[Biofuel] BURMA: Criticism of Total Operations Grows
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14745 BURMA: Criticism of Total Operations Grows by Michael Diebert, IPS October 4th, 2007 The Yadana natural gas pipeline runs from gas fields in the warm waters of the Andaman Sea through a sliver of southern Burma and into Thailand. It also runs through the heart of the debate on corporate responsibility as to how foreign businesses should operate in a country ruled by a military dictatorship accused of widespread human rights abuses and violent suppression of dissent within its borders. Following two weeks of protests lead by Buddhist monks against the military junta lead by General Than Shwe, the Burmese government's ferocious subsequent clampdown has shone a particularly bright spotlight on the activities of Total S.A., the French oil company that served as the driving force behind the Yadana pipeline and which continues to be deeply involved in Burma. Total is involved in what is essentially the single largest foreign investment project in Burma, the single largest source of hard currency for the regime, says Marco Simons, the U.S. legal director for EarthRights International, an organisation working on documenting human rights and environmental abuses. They have entered into a direct business relationship with the Burmese military. The Yadana pipeline was constructed by Total through the 1990s in partnership with the U.S. petroleum company Unocal (which merged with the Chevron Corporation in 2005 and ended operations as an independent company), along with the wholly state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), at the time state-owned but now largely privatised. Burma's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) military rulers renamed the country Myanmar in 1989. From the outset, accusations swirled around the project that it was conducted under conditions of extreme coercion against the local population. In the wake of recent protests, a group of Burmese refugees in Belgium succeeded earlier this month in getting a federal public prosecutor to reopen an investigation into the potential illegality of some of Total's actions in Burma, with the oil giant standing accused of, at best, turning a blind eye to widespread human rights abuses during the construction of the Yadana pipeline. Last year a French court cleared Total of charges that slave labour helped it build the pipeline, following an out of court settlement with the alleged victims. With video footage smuggled out of Burma showing military personnel apparently firing into crowds of unarmed protesters and savagely beating others, various groups are calling for companies such as Total to consider what their business is funding in the country. As one person in Rangoon described it to us, they are living in hell, says Mark Farmaner, media director of The Burma Campaign UK, an advocacy group formed in Britain in 1991 to push for progress on democracy and respect for human rights. There is intense fear, people are afraid to move around, there are thousands of people in hiding and thousands in detention, and it's extraordinary that Total would have such a dictatorship as their business partner. A recent statement by Total's vice-president for public affairs, Jean-François Lassalle, carried on the company's website, had the following to say about the recent unrest. We are convinced that through our presence we are helping to improve the daily lives of tens of thousands of people who benefit from our social and economic initiatives. . . a forced withdrawal would only lead to our replacement by other operators probably less committed to the ethical principles guiding all our initiatives. Our departure could cause the population even greater hardship and is thus an unacceptable risk. There was, however, no explicit condemnation of the Burmese government's actions, nor was there a call for restraint, even as Ibrahim Gambari, special envoy from the United Nations, arrived in Burma to express concern about the steps taken to quash the demonstrations. Gambari has since met with both junta leader Shwe and with the country's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and is expected to make a formal report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on his return to New York. The French government itself, meanwhile, has been accused of only selectively condemning the violence in Burma. When President Sarkozy called on French companies to freeze new investments there, it was viewed by some as a cynical end-run around the fact that Total, by its own admission, had made no new investments in Burma for several years. In further cause for skepticism, BK conseil, the former company of France's current foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, advised Total in 2003 on improving the public face of its operations in Burma. Formed as a one-off consulting concern by Kouchner and
[Biofuel] Only Now, The Full Horror of Burmese Junta's Repression of Monks Emerges
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/11/4468/ Published on Thursday, October 11, 2007 by The Independent/UK Only Now, The Full Horror of Burmese Junta's Repression of Monks Emerges by Rosalind Russell Monks confined in a room with their own excrement for days, people beaten just for being bystanders at a demonstration, a young woman too traumatised to speak, and screams in the night as Rangoon's residents hear their neighbours being taken away. Harrowing accounts smuggled out of Burma reveal how a systematic campaign of physical punishment and psychological terror is being waged by the Burmese security forces as they take revenge on those suspected of involvement in last month's pro-democracy uprising. The first-hand accounts describe a campaign hidden from view, but even more sinister and terrifying than the open crackdown in which the regime's soldiers turned their bullets and batons on unarmed demonstrators in the streets of Rangoon, killing at least 13. At least then, the world was watching. The hidden crackdown is as methodical as it is brutal. First the monks were targeted, then the thousands of ordinary Burmese who joined the demonstrations, those who even applauded or watched, or those merely suspected of anti-government sympathies. There were about 400 of us in one room. No toilets, no buckets, no water for washing. No beds, no blankets, no soap. Nothing, said a 24-year-old monk who was held for 10 days at the Government Technical Institute, a leafy college in northern Rangoon which is now a prison camp for suspected dissidents. The young man, too frightened to be named, was one of 185 monks taken in a raid on a monastery in the Yankin district of Rangoon on 28 September, two days after government soldiers began attacking street protesters. The room was too small for everyone to lie down at once. We took it in turns to sleep. Every night at 8 o'clock we were given a small bowl of rice and a cup of water. But after a few days many of us just couldn't eat. The smell was so bad. Some of the novice monks were under 10 years old, the youngest was just seven. They were stripped of their robes and given prison sarongs. Some were beaten, leaving open, untreated wounds, but no doctors came. On his release, the monk spoke to a Western aid worker in Rangoon, who smuggled his testimony and those of other prisoners and witnesses out of Burma on a small memory stick. Most of the detained monks, the low-level clergy, were eventually freed without charge as were the children among them. But suspected ringleaders of the protests can expect much harsher treatment, secret trials and long prison sentences. One detained opposition leader has been tortured to death, activist groups said yesterday. Win Shwe, 42, a member of the National League for Democracy, the party of the detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has died under interrogation, the Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said, adding that the information came from authorities in Kyaukpandawn township. However, his body was not sent to his family and the interrogators indicated that they had cremated it instead. Win Shwe was arrested on the first day of the crackdown. It was the russet-robed Buddhist clergy, not political groups, who had formed the backbone of demonstrations during days of euphoric defiance and previously undreamed-of hope that Burma's military regime could be brought down by peaceful revolution. That hope has been crushed under the boots of government soldiers and intelligence agents and replaced by fear and dread. A young woman, a domestic worker in Rangoon, described how one woman bystander who applauded the monks was rounded up. My friend was taken away for clapping during the demonstrations. She had not marched. She came out of her house as the marchers went by and, for perhaps 30 seconds, smiled and clapped as the monks chanted. Her face was recorded on a military intelligence camera. She was taken and beaten. Now she is so scared she won't even leave her room to come and talk to me, to anyone. Another Rangoon resident told the aid worker: We all hear screams at night as they [the police] arrive to drag off a neighbour. We are torn between going to help them and hiding behind our doors. We hide behind our doors. We are ashamed. We are frightened. Burmese intelligence agents are scrutinising photographs and video footage to identify demonstrators and bystanders. They have also arrested the owners of computers which they suspect were used to transmit images and testimonies out of the country. For each story smuggled out to The Independent, someone has risked arrest and imprisonment. Hein Zay Kyaw (not his real name) received a telephone call last week telling him to be at a government compound where the military were releasing 42 people, among them Mr Kyaw's friend, missing since he was plucked from the edge of a demonstration on
[Biofuel] Green group attacks oil giant on climate research
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14715 Green group attacks oil giant on climate research by Alison Benjamin, Guardian Unlimited September 26th, 2007 An environmental group today took aim at ExxonMobil with the launch of an online video attacking the oil giant's green credentials. The Exxon Files, from Friends of the Earth Europe, sets out claims that the US-based corporation funds climate change deniers in Europe and the US. The animated video, which spoofs the X-Files TV series, features two fictional agents - Deny Fully and Rexx Tiller, of the Federal Bureau of Inconvenience - who are hired by ExxonMobil to hide the truth about the negative environmental impact of its business. To achieve this they secretly fund scientists, thinktanks and lobbyists sceptical about climate change. Christine Phol, a campaigner for FoE Europe, said: ExxonMobil invests millions of euros funding thinktanks and lobbyists committed to blocking internationally agreed policies to combat climate change whilst at the same time spending major sums on advertising designed to present itself as an environmentally responsible company. The group wants viewers of the video to register their support online for a planned complaint to Belgian authorities over Exxon adverts at Brussels airport. In the ads, Exxon claims to be reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. But FoE Europe said data from the company's corporate citizenship report showed Exxon's CO2 emissions increased by 8.7m metric tons from 2003 and 2006. Paul de Clerck, another FoE Europe campaigner, said the adverts were one example of ExxonMobil's deliberately misleading advertising campaign. The 'greening' of oil giant Exxon is nothing more than a slick public relations exercise, he said. Instead of spending millions of manipulating the facts, they should make real efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An ExxonMobil spokesman rejected the criticism. He said: The recycling of this type of discredited conspiracy theory only diverts attention from the real challenge at hand: how to provide the energy needed to sustain and improve global living standards while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He said ExxonMobil was taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and was also supporting research into technology breakthroughs and participating in constructive dialogue on policy options. Citing examples, he said the company was working with car manufacturers on programmes that could lead to fuel economy improvements, and partnering with the European Commission to study carbon capture and storage technologies. ExxonMobil has been criticised in the past for backing organisations that are sceptical about climate change. Last year the Royal Society called on Esso, the UK arm of ExxonMobil, to withdraw support for dozens of groups that have misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] American Tears
See also: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html Fascist America, in 10 easy steps From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all Tuesday April 24, 2007 The Guardian -- http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/12/4502/ Published on Friday, October 12, 2007 by The Huffington Post American Tears by Naomi Wolf I wish people would stop breaking into tears when they talk to me these days. I am traveling across the country at the moment - Colorado to California - speaking to groups of Americans from all walks of life about the assault on liberty and the 10 steps now underway in America to a violently closed society. The good news is that Americans are already awake: I thought there would be resistance to or disbelief at this message of gathering darkness - but I am finding crowds of people who don't need me to tell them to worry; they are already scared, already alert to the danger and entirely prepared to hear what the big picture might look like. To my great relief, Americans are smart and brave and they are unflinching in their readiness to hear the worst and take action. And they love their country. But I can't stand the stories I am hearing. I can't stand to open my email these days. And wherever I go, it seems, at least once a day, someone very strong starts to cry while they are speaking. In Boulder, two days ago, a rosy-cheeked thirtysomething mother of two small children, in soft yoga velours, started to tear up when she said to me: I want to take action but I am so scared. I look at my kids and I am scared. How do you deal with fear? Is it safer for them if I act or stay quiet? I don't want to get on a list. In D.C., before that, a beefy, handsome civil servant, a government department head - probably a Republican - confides in a lowered voice that he is scared to sign the new ID requirement for all government employees, that exposes all his most personal information to the State - but he is scared not to sign it: If I don't, I lose my job, my house. It's like the German National ID card, he said quietly. This morning in Denver I talked for almost an hour to a brave, much-decorated high-level military man who is not only on the watch list for his criticism of the administration - his family is now on the list. His elderly mother is on the list. His teenage son is on the list. He has flown many dangerous combat missions over the course of his military career, but his voice cracks when he talks about the possibility that he is exposing his children to harassment. Jim Spencer, a former columnist for the Denver Post who has been critical of the Bush administration, told me today that I could use his name: he is on the watch list. An attorney contacts me to say that she told her colleagues at the Justice Department not to torture a detainee; she says she then faced a criminal investigation, a professional referral, saw her emails deleted - and now she is on the watch list. I was told last night that a leader of Code Pink, the anti-war women's action group, was refused entry to Canada. I hear from a tech guy who works for the airlines - again, probably a Republican - that once you are on the list you never get off. Someone else says that his friend opened his luggage to find a letter from the TSA saying that they did not appreciate his reading material. Before I go into the security lines, I find myself editing my possessions. In New York's LaGuardia, I reluctantly found myself putting a hardcover copy of Tara McKelvey's excellent Monstering, an expose of CIA interrogation practices, in a garbage can before I get in the security line; it is based on classified information. This morning at my hotel, before going to the airport, I threw away a very nice black T-shirt that said We Will Not be Silenced - with an Arabic translation - that someone had given me, along with a copy of poems written by detainees at Guantanamo. In my America we are not scared to get in line at the airport. In my America, we will not be silenced. More times than I can count, courageous and confident men who are telling me about speaking up, but who are risking what they see as the possible loss of job, home or the ability to pay for grown kids' schooling, start to choke up. Yesterday a woman in one gathering started to cry simply while talking about the degradation of her beloved country. And always the questions: what do we do? It is clear from this inundation of personal stories of abuse and retribution against ordinary Americans that a network of criminal behavior and intention is catching up more and more mainstream citizens in its grasp. It is clear that this is not democracy as usual - or even the corruption of democracy as usual. It is clear that
[Biofuel] Sunshine Laws to Track European Lobbyists
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14746 Sunshine Laws to Track European Lobbyists by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch October 11th, 2007 Cartoon by Khalil Bendib A lone tree stands at the traffic circle between the steel and glass office buildings of the European Parliament in Brussels. A sign below the tree, planted by the Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP), reads: Important issues must be resolved by discussion and decision, with determination, patience and dedication. In early October, a small group of activists charged that more than any of these virtues, it was money and secretly wielded influence that was deciding important issues. At a lunch-time protest, the activists covered the tree with dozens of yellow paper cut-outs of the Euro, and held up a sign of their own: End Lobbying Secrecy. The activists charge that powerful industry groups such as SEAP, which represents more than 200 corporate lobbyists, exert undue influence on European legislative decisions, operate in secret and avoid oversight. Nobody knows who's actually lobbying on behalf of whom, says Caroline Lucas, a British Member of the European Parliament (MEP), who came out the official buildings to join the activist protest. There's a massive corporate lobby here, but it's secretive and it has access to the Commission in a way that we, as parliamentarians, frankly can only dream of. There is no kind of register -- I think it is absolutely crucial. That's the only way to ensure that people have confidence in the system, in the decisions that are made here. The system now includes more than 15,000 lobbyists who work in Brussels to aggressively lobby the dozens of major European Union (EU) institutions that control tens of billions of Euros in funding as well decide the strict environmental, labor and financial rules that govern the 27 EU member countries. Some 90 percent of these lobbyists are believed to work on behalf of industry, with civil society groups such as environmentalists and trade unions making up less than ten percent. Together they spend an estimated 750 million Euros ($1 billion) a year to influence the European bureaucrats. European Union Institutions The 27 countries of the European Union together have a population of more than 494 million people, cover 4.5 million square kilometers and project a 2007 gross domestic product of 8.6 trillion Euros ($11 trillion). If the EU were one country, it would have the largest economy in the world. The European Union is governed by three bodies -- the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, all of which have offices in Brussels. - The European Commission is the executive branch of the European Union and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the EU. It is currently composed of 27 commissioners, one appointed from each member state. - The Council of the European Union is composed of the 27 national ministers responsible for the policy area being addressed, thus its exact membership shifts. For example, when discussing the agricultural policy the 27 national agriculture ministers form the Council. - The European Parliament has 785 members (MEPs) who are directly elected by EU citizens every five years. It is the weakest of the three bodies, and has traditionally largely played an advisory role. This roles is slowly strengthening, however, with the evolution of the European Union. An hour after the protest at the tree, the activists joined hundreds of staff and lobbyists at a parliamentary hearing room to listen to the first ever hearing on the regulation of lobbyists within the EU system. Representatives of companies ranging from Daimler-Chrysler, the car manufacturer, and Kraft, the processed food giant, squared off against consumer and environmental groups including Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen. The parliamentary hearing followed a March decision by the more powerful European Commission (which is the executive branch of the European Union, rather like the White House, see box) to begin maintaining a voluntary registry of lobbyists. Part of the European Transparency Initiative, voluntary registration is scheduled to begin in spring 2008. If it hasn't proven effective after a year, the Commission may consider compulsory registration. Estonian Siim Kallas, the commission's anti-fraud czar, who issued the European Transparency Initiative is a strong advocate for regulating the industry. Brussels and Washington are widely recognized as the two lobbying capitals of the world. In both places, legislation is being drafted affecting the lives and economic interests of hundreds of millions of citizens, he wrote in an op-ed for the February 6, 2006 Wall Street Journal. It'd be arrogant, and indeed a sign of ignorance, to claim that European politicians can't be corrupted. The Commission's transparency initiative also proposes
Re: [Biofuel] Something called nanodiesel what's the deal with this?
Doug, see this http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_April_27/ai_73706352 I worked on this project, in this field. It is entirely possible to break down carbonaceous materials in an oxygen free or deficient atmosphere, to gas, oil, and carbon. I never was a believer in the catalyst, I always thought it was hocus-pocus. It was never explained to me how it worked. At least theoretically, there is enough energy contained in the materials to create enough heat to break down, the material, and throw off additional oil/gas beyond what is required to operate the process. (someone was also doing this with turkey carcasses near a turkey processing plant). Think of it as burning a huge candle and continuing to pour off the liquid wax before it all burns. There is also a plant constructed in Japan which uses a high voltage arc plasma to de-polymerize material (garbage), and one proposed for a Florida site, to mine the landfill for fuel (waste to energy for a gas turbine electric generation site). -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of doug swanson Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2007 8:00 PM To: Biofuel List Subject: [Biofuel] Something called nanodiesel what's the deal with this? I'd like to get the opinions of those on this list, regarding the info on the following site: http://www.cleanenergyprojects.com/ from their first page: A new technology of global importance now offering unrivalled potential for energy recycling, waste management and optimized environmental protection is about to break through: CDP (CATALYTIC PRESSURE-LESS DEPOLYMERIZATION (OILING)) New crystalline catalysts combined with a highly innovative process technology now allow the competitive production of synthetic oil products directly from residual and biologically regenerating raw materials! The future way of economical production of high quality synthetic Diesel fuel: . After years of intensive catalyst and process research the breakthrough of reproducing the natural way of fossil oil production within a process duration turned down from hundreds of millions of years to now only 3 (three) minutes has finally become reality! . This causes the synthetic Diesel fuel NanoDieselT produced by this method to be fully competitive. . With most of the input materials the quality of the synthetic fuel produced by this new ground breaking method is even higher than that of regular Diesel fuel available at gas stations. . Cost per Gallon of Diesel produced between 0,52 0,58 US$ without Government subsidies. . Elimination of almost all environmental pollution through inorganic transformation of harmful substances into salts and crystals, based on the ion changing characteristics of the GP-Cat, our proprietary Catalyst. . For the first time this method now allows active environmental protection as well as optimized energy production from industrial residuals, waste and biologically regenerating raw materials in perfect combination and free of any conflicts. . Environmental protection as future leading sources of energy and job production -- Contentment comes not from having more, but from wanting less. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * All generalizations are false. Including this one. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This email is constructed entirely with OpenSource Software. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Something called nanodiesel what's the deal with this?
Andy Karpay wrote: Doug, see this http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_April_27/ai_73706352 I worked on this project, in this field. It is entirely possible to break down carbonaceous materials in an oxygen free or deficient atmosphere, to gas, oil, and carbon. I never was a believer in the catalyst, I always thought it was hocus-pocus. It was never explained to me how it worked. At least theoretically, there is enough energy contained in the materials to create enough heat to break down, the material, and throw off additional oil/gas beyond what is required to operate the process. (someone was also doing this with turkey carcasses near a turkey processing plant). Think of it as burning a huge candle and continuing to pour off the liquid wax before it all burns. There is also a plant constructed in Japan which uses a high voltage arc plasma to de-polymerize material (garbage), and one proposed for a Florida site, to mine the landfill for fuel (waste to energy for a gas turbine electric generation site). yes, I've seen similar, but the catalyst (proprietary material!) threw me off too. Wonder what magic stuff this is that makes their process unusual... doug -- Contentment comes not from having more, but from wanting less. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * All generalizations are false. Including this one. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This email is constructed entirely with OpenSource Software. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Green group attacks oil giant on climate research
Here is that online video on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IxE4OaP9Ow Grts Bruno M. ~~ At 11:13 14/10/2007, Keith wrote: www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14715 Green group attacks oil giant on climate research by Alison Benjamin, Guardian Unlimited September 26th, 2007 An environmental group today took aim at ExxonMobil with the launch of an online video attacking the oil giant's green credentials. The Exxon Files, from Friends of the Earth Europe, sets out claims that the US-based corporation funds climate change deniers in Europe and the US. The animated video, which spoofs the X-Files TV series, features two fictional agents - Deny Fully and Rexx Tiller, of the Federal Bureau of Inconvenience - who are hired by ExxonMobil to hide the truth about the negative environmental impact of its business. . cut .. === -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.14.10/1070 - Release Date: 14/10/2007 9:22 ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
