Tara, motorways, John Gormley and all that

The Tara scandal rumbles on, was it right for the Irish Greens to go into government with motorway builders, I don't think so.

Had this from Indy media.

Office without power, is just a salary, compromises may be necessary but I think this one is morally wrong and far from 'pragmatic', the Party will lose votes over it.

Green politics is about change to survive crisis not a new set of faces to adminster apocalypse (in my view).

Green Party Circulation on Tara today
national | history and heritage | news report Wednesday July 25, 2007 18:42 by greenie
Gormley wriggles on the hook of tara

This document was circulated today to green party members.

squeeze a political rat and what do you get?


Tara information note

Questions and Answers

Can the Minister change the route of the M3 motorway?
No, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government does not have the power to reroute the motorway away from the Tara Valley. The route of the motorway was chosen by Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority five years ago, and approved by An Bord Pleanala in 2003. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and local Government has no role in deciding on that route.
Many commentators and some politicians have confused the issue of preservation orders on archaeological sites with a power to order a re-routing of the road.
Under National Monuments legislation, the Minister has the power to impose preservation orders on specific sites, but this would not mean a rerouting of the road. At most, a small section of the route might be affected. It would not lead to a rerouting of the road away from the Tara Skryne Valley

Why does the Minister not impose such a preservation order on any of the archaeological sites along the route?
In order to impose a preservation order, Minister Gormley would first have to receive advice from relevant experts to do so. His stated intention is to act on the best advice available to him and he has said he is prepared to act on such advice if he receives it. However since he has entered office in mid June, he has received no such advice in relation to any of the sites.
By the time he entered office in mid June, the excavations had been completed on almost all of the 38 archaeological sites identified along the route, which amounted to preservation by record or the removal of all of the archaeological remains.

What about Lismullen. Why does the Minister not impose a preservation order on that site as it has been declared a national monument?
In the first place Minister Gormley’s predecessor imposed directions allowing for the preservation by record, or removal of the archaeological remains at Lismullen, which has been declared a national monument. Minister Gormley has received legal advice that he cannot reverse that decision unless he receives new important new additional information on the site, which was not in the possession of the previous minister. Again the Minister has received no such advice. He also took the decision to release the departmental files on Lismullen late last month, in order to ensure openness and transparency on the whole issue.

What advice has Minister Gormley received on Lismullen?
When he entered office, Minister Gormley appointed an expert committee to advise on the Lismullen site. The members include Conor Newman, the foremost archaeological expert on Tara and a long-standing critic of the current route, and Dr Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum who has also been highly critical of the current proposed route. This committee has advised that the remains at Lismullen are too fragile to remain in situ and must be recorded and removed.

What exactly is at Lismullen?
The surviving elements of the Lismullin monument consist of two outer circles and one inner circle of stakeholes (indentations in the ground) (15 - 20 cm in diameter), These stakeholes provide evidence for the existence in the past of a circular enclosure (80 m in diameter) with a smaller inner central enclosure (16 m in diameter). Two further rows of stake holes show evidence of an entrance and passage way from the outer enclosure to the inner enclosure. These archaeological features have been heavily truncated by ploughing in the past. The surviving features are shallow and fragile. The soil in which the stakeholes are located is particularly light and sandy. There is no structure above ground.

What is John Gormley doing to protect our archaeological heritage?
Minister Gormley has launched a major review of archaeological procedures and practices, arising out of controversies such as Tara. The aim of the review is to identify measures to further strengthen or heritage protection measures, and ensure best practice in the field of archaeology. It is the most wide-ranging review to have been carried out in this area.

Stealing from the Sick

Abbott has been charging $2,200 (£1,100) a year for Kaletra in Thailand, which is - by macabre coincidence - roughly the same as the gross income per capita. I am no economist, but it seems to me that if you charge people's entire annual income for a drug like that, then your customers will die.

Don't pharmaceutical companies need to charge high fees, to recoup their research costs, and develop new ideas? Yes, they do, so let's be fair. And if we're going to be really fair, we might also mention that they spend twice as much on administration and advertising as they do on research.


Great article in today's Guardian on the evils of big pharm, every week or so we see sick and dying people before the TV cameras asking the government to buy them drugs.

What is forgotten is the huge profit margins, you can sell for a high price, when a patent gives you a monopoly and demand is pretty inelastic when you need a drug to survive

Curses there doesn't seem to be a link but here is a bad science article on the general theme here

Had this from Rising Tide who a direct action orientated movement against climate change, George Marshall is one of the leading lights...interesting to read that they have signed up to the Peoples Global Action approach, a movement kicked off in Mexico by the Zapatistas.


Rising Tide UK adopts the PGA Hallmarks
Submitted by F on 16 July, 2007 - 16:51.

As of May 2007, following discussions at our 2007 National Gathering, the UK Rising Tide network has adopted the Peoples’ Global Action Hallmarks.

Peoples’ Global Action (PGA) is a network for spreading information and coordinating actions between grassroots movements around the world. These diverse groups share the same opposition to capitalism, and commitment to direct action and civil disobedience as the most effective form of struggle. PGA grew out of the international Zapatista gatherings in 1996 and 1997, and was formed as a space for direct and un -mediated contact between autonomous groups.

PGA Hallmarks

1. A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism and feudalism; all trade agreements, institutions and governments that promote destructive globalisation.
2. We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination including, but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious fundamentalism of all creeds. We embrace the full dignity of all human beings.
3. A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can have a major impact in such biased and undemocratic organisations, in which transnational capital is the only real policy-maker.
4. A call to direct action and civil disobedience, support for social movements' struggles, advocating forms of resistance which maximize respect for life and oppressed peoples' rights, as well as the construction of local alternatives to global capitalism.
5. An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation and autonomy.

For more information about PGA, including history and organising principles, click here

Use less!

Some times protecting the environnment is as easy as writing a couple of lines of computer code.

Please spread the word:


Council coder wipes £40,000 off energy bill
IT support engineer writes a few lines of code to automatically shut down Staffordshire's 8,000 computers, saving thousands of pounds on energy annually
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/121426/council-coder-wipes-40000-off-energy-bill.html

Yet another story about Mayor's fucking up the environment, Mayor's can the planet afford them? I don't think so, do you? And he is thinking about running for President.

It's all a status/ego trip from most politicians, lets not trust them!

Angry Lions eat thin trolls!

It's getting quite heated on my Guardian comment is free blog...loved this.

If you want to add to the debate click here

queencarlotta
Comment No. 734798
August 1 16:46
USA For a country who claims to be so green, I'm a little perplexed at the passionate negative reaction to this article.
SOmething that hasn't been touched on is the severe environmental harm that comes from factory farmng of livestock in the form of biological waste, over consumption of grain supplies, diseases, and DESTRUCTION OF THE RAINFOREST and the waste of natural resourses used to transport cheap beef to the nearest MacDonalds.

FOr those who feel it's "natural" to consume meat and equate it to animals eating eachother in the wild... FUCK OFF! Last time I checked lions weren't driving cars to the local supermarket to purchase chemical and disease ridden meat, produced at lowest cost and wrapped in plastic. Since when is the life lived by most Europeans and AMericans considered "wild" The article was talking about factory farming and the brainwashing campaigns used to placate everyone's worries about harm to animals. The next time you fuckers are in the plains of Africa hunting deer with your bare hands I will gleefully join in with your bashing of animal rights activists and build the fire to cook it. Until then piss off.

[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]

BAA COURT CASE: CURBING OUR RIGHT TO PROTEST IN THE NAME OF GREATER
EMISSIONS

Green Party Principal Speaker Dr. Derek Wall today urged the Courts
of Justice to reject BAA's case for an injunction to ban
environmental campaigners from the airport, parts of the rail network
and sections of the M25 and M4 motorways. The ban aims to shut down
a planned peaceful protest against the expansion of Heathrow airport
from 14-21 August 2007.

Speaking ahead of the hearing he said: "There seems to be more
concern with people protesting against climate change than actually
tackling climate change.

"This government has presided over the biggest expansion of the
aviation industry seen in a generation. Curbing the right to peaceful
protest against this disastrous policy adds insult to injury.

"I am going to the camp to protest against airport expansion. Flights
are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases and a new runway
will destroy a whole village.

"I am a member of the National Trust but I am going to risk arrest to
have my say."

Green Party London Assembly Member Jenny Jones, who has hosted a
meeting between the police and protestors at City Hall said:

"This is a complete over-reaction on the part of BAA. How can the
police possibly be expected to restrict the movement around Heathrow
of such a massive group of people? The protestors have co-operated
with the police, and I am hosting a further meeting this afternoon to
iron out outstanding issues. The judge considering this injunction
must not allow such a heavy-handed response.

"The policing implications of a successful injunction covering local
villages, Paddington station, the Piccadilly line, and parts of the
M4 and M25 would be unworkable. Is BAA really saying that local
members of groups like the National Trust and RSPB shouldn't be
allowed free movement in parts of West London for a week? And if that
is what BAA wants, how does it expect the police to impose these
limits? I expect the courts to protect the rights of protest and free
movement."

Siân Berry, the Green Party's Mayoral candidate and Principal Speaker
added:

"This injunction is not just unworkable, but is also immoral. It is a
blatant and heavy handed attempt to intimidate people who care about
the environment and prevent them from expressing their concerns."

ENDS

For more info on the Camp for Climate Action please see: http://
www.climatecamp.org.uk/

Caroline Lucas, one of the foremost campaigners on aviation issues in
Europe - and the EU Parliament's Spokesperson on Aviation and Climate
Change - is organising workshops at the camp on Food and on
Aviation's Climate Change Emissions.

For more from the Green Party about the camp please see:

Derek Wall's Comment is Free post: http://
commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/derek_wall/2007/07/get_away.html

Siân Berry's New Statesman post: http://www.newstatesman.com/
200707300006


Green Party Press Office
020 7561 0282
http://www.greenparty.org.uk

Meat and you: a partnership for freedom?

What really shocked me was footage of feedlots for cattle in the US, essentially the factory farming of cattle, crowded together with little space to move - an abomination. This was followed by footage of a major burger chain whose PR specialists told children that the burgers were grown like plants. All the cruelty had been airbrushed out of the picture. It was a moment I still remember today with horror.

The grinning burgers, complete with eyes, bouncing up and down in joyous anticipation of being eaten by toddlers, reminds me today of the fake information film promoting meat in the classic Lisa the Vegetarian episode of The Simpsons: "The Meat Council Presents: Meat and You: Partners in Freedom". I have not eaten a burger since 1984.



Animal rights matters, green politics should not be just what benefits us and has no regard for other species.

My animal rights interest was sparked partly by the Animals Film out 25 years ago, of course if we look at factory farming the dodgy practices of pharmaceutical firms and assaults on global ecology, animal abuse often damages us as well.

Read more from my Guardian newspaper blog here.

You can buy the new updated Animals Film here.

Victor Shonfeld writes about his film also in the Guardian here.

He notes:

My own immersion in the human-animal relationship set me on the path to making it. Kibbutz Revadim, just north of the Negev desert in Israel, may have been suffering a muddy winter of grief after its losses in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, but I, as a volunteer, was revelling in the muck. I'd been brought up in a middle-class Jewish family where we thought twice before dirtying our hands. So when I found myself crawling through the shit under the turkey nest-boxes to gather stray eggs, and enjoying it, I was astonished. The fact that the birds were confined indoors all their lives caused me, then an unreconstructed carnivore, only passing disquiet.