Category: Politics & government

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Economics Environment Politics & government

[497] Of ANWR in the second term

Here we go again.

He said drilling in ANWR should be part of an overall energy bill that would promote conservation, increase domestic energy production and modernize infrastructure such as power grids and pipelines.

Yes, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would indeed promote conservation. What a wonderful logic!

Somehow, it is consistent with the idea of ‘saving the forest by cutting the trees down’. Ooo, I love the forest. Wait, what is this tree doing here? Cut it down! It’s blocking my view of the forest!

Bullshit.

The last time the bill was brought to the floor, it was killed. It was not easy but it was taken by its throat and thrown off into the drain nonetheless. This time around, with record price at $54 per barrel, with Bush on his second term and a Republicans-filled House, killing the bill should be harder. Way harder.

p/s – for the past few days, tension has been running high between Malaysia and Indonesia. Though war is unlikely, some Indonesians have attacked Malaysian government websites. Counterattacks have been done against Indonesian property on the net. Screenshots has more.

It’s quite weird however seeing the local Malaysian dailies being unexcited about the current development at Ambalat in east Borneo. Indonesian press on the contrary is going balistic.

Categories
Activism Economics Environment Politics & government

[492] Of Coke resolution

I was there again in MSA Chamber observing the confusing proceeding to pass a resolution against Coke. The victory was confusing too but bottom line is, MSA supports the resolution to call the administration to not renew the University’s contract with Coke.

There were some that voiced their opposition towards the resolution. Coke obviously disagrees with the resolution and sent two representatives into MSA Assembly despite the fact that Coke does not represent the students in Michigan.

College Republicans object the Coke resolution. It seems to me that the Republicans oppose the resolution just because the sponsors of the resolution seem to be on the other side of the spectrum – basically, I see the Republicans objecting without having any real concern for the issue. But whatever the Republicans think, it doesn’t matter. They are the minority here in Michigan. Their opinion hardly influences anything, as proven in MSA.

And another opposition came from, from my perception, a recipient of Coke scholarship, or at least somebody that benefits from Coke’s support to the University. It is my opinion that the opposition expressed from this quarter as the strongest of all. The coalition is somewhat lucky that the system somehow worked against the person that spoke for this one group.

I would say no further until I read the Daily tomorrow.

And also, Channel 4 was in the MSA Chamber too.

Categories
Activism Economics Environment Photography Politics & government

[491] Of Surviving Scrutiny protest

A protest was held at the Business School last Thursday in conjunction of Surviving Scrutiny: Corporations in the Age of Global Business. The representative from Coke was obviously uncomfortable with the presence of protesters during her talk.

The Michigan Daily on the other hand didn’t quite report what really happened. At the same time, their report seems to be inaccurate.

Anyway, more pixels!

I don’t know whether that is legal or not but it’s way too cool!

In front of Hale before the talk started.

Getting the 125 feet bottle-link into the auditorium. The person from Coke was distracted by it – when the moderator asked her a question, she asked the moderator to repeat to question.

In the auditorium.

A close-up of the banner in the previous photo.

p/s – switched backed to Blogger’s commenting system. The improvement brought by the Blogger team looks good but I can’t make it work at the moment.

pp/s – the commeting system is now working. And I didn’t even touch the code and it somehow worked.

Categories
Economics Environment Politics & government

[490] Of Michigan Student Assembly and the Coke resolution

I was at the Michigan Student Assembly Chambers yesterday, hearing the tabling of a resolution against Coke. Before the session started, probably hundreds of emails flew here and there, presenting idea, news and opinion on the resolution. Seriously, I do think the Killer Coke coalition needs a proper forum instead of a mailing list. It is a daunting task to read all of them with some time constraint in place, especially in a mailbox. However, the highlight of all these email storm was the one sent by the MSA president to the protesting coalition.

He wrote and later said in the meeting that he and others in the MSA board want to postpone the tabling of the motion for another seven days. Reason – they claim that they simply are not sufficiently educated on the issue, despite more than a week worth of effort from certain quarters to inform them of the situation.

Some try to resist the postponement. The Killer Coke coalition obviously wanted the resolution to be voted swiftly but the coalition unfortunately stood almost alone on that. After a few somewhat heated discussions, the MSA voted something like 30 ayes to 2 nays on not voting on the resolution in yesterday session. The representatives from the Coke Bottlers that were there are obviously pleased with the adjournment motion.

Immediately after that, a few people were allowed to speak, both from the coalition and from the Michigan Coke. A person from the coalition, a graduate student from the School of Natural Resource and the Environment as I was informed by a colleague, criticized the MSA board for giving an excuse of ignorance for adjourning the motion after she had read a declaration from workers in India.

A few others from the coalition spoke but most of them only echoed the SNRE graduate’s disappointment on MSA postponing the issue to another week. And so, here goes the lobbying again. And I expect, my huge mailbox to be battered some more.

Finally, this coming Thursday, which is tomorrow, somehow, representatives from Starbuck, Nike, Timberland and, drum roll please, Coca Cola are coming to the Michigan Business School for Surviving Scrutiny: Corporations in the Age of Global Business. Imagine the perfect timing of Coke sending in a high level manager to Michigan. Unfortunate for them – definately couldn’t be better for us – that the coalition is organizing a huge protest for them.

Boy, this is exciting. LOL!

p/s – also yesterday, I attended a lecture by Joseph Stiglitz.

He is the person with the tie.He basically talked about the same issues he has written in Globalization and Its Discontent, plus a bit of humor. The auditorium was full and I had to squeze in. More at the Michigan Daily.

pp/s – also, thanks to the Brazilian Maxwell, Ajax 1, Auxerre 0. van der Vaart’s pass was great.

ppp/s – Kyoto. =)

Categories
Activism Economics Environment Photography Politics & government

[486] Of kicking Coke off campus

Earlier today, a rally to kick Coke off campus was held at the Diag. The effort has been going on for a few weeks now and it is being organized by a coalition of student groups. The core members of the coalition are Amnesty International, Environmental Justice and SOLE. There are other supporters like the Student Greens and the Indian Student Association but I can’t remember all of them.

Fair use

The members of the campaign are trying to make the University administration to force Coke to act more responsibly on matters concerning the environment and human rights. In Colombia, a number of labor union leaders that were troublesome to the bottling plants administration have been killed by paramilitary and Coke is alleged to have a connection with the murders. Union members have also been forced to quit their union if they want to keep their jobs – the right to free association being taken away forceful.Pertaining to the environment, in India, Coke is draining an aquifer and in effect depriving the poor local residents of precious water supply. Concurrently in India, there is a major movement to force Coke (and Pepsi too) entirely out of India. Here is a old article from BBC concerning Colas and India.

At the moment, the coalition is trying to get the Michigan Student Assembly to pass a resolution to condemn Coke. The first reading was read yesterday during the MSA weekly meeting and the motion will be up for voting next week. As I understand, heavy lobbying is happening within MSA. Despite the lobbying, I don’t see how the motion won’t go through since most of the board members seem to be from the left side of the political spectrum. With possible support from MSA, it is hoped that the University administration will be pressured to at least renegotiate its contract with Coke. A copy of the resolution can be found here.

While this is going on here in Michigan, other campuses are running the same campaign too. This is actually part of a nationwide protest against Coke. Some of them have managed to convince their schools to quit Coke.

Finally, next week, a few speakers, one of them is from Colombia, will be speaking on how bad the situation is in Colombia.

And now, some photos.

Environmental Justice people made that bottle-link and I helped them with it. It’s 125 feet long and we spent almost two hours trying to get it done. We didn’t buy any of them of course. Buying them to make the link rather defeats the purpose of boycotting Coke.

And this is somebody with the campaign poster. I don’t know him but he is probably from Amnesty.

And this probably somebody from the Michigan Daily, taking a shot at the bottle-link. We at EJ are hoping it gets into the front page tomorrow.

The aftermath. It’s going to be recycled of course.

And an explanation why the bottle-link is 125 feet.

More info on the issue is at Killer Coke.p/s – I’ve learnt that the Daily editorial endorses our effort. w00t! The piece could be read at the Michigan Daily. There is also some hope that the New York Times catches this…

pp/s – today in World of Warcraft, I helped a few others, about 10 players, defending Astranaar, a town in the game, from Orcs’ raids. It feels great to kick orcs’ ass.