Sunday, 4 July 2010
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Indigenous Ecuadoreans Share Oil Spill Experiences with Gulf Coast Communities
Last night, four Indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador arrived in very steamy New Orleans to share their experiences with the long-term impacts of oil pollution with communities dealing with the tragic BP oil spill that continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico.
As the Chevron in Ecuador blog reports:
Four very different people arrived last night in New Orleans on a late flight from Quito, Ecuador. One is a quiet but fierce 71-year-old grandmother with 27 grandchildren. Another is a gentle, soft-spoken man who is a leader of his Indigenous tribe from the Amazon. Another is a serious and sober man who has won worldwide acclaim for his unique work. And the last is another Indigenous man from the Amazon, who is more sharp-tongued than his traveling companion, but shares his good humor and dignified demeanor.
The four Indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest are on the front-lines of the nearly two-decade struggle to demand oil giant Chevron clean up the massive contaminate the company left behind in their lands. I’ve written profiles of two of them here before; Cofan leader Emergildo Criollo was in the U.S. in early March to help deliver 350,000 letters of support for cleanup in Ecuador to new Chevron CEO John Watson and campesina activist Mariana Jimenez was in Houston just a few weeks ago to speak out at Chevron’s 2010 shareholder meeting.
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Much as Big Oil would like us to believe they are all operating within the law and to the benefit of the people, time and time again we are made aware of the enormous sacrifices made by communities around the globe in order to feed the world's obssession with oil and its products. This might be acceptable if there were no serious calamities to speak about, but instead, like broken records the same tune is dished out to our increasingly benumbed aural orifices on the quality of technology utilised by the industry. Unfortunately, there is no quality about these industries' technologies, and the short road for the fast buck is the only road to be travelled, the profits speak for themselves. I will reiterate, management and shareholders must be held accountable for the travesties that have occurred in their search for greater profits. There can be no profits when people are denied their homes, the health of their families and the destruction of their vital environments. It is time for the message to get through, that ecoterrorism as practised by Big Oil is driving the planet to extinction, and full compensation to the people affected and full regeneration of the environments decapitated is essential. To label management and shareholders as just bloody-minded and greedy is too generous, these people are daily murdering people by their actions for a fistfull of dollars, and should be facing court for their deadly, daily malevolence...........beeden
David Bowie details Station To Station reissue
It took a bit longer than expected, but David Bowie is finally ready to relive his iconic 1976 album Station To Station.
The reissue will be available in two different configurations, both of which will be highlighted by a remastering of the album and a live recording of Bowie’s March 23rd, 1976 concert at the Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York.
The three-disc “Special Edition” version will also include a 16-page booklet with sleevenotes by Cameron Crowe, chronology by Kevin Cann, three period photocards of Bowie in various settings, and a digitial download code. The digital download will feature the same audio content as the psychical release, but with the added bonus of an unedited alternative mix of “Panic In Detroit” that clocks in at 13:09, according to an issued press release.
The five-disc “Deluxe Edition” version will include all of the above as well as 1985 master of the album, a five-track EP featuring Station to Station single edits, a DVD, copies of both the album and the live recording on 12″ heavyweight vinyl, and facsimile copies of David Bowie’s On Stage 1976 press kit folder and 1976 Fan Club Folder.
Prices for the two releases have not yet been disclosed, but both will hit stores on September 20th via EMI. In the meantime, check out the exact specifics for each configuration
Why Did It Take a Rock Magazine to Report the Military's Total Disaster in Afghanistan?
The controversial Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal didn't just expose poor judgment on the part of the U.S. military's key leader in Afghanistan. It also illustrates one of the most persistent shortcomings of American corporate journalism.
It's no surprise that a protracted and fruitless military conflict has produced backbiting at the highest levels. That's the expected result of a flawed policy. But it is -- or should be -- curious that David Hastings's piece appeared in a rock magazine whose cover photograph features a G-strung Lady Gaga with automatic rifles jutting out of her brassiere.
Anyone in the Pentagon press corps could have written Hastings' story. So why did it appear in Rolling Stone?
First, let's give Rolling Stone its due; it's not an ordinary music magazine. Before launching it in 1967, Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason worked at Ramparts magazine, the legendary San Francisco muckraker that ran high-impact investigative stories on Vietnam and the CIA. Despite its healthy circulation, Ramparts lost money and closed its doors for good in 1975. Then as now, no "business model" (i.e., reliable advertising base) existed for political magazines, left or right.
Wenner focused instead on music and the counterculture, but he also hired Hunter S. Thompson as his national affairs correspondent. One result was Thompson's Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72, praised as the least factual and most accurate account of that year's presidential race.
In 2009, Rolling Stone revived the Gonzo tradition by running Matt Taibbi's critical profile of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street firm with close ties to the Treasury Department. This was another example of an RS irregular scooping beat writers on a huge story. Taibbi's piece drew heat, but most of his critics begrudgingly conceded that his main point was correct.
Hastings has likewise taken criticism from the Pentagon press corps. Lara Logan, CBS's chief foreign affairs correspondent, appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources this weekend to cast aspersions on his methods, to defend the Pentagon beat writers, and to lament the article's effect on General McChrystal's career. "Michael Hastings has never served his country the way McChrystal has," she claimed (as if critical reporting isn't exactly the service journalists are supposed to provide). Responding to Hastings' point that beat writers wrote glowingly about McChrystal to ensure future access to him, Logan labeled that view "insulting and arrogant."...
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Peter Richardson @'AlterNet'
Friday, 2 July 2010
Secret millions grease World Cup bid
Two controversial European lobbyists hired to help bring the football World Cup to Australia stand to receive up to $11.37 million in fees and bonuses - one-quarter of the taxpayer-funded bid - according to secret Football Federation Australia files.
The files include a spreadsheet that suggests the federal government was not told specific details about how taxpayers' money was to be spent on the lobbyists and grants to overseas football bodies headed by powerful FIFA officials.
An investigation into Australia's World Cup bid can also reveal how the FFA:
Bought Paspaley pearl necklaces for the wives of many of the 24 FIFA executive committee members who in December will decide which countries will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Pearl cufflinks were also handed out, taking the total value of the gifts to an estimated $50,000.
Offered an all-expenses paid trip to the South American FIFA executive committee member Rafael Salguero and his wife to Australia this year to mark his birthday.
Paid for a Caribbean football team linked to the FIFA vice-president Jack Warner to travel to Cyprus last year.
An FFA document contains two budget balance sheets outlining how the $45.6 million World Cup bid government grant is to be spent.
One balance sheet is for the FFA only and is headed ''bid budget management reporting''. The other is for the government and is less detailed and titled ''bid budget government reporting''.
The spreadsheets from mid-2009 suggest the FFA chose not to disclose to the government specific details of the payment structure for its two consultants, Peter Hargitay and Fedor Radmann.
The FFA said its accounting practices were exemplary and independently audited.
''The FFA is completely transparent in its dealings with government and has provided all information regarding the bidding process requested by government,'' said the FFA chief executive, Ben Buckley, who also declined to reveal publicly what Mr Hargitay and Mr Radmann were being paid.
However, confidential documents show the pair - who have been hired to direct Australia's lobbying of FIFA officials - stand to make $11.37 million if Australia wins the right to host the 2022 World Cup. Australia this month withdrew its bid for the 2018 cup.
Mr Hargitay is being paid $1.35 million by the FFA and has a success fee of $2.54 million. Mr Radmann's work for the Australian bid, which the FFA has tried to keep confidential, will earn him up to $3.49 million through a German consulting firm. He is also entitled to a success fee of $3.99 million.
As part of a separate contract, the FFA is paying Mr Radmann's business partner Andreas Abold an additional $3 million for World Cup "bid book production and bid advice''. It is unclear if Mr Abold will also receive some of Mr Radmann's fees.
The mid-2009 spreadsheet also suggests the government was not told details about plans to give $6.5 million in taxpayer funds to football bodies in Africa, Asia and Oceania. The document says the FFA's bid strategy will give large grants to "international football development''.
The government was told by the FFA that $11.37 million was going to ''consultants/agencies''. But the FFA prepared a more detailed spreadsheet for its own executives, specifically outlining how this figure would be divided into fees and bonuses for Mr Hargitay and Mr Radmann's international ''advocacy'' campaign.
Mr Buckley said: ''Consistent with standard management practice, FFA maintains a more comprehensive breakdown of expenditure and forecasts for day-to-day internal management purposes and accountability.''
The necklaces and cufflinks were given at a dinner in 2008 for FIFA officials at the home of the FFA chairman, Frank Lowy, after Australia had announced its World Cup intentions but before formal bidding had begun.
Mr Buckley said: ''It is a widely accepted, common practice, among governments, many business and sporting organisations to provide symbolic gifts, to visiting international delegations.''
FIFA allows "occasional gifts'' of ''symbolic or incidental value''.
It is believed the FFA funded the Trinidad and Tobago under-20 team's travel to Cyprus at the request of Mr Hargitay, who is close to the Caribbean football chief and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.
In several FFA documents Mr Hargitay refers to his strong ties to "Jack''. Mr Warner has been repeatedly accused of using FIFA status to enrich himself and his family. After an investigation in 2006 FIFA ordered him to repay $US1 million his family earned through the improper sale of World Cup tickets.
Last October Mr Warner returned a $435 luxury handbag - one of 24 given to the wives of FIFA executive committee members - from the English bid team, after media reports in Britain.
FFA documents make it clear that Mr Radmann and Mr Hargitay are managing the international "strategy" on behalf of the Australian bid team. They boast ties to some of football's most powerful men, including Mr Warner, the former German player Franz Beckenbauer and the FIFA president, Sepp Blatter.
Mr Radmann and Mr Hargitay have colourful histories. Mr Radmann, who has worked as an aide to Beckenbauer, has been implicated in:
A scheme in 2000 to allegedly offer financial inducements to key FIFA executive committee officials to get them to back Germany's bid to host the 2006 World Cup.
Conflict of interest scandals in 2003 that forced him to stand down from Germany's cup organising committee.
It is understood Australian bid officials sought to minimise any publicity about Mr Radmann's involvement in the bid.
Mr Hargitay's past includes being acquitted twice for cocaine trafficking in the 1990s and his alleged link to a securities fraud in Hungary, according to US court documents from 1997.
Mr Hargitay also boasts about daily meetings in South Africa with the Asian Football Confederation boss, Mohammad bin Hamman.
Documents detail Mr Hargitay's role arranging meetings between overseas football officials and Mr Lowy and Australian politicians. The former prime minister Kevin Rudd met Mr Warner in his Trinidad and Tobago home in November.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Ageing, the agency that provided the World Cup grant, said yesterday that the FFA briefed it regularly on its spending.
Asked about differing bid balance sheets, the spokeswoman said: ''The detailed internal accounting systems of the FFA are a matter for them.''
She said the department was aware of the backgrounds of Mr Hargitay and Mr Radmann. It also had no evidence of any breaches of the public service guidelines that cover the FFA's consultants.
All FFA bid team employees and lobbyists must comply with Australia's Public Service code of conduct and act in an honest and ethical manner. The spokeswoman said: ''The FFA has assured the[ department] taskforce that this provision is being adhered to. If evidence contrary to this was provided it would be thoroughly investigated as would any alleged breach of the funding agreement.''
Nick McKenzie & Richard Baker @'SMH'
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