United Civilians for Peace

Nieuwsbrief april 2009
Beste Lezers,

De recente ontwikkelingen in Oost-Jeruzalem zorgen voor steeds moeilijkere leefomstandigheden voor de Palestijnse gemeenschap, zij veroorzaken schendingen van mensenrechten in de stad en verkleinen de kans op het vormen van een levensvatbare Palestijnse staat. Onlangs heeft de EU Heads of Mission een rapport uitgebracht waarin de acties van Israël in en rondom Oost-Jeruzalem één van de grootste uitdagingen worden genoemd voor het bereiken van een vredesovereenkomst tussen Israël en de Palestijnen. Het rapport concludeert dat de feiten op de grond, waaronder nieuwe nederzettingen, de bouw van de muur, het vernietigen van huizen, het sluiten van Palestijnse instellingen en het systeem van vergunningen, de Joods-Israëlische aanwezigheid in Oost-Jeruzalem versterkt en de Palestijnse gemeenschap in de stad verzwakt. Hierdoor raakt Oost-Jeruzalem steeds meer geïsoleerd van de rest van de Westelijke Jordaanoever. In het dossier Jeruzalem op onze website (www.unitedcivilians.nl/jeruzalem) vindt u naast deze en andere rapporten, ook artikelen, meer informatie en onze factsheet over Jeruzalem.

Op 10 mei zal Farid Esack, een vermaarde Zuid-Afrikaanse theoloog en mensenrechtenactivist, een open brief op de Muur bij Ramallah plaatsen. Op verzoek van Stichting www.sendamessage.nl schreef hij deze brief. De brief telt 1998 woorden en zal ruim 2600 meter lang worden. In de open brief betoogt Esack dat de situatie van de Palestijnen schrijnender is dan ooit in Zuid Afrika onder apartheid het geval was. Voor een bijdrage van 20 euro kunt u 1,5 meter van deze open brief sponsoren. Meer informatie vindt u op www.sendamesage.nl/the-longest-letter.

In 2007 reisde Ali B met UCP naar Israël en de bezette Palestijnse gebieden. Ali zag met eigen ogen hoe het is om daar te leven, vooral voor de kinderen. Filmmaker Jasper Faber volgde Ali op de voet en maakte er een prachtige documentaire over. ‘In de schaduw van de zon’ laat zien hoe het leven doorgaat, ondanks het geweld, de muur en de bezetting. Een film voor iedereen die verder wil kijken dan het dagelijkse nieuws en die net als Ali wil zien hoe het leven is, in de schaduw van de zon. De documentaire is op onze website en het YouTube kanaal van SPEC, het management van Ali B, te zien. Ook is de documentaire binnenkort voor 10,- euro te koop bij UCP. Heeft u interesse in het aanschaffen van de DVD, stuur dan een email naar dienstencentrum@unitedcivilians.nl, dan krijgt u zo snel mogelijk meer informatie over de bestelprocedure.

Webredactie
United Civilians for Peace

NIEUWS Grenspost Rafah

A New Report from Gisha and Physicians For Human Rights-Israel Reveals: Who is Really Closing Rafah Crossing?
A new report on Rafah Crossing and the parties involved in its closure was published by Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel). The report "Rafah Crossing: Who Holds the Keys?" dispels the fog concerning responsibility for Rafah Crossing, answering the question, who is really responsible for the closure of Rafah Crossing – and therefore for the violation of the rights of Gaza residents.
After almost two years of a nearly hermetic closure and following a military operation which left behind thousands of victims and caused immense destruction, all parties involved continue to deny responsibility and claim that the opening of Rafah Crossing will be resolved through political negotiations. In light of the current political deadlock, Gisha and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel demand that all the parties controlling Rafah Crossing – Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Egypt – end this futile political game and take immediate and concrete action to open the crossing. All the parties concerned bear an obligation to rise above their narrow interests and to respect the rights of 1.5 million people being used as pawns in political negotiations.
Lees het hele bericht op onze website.

NIEUWS Zware druk

World Council of Churches: Israëlische bezetting legt zware druk op Palestijnse christenen
Churches around the world must speak out and act for justice in Israel and Palestine, church leaders told members of an ecumenical delegation visiting the region from March 7 to 14.
Members of the delegation – a Living Letters team visiting on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) – learned of the many ways in which churches in the region cooperate to provide social services and advocate for peace and justice. But as the already low Palestinian Christian population continues to dwindle, and life becomes increasingly difficult for Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation, the work of churches is coming under strain, and support is desperately needed, the delegation was told.
Lees het hele bericht op onze website.

NIEUWS Opiniepeiling onder Palestijnse jongeren

UN: 70% of Palestinian youth oppose violence to resolve conflict with Israel
Nearly 70 percent of Palestinian young adults believe the use of violence to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not very helpful, according to a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) study released Tuesday. Only 8 percent believe violence is an important tool, the study, based on interviews with 1,200 Palestinians over the age of 17 in the West Bank and Gaza. The study also found out that more than 80 percent of young Palestinians are depressed, and 47 percent identify themselves as Muslim rather than Palestinian. It found that 39 percent were "extremely" depressed and 42 percent were depressed by their conditions. Depression was more marked in the Gaza Strip where 55 per cent said they were "extremely" depressed.
Lees het hele bericht op onze website.

NIEUWS Brief Palestijnse mensenrechtenorganisaties

Letter from Palestinian human rights organizations to the Palestinian political parties and factions involved in the Cairo diplomatic talks
Leaders and representatives of Palestinian political factions, parties, and movements,
Based on our faith in our national, moral, and legal responsibility and recognizing our duty to work towards building and strengthening the democratic edifice of the prospective Palestinian State – which must be grounded on political, intellectual and cultural pluralism; on the principle of peaceful succession of power; on promotion of the values of justice, equity, tolerance, and equality; on respect for human rights and freedoms; on the right of all Palestinians to security and safety; and on application of the rule of law without any undue discrimination – we, the undersigned Palestinian human rights organizations, hereby and articulate our demands of the Palestinian political authorities for measures to be taken in order to overcome the pains and agonies of the crisis generated by internal fragmentation and conflict.
Lees het hele bericht op onze website.

NIEUWS Burgerinitiatief

Burgerinitiatief tegen de Muur zoekt vrijwilligers
Het burgerinitiatief "Sloop de Muur" is op zoek naar vrijwilligers die willen helpen met het verzamelen van steunbetuigingen. Het initiatief roept de regering en de Tweede Kamer op om Israël daadwerkelijk te houden aan de uitspraak van het Internationale Gerechtshof uit 2004. Volgens deze uitspraak is de bouw van de Muur in strijd met het internationale recht.
De Tweede Kamer heeft het burgerinitiatief als inspraakinstrument ingevoerd in 2006. Wanneer 40.000 handtekeningen worden verzameld over een onderwerp, is de Tweede Kamer verplicht om hierover een debat te houden. De Tweede Kamer wordt door de indieners verzocht een besluit te nemen. Alleen kiesgerechtigden, dus Nederlanders van 18 jaar of ouder, mogen hun steun verlenen aan een burgerinitiatief.
Lees het hele bericht op onze website.

NIEUWS Bisschoppen

Jerusalem bishop visits Gaza five weeks after being denied entry by Israeli authorities
Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani, Greek Catholic Archbishop Elias Chacour and Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan were granted permission to enter Gaza March 10 to make a pastoral visit to the Al Ahli Arab Hospital, an institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. Dawani and Younan had both been denied entry into Gaza by Israeli authorities on February 4 despite having been informed that their request for permits had been granted.
While Israel withdrew its military and settlers from Gaza in 2005, it continues to maintain control over entry into the Palestinian territory via land, air, and sea. A March 10 press release from the U.S. Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., said the bishops had been denied entry because they "are legal residents of the State of Israel," adding that "Israeli citizens and legal residents are prohibited from entering the Gaza Strip for security reasons and out of concern for their safety."
Lees het hele bericht op onze website.

NIEUWS Oproep

Oproep aan Ban Ki-Moon: onderzoek schendingen internationaal recht tijdens Gaza-oorlog
A 16-strong group of the world's most experienced investigators and judges have today (16 March) called for a full international investigation into alleged abuses of international law during the recent Gaza conflict. The call, supported by Amnesty International, is made in an open letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as all members of the UN Security Council. The letter comes at a time when a UN Board of Inquiry is expected to report to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, on its initial findings regarding attacks on UN facilities and personnel in the region.
The new letter stresses the need for an investigation into 'all serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by all parties to the conflict'. It argues that the UN investigation 'should not be limited only to attacks on UN facilities'. The signatories - who have led investigations of crimes committed in former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Darfur, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, East Timor, Lebanon and Peru - say that they have been 'shocked to the core' by events in Gaza. The signatories argue that they 'have seen at first hand the importance of investigating the truth and delivering justice for the victims of conflict and believe it is a precondition to move forward and achieve peace in the Middle East'.
Lees het hele bericht op onze website.

NIEUWS Langste open brief

Sponsor de langste open brief op de Muur
Op 10 mei 2009 wordt op de Muur tussen Israël en Palestina een Open Brief gesprayd. Verwachte lengte: 2700 meter. De brief - een essay, in feite - is geschreven door de Zuid-Afrikaanse theoloog en mensenrechtenactivist Farid Esack. Hij schreef deze Open Brief op verzoek van de Stichting www.sendamessage.nl.
Het doel van de monumentale Open Brief is om in de media en de politiek aandacht te vragen voor de situatie van de Palestijnen. De toestand in de bezette Gebieden wordt door Farid Esack beschreven als erger dan ooit in Zuid Afrika onder apartheid het geval was. Esack streeft naar een geweldloze, vreedzame oplossing maar eist tegelijk dat - eindelijk - de harde feiten worden gezien en erkend.
Het project www.sendamessage.nl/de-langste-open-brief (het sprayen van de brief, organisatie, bouw van de site, afhandeling) krijgt geen externe subsidie en is geheel afhankelijk van individuele sponsors. Bij volledige sponsoring verwachten wij rond 60% van de opbrengst te kunnen besteden aan kleinschalige sociale projecten in Palestina.
Lees verder op onze website.

WEBLOG Sterven

Rituelen
Vanochtend vroeg een ongeluk vlak voor onze deur. Ik zie het gebeuren terwijl Tamer en ik aan de overkant van de straat op de schoolbus wachten. Een meisje op weg naar school sprong losjes de straat op omdat voor haar een auto op de stoep stond geparkeerd. Ze werd door een langsrijdende auto geschept. De politie was er gelijk, met zijn tienen (we hebben hier in het algemeen teveel, niet te weinig politie). De ambulance kwam een paar minuten later, maar het meisje kon gelukkig alweer opstaan, kwam met de schrik vrij. Ik herinner me dat Jara eens zo op straat sprong, toen ze een jaar of vijf was. Dat was toen onmiddellijk na de uitgaansverboden van 2002-3. Soms waren deze niet zo strikt en de kinderen gingen dan op de autoloze wegen spelen. Jara was dat zo gewend dat ze erna de straat niet meer met “gevaar” associeerde. Ze liet op een gegeven moment mijn hand los en liep de straat op zonder uit te kijken. Gelukkig kwam ook zij met de schrik vrij.
Lees deze en eerdere weblogs door Toine van Teeffelen op onze website.

ARTIKEL Vooruitzichten

Dim prospects for peace
By Wafa Amr
Benjamin Netanyahu's noncommittal attitude toward Palestinian independence and the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister is a problem for those seeking a two-state solution.
The United States is at a loss as to how to deal with Netanyahu and his rightist coalition. U.S. President Barack Obama, determined to part from the policies of his predecessor George W. Bush, who stalled on peace-making in this region, appointed George Mitchell his peace envoy two days after taking office. His hopes for early engagement were dashed. Not only is Obama facing Israeli evasiveness on the two-state solution, he is uncertain what type of Palestinian government he will be dealing with - if moderate Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad insists on resigning to make way for a unity government that may or may not be committed to PLO-Israel peace deals.
Lees het hele artikel op onze website.

ARTIKEL Hamas en Fatah

Rule now, liberate later
By Amira Hass
In Cairo, representatives of the Palestinian parties have discussed the threshold of votes required for representation on the Palestinian Legislative Council. The party that is considered the strongest, Hamas, wants a high threshold and threw out the figure of 8 percent, to the shock of members of one of the smaller parties. In Fatah, a ruling party that has known the taste of defeat, opinions were mixed: Some preferred a relatively high threshold (4 percent) in the hope that it would force the smaller factions within the PLO to run on a unified list with Fatah in democratic elections. Most of the Fatah representatives favor a lower number, however. Meanwhile, the rival leaderships are acting as if they operate within a sovereign country rather than in split and isolated territories under foreign domination.
Lees het hele artikel op onze website.
ARTIKEL Moreel rechtschapen leger

IDF ceased long ago being 'most moral army in the world'
By Gideon Levy
What shock, what consternation. Haaretz revealed grave accounts by officers and soldiers describing the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman was quick to respond that the IDF had no prior or supporting information about the events in question, the defense minister was quick to respond that "the IDF is the most moral army in the world," and the military advocate general said the IDF would investigate.
All these propagandistic and ridiculous responses are meant not only to deceive the public, but also to offer shameless lies. The IDF knew very well what its soldiers did in Gaza. It has long ceased to be the most moral army in the world. Far from it - it will not seriously investigate anything.
Lees het hele artikel op onze website.

ARTIKEL Graffiti in Gaza

The writing on the wall
By Amira Hass
We came to annihilate you; Death to the Arabs; Kahane was right; No tolerance, we came to liquidate. This is a selection of graffiti Israeli soldiers left on the walls of Palestinians' homes in Gaza, which they turned into bivouacs and firing positions during Operation Cast Lead. Here and there, a soldier scribbled a line of mock poetry or biblical quote in the same sentiment. There were also curses on the Prophet Mohammed and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, along with shift schedules and favorite soccer teams.
When the homes' owners returned, they usually found widespread devastation - whether from the first shells the Israel Defense Forces fired to chase away the inhabitants, or from break-ins and the destruction of furniture, clothing, walls, computers and appliances. Frequently the breached homes remained standing in a neighborhood whose other houses were turned into rubble by bulldozers. The residents also found the trash the soldiers left behind.
Lees het hele artikel op onze website.

ARTIKEL Oorlogsmisdaden

Israel’s war crimes
By Richard Falk, Le Monde diplomatique
Calls for investigation into Gaza attacks
Israel blamed its earlier wars on the threat to its security, even that against Lebanon in 1982. However, its assault on Gaza was not justified and there are international calls for an investigation. But is there the political will to make Israel account for its war crimes?
For the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948 the government is facing serious allegations of war crimes from respected public figures throughout the world. Even the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, normally so cautious about offending sovereign states – especially those aligned with its most influential member, the United States – has joined the call for an investigation and potential accountability. To grasp the significance of these developments it is necessary to explain what made the 22 days of attacks in Gaza stand shockingly apart from the many prior recourses to force by Israel to uphold its security and strategic interests.
Lees het hele artikel op onze website.

KIJKTIP Geen geld voor Gaza

Aflevering ZEMBLA, 8 maart 2009
In Gaza filmde ZEMBLA de verwoestingen van de oorlog en zag dat de anjers van het door Nederland betaalde bloemenproject gevoerd worden aan de schapen. Door de blokkade kan er niks in en niks uit Gaza. De bevolking leeft in armoede en scholen en ziekenhuizen worden keer op keer vernield. Afgelopen week beloofde de wereld 3,5 miljard euro aan de Palestijnen. In Zembla de vraag of al die hulp aan de Palestijnen wel helpt. Houdt het niet juist de erbarmelijke situatie van de Palestijnen in stand?
Meer informatie op de website van ZEMBLA.
MEDIATHEEK

Nieuw in de bibliotheek van UCP:

● Hamas and its positions towards Israel, Floor Janssen (Clingendael), 2009
● Geen geld voor Gaza, aflevering van ZEMBLA, 8 maart 2009

Al onze boeken en dvd’s kunnen uitgeleend worden. Als u één of meerdere van onze boeken wilt lenen, kunt u het uitleenformulier ingevuld naar ons opsturen. Wij zorgen dan dat het materiaal naar u wordt opgestuurd.

AGENDA

11 maart
– 24 april

Expositie ‘Building bridges not walls’, Arnhem

3 mei

CD ruilbeurs Music for Gaza. Heerlen

16 mei

Discussiebijeenkomst met Ali Abunimah en Steven Friedman, Amsterdam

Bekijk voor meer informatie de agenda op onze website.

STEUN UCP

Wilt u het werk van UCP steunen? Dat kan door middel van een donatie op rekeningnummer 67.67.61.046, t.n.v. Stichting ICCO te Utrecht, onder vermelding van ‘donatie UCP’.

The Empire 434

Our Common Purpose
by: Pat Williams, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

For almost fifty years, we Americans held common purpose with our government. From the early 1930's and Franklin D. Roosevelt through seven presidents, people believed that aggressive government made a positive difference in their lives. That belief was shared by both Republican and Democratic administrations. Eisenhower created the massive, job-producing interstate highway system; Nixon enacted vigorous federal wage and price controls to slow near-rampant inflation, encouraged the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and clean air and water; Ford, in his shortened term, vigorously negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty - SALT II. Under Democratic Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter, Americans embraced federal efforts from The New Deal through The New Frontier. Those efforts, astonishing in their boldness and success, created the American middle class, held the Wall Street money changers at bay, spread freedom around the world, and vastly improved educational attainment for our citizens.

However, during the past twenty-eight years, Americans have found themselves oddly separated from their own government. We have become timid about the uses of government. Beginning on January 21, 1981, when, in his inaugural address, President Reagan assured us the government was the problem, we began to doubt and later distrust government. Both Democrats and Republicans began to both campaign against and belittle the very government they led. Even while trying to appropriately expand the government's efforts to improve our lives, President Clinton cleverly but falsely assured a joint session of the US Congress that "the era of big government is over."

From Reagan through both Presidents Bush, the federal government has refused to keep pace with our nation's growing domestic needs, and for a time that drift was supported by a majority of our citizens. The results are now obvious: crumbling infrastructure, including collapsing bridges; an antiquated railroad system; dangerous sewer systems; lack of health care coverage; levies and dikes that can't contain either the spring runoff of our rivers or the fury of hurricanes. And, as is now so tragically obvious, our federal government quietly watched as unregulated Wall Street and corrupt money managers ran amuck.
Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/040709N?print

De Israelische Terreur 826

Israel’s Arab students are crossing to Jordan

Jonathan Cook, Foreign Correspondent
The National

NAZARETH // Obstacles to Israel’s Arab minority participating in higher education have resulted in a record number of Arab students taking up places at universities in neighbouring Jordan, a new report reveals.

Figures compiled by Dirasat, a Nazareth-based organisation monitoring education issues, show 5,400 Arab students from Israel are at Jordanian universities – half the number of Arabs studying in Israel itself.

Despite the fact that most Israeli Arab students in Jordan interviewed by the researchers expressed a preference to attend university in Israel, the numbers heading to Jordan have grown four-fold since 2004.

College-age Arabs, representing nearly one-quarter of their age group in Israel, are heavily under-represented in Israeli higher education, at about eight per cent of the student intake, according to official statistics. Of those Israelis who pass their matriculation exams, three times as many Jews as Arabs are accepted into Israeli universities.

“Our findings should raise serious questions about the hurdles that have been put in the way of Arab students that make them feel they have no choice but to study abroad,” said Yousef Jabareen, a law professor at Haifa University and head of Dirasat.

Typical of the new exodus is Haneen Bader, 23, from the village of Turan in the Lower Galilee, who is in her third year studying Islamic jurisprudence at Jordan University in the capital, Amman.

Dirasat’s researchers were surprised to find that nearly one-third of all Israeli Arab students in Jordan are women. “We live in a patriarchal society and women are still usually expected to remain close to the family home until they marry,” said Dr Jabareen.

But, he added, good travel links between Amman and the Galilee – and a shared language and culture – made regular visits to Jordan a practical and inexpensive option for Israel’s 1.2 million Arab citizens.

Ms Bader said she was the first member of her family to study outside Israel but that, after initial doubts, her parents were won over when they saw the campus. “Now they very much approve of my decision.”
Lees verder: http://www.jkcook.net/Articles2/0386.htm#Top

De Israelische Terreur 825

A pressing problem: paranoia and power
USA must abandon Israel’s destructive paranoia
By Paul J. Balles

Paul J. Balles argues that, rather than allow Israel’s self-inflicted paranoia lead it further along the path of destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States should take a long hard look at its own policies and “leave Israel to its sickness”.

"Paranoia is a social disease – you get it from screwing other people." – Paul Brodeur

Today, America is involved in an illegal "war" and a pre-emptive pregnancy. Everyone now knows that the invasion and occupation of Iraq were, and still are, based on a fraudulent attempt to capitalize on 9/11.

Everyone (who pays attention to politics) knows that the weapons of mass destruction excuse for invading Iraq was a fraud, making the entire murderous exercise even more illegal than a defensive war would be.

The only thing America and the UK were defending by invading Iraq was the vague possibility that sometime in the distant future Iraq, under Saddam Hussain or another leader like him, could pose a WMD threat to Israel.

Let's face it, Israel is paranoid. According to Canadian Mordecai Richler, Jewish paranoia has become a natural phenomenon. As he expressed it, "Coming from Canada, being a writer and Jewish as well, I have impeccable paranoia credentials."

Many will argue that Israelis have a perfect right to be paranoid, based on their experiences with persecution and genocide. However, that does not give Israel the right to exercise its paranoid reactions against Gaza or transmit its national disease to America.

America is also engaged in a war in Afghanistan which was justified enough by 9/11 to conjure up the support of the UN and military troops from other Western countries.

Based on fear stemming from 9/11, America was supposed to go after Bin-Laden. With all of the combined military might and infusions of money into Afghanistan and Pakistan, the US-led forces still haven't been able to rout a sick old bearded financier out of his caves or hideouts.

Now, out of the same fear, President Obama is going to increase the troops and military costs for a still undefined end result. The only predictable outcome will be a massive increased recruiting opportunity for jihadism throughout the Muslim world.

This only increases the likelihood of another 9/11, fuelling American paranoia. If the US would honestly admit that 9/11 might have been provoked by the actions of the American government, it would have to admit that there is no plausible excuse for remaining in either Afghanistan or Iraq at any troop level.
Lees verder: http://www.redress.cc/americas/pjballes20090409

Het Neoliberale Geloof 427

BURNING OUR BRIDGES TO THE 21ST CENTURY,
By Dmitry Orlov
Reprinted from ENERGY BULLETIN

The future does not resemble the past – or does it? When the lights go
out, people burn candles and oil lamps, just like they used to before the
electric grid came into existence. No longer accustomed to working with
open flame, they tend to set things on fire, and for a while, until they
regain this experience or until natural selection whittles away the truly
incompetent, the neighborhood is a constant blaze.

When we find out that the supermarket is out of food and that the cupboard
is bare, we hunt, fish, forage, plant kitchen gardens, and start
experimenting with raising poultry and rabbits. Those who are incapable of
doing so, or who feel that such lowly pursuits are beneath their dignity,
become dependent on the charity of those who are more adaptable, or starve.

As modernity runs out of resources (those photons sequestered eons ago in
fossil form, now released as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere) patterns
of life naturally retreat to their pre-modern forms. If there are no more
sneakers from China, we sew moccasins or whittle clogs. If we are
resource-poor but resourceful, we can still weave basket-like shoes out of
birch bark, stuffed with straw for insulation, called lapti. If we are
truly destitute and feckless to boot, then we go barefoot.

It seems commonsense to accept this reversion to norm as natural, and to
strive to have enough of whatever we are going to need, be it tools for
working leather, a stock of paraffin, seeds, fishing tackle, and a myriad
of other similar items that comprised the pre-industrial survival kit. The
last thing we should want to do is to throw these things away at first sign
of economic distress and for trivial reasons. And yet that seems to be the
prevailing pattern.
Lees verder: http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/1058/1/

Het Neoliberale Geloof 426

The unbearable lightness of information

This decade was the one that was supposed to usher in the era when bits and
bytes would replace tons and barrels as the measure of what an economy
does. The information economy would eclipse the economy of blast furnaces
and railcars.

The allure of such an economy is that it was said to be less resource
intense, less driven by the high-amplitude economic cycles of the
industrial economy, and more driven by the need for and efficient use of
information, something that is always in demand. It turned out not to be
so. The tech bust of the early part of this decade highlighted the
vulnerability of the so-called information economy to cyclical forces and
also the reliance of that economy on the more substantial physical economy.

We mistake the lightness of electrons and the vaporous nature of the
information that rides on them for the lightness of the entire economy
behind them. Every person who works in the so-called information sector of
the economy must be housed, clothed, schooled, provided transportation,
provisioned with household goods, given opportunities for entertainment and
recreation, supplied with a wide array of public services, and...well, you
get the idea. And, much of the manufacturing economy which previously
provided employment in the United States and other industrialized nations
has simply shifted to China and other low-cost locales. As it turns out,
one of the main tasks of the information economy is to direct and manage
the resulting global logistical system, a system that continues to bear
down with its ever increasing weight on the landscape and the environment.

Howard Odum, the great pioneer in understanding energy flows in nature and
society, understood that information, far from being a feathery presence in
society, is actually its most resource- and energy-intensive output except
for the natural process of species formation.
Lees verder: http://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2009/04/unbearable-lightness-of-information.html

Oil 53

Receding Horizons for Alternative Energy Supplies

When energy optimists tout the huge supply of oil that is still available
to us in the form of tar sands and oil shale, they forget to mention that
costs are rising so quickly for producing that oil that these alternative
sources may prove to be of limited value. The same cost problems are
occurring in the renewable energy field as well. What is behind this
phenomenon sometimes referred to as the problem of receding horizons?

Those who claim that we will have plenty of energy and perhaps enough oil
for a hundred years or more have so far failed to understand why the rising
price of oil is making it more difficult both to extract new sources of oil
and to deploy renewable energy from wind and solar.

First, it is helpful to understand how complex energy systems actually
work. For this task we turn to the humble tree which gathers energy in ways
that are very much like those of human societies. The leaves on the top of
the tree quite obviously gather more sunshine than those below. So, why do
trees bother with all those leaves which only get partial sunlight? The
answer is that trees are not merely trying to obtain maximum energy gain
per leaf, but maximum energy gain for their whole structure. The best way
to do this is for the leaves at the top to support the leaves below with an
energy subsidy. The result is a total energy gain larger than that which
the leaves at the top could ever achieve on their own.

This pattern is seen throughout natural systems. Those systems try to
maximize their energy gain in order to increase their survivability and
reproduction. So, how do human societies maximize energy gain? They
diversify by providing an energy subsidy to incremental energy sources.
That subsidy comes primarily from our most widely available and versatile
energy source, oil.

Oil provides cheap liquid fuels used to explore for coal, natural gas and
uranium. In the cases of coal and uranium, liquid petroleum fuels are
essential to run the mining machinery which extracts them. These fuels are
also essential for the transport of coal and uranium ore to processing
facilities and finally to their places of use.
Lees verder: http://www.scitizen.com/stories/Future-Energies/2008/09/Receding-Horizons--for-Alternative-Energy-Supplies/