutional expert and lawyer who's representing ZI Publications and Ezra. "It's very worrying."
Change in focus
Borders' attempt to delay Tuesday's proceedings in the Shariah Court until the completion of the judicial review was unsuccessful. Citing the Constitution, High Court Judge Rohana Yusuf said the civil courts didn't have the authority to intervene in a Shariah case. But she also noted a seeming "lack of good faith" on the part of JAWI and said she was confident the Shariah Court itself would grant a stay of proceedings.
A delay would help ease some of the unease surrounding the case and show the kind of legal co-operation that lawyers such as Khoo say is necessary for a dual system to work effectively. But the question of jurisdiction remains a difficult one. Where other countries have found a dual system unworkable, Malaysia has persevered, often by steering away from difficult debates over where jurisdiction ultimately lies.
A couple of decisions at the end of July, one of them backing an earlier ruling to lift a ban on a book about women and Islamic law, have raised hopes that the civil courts are becoming more assertive. What started off as a surprise raid by the religious authorities on an unsuspecting bookshop may finally force a discussion few have been willing to risk.
There "needs to be some acknowledgement of how the rule of law works in this country", said Ezra. "There's a lawlessness in which they are operating. All we want to know is where our civil liberties end and where they begin. And, if I'm a Muslim, where does Shariah intercede. This really is a litmus test of the veracity of our legal system."
Irshad Manji is not the only writer to find her works banned in Malaysia. Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran, Booker Prize-winning novelist Salman Rushdie, polemicist Christopher Hitchens and Peter Mayle, a British writer best known for his tales of expatriate life in France, have all had books banned in the past four decades.
Since 1971, some 1,517 books and other publications have been added to Malaysia's banned list. Along with magazines and newspapers, books are also monitored for content. Pictures are sometimes blackened out with marker pen or pages removed altogether.
Operating under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, the Publication and Quranic Text Control Division is in charge of the process. It decides which publications are allowed to be sold and which are deemed too dangerous for the Malaysian public to see. As Malaysia battled a Communist insurgency, early bans focused on Communism and politics. In the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the predictable bans on adult magazines, kung fu caught the censors' attention. These days, sex and religion are the most sensitive subjects.
Peter’s Comment
Malaysia’s claim to star status as a model of democracy and racial and religious tolerance seems to be fading.
When I visited Malaysia briefly in the nineties I believed the propaganda. To me country and people appeared friendly to tourists and the diverse cultures seemed to be co-existing in harmony. Everywhere I went I found smiling faces.
However, since the nineties I have come to realize that all may not be as it seems in Malaysia. I can recall a political trial that went through the courts a few years ago that, to the rest of the world, was a farce that was stage-managed to eliminate a political threat. In a true democracy the courts are totally independent of politics.
Now as I read of this latest witch-hunt by religious zealots, I am reminded of another vital facet of democracy; the state must be completely free of any kind of religious dominance. A religion dominated state cannot be a democratic state.
It would seem that Malaysia must be about the last country in the world to discover the real effect of banning books; a ban will only serve to guarantee more sales all around the world and even more sales to Malaysians.


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