http://www.kreps.org/blog/index.php Occasional notes catching my breath on the path... en david@kreps.org Copyright 2010 Pivot Pivot - 1.40.6: 'Dreadwind' Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:05:03 +0000 60 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=81 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=81#comm OK so Copenhagen was a failure, but there's hope at least of some grassroots reaction to get on with it anyway. And then all eyes turn to Haiti. And yes despite silly actors queering the pitch for serious debate there is considerable support for the idea that that global warming science links climate change with increased incidence of earthquakes. At this crucial time of fundamental change, our nerve fails at our peril. ]]> 81@http://kreps.org/blog/pivot/ default Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:12:00 -0000 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=80 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=80#comm We seem to be discovering, at the same time as we warm up our own planet to dangerous levels, that billions of years of ago Mars was possibly as habitable as the Earth used to be till we started mucking about with it. It suggests that there is evidence 'next door' in the solar system of the dangers of climate change. This at a time when, as a community, the human race are making momentous decisions about our long term future. And yet some are arguing for us to abandon the Earth and try and set up home on Mars!
Let us hope that as the coming weeks unfold, the people on whose watch this crucial time has fallen have their feet on the ground - for all our sakes. ]]> 80@http://kreps.org/blog/pivot/ default Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:07:00 -0000 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=79 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=79#comm Incensed, along with countless others, at the article published by the Daily Mail, airing Jan Moir's homophobic bile, I complained the PCC. There was a special link on the PCC's website to complain about Jan Moir, clearly reflecting the huge reaction. The reply I got is this:
"Dear David Kreps
Thank you for sending us your complaint about the Daily Mail article on the subject of the death of Stephen Gately. We have received numerous complaints about this matter.
I should first make clear that the Commission generally requires the involvement of directly affected parties before it can begin an investigation into an article. On this occasion, it may be a matter for the family of Mr Gately to raise a complaint about how his death has been treated by the Daily Mail. I can inform you that we have made ourselves available to the family and Mr Gately's bandmates, in order that they can use our services if they wish.
We require the direct involvement of affected parties because the PCC process can have a public outcome and it would be discourteous for the Commission to publish information relating to individuals without their knowledge or consent. Indeed, doing so might unwittingly add to any intrusion. Additionally, one of the PCC's roles is dispute resolution, and we would need contact with the affected party in order to determine what would be an acceptable means of settling a complaint.
On initial examination, it would appear that you are, therefore, a third party to the complaint, and wemay not be able to pursue your concerns further. However, if you feel that your complaint touches on claims that do not relate directly to Mr Gately or his family, please let us know, making clear how they raise a breach of the Code of Practice. If you feel that the Commission should waive its third party rules, please make clear why you believe this.

Press Complaints Commission"

So, the Press Complaints Commission, created by the Press, for the Press. I, for one, am NOT impressed. ]]> 79@http://kreps.org/blog/pivot/ default Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:00:00 -0000 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=78 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=78#comm The world's climate scientists are warning that in our lifetimes, there could be five degrees of warming. Such a change would make our planet uninhabitable for the 6 billion people now populating our world. Very few of us would be able to survive. This December, there is a chance for us to spare ourselves this fate. This petition urges the Prime Minister to ensure that in Copenhagen, when creating a replacement for the Kyoto Treaty, the world resolves to make substantial and binding cuts to keep our global ecosystem from collapse. The EU Market mechanism of carbon trading, and so many other initiatives, have proven to be missed opportunities. Copenhagen could well be our last chance, a final opportunity, NOT to be missed. So please, Make Copenhagen Count.


http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/last-chance/ ]]> 78@http://kreps.org/blog/pivot/ default Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:51:00 -0000 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=77 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=77#comm Investigating reports of the murder and torture of gay men in Iraq, (BBC News) found that some gays found Saddam Hussein's dictatorship preferable to the threat of violence they face today.

Were we really conned by our leaders into prosecuting a disastrous war in a far-flung land to enable such murderous bigotry to prevail? Is this what the brave young men and women of this country fought - and died - for? I think not. I am incensed!

OK, so it is a very partisan straw to break the camel's back of my silence, in this blog, on the prosecution of Western wars in the Middle East, but we are all human, and every one of us who has despaired of the lies of the great and the good that brought about such wars has done so in some way or other in connection to a personally held belief or connection, and I am no different. I voted for Blair in 1997, and, like most, lost faith in him when he took us to war. He did so, I still like to believe, out of some religious conviction. Yet the man he followed - Bush - did so out of nothing less than greed. As Hollywood put it, "There's no such thing as Shia and Shiite, Christian and Muslim, West and East..... there's only the haves and the have nots." [spoken by an oil tycoon Senator in the Mark Wahlberg movie, 'Shooter']. Bush was working for his own clan, the 'haves', regardless of what Blair thought was going on. And quite clearly so was Brown, regardless of what froth from the orgy of profit he stoked that he has tried to dole out to the needy in overcomplicated credits.

I supported the war against the Taliban, [murderous homophobes that they are,] for a while, against my better nature, because of their practice of knocking stone walls upon gay men - their customary capital punishment for gay Afghans, amongst their many other crimes.

The Iraq war by contrast has been a fiasco from the start, and for this to be what we have freed the Iraqi people to do - well I am disgusted. Bring back Saddam Hussein! ]]> 77@http://kreps.org/blog/pivot/ default Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:23:00 -0000 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=76 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=76#comm

The visitor centre at Humboldts National Park includes an exhibit on the Lolangkok Sinkyone tribe who lived here before the coming of the white man. There is no history. This is pre-history, with utensils, tools, beads etc. The difference from any other exhibit of Neolithic life is that this exhibit includes photographs – 19th century ones, but photographs nonetheless – of the people themselves. As someone used to seeing such exhibits all over Europe, where there is, it must be said, much more information, much more detail, much more understanding of peoples several thousand years dead, this exhibit was quite eerie, quite odd – more like a tour of Auschwitz with all the shoes and spectacles and human hair. “Here lie the remains of a people decimated by genocide,” was the information plaque I would like to have put on this exhibit. It is sad, but there really does seem to be two Americas. The one I met in San Francisco was warm, open, friendly, liberal. The other – all too often the tourist kind we in Europe have learnt to hate – is simply ignorant, arrogant, and loud. There were several of the latter in the Visitors’ Centre, and I was glad to leave sooner rather than later.

The hostess at the Myers Inn, however, told me a wonderful story of how the logging company wanted to take out a whole part of the forest, and all the womens’ clubs and institutes in the region got together to protest, and raise the cash to buy this part of the forest, and grant it to the National Park. This area is now called the Womens’ Grove, and includes the mysterious Albino Tree, which, according to my hostess, was known by the ‘Indians’ as the ‘Spirit of the Forest’. I love this other America. I can’t say I got much spiritual communication from this genetic deformity, however – it was simply a very unusual brilliant white fir tree – an natural oddity.















Further up the Avenue of the Giants there are indeed some really big trees – the Tall Tree, at 360ft apparently something like the ninth tallest living thing on Earth (the others are in Redwood National Forest, to the north, and in China, where the other remaining Redwoods live.) Walking alone in this part of the forest one really gets a sense of the ancient woods of the world – something almost pre-mammalian, let alone pre-human, ancient, almost other-worldly.

At last, on the very border with Oregon, I came to my last stop – the oceanfront guest house, Casa Rubio, where I had a delightful room, with my own door out onto the beautiful garden, my own deckchairs from which to catch the late afternoon sun, and my own view of the rolling white chargers of the Pacific. This was a truly special place to end my holiday, walking along the beach collecting pebbles and driftwood, sunning myself in my little part of the garden above the beach, strolling down the beach later to enjoy a really excellent dinner at the Nautical Inn, with a fine bottle of Russian River Chardonnay from the Napa Valley, and enjoy the sunset from my table.

]]> 76@http://kreps.org/blog/pivot/ default Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:56:00 -0000 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=75 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=75#comm I stopped overnight, some two hours north of Tuoloumne Grove and the Yoesemite National Park, at the Hanford House Inn, in Sutter Creek. This was a lovely guest house – plush luxury for two-thirds the price of Wawona – about the same standard as the Marriot in San Francisco, for half the price. Sutter Creek is one of several old Gold towns on Route 49 north from Yosemite, but its tourist industry has preserved much of the charm of the old west town better than most. Well worth a visit, though I didn’t have time to go down the Gold Mine that looked curiously inviting!

Driving up the Gold trail today I discovered that the heat of northern California in August really is bigger down in the valleys than it is up in the high peaks of Yosemite. Past Sacramento and on up to Clear Lake I followed the suggestion of one of the tourist magazines to stop for lunch at Lakeport. This, however, proved very disappointing – much more run down than Sutter Creek, and the only lakeside eatery I could see was part of a Motel that didn’t look very inviting for casual drop-in guests. I skipped lunch and drove on, choosing instead to take the scenic route further on Route 20 west to the coast, in order to take the old Route 1 north to the Humboldts National Park. I’m glad I did. A late picnic lunch at a little campsite in the heart of the Jackson Demonstration National Forest proved very peaceful – indeed the whole forest was cool and peaceful, on the road west, and when I finally reached Route 1 the scenic views of the Pacific were well worth it.

Arriving in Redwood country in the early evening, the first tourist trap to greet one is the Legett drive through tree, which was frankly exploitative, and clearly hacked with a chainsaw – and that not so long ago. But soon after the Avenue of the Giants proper begins, and the magnificence, the majesty of these enormous trees, proves truly awe inspiring. My room at the Myers Inn in Myers Flat was comfortable, the hostess fabulously enthusiastic, informative and helpful, and after a rather stodgy meal at the only restaurant for 10miles, I spent an hour simply wandering among the trees, in the cool of the evening, thankfully all to myself. It was quiet, peaceful, like a cathedral closed to the public, cool, and yet very, very much alive, albeit in a slow, ponderous, very slowly pulsing way. These Sequoia trees – the ones in Yosemite, these clinging to the northern Californian coast, and a third group in the wilds of China – are all that is left, according to the fossil record, of a Redwood forest that once covered almost the entire planet.

]]> 75@http://kreps.org/blog/pivot/ default Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:48:00 -0000 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=50 http://www.kreps.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=50#comm Without honour there is no justice
Without justice there is no peace and without peace there is no love
So without love there is no truth ]]> 50@http://kreps.org/blog/pivot/ linkdump Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:47:00 -0000