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By Katie Kish, July 19, 2007 7:01 pm

if you believe in Jesus.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=T0MHK8ntKqk[/youtube]

I forgot to look for this when I saw it on TV ages ago … but man, this lady is AWESOME.

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By Katie Kish, May 2, 2007 9:06 pm

Le. Sigh.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, the U.S. government failed to take advantage of millions of dollars in foreign aid from its allies, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The U.S. has collected about $126 million and used just $40 million of the $454 million in cash that was offered, the newspaper reported, citing U.S. officials and contractors. Some offers were rescinded or redirected to organizations such as the Red Cross. Other offers were tied up in bureaucracy, the paper said.

…

Wasted aid included medical supplies from Italy that spoiled in the elements for weeks after Katrina caused massive flooding and other damage in Louisiana and Mississippi, the report said.

“Tell them we blew it,” one disgusted State Department official wrote, according to the Post.

Also, the Department of Homeland Security accepted, then later rejected, an offer from Greece to use two cruise ships as hospitals or to house displaced residents for free because the ships could not arrive soon enough, the Post said. The government paid $249 million to use Carnival Cruise Lines vessels.

WTF.

I got sunburned SO bad today – this story completely outrages me and makes me so incredibly sad, but I am so tired from the sun and from getting only 3 hours of sleep last night that I really can’t write any commentary. But I assure you. I’m pissed off about it. #$%^ing #$%^s.

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By Katie Kish, April 30, 2007 11:19 pm

The “White Chicks and Gang Signs” song is absolutely hilarious. Turns out the rest of his site absolutely sucks. I hate it when that happens.

An abandoned mine kills on average 30 people a year.

Drowning is the number one cause of death. Most people who drowned entered a quarry and went swimming. Quarries are very unsafe places to swim. Steep drop-offs, rocky ledges, flooded equipment and industrial waste can be in the water and make swimming risky. 

Some people are stupid… Like people who don’t listen to geologists when they say there is something fishy going on up around Mount Baker.

Small earthquakes that may indicate underground activity now occur once or twice a month beneath Baker, compared with as many as 10 times that number beneath Rainier and thousands beneath St. Helens.

Just living with 3 mountain climbers last year, I know that people don’t look into these sorts of things. I’m pretty sure they went and climbed Baker once or twice and I can promise you that they did check out instabilities or anything of that nature Two of them are even geographers, and they wouldn’t check that sort of stuff out, or even take it seriously. Douches.

The only thing I hate more than idiots, are sexists and racists.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xowSnZkOhX0[/youtube]

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By Katie Kish, April 18, 2007 5:45 am

Sam and I have now posted three individual pieces on the upset from Virginia Tech. …I don’t want to make anyone think that I’m a cold hearted bitch, that I don’t see why this is so upsetting or anything like that – but I’d appreciate it if you’d just… read the following headings. I think my point will make its self clear:

Study Claims Iraq’s ‘Excess’ Death Toll Has Reached 655,000 (this is old, from 2006)

Death is Baghdad top 100 – on Tuesday. Not in total. On Tuesday.

Over 1/2 a million deaths in Iraq, research finds (may be biased, sort of a “decided for yourself” one)

100, 000 civilians deaths estimated in Iraq

Visualize the death toll

30 000 000 + die of Aids in Africa

Baghdad car blast leaves 10 dead

Ambush kills 13 Iraqi service men

Bomb hits Iraqi capital - killing 43

Suicide attacks hit Morracco 

Fresh Fatalities in Somali Clash

HIV Drugs DENIED to many

…I’m just sayin’.

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By Katie Kish, April 12, 2007 4:54 pm

Greenpeace International has been busy in the past two years finally producing a study which says for the past three year Congolese village chiefs have been giving humongous expanses of the Congo rainforest to European and U.S logging companies. Each tree can bring in about $8 000 but rather than this direct money they were offered buildings of up to $20 000 which rarely materialized, sugar, salt, tools and beer.

Rainforests are extremely important carbon reserves. Their preservation ensures a more balanced global climate. The DRC alone accounts for 8% of the carbon which is stored in forests – more than any other country in Africa, and the 4th highest in the entire world. 40 million people in the area depend on the forest to provide food, medicine and timber products.

25% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the clearance of tropical rainforests being converted into pastureland and agricultural plantations. It is estimated that by 2050 the deforestation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo will released 34.4 billion tons of CO2 – which to put into perspective is equal to the UK’s entire emissions over the past 60 years. A chunk of rainforest the size of Spain is currently under control by logging companies, 30% of this has been signed over after a 2002 moratorium on new contracts.

There have been increased infrastructure, the increase in roads has led to an increase in poaching due to the enhancement of access. These roads being placed throughout the rainforest are just as horrible as deforestation as they lead to fragmented ecosystems. This area is the home to our closest relatives the bonobo, and it is also the second largest rainforest on earth covering 172 million hectares of land, of which 8.5% is protected.

The newly founded government in the DRC and the coming of peace have created a whole new opportunity for international development and exploitation of the country. The world bank has originally suspended finacial aid to the DRC when the war had broken out over natural resources. At the time timber production was at a stand still, but about 43.5 million hectares of forest came under the control of logging industries. It wasn’t until 2001 that the world bank finally resumed lending to the DRC lending $4 billion worth of loans and credits by August 2006.

In 2002 the World Bank suspended new logging entitlements and renewals of current entitlements – 163 contracts were canceled, all of which were mostly dormant anyway. This was followed by a proud statement by the World Bank that they were slowing deforestation and doing a great deed for the world… you know, canceling those contracts that weren’t being used anyway. Regardless of the moratorium 107 new contracts were made after the suspension.

The world bank says they are currently “looking into” the new contracts. But Greenpeace beat them to it finding serious lapses of governance, hardly any institutional capacity to control the forestry sector, widespread illegalities and social conflicts, as well as clashes with established conservation initiatives. The companies Danzer, ITB, NST, Olam, Sicobois and Trans – M have all signed treaties that should have been prevented by the world bank and have greatly benefited from the World Banks inability to ensure enforcement.

In addition to the new contracts, there was also a finding that only 40 of the 156 contractors has been paying taxes. Nearly half of them are being conducted in areas critical for carbon storage and wildlife protection. But, 1.7 million hectares can’t be examined because the maps are not made publically available. On third of the contracts are inside areas that are are “ideal spots for conservation” as defined by greenpeace, and 20 of these contracts are directly within a critical bonobo habitat. Another third of the contracts are in areas with the afromosia, a protected tree.

Violations Galore

The companies took over areas that were canceled by the World Bank in 2002, meaning that the rights were taken away from those who were not using the area and were given to those that would actually use the areas.

• NST companies and Danzer both altered contracts after the 2002 moratorium, but the exact changes can’t be described because again, the maps are not available for public use.

• ITB “appears” to have more land than they did before the 2002 moratorium.

• There are no payments to the forest officals

• Subcontracting is happening

• Payments have been made to rebel-held administrations enhancing war time issues

• Political “protection” paid off to certain companies

Greepeace’s conclusion?

The World bank has so far failed in its objectives of controlling the expansion of industrial logging and improving governance of the sector. In the absence of enforcement, the moratorium has been a cover for behind-the-scenes jostling for valuable forest holdings.

The taxes that haven’t totally been collected are supposed to be going to communities for community development and services. However, not a single dollar was collected between 2003 and 2006 and are even more heavily avoided through smuggling operations. Wood that has been extracting in communities is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, of which the community might see $100 and no follow through on the promises of infrastructure, schools and hospitals. Sodefor would distribute a “gift package” with 18 bars of soap, 4 packs of coffee, 24 bottles of beer and two bags of sugar in exchange for rainforest access, builing wharf’s in fish breeding grounds and logging caterpillar tress.

The logging practices are a huge threat to biodiversity and the global environment. The impact of all the logging infrastructure is HUGE but is never calculated into global figures. The emissions will “probably” be from 170 000 hectares of land – again, hard to figure out without access to maps. What is scary about this? …This giant hunk of land WAS NOT part of the calculations in the latest IPCC calculations.

For the future?

Stop the logging. Take responsibility. Public pressure on the World Bank to do it’s job. Develop viable policies and funding. Stop being jerks.