I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
Found in my electronic chapbook.
I”ve found a couple of things I can do to make my writing life as guilt-free as possible, and I pas tem on for whatever they”re worth. First, I make writing the first thing I do. Second, I try to work seven days a week. Third, I save routine work for later. And finally I allow myself to make occasional use of that old reliable copout – i.e., that writers are really working twenty-four hours a day. p. 86
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
I’m sure that it is possible to consider a story about oppression and injustice in the world that does not involve oil, but it’s getting feckin’ hard to do so. Yesterday I wrote about Chevron/Total’s involvement in Myanmar. Today I’m reading about the Shwe Gas and Oil Pipeline Project to move natural gas and oil across Myanmar to China.
From Narinjara:
The Burmese living in various countries had come to the streets on the Global Day of Action on October 28 for a special cause. The pro-democracy activists, under the leadership of a campaign group Shwe Gas Movement raised voice against a proposed natural gas and oil pipeline from the western Burmese State to a Chinese province.
With the supports from 120 organizations based in over 20 countries, the Shwe Gas Movement urged the China government to suspend the billion dollar Shwe Gas and Oil Pipeline Project. The alliance of All Arakan Students & Youth Congress, Arakan Oil Watch, Shwe Gas Movement India and Shwe Gas Movement Bangladesh, sent an open letter to the President of People”s Republic of China through the Chinese Embassies in Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, UK asking the halt of the construction of the project.
The proposed pipeline project is understood to start from the bank of Bay of Bengal and then pass through the military ruled country for nearly thousand KMs and finally reaching the Yunnan Province of China. The pipeline will be used to pump the oil, shipped from the Middle East and Africa and also the natural gas from the Shwe gas fields of Burma (Myanmar) to the soil of China.
Somehow I have to believe that even when it’s not about oil, it’s about oil.
A former Michigan state trooper tells a different story of Dan Gilbert”s arrest on operation of gambling business than the Cavs owner has been peddling to the news media. Gilbert has made it seem a minor episode, best forgotten.
Gilbert, a billionaire of the mortgage business and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, has been a lead proponent of a monopoly casino issue on the November ballot. Issue 3 will give Gilbert a monopoly casino in Cleveland.
A lieutenant detective tells of the arrest of Gilbert when he was a Michigan student. He posed as the father of a gambling debtor. He said a victim told him of a strong-armed threat unless he paid. He also linked a car filled with manure Continue Reading »
Wonder if the Pee Dee will headline this story: Four billionaires have “loaned” $240,000 to the former disgrace Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. One of them our casino king: Dan Gilbert.
The Pee Dee has been supporting in its news columns Gilbert”s desire for a monopoly casino in Cleveland, along with other cities. The vote Tuesday will decide. Issue 3.
The loan to the former mayor, who resigned in Sept. 2008, suggests that Gilbert will spread his money around. It makes you wonder what politicians he might be helping here. Jimmy Dimora, Frank Russo?
The loans have not been repaid.
Kilpatrick was sentenced to four months in jail. The charge was obstruction of justice. However, there were many other charges against him and his administration.
The “loan” was made, according to reports, as he left jail.
Another article on this matter can be found here.
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?
Found in my electronic chapbook.
If I”m not done in three hours, I generally call it a day anyway, though I”m by no means delighted about it. p. 85
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
I’ve written in the past about the role Chevron/Total plays in propping up Myanmar’s State Peace and Development Council, aka its military dictators. Two reports out this month from Earth Rights International — Total Impact and Getting It Wrong — put real numbers to Chevron’s part in the devastation of the people of Myanmar.
Total Impact revealed for the first time how much revenue Total and Chevron”s project has generated for the Burmese regime (US$4.83 billion), and the offshore location of misappropriated gas revenue in two banks in Singapore. Despite the Singapore banks denials, ERI has confirmed from high level non-Singapore government sources that named banks and several other banks in Singapore are now “backing off cash from Burma” concerned over risks in holding certain accounts. If true, this would be significant; however, ERI is working to ensure that the banks, Monetary Authority of Singapore and other stakeholders do more to ensure the military junta is not squandering illicit gains from Burma”s natural gas wealth.
Since the September release ERI has been conducting targeted international advocacy with governments, policymakers, and the investment community, and this work appears to be having positive impacts.
ERI was pleased to see in Total”s response that the company published the junta”s revenue from Total”s portion of the project in 2008 ($254 million) per ERI”s recommendations that the company practice revenue transparency in Burma. While this is not nearly the amount of data ERI recommended Total publish, it is a positive and encouraging step forward, suggesting the company”s traditional intransigence may be softening in a particularly important area.
In Getting it Wrong, ERI challenges the workings of a major CSR assessment organization, US-based CDA Collaborative Learning Projects who conducted five deeply flawed assessments of Total and Chevron”s impacts in Burma. The report analyzes the assessments and how they have contributed to a whitewashing campaign by the companies, misleading investors and other interested parties on actual conditions in the pipeline area. One goal of this report and its companion Total Impact was to provide policymakers and investors with a more accurate picture of Total”s impacts in Burma and to provide companies like CDA with constructive guidance for conducting more rigorous, genuine, and therefore useful assessments of the impacts of corporate activity on local communities and larger society.
In the ’80s I carried a Shell Discredit card. Is it time for a similar card for Chevron?
(Sometimes I forget what I’ve written before. Back on 9 November 2007, I asked myself the same question.)
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?blockquote>
Found in my electronic chapbook.
I don”t structure my work in terms of hours, finding it more useful to aim at producing a certain amount of work, usually somewhere between five and ten pages depending on the sort of material I”m working on, the deadline I”m facing and the phases of the moon. p. 85
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
Earlier this month I wrote about the numbers of people trafficked between Myanmar and Thailand. Both governments claimed they were getting a handle on the problem. Non-Governmental Organizations in the region, however call bullshit. Why am I not surprised? Can any truth come from Myanmar”s State Peace and Development Council?
From Examiner:
Nevertheless, the past NGO reports raise questions of whether Burmese anti-human trafficking is effective and whether the Burmese authority is serious about counter-measuring its problem of human trafficking. Here is a classic example of why one should take a second look at the joint effort of anti-human trafficking mentioned above. Upon its agreement on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1997 the Burmese regime implemented Anti-Trafficking Law. However, a few years after the implementation, Women of Burma (an NGO group for Burmese women’s rights) reported that “innocent people have been arrested on false trafficking charges, particularly after the enactment of the 2005 Anti-Trafficking Law.”
The Cleveland Scene this week offers some antidote to the noxious coverage of the Pee Dee on Cuyahoga County reform. Issue 6 ain”t the joy ride into the sunset that the paper would like us to believe.
Issue 6 may be a sunset on real reform.
The Scene”s cover really tells it all: A photo of a menacing hand gun pointed at you. The title: Give Us Your County and No One Gets Hurt – The story behind the Issue 6 power grab. Couldn”t say it better.
The article by Damian Guevara (I”m becoming a fan) gives us, if not more facts than the Pee Dee has produced, a better slant on the power issues so crucial to the essence of the new County government Issue 6 would bring to us.
Veteran reporter Anastasia Pantsios writes a piece that debunks the idea the Pee Dee has tried to sell that Issue 6 offers essentially the same kind of reform that Summit County adopted. The title tells it: Issue 6″s Bait & Switch – Summit County: different process, different result.
Both reporters note the influence of corporate interests in the design and execution of the Issue 6 ballot choice facing voters next Tuesday.
If you want to give the Parma gang – headed by county prosecutor Bill Mason – power over the County vote yes on Issue 6.
If you want to wait for a better deal on county reform, vote NO on Issue 6.
“Today, Atlantic City, in the eyes of one gambling executive, Tim Wilmott, is in a ‘death spiral,”” that”s the tone of a Sunday New York Times piece on the financial troubles of the city”s casinos.
“Rows of slot machines stand eerily empty,” says the story while hotel rooms are empty. Many casinos have experienced double digit revenue drops, the report said.
The article is far from a hatchet job. However, it does have a cautionary message to Cleveland and other Ohio cities where casinos would go if Issue 3 is passed.
Cleveland will be rolling the dice next Tuesday when voters go into the booths to cast a vote that would give a billionaire a monopoly board contract for a Cleveland casino. Continue Reading »
Found in my electronic chapbook.
Unless I can actually see a manuscript of mine getting further from the beginning and closer to the end because of what I”m doing, I”m not entirely capable of regarding the task I”m performing as work. p. 84
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
Powered by Wordpress | Design by Ash Haque
XHTML Strict | RSS Entries
