It’s nice to know that some people are thinking of our planet. In a remote corner of northwestern Alberta, Canada, an alliance of aboriginal people, the
provincial government, and oil companies have finalized an agreement by which industry will leave the Hay-Zama Lakes Wildland Park by 2017. In addition, industry, primarily the oil industry, will leave the area in an “environmentally reclaimed state.”
This agreement is very significant as the Hay-Zama Lakes are on three important North American bird migration routes, and is one of 1,675 globally important wetlands. This 500-square kilometre maze of lakes, swamps, and marshes is vital to geese, trumpeter swans, and ducks.
In addition, the region is vital to the life and future of the Dene Tha’ aboriginal people. At present, they are dependent on the area for food such as fish and fowl, and in the future hope to promote the park as a destination for eco-tourism.
Deforestation and poor environmental policies have come full-circle to
haunt Brazil. The Brazilian government has been accused of making concessions to the powerful food production lobby, allowing food manufacturing companies to cut down the Amazon forest for agricultural land.
The National Space Research Institute of Brazil announced that their satellite program has shown that 1,132 square kilometres of forest have been cut or burned in April, alone. This amount of deforestation is a 146 square kilometre increase over the March total.
However, other countries in South America are protecting their rainforest and the people who live within it. In September, 2007 the National Institute of Natural Resources and a Frankfurt-based scientific association reported the existence of an indigenous people living on the border between Peru and Brazil. Since the discovery, both local and international NGO’s have warned that the way of life of the Indians is threatened both by illegal logging and by oil exploration. In response, the Peruvian regional authorities have put these isolated people under their protection.
Well, conspiracy theories about Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination are going the rounds again. A tape taken by ‘Montreal Gazette’ reporter Stash Pruszynski at the Ambassador Hotel on the night of the murder has now been analyzed by American acoustic forensic expert, Philip Van Praag, and he feels that thirteen shots were fired from two different directions. When told of the analysis, Pruszynski said: “I’m always skeptical of conspiracy theories because life is one big conspiracy – anything that happens in life is more weird (sic) than any conspiracy you can imagine.”
Now, that’s news! A report, on the website of the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington, D.C., claims that American President
G.W. Bush, Vince-President Dick Cheney, and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, “exaggerated and oversimplified” intelligence of the threat that Iraq posed to American security. The report also stated that there were “…instances in which the administration went beyond what the intelligence community knew or believed in making public claims.”
The question is: why are American taxpayer dollars going toward reports on situations which have been obvious months, if not years? Bush and his cohorts lied to the world’s nations, everyone knows that. What good is reporting on the obvious going to do?
And finally – the former
king of Nepal, Gyanendra, wants to keep the jewels that are in the royal crown as well as other property. The constitutional government declared Nepal a republic on May 28th, but so far, the deposed king has not left his palace or turned over, what is now national property. A committee has been appointed to audit royal property, but so far there have been no valuables to audit. A member of the committee told Thomas Bell of the ‘Daily Telegraph’ that, “We realize it’s hard for some people to accept change. We have not been allowed to look in the residence of the former king. He is not helping us very much in the audit of the crown jewels, valuables and property.”
When Gyanendra does vacate the palace, which he is scheduled to do very shortly, there is a question of whether the jewels and valuables he leaves behind will be genuine. Professor Rajesh Gautam, a historian at Tribuhuvan University, stated to Thomas Bell that, “Gyanendra is a businessman and knows how much the crown is worth. If he does not hand it over soon, I fear we may lose the real diamonds and other gems that are in the crown.”
