Arundhati Roy on “Democracy” and the state of the world

This is really too good for me to pick excerpts out of. It really expresses so much of what I believe is wrong with the world and to cut it up would diminish it. While focusing mainly on India, Arundhati Roy, author of the God of Small Things (a book I think is overrated since [...]

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Petition vs Nuweiba Power Plant

Strong Objection to the Nuweiba Power Plant Project in South Sinai planned by the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company and to be financed by the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank.
We kindly ask for to join us in combating a serious situation that is arising in Nuweiba!
We, and other investors, residents and workers in Nuweiba, [...]

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“Cairo, Divided City”

I figured this warranted its own post since it’s about the shift to the desert suburbs leaving the slums behind in old Cairo:

I like the sound and images, but i find the commentary to be mediocre. I think there’s much more to be said about this issue.

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Nonsense climate change denier

I dont have much time, but couldnt hold this back.
Climate change skeptics are a dime a dozen. Although they are indeed very wrong, it is their opinion and they’re entitled to it.
But talking nonsense is something completely different. Robert Skidelsky, apparently House of Lords member, tries to equate Al Gore with the likes of y2k [...]

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Human Development Report

The UN’s Human Development Report for this year is out and it focuses on, surprise surprise, climate change. Havent read it yet. But here’s the press release.

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Cairo Desert Sprawl

Here’s more (see previous posts) in FT on Cairo’s mushrooming into the desert. It looks at how both rich and poor have had to accommodate themselves in recent times.
I, however, disagree with this:
The development of exclusive estates represents a new phenomenon for the ancient city, as the rich and powerful seek seclusion in communities laid [...]

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Biofuels crime agaisnt humanity

According to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, biofuels are a crime against humanity. In a recently submitted report to the UN, he cites the use of food crops for conversion into biofuels as directly responsible for the world price increases. This comes in a year of unusually notable rises [...]

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1930s “Cairene Concerns”

Surfing the Web, i found this article on Cairo’s problems in the 30s from 2006 in the Ahram weekly. It’s part of their Ahram: A Diwan of Conteporary Life series. It’s funnysad how it’s all the same problems 70 years later.
Noise Pollution
The first manifestation of suffering Al-Ahram monitored was the “clamour of the streets”. [...]

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China: paper basket

Just read a report [pdf] issued by Forrest Trends, a sustainable forests non-profit. The report addresses the environmental implications of trends in China’s paper making industry. I was quite surprised to find that the report is actually mostly positive.
Over the decade since 1996 china has imported enormous amounts of wastepaper, particularly from the states that [...]

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Systematic Chaos and the Hand of God

The NYT has a piece about Cairo traffic by Michael Slackman. Some exerpts:
The traffic here, and the army of police officers who try to manage it, tell much about modern Egypt in ways big and small. The first seems to be that no matter how crowded, and it is beyond crowded, no matter how chaotic, [...]

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Democrats vs. Oil and Auto

I’ve been meaning to write something about recent energy and environment politics, especially in light of the G8 summit and all the recent unilateral initiatives from some of the worst polluting countries (eg US, China, Australia).  Unfortunately i dont have time.
I did, however want to point to the Democrats’ perhaps recent legislative pushes. They’re working [...]

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