Blogging from the Bog

   A hearty "Congratulations!" and "Well done!" to all the Irish bloggers out there!  You’re an eclectic, energetic, and creative assortment of talented writers, photographers, and essayists who make the blogosphere all the more interesting and informative by your contributions. Go raibh maith agat!

   This Saturday a celebration of Irish blogging will be held in Dublin to highlight all who participate in this activity that combines technology and free speech.  Everyone who reads, writes, or promotes this form of freedom of expression should be complimented for their efforts and you are all champions in my book.

   The awards for blogging are few but the rewards are many.  Blogs can inform, entertain, and stimulate public awareness as a result of personal involvement, of sharing experiences, and of encouraging dialogue.  Every time you hit the "publish" button you are doing us all a favour!  Having an "Awards Night" is a great idea to create publicity for this medium and to show appreciation for everyone who feels blogging is an important means of communication.  Everyone who participates in blogging is a winner!

   The Irish Blog Awards have dedicated organisers, judges, and sponsors who will make this celebration a great success.  Of the many categories and amongst a bevy of bloggers and blogettes, I was lucky enough to squeek by and be included on the Best Newcomer list.  What a treat! The Public Relations company of Edelman Dublin is sponsoring this category and the following blogs have been shortlisted: A Pint of Unionist Lite, All Parts Included, Coffee Helps, Irish Taxi, John Braine, K8 the Gr8, Midget Wrangler, Nick here and now, One for the Road, 73man, and the friendly farmer.  What an illustrious group to be in the company of!  Best wishes to all of you! 

   The people of Chad are among the most destitute on earth, eighty percent survive on under a dollar a day.  The Sudanese refugees, fleeing Darfur into eastern Chad, have even less and their numbers have swelled to over 250,000.  It is a noble effort to try and provide for these displaced victims, and tonight Ireland will send the first of it’s military contingent to help in this mission.

   The European Union and the United States are Chad’s largest trading partners.  Until 2004 the largest export commodity for Chad was cotton, that has changed because of heavy investment in untapped oil reserves that began in 2000, and now oil is the basis for it’s largest revenue.  In neighbouring Sudan, who are also awash with oil, their major trading partner is China who supplies weapons for oil.  Africa has vast amounts of valuable natural resources and they are controlled by the least stable governments.

   Chad has the fastest growing economy on earth due to their sudden oil production.  With these revenues President Deby is building his military capabilities to solidify his power.  Chad spends 4.2% of GDP on weapons procurement and military enhancement, compared to Ireland’s 0.9%, the UK’s 2.4%, and France’s 2.6%, it is an extremely high amount considering the needs of the population.  France’s role in the region has been questioned and they are accused of flying in arms for Deby’s regime from Libya, the United States has Navy S.E.A.L.’s training the dictators troops, and the funding comes from the Trans Saharan Counter Terrorism Partnership, what exactly are we getting involved with?

   The EUFOR commitment to Chad and the Central African Republic is sanctioned by a UN mandate and has been strictly interpreted as a peace enforcing mission.  Was our involvement mandated by the EU or did Bertie Ahern volunteer the Irish forces?  Why isn’t the location for peaceful intervention within the borders of Darfur as suggested by Edward Horgan, COMDT (ret)?  The Irish Army Rangers are trained and equipped for confrontation; but, there are serious questions afoot that need answering.

   The Internet, as a source of information, has given us unprecedented access to a variety of material.  How we analyse and interpret this data is unique to each individual.  In some rare cases the enormous potential of stored documents can be retrieved, assembled, and presented for the consumption and criticism of millions.  The only stumbling block of course is apathy.

   The best example found yet of the greatest potential for the internet has to be in the research done by Paul Thompson.  Paul was an environmental researcher who was well adept to hunting things down online.  When he spotted anomolies or contradictory evidence in his field it would peak his interest and he would endeavour to get all the facts he could find.  Such was the case when he did some investigating outside of his work related field.  He objectively began to accumulate information online from news sources thoughout the world and presented this documentation, without commentary, to all that would listen.  He didn’t need to make any subjective representation of the data, the conspiracy theorists did that for him.  Paul presents his research in this video of what he gleaned from the mainstream media.

   Ciaran, in his blog, has some comments about the futility of internet usage and the complacency it creates.  Denis is sounding the alarm, is anyone listening?  Branedy raises the ultimate question.  Mick Hall over at Organized Rage speculates on security and the deterioration of civil rights.  These bloggers and many many others are bringing forth bits and pieces of information about how our world has changed and how it continues to change.  How on earth can all this material be assembled, analysed, and presented in a rational way for the common good?  That is the future challenge of the Internet user.

   All the legal requirements are in place, psychologically we are ready, and the hardware is available.  If I was the Grand Poobah of the Illuminati I would surmise that the time is ripe for a catastrophic event, before the US general election, to complete the task that the conspiracy theorists have been warning us about.

   French President Nicolas Sarkozy seems to understand the new EU Treaty Referendum as a way to create an elite army.  This "hard core" group would consist of France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Poland and Italy, these countries would commit to boosting their military spending to 2% of GDP and carry out combined security and intelligence tasks.

   The provision within the Treaty allows for a "permanent structured co-operation" among states to legalize military projects.  The French and Dutch voters rejected this referendum in 2005.  They are not allowed to vote this time as all other European countries, with the exception of Ireland, have usurped the people’s power to have a say in the Lisbon Treaty.

   Sarkozy feels confident that the Treaty will be passed and plans are underway to initiate this program in 2009 according to Lucia Kubosova at the EU Observer.

   One thing is certain, there is a lot of information on the Internet, and for every byte of data there is a shyte of data.  Perusing through the nonsense to get to what you are searching for is getting harder all the time.  The majority of material is entertainment, why should the Net news, covered by the corporate providers, be any different than the conventional outlets?

   The Internet has started out as television did in the early days, the next "best thing", transmitting items of importance far and wide.  TV began as an inclusionary media in which all were connected by a life-line of meaningful material.  Information about events could be beamed across the globe for the benefit of the masses.  Somewhere along the line it has become a hypnotic waste of time.  Is that the future of the Internet too?

   There is a cohesiveness implied, but not necessarily evident, in the usage of the Web.  Being "online" is like being an adventurer in the modern age, searching, looking, and sometimes discovering; but, like a quest of old it is a solitary or singular conviction.  There is great potential within this concept of communication and optimism is abundant.  Will the Internet be a fragmented and disjointed playground for the populace, or will it be a collective endeavour to further the greater consciousness of the global community?

   It seems we can expect a campaign of fear in the upcoming debate on the pro’s and con’s of the EU Treaty Referendum.  Dick Roche, TD and European Affairs Minister, will be spearheading the governments propaganda onslaught, it appears, with the remarks he came out with a few hours ago.

   In the past two weeks he has predicted a two-to-one YES vote for the referendum to be passed in Ireland, and has mentioned our indebtedness to Europe for our recent economic successes.  Today however he has come right out and said that our economy would suffer greatly and we would be "damaging" our standing within the European Union if the government fails to get the Irish people onboard.  In this Press Association article he is given credit for saying the new booklet launched today is "clear and unbiased".  Isn’t it a bit hypocritical to say that in light of the fact that he also says that a NO vote "could spark job losses"?

   All this before we have even seen page one of any information whatsoever on the referendum or have even heard of when it will be held.  The best guess is mid-to-late June.  The website Free Europe is hosting a poll, or online "mock election", in which just under 1500 people have cast their votes.  There is a resounding turnout so far in the YES camp that shows 86% want the referendum passed.  The poll is broken down by country, gender, and several age brackets.

   Since Ireland is the only country that matters in this poll and the actual referendum, as we are the only people in the EU to get the opportunity to voice our choice, I looked at the results for the votes cast from here.  Amazing!  Use the button below to see the results and to cast a vote while you are there.                                                                                                                                                               YES? or NO?  You have the vote!

   The ongoing discussions concerning global warming, peak oil, and sustainability come to us in a variety of mediums and by a plethora of experts, many of whom cannot agree and some hold completely opposing views to one another.  They talk about carbon footprints, carbon credits, conservation, and the adverse effects of globalisation.  Food miles is a calculation of how much petroleum it takes to get Brazilian bananas or Spanish strawberries to your breakfast table.  We are inundated with information, opinions, and predictions, is there any way to make any sense of all this?  Who do we believe, who can we trust? 

   It is a good policy to try to get to the core, the essence, of a situation in order to find the truth.  With so much data available where can we begin?  Why not begin with yourself?  You are a bright and intelligent person.  If you were to avail yourself of a logical, systematic, and irrefutable method of divining the truth out of a myriad of conjecture and hyberbole you would have the power of discerning the data into useable material by which you could draw your own informed conclusions.  You do not need to be told by others if you think for yourself, believe in your decision making, and trust your instincts.

   Our energy usage, and our natural resources, and the concepts to conserve or sustain their availability is a hot political topic.  It is discussed daily in every country.  It was also important enough for the UN Secretary General to highlight the problems, that shortages can cause, at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last month.  He asserted that "conflicts over scarce supplies" were triggered in areas of the Middle East and Africa, and that it was his hope that water shortages in these regions could be eliminated by 2015.  Surprisingly enough he also touched on a subject of much controversy which is the fact that population growth is becoming a recognised detriment to sustainability.  Most criticism is directed at developing nations; but, in fact the un-checked population explosions in the developed countries are where the greatest problems lie.

   Professor Chris Ripley raised the debate in this article by Charles Glover in the Telegraph last summer.  He says that the most disturbing aspect of the debate on overpopulation, as a inhibiting factor on environmental issues, is the fact that no one is willing to talk about it.

   James, over at The Good Life, has 40 posts concerning overpopulation and the effects it has and will have on society.  Politicians are duplicitous in their discussions and uninformed in their opinions of the real nature of population growth.  The "zero population growth" concepts of the 70’s fell on deaf ears, and China’s "one-child" per family proclamation was condemned from every political pulpit in the world.  You will not see a politician tackling this issue with any conviction.  If you would like a pragmatic explanation of the fundamental issue at the heart of our resource requirements go to this site.  It is a series of videos in which Dr. Albert A. Bartlett explains the dilemma of population and energy.  Arm yourself with the innate, core facts of the situation and draw your own conclusions.

   Broadband has just arrived in the bog!  And I want to thank my good friend Maireid for sending me the link to Dr. Bartlett’s video, and although she sent it some time ago, I was only able to view it today.