Image via Wikipediathruthout
The belatedly "protected" koala is not threatened by flood or drought, but by rapacious land clearing, of which Queensland is the national champion. Each year, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, the state effectively destroys 100 million birds, mammals and reptiles.
The land is "cleared" by fire or machinery, often with a heavy chain tied between two bulldozers. The technique was developed by Queensland's most notorious land-clearer, the late Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, the conservative state premier for 19 years, whose self-awarded knighthood was given for "services to parliamentary democracy" such as winning gerrymandered elections with 20 percent of the votes. In 1992, a defamation jury found that Bjelke-Petersen had been bribed "on a large scale and on many occasions." Two of his ministers and his police commissioner were jailed for corruption. Lucrative land became a prize for cronies known as the "white shoe brigade." Brown envelopes of cash were handed over at a five-star hotel recently lapped by floodwaters in the centre of Brisbane.
Last July, the Queensland Labor government sold swathes of the state's forests and plantations to Hancock Queensland Plantations, a subsidiary of a US-based timber multinational. Queensland has many low-lying flood plains on which developers have been allowed to make fortunes selling plots. The victims of the great flood have been mostly poor people, including timber workers and their families. Most could not afford insurance or discovered their policies did not include "types of flood."
According to one of its own reports, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deliberately stopped insurance companies from agreeing upon a common definition of flood so that "insurers will continue to compete vigorously by product differentiation" by using many definitions of "flood" to specify which risks are covered and which are excluded. "The callousness of this imposed confusion is emblematic of how the Australian elite has treated those ruined by an inland ocean the size of Germany and France combined. Flooding also struck in Brazil and Sri Lanka in December 2010, but the disaster in Australia is far more revealing, for Australia is a "first world" country with advanced technology and communications - and yet tens of thousands of people received no emergency warning. Since the 1980's, Australia has become the model of a social democracy where the cult of the "market" has diminished public services and infrastructure budgets and divided by wealth a society that once boasted the most equitable spread of personal income in the world.
Successive governments have rejected, ignored or suppressed the recommendations of their own experts that, if acted upon, could have saved Brisbane. In 1999, a report commissioned by Brisbane City Council warned of "significantly higher" flooding than in the last great flood in 1974. When the contents were leaked, an alleged cover-up was referred to the Crime and Misconduct Commission, and nothing happened.
Professor Andrew Short, director of the Coastal Studies Unit at Sydney University, compares the Queensland flood with the scandal of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. "[H]aving these floods is no surprise, it's something we have been waiting for," he wrote. "Why were there no levees to protect the low-lying towns? ... Why are major highways and railways still below flood level?"
( Levees.org grew from the outrage about NOLA's destruction from avoidable circumstances. International Rivers has notes on misuse of dams that actually cause hazards. 'Water - Wealth & Power' revolves around the little known principles of Water Empire and centuries-old techniques of warfare by destruction of infrastructure.
- BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
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Selling the Future
Apparently, as part of Harry Reid's agreement not to push for filibuster reform, he extracted a promise that Mitch McConnell will not attempt to use the 51-vote "Constitutional Option" to change the rules when he is (presumably) the Majority Leader after the 2012 elections. When it comes to predicting that McConnell will be the Majority Leader, the odds favor it because of the vast disparity in vulnerable seats up for reelection next time around. But, as Tom Harkin (D-IA) notes, such agreements have little force.
Remembering Howard Zinn
"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness."What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
In Yemen, tens of thousands march against president
Egypt Deploys Military On Cairo's Streets
WikiLeaks Cables Show Dealings Between US and Egypt
The cables, which cover the first year of the Obama presidency, leave little doubt about how valuable an ally Mr. Mubarak has been, detailing how he backed the United States in its confrontation with Iran, played mediator between Israel and the Palestinians and supported Iraq's fledgling government, despite his opposition to the American-led war.
Egypt's Choice—and Ours
readersupportednews.org
even when the protests target longtime US allies such as Egypt.' Scott Wilson and Joby Warrick, The Washington Post
readersupportednews.org
Rarely has the Arab world seen anything like this.' Robert Fisk, The Independent UK
Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising
The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.
On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.
He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph.
The crisis in Egypt follows the toppling of Tunisian president Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, who fled the country after widespread protests forced him from office.
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