Democracy & Civics

Corruption Roils Alaska Politics

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With two oil executives headed to jail for giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal payments and “benefits” to prominent state politicians, Alaskans can look forward to plenty of court-watching in the months to come. According to The Christian Science Monitor, the appetite in Alaska extends beyond courtroom voyeurism, however, thanks to an array of oil-related issues — from corrosion in pipelines to disputes over the Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement. The issue came to a head on November 16, when Alaska’s legislature passed, with the support of Republican Governor Sarah Palin, a dramatic revision of the state’s “tainted” oil tax laws. The new oil-tax bill is expected to bring in an additional $1.5 billion in revenue to the state, closes loopholes, and limits investment credits and deductions. One industry official decried the new bill as a “feeding frenzy,” reports the Monitor, which also notes that ConocoPhillips canceled a $300 million refinery-upgrade project in response to the law.

Democracy & Civics

A Man, a Dam and a Salmon Plan

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A federal judge has rebuked the government for its latest plan to restore salmon runs along the Columbia and Snake rivers. According to The Oregonian, U.S. District Judge James A. Redden has declared that the government plan, like two previous plans he also rejected, won’t live up to the Endangered Species Act because it does not provide reasonable options for improving salmon habitat. The newspaper also writes that the judge has expressed doubts about the government’s “salmon science” — a view shared by Oregon state officials — and may convene his own panel of experts on the topic. By calling for officials to including the removal of several dams in their plan, Redden has positioned himself squarely against the Bush administration, which has “flatly refused” to consider any dam removals. If no plan is approved, Redden could declare all dam operations illegal, which would affect everything from irrigation to hydropower throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Economy

Oil Industry's Amazon Frontier

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Economic development and ecological conservation are once again at odds in the Amazon, where a remote region thick with rare species — and indigenous peoples in “voluntary isolation” — has been opened to extensive oil and gas development. Environment News Service reports that Brazil’s Petrobras, the U.S. firm Barrett Resources and Spain’s Repsol have all been approved to develop vast territories in the Upper Amazon Basin, in the border regions of Peru and Ecuador. Activists say that 73 percent of the Peruvian Amazon “is now or soon will be” open to oil development, up from 13 percent in 2004. Source:
“Oil Developers Permitted to Penetrate Pristine Upper Amazon”
Environment News Service, December 4, 2007

Nation

Here Comes the Flood

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Heavy weather the world over is raising concerns about the potential of a flood-prone future, and what that means for vulnerable populations. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, 24-foot waves closed shipping channels, and 13 inches of rain in one 30-hour period shut down commerce, damaged streets and highways, and brought down trees and power lines, reports Bloomberg.com. Five days of continuous rain have had a catastrophic effect in Algeria, causing a house and a bridge to collapse as rivers burst their banks and floodwaters surged through suburban Algiers. At least eleven lives were lost, reports Agence France-Presse. Meanwhile, a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that 40 million people worldwide are vulnerable to similar catastrophes, as storms and rising oceans threaten 136 port cities around the world.

Democracy & Civics

Data Snooping and its Discontents

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The limits of data privacy are being tested in Western democracies, as governments and corporations push for greater access with sometimes unexpected results. British authorities demanded that a group of about 30 animal rights activists hand over the keys to encrypted files stored on computers that had been seized by police. The demand is the first of its kind under a recently enacted measure of the nation’s controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, reports BBC News. The provision of the law that deals with decryption was written to combat pedophiles and terrorists, although many critics say it is flawed and possibly even unenforceable. One of the animal rights activists, choosing to remain anonymous, told the BBC, “Even if they hate our guts my personal view is that this is a matter where there’s great issues of public interest that should be being talked about.”

World

The Plagues of Uganda

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Concurrent outbreaks of several diseases in Uganda have health officials there on the defensive, reports The Monitor in Kampala. Even as the country struggles to contain an ebola outbreak, new cases of meningitis, cholera, bubonic plague and yellow fever are turning up in different parts of the country. Suspected cases of hepatitis have also been reported. Some of the diseases have claimed dozens of lives so far, and thousands have been infected. According to the newspaper, simple behavior changes among individuals and authorities can help prevent disease transmission.

Economy

Dollar's Drop a Drag for Americans Abroad

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The good fortune of the Euro — not to mention the Czech Crown — makes for dismal tidings for American expatriates and their European colleagues paid in dollars. According to The Prague Post, employees of American firms and institutions in the Czech Republic have taken the equivalent of a 15 percent salary cut as a result of the dollar’s devaluation. U.S.-based tax-exempt organizations in the Czech Republic, with their fundraising base back home, are also taking a hit. One economist told the Post that the dollar’s fall could eventually drag down foreign currencies with it, as the American market for imported consumer goods diminishes. Source:
“Free fall: Expats paid in dollars watch their salaries drop”
The Prague Post, November 28, 2007

Economy

Whither Cuba's Green Thumb?

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Floods, storms, drought and heat, plus an array of economic concerns, are taking their toll on Cuban agriculture. Inter Press Service reports that 75 percent of Cuban land used for crops and grazing has fallen into disuse, even as produce prices increase and the variety of crops available diminishes. Raul Castro, who heads the Communist government there, said earlier this year that “structural and conceptual changes will have to be introduced” to address the situation. Armando Nova, a Cuban academic in Havana, told Inter Press that increased local control over farming decisions, profitmaking, and allowing farmers to sell their crops directly at local markets, rather than mandatory sales to state agencies, are all necessary to boost cultivation and food production. Source:
“AGRICULTURE-CUBA: Waiting for Announced Reforms”
Inter Press Service, December 5, 2007

Democracy & Civics

Sex on the Beach and Birds in Hand? Kenya's Tourist Trap

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Miles of shoreline, coastal forests, mountains, plains and the continent-spanning Great Rift Valley all make Kenya a world-class tourist destination. But the complications of this burgeoning trade are abundant. Kenya’s beach towns, notorious for an illicit sex industry involving thousands of regional girls and boys, now have a new wrinkle to consider — older caucasian women seeking uncomplicated dalliances with young African men. Critics say the practice revives a colonial past of white women “serviced” by “black minions,” reports the Mail & Guardian of South Africa, and also note the health risks of casual encounters in a nation with a high incidence of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. One British woman told the newspaper that the “social arrangement” is nothing more than a role reversal on older men wining and dining younger women, though a hotel manager said the liaisons, while legal, are “unwholesome.”

Democracy & Civics

Cracks at the Seams? China Bolsters Three Gorges

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Everything about the Three Gorges Dam seems larger than life. It was built at a cost of $15.6 billion, caused the relocation of 1.2 million people, and has 19 hydropower generators that are expected by 2009 to produce 84.7 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year. And now, with increasing reports of landslides and environmental problems around the dam, thoughts of a larger-than-life disaster have come to the fore. China’s project director for the dam, Wang Xiaofeng, said in a press conference that the current environmental problems caused by the dam have been anticipated and planned for. But concerns persist about a variety of issues, including water pollution, and the safety of the surrounding landscape
According to the International Herald Tribune, the latest press conference contrasts with a forum in the city of Wuhan in September in which state officials warned of “catastrophe” if environmental issues were not addressed.