Christmas 2004

UPDATE: Bear trapped in Garbage Pit and left to Die

Read the letter I received from an Office Worker Entity in the Yamaguchi Prefecture in response to my outrage about a bear trapped and left to die in a garbage pit:
The text of the letter is copied exactly as I received it – poor engrish, poorly attempted spin, and all

Email the Yamaguchi Prefecture yourself and tell them how you feel about their response! I for one find it woefully incomplete: How did they remove the bear from the pit? With a noose? With a hook? With a snare? – I could go on…
Peace.

~Amelopsis

“Thank you for your email ( fax, letter ) about the way of management to protect bears of Yamaguchi Prefecture.
We are sorry for replying late. Now we'd like to explain what we did and why we did so .

Yamaguchi Prefecture decided the Plan of Management to Protect Specific Wildlife ( 'tsukinowaguma' ( bear ) ) based on Wildlife Protection and Hunting Law enacted in 2002.
We are working on coexistence with bears.
In this year, bears appeared in the area people live so often that we printed 30,000 copies of the manual in addition and gave out to schools and city offices to enlighten people who live in Yamaguchi Prefecture to prevent the damages from Wildlife and coexistent with Wildlife. ( You can see the manual on the following page of Yamaguchi Prefecture, http://www.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/gyosei/shizen/10.htm (written in Japanese) )

In this case, Yamaguchi prefecture discussed and discussed again with Shunan City and Yamaguchi Prefectural Police about the way to deal with the bear on the scene, and examined to release the bear.
But people who live near the scene feared for the damage to people's life so much because there were damages to the agriculture products and hens by bears.
In addition, the bear had been captured a few years ago and released after teaching not to come to the area people live, so people who live near the scene did not agree to help the bear from the garbage disposal hole and release again.
So we could not help the bear. We opened the lid of the garbage disposal hole, arranged the workers to watch the bear, and left at it stands against our will.
At the same time, Yamaguchi Prefecture discussed with offices related to this case. We concluded that we should not keep giving pains to the bear if we could not help the bear.
At last, Syunan City applied of capture the bear and Yamaguchi Prefecture admitted to kill the bear by medicine based on Wildlife Protection and Hunting Law.
We took out the bear from the garbage disposal hole and buried the bear in the mountain on the same day at night.

Yamaguchi Prefecture believes we should release Wildlife in principle and we already released 5 bears ( including bears that were parent and child ) in this fiscal year based on the understanding of the people who live near the area bears appeared.
But bears appears in the underpopulated area and the area where many old people live in and among the mountains. So if there are much risk to give the damage to the people's life, we exterminate bears to protect people's life and property who live in Yamaguchi Prefecture against our will.

In this case, we gave the greatly sorrow to many people and feel bad about this result.
We learn a lesson from this case, so we turn this lesson to advantage in working on the management to protect bears to coexist with bears.We would like you to understand this case and cooperate to us.”

CEASEFIRE.CA

"Ceasefire.ca is an initiative whose mission it is to provide people with Web-based tools to take political action and promote peace, disarmament and social justice."

(((aum)))

nice.

20 years later - the open wound is still festering.

Corporate indifference and government incompetence have left generations to die in toxic filth.

THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE IN BHOPAL

"December 3rd, 2004, marks twenty years since the people of Bhopal awoke from their sleep, choking, near-blinded, to scenes of unimaginable horror and suffering. Overnight, a city of 800,000 people was turned into a gas chamber, with at least 8,000 dead.
Union Carbide's gas cloud was just the beginning. The ongoing efforts of both Union Carbide and its new owner Dow Chemical to evade their pending liabilities in Bhopal represent a classic case of corporate crime gone unpunished."

Students For Bhopal

"The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal believes that Dow Chemical, the Indian Government, and the Government of Madhya Pradesh should do the following:" (CLICK)

Justice for Bhopal

Online petition for action by The Dow Chemical Company.

Pierre Berton
July 12 1920 - November 30 2004

"We are a nation of canoeists, and have been since the earliest days, paddling our way up the St. Lawrence, across the lakes, over the portages of the shield, west along the North Saskatchewan through the Yellowhead gap and thence southwest by the Columbia and Fraser rivers to the sea. When someone asks you how Canada could exist as a horizontal country with its plains and mountains running vertically, tell him about the paddlers."
– Why We Act Like Canadians, Pierre Berton, 1982

Pierre Berton: Canadian

CBC

Author Pierre Berton dies at 84 - CBC

Hit October 18 in the Back Issues to view

"Canadian author Pierre Berton gives advice on how to roll a joint"

Rick Mercer's Monday Report

My first exposure to Berton was his book Hollywood's Canada. I found it on a coffee table somewhere in the Seventies. It documented the surreal representation of Canada's Indigenous peoples and early settlers through the handy work of old school Hollywood.

It helped me to become aware of the power of images and those who control them.

The amazing power of film and photograph to trivialize or demonize people according to a skewed perception or wilful agenda left an impression.

Rest in Peace.