WTO PROTEST PICS

the following is a must-read article:

Kong Yee Sai Mau: The Battle of Hong Kong

Too bad Bolivia doesn’t have lots of oil….

It’s funny how the Bolivian election is reported…. in Canada, the headlines from the CBC headline read “Bolivians Elect first Indigineous President” whereas the New York Times Headline read: “Bolivians Elect a President who Supports Coca Farming”...nice that they help paint him in a negative light right off the bat… congrats.

Good point alpine…I’ve seen him described as coco advocate and Anti US Leftist just today. The propaganda war against Evo started a long time ago in this country, and will intensify in the months to come.

Actually Bolivia has a sizeable amount of oil and natural gas
http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/2005/03/bolivias-uprisings-its-oil-stupid.html

The tusk of the narwhal, often mistaken for a unicorn horn in earlier centuries, has mystified naturalists since the shy Arctic whales were first introduced to foreign explorers. A dental expert has learned how narwhals use their amazing horns – to detect minute temperature, pressure and particle gradients with an intense concentration of nerve endings near the surface of the giant spiral tooth. “This whale is intent on understanding its environment,” lead researcher Martin Nweeia told The New York Times. He translated the Inuit name for the whale as “the one that is good at curving itself to the sky.”

That’s so fucking cool. Every other theory about why they had the horns were absolutely retarded. One was that they would spear fish with them…uh, ok, then how did they get them into their mouths?

Under the Endangered Species Act, the government cannot jeopardize populations of a ‘threatened’ species by destroying habitat

Not yet…

Yeah, Morales is a problem on Washington’s agenda for more than one reason. He plans to renegotiate natural gas contracts, and if the companies won’t meet his demands he may be able to nationalize the industry. I haven’t read a lot about that issue, though.

“Morales also has vowed to reverse the nation’s free-market policies and get better deals for Bolivia’s vast natural gas reserves. Rival candidates acknowledged that Morales’ lead – even if he fails to get the 50 percent needed to win outright – makes it all but a formality that congress will confirm him as president when it meets in mid-January. The process would involve some coalition building and likely be a moderating influence on Morales, even with his unexpectedly wide margin. “ – Forbes

I didn’t budget enough time to finish this week’s roundup, but here’s another item that should’ve made the cut:

Mogadishu U. ranks in top 100
“Eight years after Mogadishu University opened, hundreds of new students have signed up for classes, keen to get a degree despite living in one of the world’s most dangerous cities. .. “Students and lecturers are sometimes forced to lie down in between lectures and even during examinations as rival factions exchange fire,” said one of the school’s founders, Hussein Iman. “Once a ceasefire is agreed, then students and lecturers carry on.” A group of audacious lecturers from Somalia, India and Kenya teach 3,000 students at the university — three semi-completed buildings, comprising classrooms, a library and living quarters in a sparsely populated area of north Mogadishu. Around 800 new students joined the university this year.” – Reuters Alertnet

In a dismal new report on Somalia’s “state of utter failure,” The Economist“:http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5313559 acknowledges the country’s amazing tenacity and hope for renewal:

“So the tentative success of its latest “transitional government,”: led by a widely disliked but tough former warlord called Abdullah Yusuf, has to be an encouraging sign. There have been no fewer than 13 previous attempts to form a government since 1991: Mr Yusuf’s, backed by the European Union, is number 14. He may still be confined to Jowhar, unable to move to, let alone exert any influence over, the ostensible capital, Mogadishu, but his government is already the longest-lasting of all of them.

“If peace holds for a little longer, Mr Yusuf may start to look a little more like the real thing. Parliament might even meet, and proper elections be held in 2009. .. The main hope for peace lies in the northern parts of Somalia: in Somaliland, which used to be a separate British colony, and is now relatively peaceful and well governed, and in Puntland. Somaliland has in effect seceded from Somalia, and yearns for full legal independence. Puntland, Mr Yusuf’s own stronghold, which was the northern part of Italian Somaliland, is now pretty autonomous, but its leaders prefer to see Puntland as a building block for a future federal Somalia.”

Thanks Stim, wasn’t aware of that. Hope he manages to make it through his term alright!