Illegal road on Wetlands

SOURCE: Michael Sheehan (hanaleirivermichael@gmail.com) SUBHEAD: Road being built on Hanalei Wetland critical bird habitat in violation of Endangered Species Act. [Editor's note: The following are a few emails on a possible serious violation of the federal Endangered Species Act in the wetlands of Hanalei Valley, near the mouth of the Hanalei River. Photos are from Terry Lilley email.] By Terry Lilely on 13 March 2012 from forwarded email - (From underwater2web@gmail.com to don_palawski@fws.gov) Image above: Photos of backhoe equipment on site constructing road. Photo by Terry Lilley. To: Don Palwaski US Fish & Wildlife Service Date: 3/13/2012 8:17:33 P.M. Was out with my new high powered lens today and noticed a brand new road being built right through critical habitat for five endangered species on the Princeville side of the Hanalei River! Since you are in charge of the wildlife refuge in the area, I suspect that you know of this ongoing daily road building as it would be easy to see from a NOAA satellite. The guys are virtually digging a road right over the critically endangered Koloa Ducks that I observed within 30 feet of the project! Running them over with a big piece of equipment! I think there are only a few hundred of these birds left in the world so maybe it would be a good idea to protect them. I have learned the hard way that the Endangered Species Act is simply not observed as a law in Kauai. Stupid me. I came from California where this law is important so I thought since Kauai was in the USA the law would apply here. OK I was wrong! I will admit my ignorance! Is there any other laws that would stop the destruction of a wetland that is critical habitat from being destroyed? Can we use some kind of state law or county law to protect the last few remaining Koloa Ducks? I just would like to see these birds around for a few more years. I know you ignore most of my emails, pics and videos but i thought I would try once again to report the many abuses to our native wildlife in some kind of hope that someone will listen. Aloha, Terry Lilley Marine Biologist Hanalei HI Image above: Photos of road being constructed across Hanalei Valley wetland. Photo by Terry Lilley.

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To: Loyal Mehrfoff, Jeff Newman, George Phocas US Fish and Wildlife Service Date: Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 9:32 AM Gentlemen, I wanted to make sure that the three of you are aware of these ongoing violations of the Endangered Species Act that are threatening the Koloa Duck and other endangered species. Please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it your job to enforce the Endangered Species Act on Kauai? If it isn't your job, please tell me who we should contact to report violations of the ESA. This landowner is apparently not only illegally building a road, he is also building an entire canal along his illegal 3000 foot long berm that he has used to dry out his wetlands illegally, and soon this canal will illegally give him direct access to Hanalei River and to the ocean beyond. We would welcome the opportunity to share with you the information we have about this landowner's violations of the ESA. When is USFWS available to meet with us to discuss this matter? Please confirm that you received the attached three pictures. If you didn't receive them, I will resend. Please let me know if you intend to do anything about these ongoing, egregious violations of the ESA now that USFWS has been formally informed about them. I look forward to your reply. | Thank you. Les Iczkovitz Law Offices of Leslie K. Iczkovitz 1350 Ala Moana Boulevard, Ste. 1508 Honolulu, HI 96814 Phone: 808.523.8449 / Fax: 808.356.0832 Email: lesisko@aol.com

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To: Michael Sheehan (hanaleirivermichael@gmail.com) Date: 3/15/12 10:46 am I don't have any idea where this is? Need TMK ## Samuel J. Lemmo, Administrator Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands Department of Land and Natural Resources 1151 Punchbowl Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Email: Sam.J.Lemmo@hawaii.gov Phn (808) 587-0377 Fax (808) 587-0322 hawaii.gov/dlnr/occl .

Backsliding on Peak Oil

SUBHEAD: World on course to be powered 85% by fossil fuels and only 15% alternatives in 2050. By Brian Marchant on 17 March 2012 for TreeHugger - (http://www.treehugger.com/fossil-fuels/world-course-be-powered-85-fossil-fuels-2050.html) Image above: BP's oil rig explosion at the Macondo well in 2010. From (http://mindnumbedrobot.com/category/oil-exploration-and-production).

We've done so little to reform global energy production—or even to plant the seeds needed to do so meaningfully—that the world is still on course to rely 85% on fossil fuels for its energy needs. That's the finding of a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and it also includes the finding that we'll be generating 50% more greenhouse gas emissions as a result.

Here's the New York Times:

The global economy in 2050 will be four times larger than today and the world will use around 80 percent more energy. But the global energy mix is not predicted to be very different from that of today, the report said.

Fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas will make up 85 percent of energy sources. Renewables, including biofuels, are forecast to make up 10 percent and nuclear the rest.

Because of such dependence on fossil fuels, carbon dioxide emissions from energy use are expected to grow by 70 percent, the O.E.C.D. said, which will help drive up the global average temperature by 3 to 6 degrees Celsius by 2100 — exceeding the warming limit of within 2 degrees agreed to by international bodies.

85/15 is depressing. That is literally the opposite of what every single human being who doesn't want to live in a chaotic, extreme weather-racked world should hope the energy mix will look like 40 years from now.

But we're on an explosive trajectory set by the last six decades of energy consumption—and turning that trajectory around will undoubtedly continue to be the most difficult project of the 21st century.

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Good Old Napster

SUBHEAD: In 1999 Napster was better than iTunes and other music services available today. By Daniel Turdiman on 14 March 2012 for C-Net - (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57397583-52/parker-fanning-napster-was-still-better-than-what-we-have-now) Image above: Shawn Fanning at 19, on the cover of Time Magazine at the height of Napster fame in 2000. From (http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/limewire-napster-the-pirate-bay-a-brief-history-of-file-sharing-20101027/). Although new services like Spotify and Rdio offer users the ability to legally listen to vast collections of music at no cost, Napster's founders lament that music sharing today is still behind 1999. So despite the success of Spotify and its competitors, music sharing still hasn't caught up to what Napster offered back then before being neutered by the courts, that service's founders, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, said today.

During a on-stage discussion at South by Southwest here, Parker and Fanning argued that though new technologies and licensing models finally allow music lovers to legally access and discover vast collections of songs online, even the best new services are still philosophically behind what Napster originally offered its users.

Parker, who appeared earlier this week alongside former U.S. vice president Al Gore to promote political activism online, is one of technology's most prolific entrepreneurs. After co-founding Napster, he went on to co-found Plaxo, become Facebook's founding president, and then invested in and ultimately joined the board of Spotify. Now, he and Fanning, who also helped found Snocap, Rapture, and most recently Path, have a new stealthy startup, called Airtime.

Unfortunately, SXSW attendees who showed up hoping to hear more about Airtime were left disappointed as the two barely mentioned their venture.

But Parker and Fanning, who were interviewed at SXSW by documentarian and VH1 writer Alex Winter, seemed nostalgic for the groundbreaking work they did as teenagers on Napster before lawsuits and a court decision grounded the company.

Both Parker and Fanning lamented key features of the original Napster--including direct community chatting and access to unfettered collections of very diverse music--that for the most part are still missing from even the best sharing services today, including Parker's own Spotify.

And they also suggested that unless and until someone, Spotify or others that come along, is able to legally provide all the tools Napster once offered, users may still turn to illegal sources for the music they want.

"I used to say the bar was set by Napster in 1999," Parker said, "so if you wanted to make money...you not only had to meet that bar, but exceed it. Or [users] would go the piracy route."

Although Parker is an unabashed promoter of Spotify, he did acknowledge that the service--which has caught fire in the U.S. and abroad by giving users free, legal access to millions of songs--has yet to come up with a fully satisfactory way to integrate real-time chat between users.

That's a crucial feature, he suggested, because it allows music lovers to openly talk about what they're listening to and help each other discover new tunes. "We had it in Napster in 1999."

Parker also noted that even with Spotify, users "don't really have a sense of what people are listening to...You can't see people browsing collections in the same way [as Napster]."

But he did say that Spotify is developing some similar tools, and that users in some countries have access to more joint listening features. But for now, the service is still behind Napster.

For his part, Fanning recalled how Napster allowed its early adopters to access just about any kind of music--whether studio-recorded, live, or strange, rare mixes--and said that nothing today offers the "variety and depth [and] remarkable diversity" of Napster.

It's frustrating," Parker said. "We'd figured so much of this out in 1998 and 1999, but the industry wasn't ready."

Of course, a big part of the limits on today's music-sharing services comes from the licensing issues that arose in the late '90s and in the years immediately after. And even at Napster, the two said, the company's development was hampered by the legal issues that cropped up as soon as the record labels figured out what was happening to them.

"Suddenly the company was taken over by lawyers," Parker said of Napster. "Our CEO was an attorney. The lesson learned is, your CEO should never be an attorney. It became a law firm...at one point, a [large] percentage of the employees were attorneys. The legal case was dictating the product, not the other way around."

Based on that lesson, Parker said, he's helped to make sure that his new companies don't suffer the same development-stifling fate.

"At Spotify, we didn't let that happen," Parker said. "We required that the product dictate the licensing terms. That's what allows [massive adoption] and integration with Facebook."

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A Loyal Customer

SUBHEAD: There is life after supermarkets. And when you're discussing supermarkets you are talking about industrialized food. By Charlotte Du Cann on 13 March 2012 in Transition Network - (http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/charlotte-du-cann/2012-03/loyal-customer)

We're here, we're queer and we don't shop at Sainsbury's (Graffitti in Oxford City Centre)

Image above: Charlotte with a sack of millet. From otriginal article.

This is a post about shopping and a conversation we've been having for three years now in my Transition initiatives about relocalizing food culture in East Anglia. Because when you're discussing supermarkets you are really discussing the industrialized food system and the producerist society we live in. It's a massive topic and one we will return to in our Diet and Environment Week in April, when I'm hoping to write about disentangling ourselves from Big Ag on the micro-level. Right now I'm looking at the macro-level and how there is life after supermarkets. Really.

Facing reality

So why haven't I shopped at supermarkets for four years? Because when you see and feel the system that supplies the store you don't want anything to do with them. Mostly we don't consider the food we buy or put in our bodies, or follow its track back to the field and the workers the way Mandy looked at bananas yesterday. We look at the show on the shelves, think in terms of convenience and price. However, if you look behind the scenes, at the machine that provides this endless array of convenient, cheap, stylized, fossil-fueled food you come to different conclusions.

The facts are easy to find. Starting up the Low Carbon Cookbook in 2010 we draw up a list of books and documentaries, and all the issues appear on the table, from supply chains (Caroline Steel's Hungry City) and the cruelty and madness behind commercial meat production (Food Inc) to depletion of the world's fisheries (Charles Clovers' The End of Line). We discuss everything from waste to water to land rights. How come the world isn't having a rethink about everything? we wonder.

Because we are persuaded on all sides by marketing, and by our erroneous belief that we can change a system from within. We are grateful for justifications. I could say that the local Rainbow Supermarket has helped us raise funds for Bungay Community Bees, and provided a bus to The Wave in 2008, but this won't alter the fact it is still a supermarket, using the same buy-and-sell tactics as everyone else, that the "ethical" Co-op hastily backed down from the now notorious Workfare scheme and has contracts with equally notorious Texaco. All supermarkets are dependant on global supply chains, distribution hubs, tankers, mass abbatoirs, factories and refineries, chemical laboratories, tactics that grind down small farmers everywhere, in favour of corporate control. Invisibly, this machine grinds everyone and everything down in its relentless pursuit of profit. We have all the evidence we need to change our allegiance. How come most of us don't?

Compartmentalisation

One thing I've learned: inner transition does not mean bringing to share our wibbly-wobbly "What About Me" emotions and pretending this is the earth speaking through us. The real inner challenge is to shift our inner governance towards our hearts, to break down the barriers in our minds that deftly separate one action from another. Our minds persuade us that having an idea is the same as making a move, allow us feel right on buying veg in the local organic market, and be in denial when we walk into an upmarket Waitrose. Some of this shift work we can do on our own, but to be effective we have to hold our own in groups.

In the Strangers's Circle we are looking at our shopping lists and Naomi is wringing her hands. If her son doesn't have his frozen ready-made pizza with shrimp and pineapple he will be ostrasized by his peers and life won't be worth living.

Get a grip girl!

No one dies if you don't eat pizza! I like Naomi, I like sitting in her kitchen and the discussion we have around the table. I am not singling her out. She could be any number of women (and men) who have come towards me, holding their children before them, wailing and gnashing their teeth, as they assert their Right to Buy Turkey Twizzlers, or white sliced bread, or whatever goes into the trolley. It's Cheaper in Supermarkets, they chant like a mantra. There is no alternative. We are powerless to change. You vegan, you elitist, you communist!

Lucky for me we are not living in times when heretics come to a bad end.

The Circles are an alchemical space. All things are allowed here in the spirit of carbon reduction. We don't judge each other, but we don't pussyfoot either. Some things get realised in that space and acted on later. Tully will write about the disconnect in a blog a few days later and drop his "Tesco habit". Elena will write about palm oil and I will give up margarine. Norwich FarmShare will happen thanks to both of them and now dozens of people can connect with the land that grows their vegetables on the outskirts of the city. It's a process. Transition is a process. It demands that we face reality and make decisions. Those are not mind decisions though, they are heart decisions.

On the mind/body axis these kinds of move are almost impossible. Your body is addicted to that supermarket food, your mind can runs loops around your good intentions, you have been brainwashed by the Empire all your life. You engage in bouts of self-calming and duplicity, worthy of the Coalition. Your heart however can weigh up many factors at once, connect you with the feeling and spirit of things, break those separating walls down. It doesn't excuse itself and argue. It sees and it acts. One day the affair is over. I have been sleeping with Sainbury's and Waitrose, and Tesco's and Safeway. I realise I don't love them, or my time spent between their cold and heartless aisles.

That's the real subject of my blog today. What shopping with heart means, what can happen in a post-supermarket world.

Finding the pattern

Viens, ma petite, says a quavery voice and puts a sweet roll in my hands. I am four years old, shopping with my mother. Bayswater, London. 1960. M Pechon founded this bakery/patisserie in Queensway. Now blind and old, he spends most of his day by the door and when small children come through he gives them a roll. My early life is spent among shopkeepers, being given small gifts, feeling the physical world that nourishes me from the land outside the city, the sawdust of the butchers, the ice of the fishmongers, all manner of temperature and smell. When my friend Christine's father, Oscar Montanari, brings us a tray of peaches he imports from his native Italy I think I am in heaven. One day Stephanie Morgan gives me something green and crunchy to taste. Wow! I say what's that? It's a green pepper, she says. From Sainbury's. It's 1967. My mother is about to change her allegiance and get in the car to go shopping. I do not go with her.

Somewhere a pattern remains in our memory that makes sense of the world. In a time of unravelling that's a pattern that comes to me about local food and shops: home grown veg, home-made marmelade, conversations with shopkeepers, picnics, orchards, foraging for blackberries. It's not a nostalgia thing, or a question of privilege. Like everyone else, I have eaten a mountain of salt and vinegar crisps and can remember the jingles for breakast cereal, better than most of my lessons. When Mark and I compare our childhoods of bourgeios house and council estate, we share Twiglets and Custard Creams and Bird's Eye Fish Fngers, every variety of industrialied food, drenched in pesticides (from oil) and fertilizers (from natural gas). I wish I had like my friend Polly been brought up on hippy, socailist food. But I wasn't.

When I grow up however I find myself loyal to markets and delicatessens. I spend fifteen years working as a lifestyle journalist, documenting the skills of the shopkeepers, cooks, artisans, hatmakers and chair makers of London. I could tell you stories about the grocers from Samarkand, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Portugal, shops that specialise in wine or cheese or herbs from my city years, I could sing the praises of the Arizona co-op and the markets of Guatemala and Mexico from my travelling years. What I couldn't tell you is the name or remember the faces of anyone at the checkout in the numerous supermarkets I also went to. I can't remember any good times I had in these places. All I recall is how chilly and brightly lit and alien they were, the way the food was covered in plastic, how everything looked dead.

In another life, in Suffolk, in Transition. I find myself in market towns, battling against the encroachment of supermarkets, bullying corporations that are co-ercing local planners to change roads and housing estates to serve their interest, where small businesses are dropping like flies. I find myself reading Felicity Lawrence's account of the immigrant workers among the greenhouses of Spain and the packing houses in Thetford and can't buy that stuff anymore. I go to parties where prepackaged, factory food is laid out, and see how humble home-made dishes are left uneaten (except by myself). I start researching a book with my fellow Transitioner Josiah called Roots, Shoots and Seeds, about the arable fields that surround us and yet no-one sees, even though, like all civilisations, we depend on them in every aspect of our lives: sugar beet, rape, potatoes, flax and barley. Asking questions about pesticides, about soil, the effects of peak oil and climate change on agriculture. Looking at the future and making small moves.

What is life without a supermarket? It means a weekly trip to Juan's organic grocers, Jack's farm shop and Malcolm's smallholding where we have had a veg box for nine years. It means roadside stalls, produce swaps, freegan gifts, a montlhy shared Suma order and occasional visits to Norwich market, cycling down to our local ex-post office which sells organic milk and produce from Norman's market garden down the end of my lane. It would be harder to do some of this without a car, especially now so many rural buses have been cut. When we didn't have a car for months, I hitched and cycled. An inconvenient truth for sure.

As Shane Hughes wrote last week, once you engage in something with your heart and soul, other opportunities and riches come your way. Supermarkets cater for our engineered individualistic, bargain-basement emotions, but they don't bring happiness or fellowship, the kinds of relationships I have with Malcolm or Juan or Vanessa, or the joy I feel at noticing the fresh eggs and daffodils on Sarah's stall, as I go by.

The range of food we eat is much smaller for sure. Seasonal veg, pulses and grains mostly. I don't buy bananas, shrimps, tuna, greenhouse tomatoes, ice cream, or anything with palm oil, a diet that most people from all income streams consider ordinary. Most of my money is happily spent on food and distributed in the neighbourhood. If I buy a jar of honey it comes from the beehives in the local churchyard. It's twice as expensive as supermarket honey from overseas, and so I eat a lot less of it as a result. I eat a lot less of everything as a result. But I then don't miss or long for anything either.

Supermarkets are our materialistic churches of desire, catering to our addictions for sugar, fat and salt, to our weakness for novelty. To get out of them you need to drop the desire. It's not a decision you make rationally. No one persuades you to "change your behaviour". One day you see the pattern and are shocked to find blood on your hands.

You walk out the door because you no longer want to keep destroying the ocean bed and the forest, the eco-systems of the earth, exploiting your fellow human beings, throwing them off their land, condemning your fellow creatures, chickens, pigs and dairy cows to a life of hell. This is not a Me-Only decision. It's one we are having together. No hard feelings. No blame. We have all been asleep and now some of us are waking up and finding out what to do. Growing oats and beans, storing apples. Moving as David Korten would call it, from Empire to Earth Community.

Transition provides the platform on which these conversations can take place. We have this conversation at the Transition Norwich Low Carbon Cookbook meetings, at Carbon Conversations, at Sustainable Bungay's Happy Mondays at the Community Kitchen, at our Abundance produce swaps. If we don't have the conversation we don't learn anything, explore new ways of sharing and nourishing ourselves. We will just keep wandering the supermarket aisles, alone, disconnected, confused by false choices, lost in a bad dream, far from each other, far from home.

Time to link up.

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Greece Fire

SUBHEAD: The European leaders have given the Greeks the "opportunity" to dig their own graves. By Ashvin Pandurangi on 14 March 2012 for The Automatic Earth - (http://theautomaticearth.org/Finance/the-greek-were-given-an-opportunity-to-dig-their-own-graves.html) Image above: Dream of pleasant life in Greece has become a nightmare. From (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4179541/We-go-to-bed-early-so-we-dont-have-to-hear-our-stomachs-rumbling.html).

Equity markets are off doing their own thing again while the momentary lapse of confusion and chaos in Europe persists. Now that Greece has been able to avoid a disorderly default scenario at the end of this month, the Eurocrats tell us that they have made everything copaseptic. The second bailout for Greece has been officially approved and the first installment of €39.4bn will be released to the government (the banks) in three separate tranches (it's drawn out so very little of the money will actually be paid).

What could possibly go wrong? It's as if this completely expected and symbolic measure has casually melted away every outstanding issue in Europe. Sarkozy has once again declared that the Greek crisis is "solved", remaining very true to his ignorant and foolish style, and Jean-Claude Juncker repeatedly states that he and his cronies have presented the country with an opportunity of a lifetime:

"This second programme constitutes a unique opportunity for Greece that should not be missed. The Greek authorities should therefore continue demonstrating strong commitment and to keep up the implementation momentum by rigorously pursuing the adjustment effort in the areas of fiscal consolidation, structural reforms and privatisation, strictly in line with the new programme.

This will allow the Greek economy to return to a sustainable path, which is in the interest of everyone."

Needless to say... what a crock of shit! The only opportunity the Greeks have been given is to remain in the shackles of debt slavery while they watch their country be gutted from the inside out. Just about every analyst out there, including those that work for the Troika, says that Greece will be unable to reach its mandated deficit targets and will require another bailout. And not a dime of that bailout, just like the current one, will reach the Greek people. The Greek economy will continue to contract, more than half the country's young adults will remain unemployed and people will continue to starve to death.

What we are witnessing is the systematic slaughter of an entire nation for the benefit of a few elites. The nerve of Eurocrats like Juncker, who has already admitted he is more than willing to lie "when it gets serious", is absolutely astonishing, but the betrayal of the Greek people by their national politicians is unforgivable, even if all of it is unsurprising. That's something they will all be finding out for themselves soon enough, though. While the Eurocrats blather on about solutions and opportunities, and the markets act like only good times are ahead, the residents of Athens descend further into their living nightmare. Helena Smith for the Guardian:

The Guardian Blog

"The soaring crime rate is yet another offshoot of the financial crisis and with tourist-dependent Greece also preparing for its first flux of visitors, security concerns have taken centre stage. Aides close to Michalis Chyrsohoidis, who took over the post of public order minister in a mini-reshuffle last week, say criminal activity has assumed epidemic proportions especially in Athens where break-ins, robberies and murders (one every 48 hours) have skyrocketed. Robberies shot up by 125 % alone in the greater Athens region in 2011.

The minister, who has ordered that convoys of police on motorcycles be immediately increased, is worried that extremists may also exploit the social turmoil that has come with galloping unemployment (youth joblessness has exceeded 50%) and deepening poverty. Without giving any warning, leftwing urban guerrillas recently left an explosive devise on a subway train in Athens.

The device, which almost certainly would have left casualities had it exploded, only failed to detonate because of a fault.

On Tuesday, the culture and tourism minister Pavlos Geroulanos revealed that German bookings had nosedived by 30 % compared to this time last year (German visitors normally top the league tables of arrivals in Greece) while British bookings had dropped by about 10 % - in both cases because of the bad image that has come with media coverage of repeated riots sparked by outrage over austerity.

The culture ministry, itself facing more cuts, has appealed to the finance ministry for funds to recruit international PR firms in the hope of improving the country's image before the tourist season begins."

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Koloa Camp Resolution

SUBHEAD: Please pass Resolution # 2012-29 Historic Preservation of Kauai and Koloa are important. By Ken Taylor on 13 March 2012 in Island Breath - (http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2012/03/koloa-camo-resolution.html) Image above: Koloa Camp areal from Google Earth. Aloha Kakou, JoAnn Yukimura's resolution supporting Koloa Camp will be introduced this Wednesday morning, first order of business. We need to meet at the County Building at 8:30 am.

Resolution No. 2012-29 RESOLUTION CALLING FOR A JUST AND EQUITABLE SOLUTION AT KOLOA CAMP AND REQUESTING WITHDRAWAL OF EVICTION NOTICES BY GROVE FARM COMPANY TO ALLOW FOR EXPLORING OF ALTERNATIVES.

If you cannot make Wednesday, March 14th County Council meeting, send in a written note in Support of Resolution 2012-29 or email County Council members at: CouncilTestimony@Kauai.gov All that is needed, is something like:

"Please pass Resolution # 2012-29 Historic Preservation of Kauai and Koloa are important. Historic Preservation equals Quality of Life, and makes good economic sense."

While we want as many tenants as possible to testify, the testimony of residents of Wailani Rd, friends, family, and members of the community will be a HUGE factor in our favor. Let's move a mountain! This is our chance to help preserve 100+ years of Kauai history and to save some affordable housing in the process. This matter is important for all of Kauai. Please pass this on to all your friends and family.

See also: Ea O Ka Aina: Koloa Camp Meeting 3/10/12 .

All Tongue

SUBHEAD: Apparently it was all a silly lover's spat. KPD Chief Perry and Mayor Carvalho made up. By Andy Parx on 12 March 2012 for Parx News Daily - (http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/2012/03/all-tongue.html) Image above: Old "dawg" network is interrupted by the police chief. From (http://planetbizzle.blogspot.com/2010/03/dogs-playing-poker-pool-and-football.html). Aw, isn't that cute. Now kiss and make up. Apparently it was all a silly lover's spat now that Kauai Police Department (KPD) Chief Darryl Perry and Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. have decided that Perry can return to work after they and the police commission chair "held a joint news conference this morning to announce the chief’s return to duty." We say apparently because strangely, although a Honolulu Star Advertiser "breaking news" item quotes "a news release" saying that, no such release appears on the appropriate page of the county's web site. The article quotes Carvalho in the release: “Discussions among our administration, our legal team, the leadership of the police commission and the chief himself have helped us to arrive at this decision, where we are confident that the chief can provide the leadership for this organization while the investigation into an employee complaint is conducted with integrity to its conclusion... “I also believe that through discussion with the commission we have reached a place of consensus on how the department should be managed beginning today.”  What that "way" in which "the department should be managed beginning today" is anybody's guess. Like most lovers' spats, who was right and who was wrong is a function of silence, with the press conference substituting for makeup sex. The article also says: Carvalho said he still “firmly” believes that he has the authority to put the chief on leave. Perry, for his part: thanked the police commission and the public for their support and said he “looked forward to continued collaboration with the commission and the mayor.” But Perry noted that it is important that the lines of authority be clarified for future police chiefs, commissioners and mayors. Despite the apparent contention of County Attorney Al Castillo that Carvalho had the authority to suspend the chief versus Perry and the commission's adamancy that he didn't, the fact is that the issue is not addressed in the laws governing the police chief, notably the county charter. Yet apparently they can't even agree on that. We've taken our share of flack for supporting Carvalho's suspension of Perry, albeit a limited support due solely to Perry's apparent bungling of an earlier almost identical complaint. That came despite a recent effort to educate Kaua`i county employees, especially department heads, on how to avoid yet another in a string of "sexual harassment/hostile workplace " lawsuits that have plagued the county for decades. Perry apparently still doesn't "get it" that when you are "in charge" you don't try to get the complainant to drop the complaint. That is, in fact, an implicit threat of retaliation and, in and of itself, "harassment." Any "manager" in private or public sector either knows this or isn't a manager for every long, especially after they have all, no doubt, been sent to "school" where they have this drummed into their heads, leaving class with an organization-developed-and-issued "handbook" of how to treat such complaints. That is, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) essentially says, how to avoid letting a single episode of sexual harassment among co-workers turn into an organization-wide "hostile workplace" leading to million-dollar settlements that otherwise might have been settled for a small fraction of the amount. Plus a plan to make sure it doesn't happen again. Yet despite the county's "plan" there's no accounting for the type of, to coin a term "troglodism," of which Perry has apparently been charged. The "who's in charge here" issue, while a serious "constitutional crisis" for Kaua`i, is nothing that can't be solved with a lawyer drawing up clear lines of authority and the county submitting them to the voters this fall. However, if we know Carvalho, the council and the Sherman-Shiraishi-led Charter Review Commission, this will no doubt be a politically-tainted process leading to some kind of power grab on Carvalho's part. But that will sort itself out, we can only hope, by making sure the electorate demands a police department that is as far from political control as possible. So now the question is not who has the authority but who SHOULD have the authority. By all rights, the intent should be to give the authority to discipline the chief to the ones who hire and fire him or her- the police commission. If we've set up a quasi-independent body to keep politics out of the department in the first place, consistency would dictate that the commission should be the ones to discipline the chief. But the Kauai Police Commission is notorious for its insularity being comprised of almost all "good old boys"- with an extra accent on "boys." Most have been a product of the department- either ex-KPD brass or those who have been close to the department for years. The two historical exceptions- former Chair, businessman Michael Ching and Vice Chair, tourism industry executive Carol Furtado- found out what happens when you try to change that set up--you get put "on trial" on trumped-up charges by a corrupt ethic board doing the bidding of the mayor, council and many of those in the department and on the commission who wanted a different chief and who didn't like Ching and Furtado sticking their noses "where they didn't belong." But we digress... sort of. The power must be placed somewhere. And the "best practice" resolution of this is to give that power to the commission. But what's been needed all along is a truly independent commission that inspires the confidence of the public. Change on Kauai is not usually incremental. Those in power are skilled at cosmetic modifications that quell the demands for reform but actually further entrench power. Can the people of Kauai seize this opening and bring about sudden reform ? Not likely, especially if this is seen as just another power struggle between outsized egos. Which may, in the final analysis, be exactly what it was. .

Brazilian 1% defy nation

SUBHEAD: Brazilian billionaires build McMansions on national nature preserves with impunity. By Adriana Brasileiro on 7 March 2012 for Bloomberg News - (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-08/brazil-s-rich-build-homes-in-nature-preserves.html) Image above: Antonio Claudio Resende built this house before prosecutors charged him with breaking laws. From original article. From the sparkling, emerald-green waters of the Atlantic off the east coast of Brazil, Cavala Island looks like a tropical paradise of lush vegetation framed by giant rocks. It’s also where millionaire Antonio Claudio Resende, a founder of Latin America’s largest car-rental company, became a squatter.

There, starting in 2006, he cleared pristine jungle where wild bromeliad flowers grow to make way for a 1,752-square-meter mansion, according to the Rio de Janeiro state environmental agency. The house -- which is built partially underground and hidden by surrounding lush forest -- is visible only from above by aircraft.

Resende, 65, broke the rules that gave him the right to occupy the land on a nature preserve, not to build a large home, Brazilian federal judges found. He has been fighting civil and criminal charges against him for more than four years, filing appeals while defying court orders to demolish the house and leave, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its April issue.

Resende is among scores of millionaires who spend weekends and vacation time in homes built in violation of state and federal environmental rules on some of the most beautiful real estate in Brazil, Rio’s state environmental institute, INEA, found in an August 2011 report.

The squatters include movie director Bruno Barreto, who destroyed preserved land on Pico Island in Paraty Bay, prosecutors say.

Beachfront Compounds

Others, such as the family that controls multinational construction giant Camargo Correa SA, received government permission to build small houses in a nature preserve -- and instead constructed beachfront compounds.

Heirs to Roberto Marinho, who created Organizacoes Globo, South America’s biggest media group, built a 1,300-square-meter (14,000-square-foot) home, helipad and swimming pool in part of the Atlantic coastal forest that by law is supposed to be untouched because of its ecology.

Hollywood producers chose a Polynesian-style mansion on the Mamangua Inlet as the romantic setting for a sex scene in “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1,” the fourth movie in the teen vampire series. The house was built by millionaire squatter Icaro Fernandes, an executive in the food distribution industry.

All Brazilian beaches are public by law. Wealthy Brazilians do whatever they want on land that often doesn’t belong to them, says Eduardo Godoy of the Paraty office of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, or ICMBio, which manages federally protected areas.

Not What the Law Says

“They think they are the only ones who deserve to enjoy a piece of paradise because they are rich,” Godoy says. “They say they are the owners of the island or the beach, and everybody believes them. But that’s not what the law says.”

Fernandes declined to comment. Rogerio Zouein, his lawyer, admitted that Fernandes had built a house without a license. Zouein told prosecutors in April 2011 that Fernandes would restore 95 percent of his property to its original condition if he could stay in the home. Prosecutors were evaluating the request as of early March.

That court response is a common way that many of the wealthy squatters use to handle judges’ orders. They typically don’t deny they’ve harmed the environment and instead pledge to undo the damage. After that, they take no action.

Broken Promise

Film director Barreto promised in court in January 2008 that he would demolish his house and put the area back to its original state within two years. Four years later, Barreto remains on the property, having left it intact, prosecutors say. Barreto, who is appealing government complaints again him, declined to comment.

As the wealthy in Brazil get richer from the fastest economic growth there in more than two decades, the unlawful use of public land is increasing in nature preserves, says Godoy, whose federal environmental agency in Paraty, a 17th-century colonial town about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Rio de Janeiro, faces a bay filled with illegally occupied islands.

Squatters have chosen to reside in the Cairucu, Juatinga and Tamoios conservation areas, in forests and on islands, with rivers, waterfalls and beaches where sea turtles nest. The rich use attorneys to dodge laws, lie to authorities on construction permit requests, illegally destroy preserved land and rivers and privatize beaches by hiring armed security guards to keep out visitors, Godoy says.

Law enforcers and judges pushing to remove squatters from nature preserves have little clout, says Fernando Amorim Lavieri, a federal prosecutor who spent three years in the Paraty area. Rich Brazilians can get away with almost anything, Lavieri says.

Drag On

“The law is the same for the poor and the rich, but the rich have the best lawyers,” he says. “Lawsuits against them drag on in court for years.”

Brazil’s economy, fueled by a credit surge and booming exports during the past decade, has boosted the value of assets, including real estate, stocks, bonds and commodities, thereby creating 19 new millionaires every day in a country of 190 million people, according to the 2010 World Wealth Report by Capgemini SA and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Brazilians have a collective net worth of $890 billion, or 39 percent of all individual assets in South America, according to a November 2011 report by Wealth-X, a Singapore-based research firm.

Squatters take advantage of loopholes in the laws, Lavieri says. Starting in 1983, the federal government enacted laws to preserve the regions of Paraty and nearby Angra dos Resi because rare species at risk of extinction inhabit them. Local statutes allow some people to live there because indigenous fishing families have been in now-preserved areas for generations.

Follow the Rules

Everyone who buys a right to a property in a conservation area must follow strict limits on what they can build, if they’re allowed to build at all.

If they don’t follow the rules, the government can revoke their right to occupy the land and order them to demolish whatever they built,” says Jose Olimpio Augusto Morelli, an environmental analyst who heads the office of Ibama, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, in Angra dos Reis.

Ibama ordered Resende to tear down the house he was building on Cavala Island.

Forged Documents

Federal prosecutors charged Resende, vice chairman and the largest shareholder of Localiza Rent a Car SA, with fraud and environmental crime in November 2007. Resende had filed forged documents in seeking permits to build his mansion on Cavala Island, according to the criminal charges.

In March 2008, federal police, Ibama and state government agents raided Cavala from two speedboats and found the hidden paradise. In that raid, Morelli says, he saw two huge machines that Resende used to excavate more than 2,000 square meters of earth to hide his mansion below the tree line.

“I saw a fireplace big enough to fit a car, and there were huge piles of marble everywhere, waiting to be placed on the floors and walls,” Morelli says.

Prosecutors sued Resende in a civil case in August 2008, saying he had violated environmental rules.

Resende paid 4.8 million reais ($2.8 million) in November 2005 to AC Lobato Engenharia SA, an engineering company based in Angra dos Resi that had previously owned the right to occupy the land, according to a federal police investigation.

Resende has been appealing the civil and criminal accusations. He said in a court-filed response that federal judges shouldn’t rule on the case because the Tamoios conservation area was created by a state decree. Sergio Rosenthal, his lawyer, said in court that Resende doesn’t know anything about fraud or forged documents.

Only Tropical Fjord

On the other side of Paraty Bay, Icaro Fernandes, owner of Rhino Participacoes & Distribuidora de Alimentos Ltda., a Sao Paulo-based wholesale food distributor, bought a 400,000-square- -meter piece of land in 2003 on Praia da Costa beach on the Mamangua Inlet.

The property, in the 8,000-hectare (19,800-acre) Juatinga ecological preserve, is protected because it’s home to the only tropical fjord in South America. The spot is flanked by mountains covered with virtually untouched forest where monkeys, anteaters and jaguars live.

Fernandes constructed a two-story, 666-square-meter home on the beach, prosecutors say in a civil court case against him. The 15-room house has wooden shutters and glass-panel windows on the ground floor. A guesthouse and a housekeeper’s chalet sit up a hill.

Fernandes Sued

Federal prosecutors sued Fernandes in November 2004 for not obtaining an environmental license to build. He had cut down parts of the protected forest, filled in a stream and removed coastal vegetation, federal prosecutor Patricia Venancio wrote in a Jan. 3, 2006, report.

A court ordered Fernandes in 2004 to stop construction, and he didn’t. Since then, he’s been appealing judicial demands to tear down the house he completed and restore the land to its original state, according to a September 2011 report by ICMBio.

Paul Pflug, a spokesman for Summit Entertainment Corp., says the company isn’t aware of prosecutor accusations regarding the property where it filmed Breaking Dawn.

Most millionaires register properties in the names of holding companies, allowing them to pay lower taxes and making it more difficult for the government to know who’s responsible for environmental crimes, says Ricardo Martins, a federal prosecutor. Often, the companies are controlled by other companies based in tax havens.

Modernist Home

That’s the case with the Marinho media family. The Marinhos broke environmental laws by building a 1,300-square-meter mansion just off Santa Rita beach, near Paraty, says Graziela Moraes Barros, an inspector at ICMBio.

Without permits, the family in 2008 built a modernist home between two wide, independent concrete blocks sheathed in glass, Barros says. The Marinho home has won several architectural honors, including the 2010 Wallpaper Design Award.

The Marinhos added a swimming pool on the public beach and cleared protected jungle to make room for a helipad, says Barros, who participated in a raid of the property as part of the federal prosecutors office’s lawsuit against construction on the land.

“This one house provides examples of some of the most serious environmental crimes we see in the region,” Barros says. “A lot of people say the Marinhos rule Brazil. The beach house shows the family certainly thinks they are above the law.”

Armed Guards

Two security guards armed with pistols patrol the land, shooing away anyone who tries to use the public beach, she says. A federal judge in November 2010 ordered the family to tear down the house and all other buildings in the area. The Marinhos were appealing that ruling as of early March.

Their lawyer, Corina Tarcila de Oliveira Resende, who’s not related to Antonio Claudio Resende, declined to comment.

Barreto built his dream house on an island 15 kilometers from the Marinho compound. The film director has no right to use the land, police say. Prosecutors charged Barreto in February 2006 with illegally clearing protected forest in an area that belongs to Brazil’s navy.

A September 2008 inspection by ICMBio found that Barreto had built a 450-square-meter mansion on top of rocks that surround the island -- a crime because the area is protected as a breeding ground for several species, ICMBio’s Godoy says.

Barreto, who was married to actress Amy Irving and who directed “View From the Top” starring Gwyneth Paltrow and “Carried Away” with Dennis Hopper, hasn’t made good on his 2008 court promise to demolish the house. He and his lawyers, Arthur Lavigne and Fernanda Silva Telles, didn’t reply to requests for comment.

Billionaire Compound

The owners of Camargo Correa, Brazil’s largest construction conglomerate, also built on preserved land, Barros says. Agropecuaria & Comercial Conquista Ltda. and Regimar Comercial SA own the land. Fernando de Arruda Botelho is the owner of Agropecuaria.

He’s married to billionaire Rosana Camargo de Arruda Botelho. Regina de Camargo Pires Oliveira Dias, Rosana’s sister, owns Regimar. The family built a luxury compound in the Cairucu nature preserve, according to reports by Ibama. In October 2011, the family illegally built two 700-square-meter houses, adding to the already unauthorized construction, Barros says.

In June 2010, the beach was the venue for the wedding of Fernando Augusto Camargo de Arruda Botelho, Fernando Botelho’s son. About 800 guests attended.

Contradictory and Confusing

Fernando Botelho declined to comment. Regimar executive director Jose Sampaio Correa says the company obtained the required licenses for construction. He says environmental rules in conservation areas are sometimes contradictory and confusing. Brazil’s bureaucracy often makes it difficult to comply with the laws, he says.

“These actions are proof that they completely disregard the law, they take ownership of natural resources and believe their rights are greater than the rights of everybody else,” prosecutor Lavieri says.

As environmental investigator Morelli gets ready in his office for another boat raid one sunny January morning, he admires the beautiful islands and forests he sees from his windows. He says he dreams of a day when rich Brazilians will set the example of how to do things right. Until then, he says, money will continue to be more powerful than the law.

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North Shore flooding at Lumahai

SOURCE: Michael Sheehan (hanaleirivermichael@gmail.com) SUBHEAD: Advise from one north shore resident; "If you have property in Haena, sell it quick, or buy a boat to get there." By Terry Lilley on 12 March 2012 via email- (underwater2web@gmail.com) Image above: Kuhio Highway, undercut by heavy rains, may fail at Lumahai, and that's the only way Haena. From original email. I just went down to the big landslide under the Kuhio Hwy in Lumahai and had to climb a steep cliff and a tree but finally got high enough to look at the landslide under the road. Workers were doing some type of emergency drilling, hopefully to stabilize the road but as you can see if a little more of the cliff falls away the road will be gone! I won't be taking video from this spot again (without a helicopter) as it took me 90 minutes to climb up this old goat or Memehune trail, barefoot through the hau bush then climb a tree and knock off a few branches so I could see the cliff! Will let the DLNR take the next pics! Image above: Endangered moorhens crossing Kuhio Highway because of flooding. From original email. Also is a included is a photo of two endangered Moorhens running across Kuhio Highway today before they get squished by cars! This is the problem when it floods in town instead of the wetland as the birds get washed into Hanalei and get run over by cars! In California the US Fish & Wildlife Service would come out and lead cars through the area to avoid killing the endangered birds but in Hanalei is it just OK to run them over even though there is only a few hundred of these birds left on the entire planet! Every flood this happens and I call the USFWS but they never even return my calls! In 2009 I took video of 24 of them squished on the road! .

Intermezzo - with deer

SUBHEAD: My place is like a petting zoo, there are so many deer. Left open, they would ravage anything I grow like locusts. By James Kunstler on 12 March 2012 for Kunstler.com - (http://kunstler.com/blog/2012/03/intermezzo.html) Image above: Deer gather in Dr. Tom's yard in upstate New York. From (http://lifeatdrtoms.blogspot.com/2010/11/im-rooting-for-deer-hunters-again.html). Unless your mobile home was blown all over the county on opening day of the tornado season, this must seem like an interlude of reassuring normality in the world's convulsive wendings. The IED known as Greece has not quite yet exploded, loud as all the graveyard whistling that emanates from Europe might be. Even the invocation of a "credit event" by the notorious ISDA has seen a first-stage payout of a few mere billions - though you've got to believe that this is some kind of stage-managed dumb-show designed to conceal the fact that the whole credit default swap racket is a network of frauds.

Where I live, in the uppermost Hudson Valley, the peace and tranquility of the moment is overlaid by sweet spring zephyrs arriving about a month early. I hope that doesn't portend weeks on end of 90-degree summer heat, but I have the consolation of not being in Texas, where that would be more like three straight months of 100-degree-plus heat. It must get tedious running in and out of the a.c.

My gardening schemes which fermented all winter are finally going into action. Yesterday, I banged together the first two of ten raised beds arrayed geometrically in a forty-eight foot square foot formal vegetable and herb garden. I've done it before on a smaller scale at a different house in a different time when nobody except the clinically paranoid expected the collapse of civilization. I'm going to put in a not-so-formal patch of corn-squash-and beans outside of that in the manner of the people who lived here a thousand years ago, really just to see how it works, and I may also plant a monoculture patch of potatoes elsewhere.

The "back forty" awaits the arrival of twenty fruit trees - mixed apple, pear, cherry, plus blueberry, raspberry and current shrubs - and two blight-resistant American chestnuts (not absolutely guaranteed blight-free). A mighty effort has been made over recent decades by valiant arborists to restore the American chestnut. It was this tree (Castanea dentate) which made the forests east of the Mississippi so prolific with game in the time before clocks arrived in North America. My back forty used to be huge lawn, with an above-the-ground pool decorating the middle of it. The pool is gone, thank you Jeezus. I'll start with this set of fruit and see how they take to the soil here, and if they get going well I'll get twenty more next year. It could add up to a really immense amount of fruit for one household. There's always cider....

Altogether I have about an acre-and-a-quarter of already clear land to experiment with. The rest is woodlot. The woods will require a lot of grooming and brush-hogging to get decades of "trash" out: rampant honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, box elder. There's a lot of good hardwood in there otherwise, and I built a saw-jack set up to cut stove lengths. There's enough in there to be self-replenishing with careful management. The house I bought last fall has a fireplace with a stove insert. The builder insulated the shit out of the place. The chain saw is off in the shop getting its battered old chain replaced. I have to learn how to sharpen the damn thing now. Cutting firewood is where you get a really vivid sense of the power embodied in gasoline. A couple of gallons will get next season's supplementary supply laid in. In the past, and probably, in the future, this is a job that would be nearly impossible to do by yourself.

These days, except for highway repair and oil-drilling, there are few outdoor activities that require a gang of men working together. In the years ahead, household composition is going to change hugely for many reasons. It's unusual these days to have a lot of children - considering population overshoot, it seems crazy to promote that - but people with something to offer in the way of skills and labor may have to join forces just to get the necessary day's work done together. I'm sure that will have its consolations, even if it means you don't get to have a 3,500 square foot house to yourself.

The deer-fence installer just submitted his estimate. It was an eye-opener, but it has to be done and it's a one-time thing. I could have done it myself in a half-assed way with plastic netting but this is not a time for half-assed measures. My place is like a petting zoo, there are so many deer on and around it. Left open, they would ravage anything I grow like locusts. And they had the easiest winter in memory - no snow on the ground all January and February, something nobody around here has seen before. Here it is March and they are still looking plump and ready to pop out lots of healthy babies. So I have to put a fence up around the garden and orchard part of the property, with gates into the woodlots. The fence has to be eight feet high because the white-tailed deer is a mighty leaper. It's going to look a little like Jurassic Park.

Of course, if the USA gets into really deep socio-political shit, it's easy to imagine the entire deer-herd of Washington County getting exterminated inside a couple of years by hungry, desperate jackers. The people I play fiddle with on Tuesday night, many of them boomer-age hippie homesteaders and master gardeners, remember thirty years ago when you hardly ever saw a deer. We could easily get to that point again when times get hard.

About a week ago, I stopped on a country road to take a leak. I stepped into the woods for a minute and then, stepping out, was horrified to see dozens of ticks crawling on my pants legs. I took the otherwise unused snow-brush to them. The really weird part is that it was only thirty degrees that day. Yet they were already active and right lively. This place is now the epicenter of the eastern Lyme Disease epidemic. I went to a party not long ago where at least fifteen people were currently in treatment, or had been more than once before, for Lyme. Some just couldn't get rid of it. It is a wicked-ass illness, very difficult to get out of your system, and debilitating in myriad ways. It, too, was unknown around here thirty years ago.

I honestly don't know if my own little homesteading experiment at the edge of this sweet-but-beat little village is going to work out. I'm pretty confident about growing vegetables because I've done it successfully before, even in recent years when I was a renter sitting out the housing bubble. But it gives you something psychologically nourishing to do while the turbo-industrial world wends its way into the long emergency. Pictures to come on my website as the season wends where it will.

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1st Tohoku earthquake anniversary

SUBHEAD: The devastation to Japan will persist in long term economic impoverishment and environmental degradation. By Juan Wilson on 11 March 2012 for Island Breath - (http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2012/03/1st-tohoku-earthquake-anniversary.html) Image above: Moments before tsunami wave made shore in Sendai Provence on 3/11/11. From (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110324-japan-tsunami-pictures-new-fukushima-science-world/#/japan-tsunami-earthquake-new-pictures-before_33636_600x450.jpg). It's one year out and Japan is still reeling from the 9.0 magnituse Tohuku Earthquake. Besides the violent ground movement, the tsunami that followed destroyed much of the remaining infrastructure in northeast Japan. Even though the Japanese have committed almost a quarter of a trillion dollars to rebuild residences and transportation, things will never be the same. The tsunami struck first the Sendai are of Japan where agriculture and fishing industry was concentrated. With its aging population and decades old economic stagnation, it is unlikely that those industries will ever be the same. Nuclear Meltdown The tsunami destruction radiated outward along the northwest shores and soon enveloped the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and in addition to the earthquake damage caused the meltdown of three of its six reactors. The reactor meltdowns spewed tons of radioactive isotopes onto thousands of square miles of surrounding rural land as well as high into the atmosphere reaching Hawaii and the US mainland. Moreover, the utility company had a devastating China Syndrome. That's where a large quantity of heavy radioactive elements burn through the foundation of the containment building and reach the underlying water table causing a hydro-volcanic explosion that would deliver tons of hot uranium and plutonium particles into the atmosphere. To avoid the China Syndrome Tepco (the utility) poured thousands of tons of seawater into the ruined nuclear containment buildings as coolant, and then had to flush that radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. Image above: Moment of impact of tsunami on shore if Sendai Provence on 3/11/11. From (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110324-japan-tsunami-pictures-new-fukushima-science-world/#/japan-tsunami-earthquake-new-pictures-wave_33638_600x450.jpg). Long Term Health The Fukushima district had to be evacuated. All told there are still tens of thousands of Japanese still living in temporary structures far from home. The land in Fukushima has been poisoned. Grain, vegetable and dairy production as well as fish catch has been decimated in northeast Japan. Millions of Japanese have been forced to live in an environment of increased long-term low-level radiation. This will last for generations and particularly effect the young, particularly women. The older, male dominated institutions of Japan have responded by raising the acceptable "safe" levels of exposure to ionizing radiation from 2 millisieverts/year to 20 millisieverts/year (2rem). It has been demonstrated from data in the National Academy of Science's BEIR (Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation) VII Report that at least one out of every 20 young girls (5%) living in an area where the radiological exposure is 20 millisieverts for five years will develop cancer in their lifetime. See "Japan Condemns Fukushima Children (http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2012/03/japan-condemns-children-of-fukushima.html). Image above: Tsunami making its way inland in Sendai Provence on 3/11/11. From (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110324-japan-tsunami-pictures-new-fukushima-science-world/#/japan-tsunami-earthquake-new-pictures-hitting_33637_600x450.jpg).
Long Term View In the meantime the nuclear power industry has been set back for quite some time. A year after the disaster only 2 of Japan's nuclear plants are online. Although throughout Asia is racing to complete as many as 60 new nuclear reactors, the Japanese may be more accurately pointing to the future. They may not have come fully accepting of the fate that awaits them, they have moved closer to a smaller, aging population with a steady-state economy. Something with world desperately needs more of. In his book "Collapse" Jared Diamond explores why human cultures meet their own ends. He also gives examples of how a few isolated island civilizations came to be durable and self-sustaining over a long history. The only large community he found that achieved that end was Japan prior to European contact. Yes it was royalist. Yes it was isolationist. Yes it was xenophobic. But the Japanese managed a highly evolved culture over centuries without destroying their island environment. With no coal or petroleum the Japanese won't be able to have a 21st Century industrial economy without nuclear power. But they cannot afford nuclear power and the world cannot afford an 21st century industrial economy. We have had our own trouble. The unfixed aftermath of Katrina hitting New Orleans and the BP oil well disaster despoiling the Gulf of Mexico illustrate America's inability to deal with natural and man-made disaster. We are poorer because of it. Let us hope the Japanese can show us a way in the dark. .

Koloa Camp Meeting

SUBHEAD: Meeting on Koloa Camp future with state senator Hee. Please join the community by participating. By John Patt on 10 March 2012 in Island Breath - (http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2012/03/koloa-camp-meeting.html) Image above: Kauai residents meet to discuss saving Koloa Camp neighborhood. From Joan Conrow article below. WHAT: Community meeting on ways to save Koloa Camp with state senator Hee. WHEN: Sunday on 11 march 2012 at 1:30pm
WHERE: Koloa Kauai Canoe Club This evening we finalized our plans for tomorrow's meeting with Senator Hee. We are going to gather at the canoe hale around 1:30pm. The Senator is bringing several of his staff people, and it is important to have him meet as many of the tenants, family members, and Wailani Road residents as possible. Friends and members of the KCA are welcome to help show the senator that we have community support. It is also our chance to ask the senator questions, and to firm up our plans. JoAnn Yukimura is supposed to attend. She is going to introduce her resolution this Wednesday to the County Council. Also, those that can bring food/drinks, please do so. See you tomorrow.

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Neighborhood in Crisis By Joan Conrow on 6 March 2012 for Kauai Online - (http://www.forkauaionline.com/article/Local_News/Cover/Koloa_Camp_A_Neighborhood_in_Crisis_a_Neighborhood_in_Change/3325072)

Ask folks what they like most about living in Koloa Camp, and they'll answer without hesitation: the tight-knit community.

They also speak about the sense of history, and of place, that comes from living in century-old homes that previously housed Japanese field workers on the first sugar plantation in Hawai`i. As they see it, the boxy, metal-roofed relics from a bygone era do more than provide shelter. They also reflect a local lifestyle that is fast disappearing on Kaua`i.

So when Koloa Camp residents learned, via 120-day eviction notices sent out on Nov. 8, 2011, that their landlord, Grove Farm, planned to tear down their homes and build 50 new ones, they quickly banded together.

Families living in eight homes are affected, along with tenants renting five agricultural lots. They've been given until March 8 to vacate.

Camp residents began meeting every Sunday afternoon in the canoe hale that is also slated for demolition, and soon word of their plight spread to all points of the island. Folks showing their support for the residents packed the Koloa Neighborhood Center for meetings in December and January, when Grove Farm representatives detailed the company's plans to develop Waihohonu, named after the stream that flows near the camp.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for April, with construction expected to take about three years. Company officials said the project would provide affordable homes that are in big demand on Kaua`i.

Though Grove Farm offered to give Koloa Camp tenants the first chance to buy — the two- and three-bedroom houses range from 800 to 1,300 square feet and are tentatively priced at $230,00 to $485,000 — residents said they couldn't qualify for loans at those prices.

But mostly, they didn't want to see their neighborhood destroyed, leave homes where some had lived their entire lives, say goodbye to neighbors who felt like family.

“It's historically relevant and a valuable asset to this community,” says Kepa Kruse, who grew up in the camp. “It's what makes it old Koloa town.”

Eager to find an alternative, camp residents suggested the company instead build on land it owns on nearby Ala Kinoiki Road. But Grove Farm rejected the idea, saying the 6.5-acre proposed site was about half the size of Koloa Camp. Furthermore, it would take extensive time and money to change the zoning of the land from agriculture to residential.

Residents were beginning to get discouraged when developer Peter Savio stepped forward.

He had previously helped the residents of Poamoho Camp on O`ahu buy their houses when the Del Monte pineapple plantation shut down, and he thought a similar approach would work in Koloa.

“I'm here to give Grove Farm and everyone a way out,” says Savio, who offered to buy the camp at its appraised value, which is currently unknown, for the purpose of selling it back to the residents. “We're not asking for a discount or anything less than the market value. I really would love to see some of this history preserved. That's what excites me about these plantation camps.”

Grove Farm, which did not respond to a request for comment, formally rejected Savio's offer in mid-February.

But Savio, like the residents he represents, remains hopeful.

“I believe there's a lot of support on Kauai for saving the camp,” Savio says. “I do not see a local company strong-arming the community when there's an option like this.”

Added Kruse: “The camp residents are not moving.”

In keeping with that vow, they're making plans that center around staying, not leaving. They want to apply for assistance to preserve the historical structures, plant trees to stabilize the stream banks, create a community garden that will double as a hands-on learning place for sustainable living, and share their neighborhood with others.

“I see it as a chance to pass on a community, a historic camp, an `ohana, to the next generation,” says Koloa resident John Patt.

Update...

Residents of Koloa Camp have gotten the support of Hawai`i State Legislators in their bid to remain in their homes. On March 2, the State Senate approved a resolution calling upon Grove Farm to immediately put the evictions on hold and allow the Koloa Plantation Camp tenants to remain in their homes until alternative solutions are developed. The residents are supposed to be out by March 8.

The resolution also urges Grove Farm to engage in meaningful discussions with the tenants of Koloa Plantation Camp regarding the future plans for the plantation property and the development of alternative solutions.

The resolution, which is non-binding, now goes to the state House of Representatives for a vote.

.

Words to give by

SUBHEAD: Nature is the world's largest alternative economy. Join her gift exchange. By Guy McPherson on 10 March 2012 for Nature Bats Last- (http://guymcpherson.com/2012/03/words-to-give-by) Image above: Photo from article on Gift Economy below by SeismoLogik. From (http://www.seismologik.com/journal/2011/11/1/the-gift-economy.html).

I’m fussy about the words I use. Words matter, after all. For example, anarchy is not chaos, though you’d never be able to distinguish the two based on anything presented by the mainstream media. As a further example, I’m averse to any form of the word “sustain” because we don’t and we can’t. I’ve distinguished between sustainability and durability in this space in essay form and also in a recent presentation. If the Laws of Thermodynamics aren’t compelling enough for you, consider this: Wal-Mart allegedly has poured more money into “sustainability” than any other institution on Earth.

In this brief essay, I’d like to take issue with a couple other terms. As I’ve pointed out recently, I’m a fan of the gift economy (which is not based on barter). I explain below. In addition, I differentiate between building social capital and contributing to a decent human community.

My customary gifts include hosting visitors at the mud hut, delivery of presentations for no charge, and copies of my latest book at my cost (or, to those interested in an electronic version of the page proofs, no cost at all). Here at the mud hut, I strive to promote and expand the extant gift economy. This approach makes perfect sense, considering how we began this relationship more than four years ago, when my associates on these 2.7 acres offered my partner and me the gift of an acre (we declined, and we now share the property and the attendant responsibilities). In the name of comfort for our friends and neighbors, we barter, too, and sometimes work within the customary system of fiat currency.

But I prefer an economy of gifts, which has been the prevailing model for most of our existence as human animals. Gifting removes the pressure associated with placing monetary value on the exchange of goods and services in a barter system. And, to me at least, it seems more compassionate and personal than other alternatives.

Many people believe they are doing themselves a favor by building social capital. I hear this phrase often, and I bristle every time. Employing the root word of a heinous system that developed as the industrial revolution began is hardly a sure-fire strategy for winning friends and (positively) influencing people. The process of “building social capital” equates connivance with decency. Analogous to use of a barter system, the act of building social capital suggests a deposit is being made, and will be drawn upon later, perhaps with interest (i.e., usury).

In contrast to developing social capital, I believe we should work to contribute to a decent human community. As an aside, I’m often asked why I use the phrase, “human community” instead of “community.” This is exactly the type of question I have come to expect from individuals who wrongly believe we are the most important species on Earth.

We’re destroying virtually every aspect of the living planet, and yet we believe we’re the foundation on which robust ecosystems depend. Viewing your place in a human community, and your contribution to that human community, is analogous to development of a gift economy. By striving to contribute, instead of invest, I can focus on developing life-affirming ties instead of dreaming about the return on my investment. By serving my neighbors, rather than determining how my neighbors can serve me, I become an integral part of a valuable system. As such, the whole, holistic system becomes increasingly durable.

Sharing gifts to develop a durable set of living arrangements within a decent human community: If you can imagine a better goal, please let me know.

---

The Gift Economy By Mark Boyle on 1 November 2011 for Seismologik - (http://www.seismologik.com/journal/2011/11/1/the-gift-economy.html)

Everyone from politicians to journalists and economists like to conflate words relating with finance with words relating to economy. You thought the were the same thing, right? That's OK, so did I. But they're not the same thing. I wish I could say this conflation occured from utter stupidity, but my suspicion is that it has been a long and relentless campaign by the corporatocracy (read John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman) to ensure that people can't even think of an economic model that isn't money based.

This is most apparent when I hear businesspeople and political leaders telling us something isn't economically viable, such as leaving the rainforest as a rainforest or giving a living wage to the people who make the stuff we use within an economic system we forced them into. An economic system is really only a method of managing all that we have been gifted as wisely as possible, not just for humans but for all the family of life. If we destroy our ecologies, there are no economies.

The way people talk of The Economy, you'd swear it was life's Holy Grail. When did happiness, intergrity, fulfilment, fun, honour, respect, love, courage, craftsmanship and connection stop becoming the most important things for us in our lives?

The money based economy is only one form of economy. And it's a terrible one. There are other forms to choose from. My favourite, as you may know, is The Gift Economy.

Ideally, this would be 100% localised, with the gifts flowing from local Nature through local people. It would involve local permaculture, crafts, foraging, feasting, music, dance, storytelling all produced by the people of an area, for the people of an area. People participating in life, not just consuming life.

But we're a million miles from there, so for now we can start by at least restoring the spirit of The Gift Economy, even if it is not fully localised for now. That will happen as global crises converge - unfortunately it will, most likely, be forced on many rather than voluntarily chosen by them. Their loss.

So I propose a new economic and political system that can be used right now (without having to go to the polls to elect a different shade of the corporatocracy in): The Gift Economy.

The good news about this system is that there are no leaders required, just tools and models that people can use to organise things themselves, from the bottom up. Like the current political and economic models, I'll break this down into departments.

The Department of Resources

Many of you seem to use Freeconomy for this now. Which is fine and I've no problem with that, but there are projects out there better set-up to deal with this.

The obvious are Freecycle and Freegle (the latter was set-up because of silly admin issues with Freecylce HQ). With both, find your local group, join it, and then post any items you want to give away, or ask members for stuff you need. For other ways, there is now the likes of LetsAllShare and Ecomodo.

For items such as books, use ReaditSwapit or better still set up a local book-swapping evening. For clothes, again, set up a local clothes swapping evening, I know many people who've done this very successfully by running clothes swapping parties at their house or a free venue.

The Department of Transport

In the ideal world, the Dept. of Transport would encourage people to work where they live, helping produce what little their communities need off the land they live on. Therefore walking would be the transport of choice. Rambling really is the best pace of life.

Again, everyone walking everywhere is not exactly going to happen this year. So next up the ladder of unsustainability is bicycles. Use the Sustrans network of cycle tracks, and use punctureless tyres. If for whatever reason you don't want to cycle (i.e. you're lazy, you're scared, you don't give a shit about fossil fuel use or wars in the Middle East or climate change, you have children who need to be protected from The Dangerous World) there are many other options. Before anyone gets all worked up, I'm joking. Actually I'm not. Stop making excuses and cycle.

Like hitching. But again, hitching is very dangerous, at least one person worldwide every 15-20 years has a nervy experience with it, and the media rightly blow it out of all proportion. So again, there are more options.

Set up a FreeBus like these wonderful people in Bristol. If that sounds like a little bit too much hassle to have to do (instead on being something incredibly inspiring, which it is), then use Blablacar, Liftshare, Mylifts, Freewheelers or National Car Share, depending on which one best meets your needs at this point in time.

Whichever you choose, you will save money, you will save resources, you will meet new friends, you will limit your negative impact, and you'll maximise your positive impact.

The Department of Skills, Labor & Knowledge

I'm not going to ramble on here - if for some reason you read this blog but still aren't a member of Freeconomy, then just join and stop being an ass. You get to meet like-minded people, get help with things for free, learn skills, and get access to a huge database of tools you can borrow. You can offer all of the above yourself too, if you want to be nice. There is also the forum if you want to tap into the knowledge of people outside your own local radius.

In Bristol the local group organises a free weekly skillsharing event called Freeskilling. The teachers teach for free, the venue hosts for free, the organisers organise for free, the people learn for free. Simple. Here is the programme for Freeskilling in Bristol this month, for example.

The reason I founded Freeconomy was because it didn't already exist. I'm not into reinventing the wheel. All other alternative economies were still based on the dogma of exchange, whereas I felt that unconditonal giving, doing things just-for-the-love-of-it with no formal exchange, was a much more loving and uplifting way to be on this earth.

But if you want to persist with exchange, there are other options. LETS and Timebanks just to name two. But really - just join Freeconomy. Its in over 160 countries now, with 25,000 members in the UK alone, so there is a large database of great people with useful skills, tools, knowledge and free spaces instantly at your fingertips, waiting to help you, get to know you, and be helped by you.

The Department of Housing & Accommodation

Because the land was robbed from us and given to the banks via a debt based money-creation process, this is difficult. You could live wild in the woods (which I must admit is my absolute ideal and hope to one day), and take your chances. You could build a simple dwelling from 100% local materials and become a Freeman on the land, but this again comes with risks (risks I believe need to be taken by those brave enough) and you do need to understand it all completely before even thinking about it.

For the slightly less courageous but equally adventurous, there is couchsurfing, where you can sleep on millions of couches around the world for free, and allow other members to sleep on yours too when your time comes around. Not only do you save lots of money, you get access to a kitchen and often internet, and get to find out all the really good places to see and experience when you are on the road.

If you want to live with little or no money, why not go wwoofing for a week/month/year. It really helps organic growers, you learn new skills and meet great people, and you could do it completely moneyless.

The Department of Education

If I had a penny for every parent who told me they couldn't live without money because they have to send their kids to school, I'd have bought up the land of all England and returned it to the Gift Economy by now. I do understand your woes and concerns.

But we talk about sending kids to school as if its some sort of positive thing to do to them. Normal school is hideous. They're factory farms for the economic slaves of the future.

We also talk about reading and writing as if it is some sort of thing that we should never question. They have to be good, unquestionably good, right? If you think language and numbers are so great, then read Charles Eisensteins The Ascent of Humanity to get a new (or old?) perspective.

If you want inspiration for education, then look no further than Bunker Roy's incredible project in India, the Barefoot College. Satish Kumar's small school and Schumacher College (both of which admittedly are expensive but shouldn't be and could be done for free if the will of the community was there) are other examples. But ideally, Homeschool with other parents in your local community. More and more parents are doing it, and the more that do the easier it becomes.

Whatever you choose, just don't teach them the usual crap that will no longer be relevant in twenty years - teach them foraging, food growing, communication skills, carpentry, art, music, dance, signing, how to make things from local materials and the like. Teach them how to be the fullness of their humanity.

The Department of Food

Grow in whatever space you have - the windowsill, the back garden, the allotment or some land. Use Permaculture and Forest Gardening approaches to make the most of your limited space. Grow what you like to eat. If you're busy, grow the crops that need least looking after. If you're skint, grow the food that you like but that's most expensive to buy.

If you want to go to an even more sustainable level, then forage. Take a course, read some books (Food for Free by Richard Mabey is a good starter), go out to the hedgerows, practice, research, practice, research, practice, research ad infinitum.

Are the wilds in your area been replaced by supermarkets and their carparks? If so, go skipping (dumpster diving for you American English speakers) - its not exactly The Gift Economy, but you can make the gift on their behalf, given that these corporations haven't the integrity and care to redistribute it themselves.

The Department of Technology

Everything is technology - language, numerical system, compost toilet or bicycle. I used to think a Blackberry and Apple were fruit, but apparently not (lets reclaim our language people!), apparently they're phones and gadgets.

Use Linux (Ubuntu). Use OpenOffice. Use open source technologies, or help create them. Use Hushmail (an encrypted email - you may as well cc in the authorities to your emails from hotmail, yahoo, gmail etc), use DuckDuckGo for searching without tracking by Big Brother, use TrueCrypt to encrypt any personal folders you wouldn't like The Man to read.

Most of all - stop buying crap you don't need, and work less because of it. Be free. Use the appropriate level of technology.

The Ministry of Defense (aka The Ministry of Offense)

Fuck that. Be nice. Life simply - if you don't have any wealth, you'll rarely be bothered. I left my caravan unlocked for three years. Everyone knew I had nothing of worth, save a laptop whose screen is sellotaped to the kepboard. Organise members of your community to learn ways of resolving conflict peacefully and learn NVC. Learn how to defend yourself if it comes to it. Get fit, might come in handy some day. And if someone is repeatedly raping your Mother (I had to get it in there, you'd have been disappointed) or abusing your brother, then take an appropriate level of action. Good, vague phrasing there I hope.

The Department for Culture, Media & Sport

Make your own song. Make your own dance. Make your own beer, wine and cider (let Andy Hamilton help). Organise your own street party. Learn an instrument. No excuses, just learn one. Play games. Run. Make love. Go skinny dipping. Put on free film nights in your house. Do anything. Just don't waste your life on the internet writing blogs telling people how to not waste their life on the internet.

Stop consuming. Participate in life. I'll say it again in case you didn't get it the first two times. Stop consuming. Participate in life.

For free music, use Grooveshark, the world's biggest free jukebox.

The Department of Health

Eat well - local, organic, fresh. Exercise lots. Love yourself. Lots.

Your physical health depends on your mental health, so do things that make you happy and fulfilled. Get to know your local alternative practitioners, you'll find many on Freeconomy. Learn whichever form best works for you. Learn your own body again, become aware of what it needs.

For deeper types of healing, there are other methods such as Ayahuasca.

When I first began living without money I made my chronic hayfever almost non-existent using a weed called Plantain, a natural anti-histamine. It cured it 90%. But do you want to hear something completely far out, man? Last year I decided it was stupid and that

a) being allergic to pollen was ridiculous, and

b) that I am in control of my own body,

and so for two months coming up to hayfever season I kept telling myself I don't have have fever any more. And you know what? Come June, not a sniffle. Not one.

Too hippy? Not scientific enough? Then go and pump various types of over-the-counter pills into yourself, and that'll sort out all your problems. Or take a steroid injection. That'll restore you to full health. Promise.

And this is all just the tip of the iceberg. I could write a book (you can get it from your library - or pass it forward once you've read it) about all the other ways to live in The Gift.

I wish you all the courage in the world to move away from the money economy, and into the Gift Economy. Freeconomy isn't the world's largest alternative economy. Nature is. Join Her.

THE FREECONOMY BLOG is written by Mark Boyle, who lived for over two years without money, and is the founder of the Freeconomy Community. He is the author of The Moneyless Man.

See also: Ea O Ka Aina: Moneyless Man - Mark Boyle 10/22/10 .