The Botswana government attempts to conceal its persecution of the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari but the world is paying increasing attention. Travel companies are beginning to cancel tours to Botswana. Continue reading

Access case dismissed %u2013 Final end for Bushman hunters? - Survival International. The entry permits last one month and are only granted to those Bushmen with relatives in the reserve – a policy clearly designed to slowly diminish the number... Continue reading

During my first year of blogging - 2004-5 - I began covering the attempts by the Botswana government to remove the Kalahari Bushmen from their traditional lands, along with Survival International's determination to protect and defend the rights of these people. The apparent Government motivation was to clear the way for mining in that area. While there was some relief through the courts, it never lasted long, especially with a government willing to disregard its own legal system. Continue reading

Oil being a finite resource, the current price reduction can only be temporary (unless our technological society has a meltdown). Here's a report posted to the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society's Listserve: Continue reading

On December 31, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act, which included Section 1021. Section 1021 permits the U.S. government to overturn 200 years of domestic law and empower the military to carry out policing duties, to detain American citizens, hold them in military facilities, and strip them of due process until, in the language of that section, the end of hostilities, which, of course, is indefinite detention. Continue reading

When I was a child care worker and I wanted to give a frustrated child a little space, a sense of some autonomy in what was often a very restricted setting, I'd seek to give them a couple of acceptable (to me) options. It often eased the frustration. Are voters in the upcoming US election - and many others - essentially limited to choices that sustain the essential corporate status quo? If you want to give this some serious thought, try this recent column by Chris Hedges. Continue reading

A tour of four outhouses. The last one is a piece of art and is a fully water-tight system. Continue reading

Yet another study - this time in today's Washington Post: The environmental footprint of organic vs. conventional food comes to a fairly simple conclusion: "Organic food is no better than regular food, a study finds." I wonder how many will read what, as of this writing, is the sole comment. There's more understanding there than in the article itself. It stands on its own so I'll quote it here to give it a little more exposure: Continue reading

You won't read many articles like this as the (US) government intention appears to be to silence willingness to speak up because of fear of retribution. In his Salon.com article, Glenn Greenwald says: Most of those expressing these concerns were... Continue reading

The evidence is clear. Even though you may dismiss some of it, the dictatorial and dismissive way in which Stephen Harper regards those he is supposedly serving is unprecedented in modern Canadian democracy. Along with this go many decisions and practices that treat people, the legal system and the parliamentary system with disdain and even contempt. Continue reading