To Boycott or Not to Boycott 2008 Olympics

Whether tis nobler in the world body politic or not, China is suffering the precision slings of arrows to their outrageous Olympic fortunes. Recurve bows for Archers are the only class of bow allowed at the Olympics. Arrows of dissent are cascading onto Beijing from all over the globe as boycotts take on various ghostly forms to challenge Chinese strong arm tactics against a sea of troubled policies towards Tibet, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Taiwan and a host of internal Human Rights abuses. Exiled Chinese dissidents from Tiananmen Square massacre are urging the world to keep the pressure on China to amend its policies and adopt Human Rights as a guiding principle.

China and the Chinese ambassador to Canada accused the Dalai Lama of being the muckraker or serial liar behind the scenes stirring protests up to set the world against China's Olympics. Tibetan turmoil continues to mount in Olympic reaction to the civilian deaths from China's militaristic quelling of protests. China's heavy handed response to Tibet's renewed quest for independence caught the attention of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) luminaries responsible for awarding the Olympics to Beijing. The IOC Chairman, while in Beijing today at an Olympic Committee meeting discussing the uprising for freedom in Tibet, is still aiming to squash the boycott threats. China is also targeted for its policies of exploitation in Africa, principally backing brutal factions beholden to the Chinese for the civil war in Sudan's, Darfur region.

On Monday, a Beijing Olympics spokesman criticized protesters who attacked London's relay parade. China decided name calling and characterizing the many as the few, was their best response while under assault from rhetorical arrows meant to puncture their policy stances.

"A few Tibetan separatists attempted to sabotage the torch relay in London, and we strongly denounce their disgusting behavior," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.

Every head of state is being questioned now on their intentions regarding the lavish Opening Ceremonies and their attendance. Bush is in, while some of his former White House staffers proffer to relocate the Olympics, Gordon Brown is taking it on the chin from Fleet street for allowing the Olympic torch destined for Beijing at #10 Downing Street while firmly rejecting boycott notions. The French are outraged as President Sarkozy is trying to honeymoon and upgrade his dissolute image while being hounded about the Olympic opening ceremonies where he favors a boycott. It has gotten so bad just carrying the Olympic flame, Norway, in a Tao Te Ching way states, declares the rest of the Torch relay should be canceled now.

The relay of the Olympic torch through the streets of Paris was disrupted this morning after only 200 metres. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered along the route and shouted pro-Tibetan slogans. The torch was extinguished twice and put on a bus for safety reasons. Five protestors have so far been arrested. A large number of police have been deployed to prevent disturbances along the 28-kilometre route.

Denmark is fence sitting about a boycott while Canada is doing the let's not routine. London is the home base of the Free Tibet Campaign.

All of this makes China apparatchiks ensconced inside the Imperial City, after scooting past the stone lions guarding the Gate of Heavenly Peace, violently ill. Perennial Oscar winner, Stephen Spielberg quit early on, stating China's policies preclude him from helping to stage Beijing's opening ceremony. Decades, even changing the course of nature by rerouting the mighty Yellow River and billions upon billions of yuan have gone into making the 2008 Olympics a premier corporate event to elevate China's standing on the world stage as the next super power.

European athletes are demanding clear guidelines from Jacques Rogge, Chairman of the IOC on what their freedoms of speech will be at the Olympics. China is being tormented in the wake of its own actions for the entire world to see and offer harsh critiques to decide whether a trip to Beijing for the Olympics is a good idea.

Dreaming Lhasa is the internationally recognized contemporary film about Tibet offered from the exiled film making partnership of Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin. Like many of the world's people, Tibetans are now building a body of work to chronicle their own diaspora.

A Day and a Year Dedicated to Water

Water holds the meaning of life. March 22nd is an annual dedication from the UN for World Water Day. A nation's quality of life and measure of economic success depends on how big and how clean is their water supply. Few understand where their water originates, whether the source of it is an ancient aquifer or the cool fridge dispenser with cube or chip ice options.

Clean water is increasingly difficult and expensive to find consistently across the entire planet. Just last year in the US state of Georgia, the Governor held a Prayer Vigil to seek God's help in granting Rain as 3,000,000 people in Atlanta were down to the last month of their water supply. Lake Chad was once a vast visible water source on 4 nations' borders, now it is a dilapidated and polluted puddle, virtually inaccessible from war torn Darfur where potable water is everything in maintaining power during a drought. The United Nations states more than 1 out of 6 people on Earth have little to no access to clean drinking water. Where is our political will to make clean water a human right?

Mighty nuclear power nations are finding water issues that are close to making them helpless in the face of shortages that will put the economy in shambles. China literally moved the Yellow River so their would be enough water in Beijing just for the 2008 Olympics. The US has a looming crisis in the Western region as one governor proposed taking water from the Great Lakes which have been hit with severe drought conditions. Pakistan is desperate to build dams for urban dwellers, industry and power supply, but it diverts water away from farms, livestock and its indigenous peoples. Every dam project or public private partnership involving water touts dramatic water improvements and smaller operating costs which never quite turn up as rate decreases; see China's Three Gorges Dam or Libya's multitude of Islamic Green pipes for an underground river that trickles along at best.

Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) member Muhammad Mushtaq Chaudhry said that the Mangla Dam raising project would be completed by September 2008. He said that the construction of Mirani Dam, Gomal Zam Dam, Subakzai Dam and Satpara Dam would be completed by 2009.

He also claimed that the country would overcome the water-shortage problem if the new government announced that it would construct three new mega water reservoirs.

Only a few decades ago, Pakistan was considered to have an abundance of quality water, but a recent World Bank report stated that Pakistan was among the 17 countries that were currently facing a water shortage and its reservoirs would drastically decrease in level by 2025. Moreover, Pakistan is currently close to using all its surface and ground water, but it has also been projected that over 30 percent more water will be required over the next 20 years to meet the increased agricultural, domestic and industrial demand.

Causes are many on the looming water crisis. It takes 100 tons of water to produce one ton of grain. Mix in droughts that are shredding the US, Africa and Asia and food security for the world is at stake. Saltwater seeps into fresh water supplies rendering valuable agricultural lands worthless as oceans infiltrate inland. This occurs at faster clips in Florida, Louisiana or Indonesia after the tsunami and other locales bordering Oceans or where wetlands are eroding due to over development or global warming. No one is immune.

The crucial need for fresh water and better sanitation led the UN in 2006 to make 2008 The Year of International Sanitation. Access, just access, to clean water is one of the Millennium Goals. Over 2.6 billion people do not have acess to adequate sanitation leading to waterborne diseases or diarrheas, reduction of clean water and blindness. In impoverished war torn places, women seek privacy late at night for toiletries, leaving them open to repeated violent attack or harassment during daylight hours when fetching water filled with animal waste for their families. Something as simple as toilets protect so much more and give people a sense of their dignity back. Sanitation would be an investment that immediately pays off in increased standards of living and protection of precious water supplies.

Diarrhoeal disease is a leading cause of death and illness, killing 1.8 million people each year. Poor hygiene and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to 88 per cent of all deaths from diarrhoeal disease, with children paying the highest price: 5,000 deaths a day. Hundreds of millions of other children suffer reduced physical growth and impaired cognitive functions due to intestinal worms.

Improved access to sanitation would also lead to very high avoided health sector costs, according to UN research.

On a typical day in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, half the hospital beds are occupied by people afflicted with faecal-borne disease. Treating preventable infectious diarrhoea consumes 12 percent of the region's total health budget.

Around the world, an estimated 200 million tons of human waste and untold millions of tons of wastewater are discharged uncontained and untreated, into watercourses every year. As a result, humans are regularly exposed to bacteria, viruses and parasites -- spread through direct or indirect contact with these watercourses. Such exposure is the leading cause for diarrhoeal disease (including dysentery and cholera), parasitic infections, worm infestations and trachoma.

A burden are burgeoning populations where water is scarce. In the Middle East and other developing areas where the population is younger with more people of child bearing age are putting tremendous pressure on shrinking resources. Water is more precious than oil and as nations hurry to develop more water is required - but at what expense?

Meeting the MDG Drinking-water and Sanitation Target: The Urban and Rural Challenge of the Decade from the World Health Organization.

The Elders Seek Peace with Madiba Magic

An esteemed group of World Leaders gathered together Wednesday, on Nelson Mandela's birthday, to begin working on Peace as The Elders. Slowed by physical age, yet filled with the eternal spirit of Peace, the fighter for social justice lent his presence to the auspicious gathering. Mandela is the source of the wise and generous Madiba Magic.

Among The Elders & Nobel Laureates

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest which garnered her a prominent empty chair honoring her absence. None of The Elders has a formal role or government mandate, but they have global connections and clout, which the group will leverage to wage Peace.

Learning more about The Elders is a Google click away, yet nothing gives profound insight quite like what is revealed inside a book's pages. Some of the bibliography of notable books on or by the group include: The Long Walk to Freedom a riveting and detailed Nelson Mandela's autobiography (plus I must mention the brand new Shades of Freedom describing the Apartheid Movement in rich and painful detail with an extended foreword from Nelson Mandela), Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter, God Has A Dream by Desmond Tutu. Banker to the Poor is Muhammad Yunus's autobiographical contribution to the fascinating world of micro-finance. Mary Robinson the former United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights was the seventh president of Ireland and serves on several high profile and powerful global initiatives and boards.

Underground Water found in Africa!

A shimmering discovery in the midst of massive human heartbreak, utter devastation and a desert makes the mirage of fresh clean water, real. The true hope is for this amazing discovery to be a catalyst to stop the genocide and war over resources in Darfur.

"Much of the unrest in Darfur and the misery is due to water shortages," said geologist Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing, according to the AP news agency.

An underground lake the size of America's Lake Erie is in the middle of an area of intense desertification. It brings great joy, yet immense caution should be the watchword. If this is an underground aquifer, the source of replenishment is ancient and not likely to refill. The sheer numbers of desperate farmers and nomads digging wells means conservation and protection must be part of the solution. Once the water is pumped, crop selection needs careful attention as certain grains and animals require vast amounts of water. The water may be used more efficiently on other, better choices. Property rights need settlement from an unimpeachable source of Justice, otherwise the seeds of destruction are sewn in the blessings of the fresh water.

Live Earth: Blending Climate Change & Music

Al Gore, Earth's prize winning champion, tried to enlist 2 billion people in a heated campaign to save Earth from the evils of Global Warming. Big Al's SOS campaign has a pledge of reducing C02 and living a carbon neutral life. Wonderfully balanced at both the New Jersey Meadowlands and DC venue, was Earth's heavyweight hero, Al Gore.

Who took the pledge to reduce C02 emissions and live a carbon neutral Life? Here's how!
Then each of us needs to SHOUT or sing:

I NEED TO WAKE UP

Melissa Etheridge brought the crowds to thunderous ovations at the venue, in words around the blogosphere, clapping at home while watching on NBC's cable feeds to CNBC and Bravo and on satellite radio. She flat out rocked the house with the Oscar-winning song from An Inconvenient Truth. Singing Mercy Me; Alisha Keys in hot pink, also unveiled her latest release in NYC, while high heeled rocker Joss Stone brought the house down. From Johoburg to Wembley Stadium where Madonna transfixed the crowd, it was musical magic. In a wildly enthusiastic Rio de Janiero, I really heart Guilherme Arantes for singing about the water!

No one can speak or write about An Inconvenient Truth like Al Gore, but many can sing!

Hide and Seek with Water

Water, the liquid of Life, is a topic of discussion; within the UN, inside plush boardrooms, and always with the most impoverished amongst us. The darned H2O keeps playing hide and seek from where Nature poured it and sometimes turns up where People are saying too much water in so many soaked places around our globe. Most critical, is everyone having enough fresh clean water when needed and why that happens in some places and not in others, is the subject of two fascinating books about Water; the clear Nectar of the wealthy.

Insightful Books on the Topic with my Reviews

Thirst is a documentary that first garnered attention on PBS. The authors/producers, (Alan Snitnow, Deborah Kaufman with Michael Fox), updated the film's message to shine a brighter spotlight on the stories of grassroots activists - willing and accidental, corporations and their sense of entitlement with oft times befuddled or greedy politicians as partners. The dirty business of water is in the book Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water. (Emphasis by the Authors)

Thirst is a story about water told through people who run the sewage to those elected, though in some cases they are the same product. Water and its infrastructure in the US have caught the attention of international conglomerates because of the potential profits. For the most part, Americans pay some attention to their own town or city's water, but don't yet see the national pattern. The squeeze of Public Private Partnerships in the water business have led to courtroom high-powered squirt pistol duels over eminent domain and local control. Thirst is the book that ties similar stories together, yet shows an array of outcomes as ordinary citizens learn hard water lessons at the hands of elected officials, egos and corporate players sent to live amongst the public.

The authors name names and trace the corporate feeding trough as they sell off and reorganize seeking bigger juicier markets. A must read if you want to know why water bills are going up, services are declining while the infrastructure delivering your water is increasingly in deplorable condition. Is your town next? This book is an eye opening prep for what lies ahead for the unwary and the thirsty.

When the Rivers Run Dry: Water-The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century by Fred Pearce is now in paperback. Vignettes of rivers and regions tells stories of feast and famine depending on the river and Man's attempts to control them. Catastrophic effects of dammed, dry or diverted rivers, erosion and evaporation are escalating to crisis proportions. It is a book of details and despair from Pearce as he recaps the devastation and at the same time delivers a compelling travelogue.

Pearce lists the disturbing effects of using some aquifers at increasing rates that are causing wells to be dug deeper and deeper as more people mine the water to win the race for available funds. More water is pumped in locales - like the desert, for crops that take immense amounts of water. People are displaced as dams divert water for other purposes. In China, the Three Gorges Dam was to produce a certain amount of electricity after displacing millions of indigenous people with no other skills. It didn't. The story of Libya's Great Manmade River and the billions of dollars going to Halliburton via a subsidiary for tepid results is instructive. The writing is evocative and factual, teeming with explanations and first hand accounts for the general reader.

Frustration arises from me at Pearce because while there is an index in the hardbound edition, there are no endnotes for factual material in the book. It makes me nuts to see a quote for how much virtual water is used in exports, but nary a footnote in sight. There's a certain ironic symmetry of the rivers being dry while seeking a rich vein of original source notes. (I have to hurl a deserved lemon at that missed opportunity.) This is a compelling read for seekers of knowledge outlining why wars over water are looming. There is info on sewage issues that swamp fresh vegetables to understanding the lack of long range planning while corporations are developing booming water businesses with negligible results for the public good. Great source of knowledge and of various nations and kingdoms' water issues.