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Monday, October 31, 2005
contemplative in the dark
Take a few minutes alone in the dark to reflect:
Our fate is bound up with nature's desire to feel itself, to think about itself, to contemplate about itself, to act upon itself.
Here's a Halloween trivia for you: The first thermonuclear bomb was detonated on this date in 1952 at the Marshall Islands. Que horror!
Posted at 07:48 pm by starsi
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Sunday, October 30, 2005
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The way I understand it, public transportation here is subsidized by road fees and tolls for use of specific roads. In a motor-run highway, the environmental implications of this are clear. You want to use private cars that seat less people and use more gas, you pay more for it, at the same time those who ride public transportation benefit. In my mind, that makes sense. Now why can't they implement that in other countries? Other constraints come to mind.
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Indicators show a rise in unemployment rates in a period of economic slump in Australia compared to last quarter.
Posted at 01:13 am by starsi
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Saturday, October 29, 2005
In a discussion about the Muslim insurgency in the Philippines, I commented that I was Christian myself, and whatever opinion Christians may have about the establishment of an Islamic state in the Philippines, we shouldn't condone the bombings of Muslim communities and the repression of Muslims themselves. We can resolve the issue in other ways, through dialogue, through addressing grievances and helping to alleviate the problems in those communities. The thing is, given the historical injustice we Christians have inflicted on them, they've earned the right to demand for self-determination. It's complicated, it's not easy, but oppressors have a high responsibility towards their oppressed. The same goes for Australians in the matter of the Aborigines. The same with Americans with Native Americans, African-Americans, and now the Iraqis.
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People may have noticed that in the Philippines, we have a woman president, at the same time many of the victims of human rights violations there are women and children. The bad news for feminists is that there's no solidarity among women from different social levels. As long as a certain system exists, a woman in power would act no differently from a man in the same position.
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In the news: Hungary claims to have developed a vaccine against the H5N1 that has produced 10x more antibodies in its recipients. But what could hit people on a pandemic scale could be a more mutated form of virus. Nevertheless, the announcement is good news and must be looked into.
Posted at 01:05 pm by starsi
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Here's a take on one of those surveys going around. Apologies to those who can't understand Tagalog.
1. Ano'ng kwento ng suot mong t-shirt? Ginawa ito ng mga contractualized workers sa mga lugar tulad ng Cambodia o China kung saan mababa pasahod, pangit ang mga dormitoryo, at bawal mag-unyon. Ganyan talaga, pag bumibili tayo, commodity lang, disguised ang ensemble ng social relations ng paggawa at pag-exchange nito. Malay ko ba?
2. Ano'ng kwento ng breakfast mo?
Whole grained bread - kwento nito minasa sya ng mapagmahal na kamay ng baker at bunudburan ng wheat at kung anu pa na inani ng mga magsasaka na gamit ang teknolohiya na me suporta ng gubyerno.
Tapos, ipinalaman ko nutella. Yum! ang nutella ay low-GI, ibig sabihin, slow ang pag-release ng energy para di magutom agad at di madaling mawalan ng enerhiya. Me mga kumpanya na nilalagyan din ng malusog na ingredients ang kanilang produkto kasi yun ang demand ng mga consumers.
Juice - na galing sa orange na hinalikan ng araw. Hindi ito galing sa mga low-wage na manggagawang bukid na pinagsasamantalahan ng mga may-ari ng lupa.
3. Ano'ng kwento ng lunch mo? Ah, lunch ko ay me kasamang hipon. Etong hipon na to pangalan nya, Nemo. Tama, Nemo the prawn, o Nemo the shrimp parang yung palabas. Wala syang kamuwang-muwang, akala nya safe sa dagat. Bigla ba namang me net na lumitaw at hinuli sila ng kanyang mga kaibigan. Ayun, napunta sa kusina namin.
4. Ano'ng kwento ng merienda mo? Syempre walang merienda dito di ba? Pero Pinoy syempre, kaya nag-merienda. Nagkape ako at biscuit. Eh Nestle yata yun, e di ba pinapatay nila yung mga kasali ng unyon? Kaya sabi nila: "There's Blood In Your Coffee!" So yun, bampira pala ako, pati lahat ng umiinom ng Nescafe, there's blood in your coffee. Me kaibigan ako na manager dun, totoo daw, me conspiracy na parang sa "Blade." Gusto nila maging bampira tayo.
Di naman talaga ako umiinom ng kape masyado no, pero syempre para naman maging funny at socially-relevant naman tong kalokohang survey na to no.
5. Ano'ng kwento ng dinner mo? Ah, chicken naman. Eh delikado pa naman ngayon kasi me bird flu pa naman. Etong chicken na to me nakasamang ibon kasi, nagka-in-love-an sila kaya yun, na-pick-up nya yung flu. Eh yung lover nya daw manlalakbay, napadaan ba naman sa Iraq at nakita yung mga tinorture at binomba dun na mga tao. Hindi nya maintindihan daw, pero para daw yun sa 'democracy.' Ano daw ba yun? Ang kwento ng manok ko, wala naman talaga pandemic kasi kelangan ng 3 factors para magkaroon nito. kelangan daw me 1) mutated virus, 2) transmittable from birds-to-humans, tapos 3)sustainable ang human-to-human transmission at di lang 1st generation. Yung unang dalawa pa lang daw namimit na criteria. Naalala ko PR ko, baka nga exaggerated ito; isa sa unang ginagawa sa health campaigns e mag-apila sa fear, para ma-rouse ang mga tao sa complacency. Kwento pa ng manok, baka daw galing sa mga flying fox na kumain ng mangga na fertilized ng tae ng me sakit na baboy.
6. Ano'ng kwento sa news? Uso daw obesity
7. Ano'ng kwento sa TV show? Si Chris Angel, magician, nagpalibing. Ewan ko, alam mo na kasabihan: "Life is the funny thing that happened on the way to the cemetery."
8. Ano'ng rele nito?
Wala, ganito talaga sa ganitong burgis na kundisyunes, malamang me mas tragicomedy pa sa ilang lugar.
Posted at 07:34 pm by starsi
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Sunday, October 16, 2005
The Conveyor and global climate
The global ocean as we know it is not a steady-state pond, as winds slap it and waves roll on to beaches. But underneath the global ocean may be one of the planet's greatest secrets, pricking the conceit of the planet being named Earth, when it is the ocean that largely determines its fate.
An enigmatic process underneath the oceans may have a great impact on climate changes, especially in the coming decades.
The Great Ocean Conveyor (also called thermohaline circulation) may hold the key to understanding the cycle of ice ages.
The conventional theory about ice ages is that they come steadily every couple thousand years or so, with a long ice age followed by a longer warming period. Yet recent evidence shows sudden spikes of ice ages. The mystery points to the role of the Conveyor.
The Conveyor, as its name suggests, is an oceanic conveyor belt of about 100 Amazon rivers flowing at approximately 10 centimetres per second. Heated surface water from tropical regions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans move to higher latitudes, passing through the coasts of places like Britain. At a further point in the north, cooling and saltier water (glaciers retain fresh water) makes the water denser, suddenly forcing the water from the Conveyor to go down, producing what is called a sink hole. This sink hole of heavy water creates a vacuum which pulls the waters of the Conveyor northward. This cold water then gets back to the Conveyor. So in a way, the sink hole serves as the engine of the global oceanic conveyor belt.
Recent evidence from different areas show a threat to the Conveyor's flow. In an observation of certain shelled creatures in the Atlantic, a scientist showed a slowing down of the flow. At a certain speed for the Conveyor, nutrients would not have enough time to settle down on the floor along the Conveyor's path. So if it becomes slower, it would show in the mineral content of the shelled creatures. Basically, the more nutrients they absorb means the flow is slower for the Conveyor. Another indicator was seen in the lower salinity levels in the sinkhole.
Now what does this have to do with an ice age? Well, remember the warm currents brought in by the Conveyor to the Atlantic? This enables places like Britain to have good surfing, even as they have the same latitudes as places in Canada. Once the Conveyor stops, places like Britain would have colder winters.
What causes the slowing down, and why is it feared that an ice age will occur soon? While ice ages occurred in the past without human intervention, humans now produce a new factor on the global climate scene. That factor is an accelerated global warming caused by human activities.
One would think that global warming would put a dent in this theory of an ice age. After all, the standard interpretation is that with global warming will come the melting of the polar ice caps, and there will be wilder rains and an increase in the water level. But the counterintuitive impact on the climate is this: general warming results in regional ice ages (in Northwestern Europe) along with drought regions. See, what happens is that with global warming, glaciers are melting, supplying more freshwater to the sinkhole, reducing its salinity, in turn reducing the downward flow of water from the Conveyor. Once the Conveyor ceases to flow, areas in Northwest Europe would stop receiving the warm waters passing through them, resulting in colder temperatures.
Moreover, climate changes brought about by global warming include more rains and typhoons. We're seeing the consequences now, in the tsunami, hurricane or typhoons occuring in different parts of the world. This rainwater adds more freshwater to places like Siberian rivers that reach the sinkhole.
Computer simulations show that the earliest cold front could come in the next twenty years, affecting Nortwest Europe. That's the worst-case scenario. Nevertheless, the dire impact should be taken seriously. For British people, it could mean nothing less than the dissolution of the British way of life. Simulations also show that areas like Central America could experience drought, drying up large areas of rainforests. The effects are nothing less than cataclysmic. Global warming has to be addressed.
Posted at 09:28 pm by starsi
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Saturday, October 15, 2005
Harbour Bridge
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Private investment, public benefit. At least that's the theory behind public-private projects. But such public-private collaboration is increasingly being discredited, recently highlighted by public outrage over the Sydney Harbour cross-tunnel, according to ABC News Affairs. Motorists are angry by the traffic gridlock and the high toll fees to cross the tunnel. ABC and other media indict the public-private schemes that have been disadvantageous to the public.
Posted at 12:24 pm by starsi
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The Howard government is under fire from church leaders and unions for the proposed industrial relations changes. The Catholic Church and Sydney's Anglican Church Archbishop condemn the new workplace plans, saying it would affect family weekends and would turn workers into robots.
A showdown between the Federal (Liberal) and State Governments (Labour) may be in the offing in the coming months. Despite Labour's complicity in some of Howard's policies - Labour was instrumental in watered-down versions of government bills - like the Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU), the Iraq war and anti-terror laws, it is being pushed by unions, families and the rest of the public to fight this one out. Even mainstream media is critical of the policies; concern about the fate of wages, of workers and their families cannot be offset by the A$100 million set aside for the new policy's publicity.
Posted at 02:23 pm by starsi
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Sunday, October 09, 2005
Canberra has now unveiled advertisements for flexible workplace arrangements, purportedly to make the system simpler and fairer. Unions say this will make it easier for employers to fire employees and would do away with overtime penalties and other benefits. The Federal government says it will make it easier for every individual employee to negotiate working conditions. Yeah, right.
Under the present collective negotiation arrangements, workers still have a long way to advance benefits. Employers are resorting more to contractualization. In the new arrangements, it's not as if individual employees would find it easier to approach their employer to ask for fairer arrangements. It's nothing less than an assault on unionism and workers in general in favour of profit-making. Again, the Liberals are so class conscious. Unions and Labour, in the meanwhile, seem unable to rouse out of a debilitating stupor, their large mobilizations notwithstanding. In the next few years, Australia could go the way of the US, with its minimal wages regime and other worse conditions for workers. The trend of a growing gap in incomes seen in such a society could happen to the Land Down Under.
Posted at 06:07 pm by starsi
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Saturday, October 08, 2005
Imposing the hegemony of silence
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Ok, enough of the accentuation of the positives; that should be given. Nothing to solve there. Back to happenings we can help improve.
More waves of political killings and repression are happening in the Philippines. In the past couple of weeks, people who are fighting for more decent living conditions are being murdered with impunity. A union leader working for the multinational company Nestle (hmm, a best friend I once had now works here as a manager) was murdered just a day after the 33rd commemoration of Martial Law. Farmers are being picked one by one in Central Luzon, right where the notorious general Palparan is deployed.
These human rights violators learn nothing from history. Every spill of blood waters and provides nutrients for renewed and new struggles. Every death adds to the growing demand for justice.
Voicing of grievances is being repressed. On 'presidential' orders, rallies are being violently dispersed, after the scrapping of maximum tolerance. People should not tolerate it. Whatever happened to civil liberties? Take, for example, the October 6 dispersal at Mendiola. And the sad/funny thing about it is the one agency supposed to be looking out for fundamental rights, the Commission on Human Rights, is so stupid, it blames both the ralliers and the police! It should be renamed the Commission of Human Rights Violations.
Another psychological atrocity: I just saw the video clips from a news channel, and the caption described how the ralliers were evidently fighting the police. It's not as if the ralliers didn't have the right to defend themselves, but the bloody clips were showing the violence being perpetrated by the police! Stating a potential bias in knowing one of those victims, a woman named Fudge, but how can one interpret a phalanx of police surrounding one exposed lady as disadvantageous to them? This is the tragedy of corporate-controlled media. It's been happening for a while, no surprise about media filters. Yet it's becoming more blatant. Before, there was a semblance of objectivity. People should become more aware of the corporate merger of this one TV station and one of the most respected Philippine papers. Before the right-wing came to power in the US, and elsewhere, the road was paved for them by compliant media agencies.
I think college-time friends also work in the particular TV show, yet I suppose they're not decision-makers.
While the violent dispersals may be unimaginable to some people, they are actually happening. Aussies may remember the riots in Macquarie Fields a few months ago and how police were admonished for using excessive violence. For someone like me who'd seen dispersals, it didn't look so violent then. Yet any civil society would be horrified. In the Phils, practices like torture and violent dispersals are sanctioned with glee. We're good students of the US model. Why, they taught us such delights such as the 'water cure' and the coursing of electricity through fingertips. And it's not to mutate the tortured into superpowered Electro's (the comics character, duh). The Philippines now even has pending laws patterned after the USA Patriot Act. Wanna know what the Philippine parrot sounds like? In an irritating voice, it says "Hello Garci?"
***
Worries about bird flu and skyrocketing oil prices abound. I hope I have time later to look into it, but lots of indicators point to oil demand exceeding supply. Sources may be reaching what is called 'peak oil,' that is, the point at which oil can be extracted maximally. Oil reserves may last for a couple more generations, yet they will be harder and harder to get; the energy expended to extract oil would be greater. This could be where the im/balance of power will be fought in the coming years. We're already seeing that in the foreign policies of the giant hegemoth (hegemonic behemoth), the US. Hopefully can focus on this later, as it is nothing less than trying to discern the fate of the world. Naks! Too easy:)
Posted at 11:24 pm by starsi
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Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Medical discovery uneclipsed
Aussies Robin Warren and Barry Marshall win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work showing that stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria and not stress, allowing cures through antibiotics.
A lunar eclipse seen in some parts of the world.
Posted at 05:26 pm by starsi
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