Monday 13 April 2009

Piracy

Off topic for this blog but...

Is anyone else wondering why the Somalis have suddenly resorted to piracy? There is no tradition of piracy along that coast as far as I'm aware.

Could it be that their land is wasted by war and desertification and the seas are poisoned so that the local Somalis cannot support themselves by traditional fishing and farming? And so some are resorting to piracy - just as some are becoming economic migrants.

And yet the West is prepared to spend a fortune on the military to deal with the symptoms or piracy - and deal with the symptoms of illegal immigration - but is not prepared to provide aid to re-establish the local economy, or address desertification, or respond to the threat of climate change.

And it is worth noting that the US and French Special Forces killed pirates but we have no reports of the pirates actually killing anyone. Protection of property is obviously the priority.

And while I'm ranting - watch out to see if we get any reports of the 12 alleged terrorists siezed in the North West being released for lack of evidence. For some reason this doesn't seem nearly as newsworthy as the initial raid.

OK - got that off my chest...

Wednesday 8 April 2009

A late April Fool or what...

Tesco's - the company promising to bring an 'eco store' to Morpeth - has got a great new incentive for people to buy low energy light bulbs - they are giving extra airmiles away with every purchase! See Guardian OnLine

Either its a belated April Fool - or Tescos really just don't get it! Which does not bode well for their 'green' approach to a superstore on the edge of Morpeth.

And they are not the only organisation who just can't get to grips with what reducing carbon emissions is all about - let alone the sheer scale of what reductions are needed to avert irreversible climate change.

The whole "everyone doing their little bit" approach is simply not going to be enough - we need structural changes and we need a clearer understanding of what reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 really means.

Monday 6 April 2009

The Joys of Automated Translation

Proposals by major supermarkets to build in Morpeth are now international news - as witnessed by this blog entry. The auto-translation into English gives an unusual twist to the arguments (I particularly like Morpeth Bedroom of Switch...

'Giants Sainsbury’s and Tesco both penury to unsnap immense stores on the acrimony of Morpeth - where developers are currently edifice a flagship 26-unit, Edwardian-style shopping gallery at the bygone Sanderson Arcade in the burgh mid-point.

Now Morpeth bedchamber of switch has voiced fears that the supermarket plans could opprobrious the ascendancy of the burgh mid-point intrigue and critically jeopardise the town’s together monogram. Sainsbury’s recently staged a non-exclusive demonstration of its £30m plans destined for a 300-job, 35,000sqft foodstore on farmland at Stobhill. Tesco has submitted a planning utter to sculpture a 200-job, eco-friendly 20,000sqft co-op give credence to on Morpeth’s Coopies Lane industrial class - painstaking to the locate proposed at want Sainsbury’s.

Yesterday chairman Stuart Lishman said: “We paucity on the contrary look at Berwick, Alnwick and Hexham to consort with how anybody planning ascendancy breeds tons more, and also what the colliding on their burgh centres has been when confound after confound appears next door to the nonconformist supermarket.

Morpeth bedchamber of switch says the two companies father not made unsnap how tons jobs want be wrecked in the burgh mid-point as a effect of their projects, or commented on the cool colliding on existing businesses.

Morpeth bedchamber of switch has a impost to demand retail unfolding in the burgh mid-point, and a long-standing map out of adversary to out-of-town retail developments such as those proposed at want Tesco and Sainsbury.

“We be convinced of that such schemes want critically detract from the multi-million bray unfolding in a moment being carried abroad with the Sanderson Arcade intrigue. He said: “The mind-boggling talk has been that there is an high-priority need destined for a unripe supermarket, providing greater Вlite destined for burgh people. We unhesitatingly be convinced of that the together monogram of our burgh want be critically jeopardised if retail giants, whose on the contrary by reason of is profit, are allowed to sculpture their new warehouses on its disguise acrimony.”

Last Stygian Tesco corporate affairs executive, Doug Wilson, said its proposed Coopies Lane locate was the essential accessible destined for a unripe co-op give credence to. More than 80% of people who attended our demonstration said they were in forgiveness of our plans. In the meantime, shoppers want be prolonged to return Morpeth in their droves to go to Kingston Park, Ashington, Cramlington and Alnwick.'