11 Society – Page 286 – Public Intelligence Blog

Round I: UK Guardian on Bolivia–and Rights for Nature

Round II: Bolivia: Switch and Bait on Protecting Nature

Round III: Jim Hickman lives in Bolivia…

John

Most of your articles and information are very reliable and appreciated for what they are. This time, however, it is a mix of good research (Chellis's article) and a bit of exaggeration (your friend of a friend memo.) Chellis's article was published several months ago after she did a very thorough job of discovering the facts and assembling the story in an
engaging way. She definitely understands the political dynamics here in Bolivia, especially the role of racial identity in the process. I am glad you have circulated it. It is important that the Evo fans around the world
understand that, like Obama, his promises and his actions are far removed from each other.

Continue reading “Bolivia: Drilling Down on Nature, Evo, Truth”

2011/04/272011/04/27

Indonesia’s Urban Open Farmville

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 04 Indonesia, 11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Global News Blog

Indonesia's real-life Farmville

Rising food prices are galvanizing Jakarta's urban farming movement.

By Sara Schonhardt, Correspondent / April 22, 2011

Jakarta, Indonesia

• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

Jakarta’s urban gardening scene got started with a simple tweet: “Who wants to start urban farming?” After that first Twitter message in November 2010, the group known as Jakarta Berkebun secured a plot in the city’s north and harvested a crop of morning glories (a common ingredient in many dishes here).

jakarta garden — Click on Image to Enlarge

Jakarta lacks green space, but unused land abounds. Jakarta Berkebun aims to transform empty lots that often fill with rubbish into training grounds for urban youths to learn about growing food. For Milly Ratudian, an architect who leads the group, urban farming is a a response to skyrocketing food prices despite the nation’s abundant fertile crop land.

Read full article….

2011/04/262011/04/26

Bolivia: Switch and Bait on Protecting Nature

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

Dear Friends:

See the below [December 2010] article from our old friend, Chellis Glendinning, now living in Bolivia, that she did on the administration's recent anti-eco projects, and the following sent from a friend of a friend also living there now.

Sad to hear the other side of the story…JAS

“Need to tell you that this is all bull. Mr. Morales turns out to play to the international audience (you) — while at home he's got something else going on: industrial development up the kazoo, dams many times bigger than Hoover, nuclear power plants, uranium mining, lithium mining, new oil wells, pipelines through indigenous lands, new highways that tribes are fighting. Every time the people rise up against his plans — which happens constantly now (a friend just lost his eye to the police in the streets) — the administration dismisses them saying they are in the hands of the capitalists or are trying to tear down the state. Plus, public opinion has been cut via new laws that minimize the voice of journalists with heavy fines and perhaps closing papers, radio stations, etc. if
convicted. It is commonly said that EM says one thing but does the other.

“So, here at ground level, we don't take this law very seriously. It's nice, a nice collection of words. Sorry to tell you this. Non-democractic socialism, it turns out, is no picnic.

“The challenge begins now, as the people were too afraid to protest for the last years due to the assault by the right. But that's not a threat just now, so the people are rising up. It's a whole new ballgame at this point.
No one knows what will happen. Today's news is that El Evo liberated a bunch more millions to spend on further industrialization!”

See Also:

The Consequences of Modernization: The Techno-Fantasies of Evo Morales, Counterpunch, Christmas Weekend Edition, December 24-26, 2010

2011/04/252011/04/25

New Student Group Questions 9-11 “Findings”

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Academia, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

New RSO questions validity of 9/11 attacks, calls for explanations

By David Oltean || April 24, 2011

Central Michigan Life

Nearly a decade has passed since Sept. 11, 2001, and many still vividly remember the fateful day when about 3,000 Americans lost their lives.

However, some are demanding a new explanation for the disaster.

A new registered student organization, 9/11 Truth, has been formed at Central Michigan University in an attempt to raise awareness of the physically unique collapses of the World Trade Center towers. The group follows the views of the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, a group of more than 1,400 architects and engineers who have signed a petition demanding a federal investigation to re-explore the nature of the collapses.

Waterford junior Jared Weston formed the group after spending years conducting his own research on the 9/11 skyscraper collapses. Weston believes one of the most peculiar happenings on Sept. 11, 2001 was the collapse of 7 World Trade Center, which was not struck by a plane.

“What motivated me was the failure of the 9/11 Commission report to adequately address the collapse of building seven,” Weston said. “No steel high rises have ever collapsed from fire in the history of steel high rises, yet we have three instances all on the same day.”

Read rest of story…

See Also:

wtc7 series — A four-image progression of photos showing World Trade Center Building 7 collapsing down into its footprint. (click image to enlarge)

Source of photo

Journal: 9-11 WTC 7 You Tube Videos

911Truth.org Resource List

9-11 Truth Books & DVDs (29 Reviews)

2011/04/252011/04/25

Massimo Pigliucci on Ignorance Today

04 Education, 11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, IO Sense-Making

Ignorance Today

Massimo Pigliucci

2011-04-22

NEW YORK – Ignorance is the root of all evil, according to Plato, who also famously gave us a still-current definition of its opposite: knowledge. For Plato, knowledge is “justified true belief.” That definition is worthy of consideration as we reflect on the perils of ignorance in the twenty-first century.

Plato thought that three conditions must be met in order for us to “know” something: the notion in question must actually be true; we must believe it (because if we do not believe something that is true, we can hardly claim that we know it); and, most subtly, it must be justifiable – there must be reasons why we believe the notion to be true.

Consider something that we all think we know: the earth is (approximately) round. This is as true as astronomical facts get, particularly because we have sent artificial satellites into orbit and seen that our planet is indeed roundish. Most of us (except for a lunatic fringe of flat-earthers) also believe this to be the case.

What about the justification of that belief? How would you answer if someone asked you why you believe that the earth is round?

Continue reading “Massimo Pigliucci on Ignorance Today”

2011/04/25

Taliban Tunnel Frees Over 500 From Prison

08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, IO Sense-Making

106 Taliban Escape After Huge Prison Jailbreak In Afghanistan

Gus Lubin, April 25, 2011

Business Insider

Last night the Taliban brazenly tunneled into a major prison in Kandahar and broke out 504 prisoners, including 106 Taliban fighters, according to Al Arabiya.

The 1,050-meter tunnel went from a nearby house into the political wing of the prison.

The Taliban told Al Arabiya it had buses waiting at the end of the tunnel to transport prisoners to Taliban safehouses.

This is the second biggest jailbreak in Afghanistan, after militants blew up the front gates to free around 1,000 prisoners in 2008.

See Also:

Review: The Tunnels of Cu Chi

2011/04/242011/04/24

Call for Criminal Investigation of Bush-Cheney

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Law Enforcement, Military, Peace Intelligence

ElBaradei suggests war crimes probe of Bush team

(AP) – 22 April 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — Former chief U.N. nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei suggests in a new memoir that Bush administration officials should face international criminal investigation for the “shame of a needless war” in Iraq.

Freer to speak now than he was as an international civil servant, the Nobel-winning Egyptian accuses U.S. leaders of “grotesque distortion” in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, when then-President George W. Bush and his lieutenants claimed Iraq possessed doomsday weapons despite contrary evidence collected by ElBaradei's and other arms inspectors inside the country.

The Iraq war taught him that “deliberate deception was not limited to small countries ruled by ruthless dictators,” ElBaradei writes in “The Age of Deception,” being published Tuesday by Henry Holt and Company.

The 68-year-old legal scholar, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 1997 to 2009 and recently a rallying figure in Egypt's revolution, concludes his 321-page account of two decades of “tedious, wrenching” nuclear diplomacy with a plea for more of it, particularly in the efforts to rein in North Korean and Iranian nuclear ambitions.

Read full article…

Phi Beta Iota: We endorse the truth & reconciliation process and believe that if the USA is to restore its promise as a contributor to the international community of nations, it must first disclose the truth. In our view, the investigation should begin three months prior to 9-11, when Dick Cheney first mandated a nation-wide counter-terrorism exercise that assured his complete control over the entire US Government on 9-11….an assurance he and his planners needed to not just let it happen, but to execute all the trimmings and then carry on with the Weapons of Mass Deception that committed America to an elective multi-trillion dollar war against multiple countries. Dick Cheney hijacked the Presidency. We all need the truth on the table.

Bob Seelert, Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide (New York): When things are not going well, until you get the truth out on the table, no matter how ugly, you are not in a position to deal with it.

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Empire as Cancer Including Betrayal & Deceit

Worth a Look: Impeachable Offenses, Modern & Historic