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7. september 2007
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When it's done for the environment, slave labour is fine.
The details of this carbon-offsetting scheme are disturbing. Cameron offsets his flights by donating to Climate Care. The latest wheeze of this carbon-offsetting company is to provide ‘treadle pumps’ to poor rural families in India so that they can get water on to their land without having to use polluting diesel power. Made from bamboo, plastic and steel, the treadle pumps work like ‘step machines in a gym’, according to some reports, where poor family members step on the pedals for hours in order to draw up groundwater which is used to irrigate farmland (1). These pumps were abolished in British prisons a century ago. It seems that what was considered an unacceptable form of punishment for British criminals in the past is looked upon as a positive eco-alternative to machinery for Indian peasants today.
What might once have been referred to as ‘back-breaking labour’ is now spun as ‘human energy’. According to Climate Care, the use of labour-intensive treadle pumps, rather than labour-saving diesel-powered pumps, saves 0.65 tonnes of carbon a year per farming family. And well-off Westerners - including Cameron, and Prince Charles, Land Rover and the Cooperative Bank, who are also clients of Climate Care - can purchase this saved carbon in order to continue living the high life without becoming consumed by eco-guilt. They effectively salve their moral consciences by paying poor people to live the harsh simple life on their behalf.
Tim Blair notes:
An important difference between those working for Nike and those pedalling for Gaia: in the first case, the developing world continues to develop.
Back to the stone age appears to be the mantra of most of the eco-movement. I wished they could just go there and leave the rest of us alone.
7:04:35 AM 
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According to an Islamist website, Osama Bin Laden is planning a 9/11 video. It will include the usual condemnations of Jews and Americans, and fashion tips for aging Jihadis who now concentrate on the media business.
One difference in his appearance was immediately obvious. The announcement had a still photo from the coming video, showing bin Laden addressing the camera, his beard fully black. In his past videos, bin Laden's beard was almost entirely gray with dark streaks.
Bin Laden's beard appears to have been dyed, a popular practice among Arab leaders, said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, a Washington-based group that monitors terror messages.
"I think it works for their (al-Qaida's) benefit that he looks young, he looks healthy," Katz said.
There are more ominous interpretations of the website announcement.
The warning was posted Sept. 2 on a site frequented by radical groups and said in part that "there will be a special gift coming on the day of the blessed invasion of Manhattan."
Similar threats have been seen before, in fact continuously for the last five years or so.
6:38:15 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.10.2007; 17:25:35.
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