keels of contention...

Our heroes who are inspiration to most of our democratic ideals, often are not democratic. Just who cares? They have attributes of folly that succeed in slaying the dragons.... In a democracy, there would have been an endless array of general meetings on why the dragons would have to be protected — or cut to pieces in times of famine...

The British oil trader Trafigura has offered to pay out in a historic damages claim from 31,000 Africans injured by the dumping of toxic waste in one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history, the Guardian can reveal.

The compensation deal for the victims of toxic oil waste dumping in west Africa - likely to be confirmed imminently - means the full extent of attempts to cover up what really happened can be spelled out for the first time.

Gorilla dung could conceivably be the salvation of the planet.

A leading UK wildlife expert today said protecting the large primates he called the "gardeners of the forest" could provide the easy fix for global warming envisaged by international reforestation programmes.

America and other industrialised countries are looking to reforestation programmes in Africa, South-east Asia and South America to help contain the effects of climate change.

Truth is war's first casualty. The Afghan War's biggest untruth is, "we've got to fight terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them at home." Politicians and generals keep using this canard to justify a war they can't otherwise explain or justify.

Many North Americans still buy this lie because they believe the 9/11 attacks came directly from the Afghanistan-based al-Qaida and Taliban movements.

Not true. The 9/11 attacks were planned in Germany and Spain, and conducted mainly by US-based Saudis to punish America for supporting Israel's repression of the Palestinians.

 From the NYT

Food production will have to increase by 70% over the next 40 years to feed the world's growing population, the United Nations food agency predicts.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation says if more land is not used for food production now, 370 million people could be facing famine by 2050.

The world population is expected to increase from the current 6.7 billion to 9.1 billion by mid-century.

Climate change, involving floods and droughts, will affect food production.

Visit Barnaby's site and read the comments below his media release...

Ronit Ridberg has given the world a marvellous look into the fraudulent, Big Government-Big Pharma complex with his documentary film, Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs. It's a bit dated, from 2006, but certainly, that is no hindrance to the message of the film. It's an hour long, but worth every minute of your time.

Suggestions that John Howard, George Bush, Tony Blair, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Benjamin Netanyahu, The Milky Bar Kid, Malcolm Turnbull, Godwin Grech or the fairy at the bottom of the garden might have been "shortlisted" for the Nobel Peace Prize might be taken seriously in some quarters, however .....

Below is a brief description of the process involved in selecting the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.

It took 25 years longer than George Orwell thought for the slogans of 1984 to become reality.

"War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," "Ignorance is Strength."

I would add, "Lie is Truth."

The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2009 Peace Prize to President Obama, the person who started a new war in Pakistan, upped the war in Afghanistan, and continues to threaten Iran with attack unless Iran does what the US government demands and relinquishes its rights as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.

As Israel's democratic posture becomes more questioned, its mystique becomes more exaggerated. In order to convince others of the validity of Israel's actions, supporters focus on three components of Israel's drive to an accomplished nation:

Fears that as much as 30 per cent of the beef sold in Australia is old cow meat repackaged as prime produce has prompted the NSW Government to introduce rules to protect consumers.

Shoppers have little way of telling the true quality of the meat they are buying because there is no grading system for locally sold beef, nor any onus on retailers to inform their customers of the quality of a cut.

Locally sold meat is graded under Meat and Livestock Australia's voluntary MSA scheme, but only about 12,500 of the nation's 160,000 cattle properties are MSA-accredited.

From the Independent

From the Moscow Times:

Lower-ranking Russian politicians were quicker to weigh in, expressing everything from cautious congratulations to frustration about Obama winning the prize. They were virtually united in the opinion that the award went to the U.S. president as a downpayment on his future actions to reinforce global peace rather than for his accomplishments so far.

Many of them noted Europe's disappointment with the policies of Obama's predecessor, George Bush, and hope that the new White House would take a more peaceful approach to its foreign policy.