[environmental disaster in the making] get that tanker up - now!

All the words in the world are not going to get that tanker off the ocean floor and 450 000 litres are ready to spill now. Until that tanker's salvaged, all talk of who's responsible and how deeply Petron is into graft, all such talk is just so much oil on the water.

After that, Sunshine Marine Development Corp., the owner of the Solar I, which sank off Guimaras two weeks ago, needs the most rigorous investigation into how they could commission such a derelict ship through such an environmentally sensitive area on such a mission.

Officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources investigating the oil spill have promised to release the results of their inquiry sometime this week.

Oh yes? Like National Power Corp. off Semirara island last year? The NAPOCOR barge spilled 364,000 liters of fuel and ruined vast stretches of the coast of Antique province.

This current oil spill from the Solar I, which sank in rough seas August 11, has affected over 200 kilometers of the Guimaras coastline, including beaches and mangroves—killing wildlife and disrupting the livelihood of at least 10,000 Guimareños.

The cleanup has been haphazard and ineffective, the spill happened right smack in the middle of the monsoon season but much worse is that they plus Greenpeace are expending their energy on ‘why it happened, how to prevent another etc. and meanwhile:

Full text here.

[environmental disaster] greenpeace finally moving

Black Quill, bless him, is running a piece on the oil disaster and now, finally, after a week and a half, Greenpeace is becoming involved:

As Greenpeace is getting involved, I think James’ worries will be answered soon, however, there are a few confusing things …

Quinlan’s piece over there is good but I don’t share his enthusiasm for Greenpeace. Here is their ‘urgent assistance’:

Environmental watchdog Greenpeace said on Sunday that it was “shocked” by the extent of damage caused by the Philippines’ worst ever oil spill and called on the government to treat the raising of the sunken tanker as a matter of urgency.

“It’s really bad out there,” Athena Ballesteros, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace International, said. “The extent of damage to such a wonderful part of the Philippines shocked us all.”

“The government must treat, as a matter of urgency, the raising of the tanker before more damage is done,” she said.

Greenpeace says it will take several months to draw up its report on the full environmental impact of the spill.

Now where is the ‘urgent action’? Go to their site. Where are the banner headlines about it? I hope Black Quill is right [and the anomalies he draws attention to are indeed curious] but again:

Where is the effective action?

[in brief] thought for the day

There's only one way to find out if a man is honest - ask him. If he says yes, you know he's a crook. [Groucho Marx]

[history] the anomalies of kaspar hauser

Many know the story quite well and of the way he was famously portrayed by Klaus Kinsky. If you’re one who delights in reading the fine print though, you can’t help noticing certain anomalies in the story.

Not so much concerning the court intrigues and whether he was royalty or nay – but rather in the boy’s own story. These anomalies are possibly more intriguing than the mystery itself.

The strange and tragic case of Kaspar Hauser first came to public attention in the month of May, 1828, when he stumbled through the New Gate of the German City of Nuremberg.

Full text here.

[food and drink] the great coffee vs chocolate debate

My friend and I see eye to eye on most things but not in our preferences in women and not in the matter of coffee and chocolate. We had quite a little debate about the latter and so I’m throwing it open to you.

Hypothetically: If you were asked to wait in someone’s dining room and help yourself to anything you saw and you went in and sat down; and there, in front of you, was a coffee pot of that steaming, aromatic substance and beside it, a selection of little squares of chocolate of all kinds, would you:

1. Pour yourself a coffee first, take a sip then think about which choc to select
2. Take one little piece of choc to be going on with, then pour yourself a coffee
3. Some other variant?

Full text here, in a nice shade of chocolate and coffee.

[far-east] yet more remissions for the bali bombers

Does anyone remember the Bali bombings?

They probably didn’t grip the US and the UK quite so much as home grown disasters, being largely an Australian affair and yet they were no picnic for the families and friends of the 202 people killed and scores injured in one of the worst terrorists bombings of recent times.

Just to fill you in, Paddy's Bar in the Bali town of Kuta, a very popular nightclub, especially with Australian tourists, was gutted by bombs on the night of October 12, 2002 and the aftermath was as you’d imagine.

Full text here.