RANONGGA, Solomon Islands: The seismic jolt that unleashed the deadly Solomons tsunami this week lifted an entire island metres out of the sea, destroying some of the world's most pristine coral reefs. In an instant, the grinding of the Earth's tectonic plates in the 8.0 magnitude earthquake Monday forced the island of Ranongga up three metres (10 foot).
Submerged reefs that once attracted scuba divers from around the globe lie exposed and dying after the quake raised the mountainous landmass, which is 32-kilometres (20-miles) long and 8-kilometres (5-miles) wide. Corals that used to form an underwater wonderland of iridescent blues, greens and reds now bleach under the sun, transforming into a barren moonscape surrounding the island. The stench of rotting fish and other marine life stranded on the reefs when the seas receded is overwhelming and the once vibrant coral is dry and crunches underfoot.
Dazed villagers stand on the shoreline, still coming to terms with the cataclysmic shift that changed the geography of their island forever, pushing the shoreline out to sea by up to 70 metres. Aid agencies have yet to reach Ranongga after the quake and tsunami that killed at least 34 people in the Pacific archipelago but a reporter and photographer on a chartered boat witnessed the destruction first hand.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
So who is going to take the blame for Ma Nature throwing a tectonic tantrum?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2007 0:40 Comments ||
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#3
Ma Nature really has been rearranging the furniture lately in that room. She may even be considering remodeling some of her rooms, given her current mood.
It's amazing, how in a room, moving a piece or two of furniture left, right, forward or backward can give the room a more balanced effect, thus furthering the entire "feel" of the room for more comfort.
#7
the cataclysmic shift that changed the geography of their island forever
Forever? With all the aftershocks from the seaquake that caused the tsunami, forever might not be all that long. I'd not build anything permanent on all that beautifully smelly new oceanfront property.
#11
So we sign Kyoto, buy Al Gorlioni's Global Warming packet, go green and everything is balanced. Then Yellowstone blows, followed an asteroid falling on Mecca, giant earthquake at Qom, and giant louds of Locusts the world has never seed this side of the Old Testament. Where did we go wrong, when we all were so sincere?
Things are not static on this old planet. It is not a national park. We humans and other life forms are living on the edge, sitting on a thin crust with a thin blanket of oxygen to sustain us. Welcome to life on the edge.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2007 15:13 Comments ||
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#12
Seen, not seed. PIMF.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/08/2007 15:14 Comments ||
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#13
It *is* Fred's handiwork, Shipman. Spot on, as usual. ;-)
Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina, now on a personal visit to the United States, yesterday blasted the Election Commission (EC) for delaying holding the next general election. Public patience would begin to wear thin if the polls are put on hold for a longer period, she said referring to the 18-month timeline announced by the commission last week. Hasina also had a go at the caretaker government, terming it 'undemocratic and unconstitutional'.
She made the observations in an interview with the BBC radio yesterday morning. The AL chief accused the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led government of denying the people the right to choose their 'own government'. She then sought to remind them that in the past no undemocratic government could last long.
The former prime minister criticised Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda for his remarks that the commission would need at least 18 months before declaring the election schedule. He said the time is required to prepare a flawless voter roll with photographs. Hasina said she wonders why should it take one and a half years to make a voter roll and why they [EC] have not even started the work yet. The poll chief at a press conference on Thursday announced the 18-month timeline and unveiled a set of electoral reforms.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2007 00:00 ||
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International migration is eroding Britain's skills base with an exodus of professionals matching the arrival of low-skilled foreign migrants, the Government is to be warned. The number of Britons emigrating has jumped in recent years, with a growing proportion leaving professional or managerial jobs to work overseas. By contrast, the number of immigrant workers - many of them manual workers - has risen sharply.
According to Professor John Salt of University College London, an expert on migration and an adviser to the OECD and the European Union, the evidence suggests that migration flows are tending towards a de-skilling of the UK labour market, which is gaining manual and clerical workers but losing professionals and managers.
Until recently, business leaders were broadly supportive of the Government's position on migration. However, a report last month by the British Chambers of Commerce revealed that seven out of ten of its members are now opposed to unchecked immigration.
Between 2000 and 2005, a net total of 272,000 Britons emigrated, while a net total of 639,000 non-Britons moved to the UK. Findings from the Government's international passenger survey, cited by Prof Salt, show that in 2005, 34 per cent of immigrants were professionals or managers before entering Britain, 29 per cent were in lower-grade jobs while 37 per cent were not in work.
By contrast, 42 per cent of emigrants were professionals or managers, 25 per cent were in other jobs and 33 per cent were not in work - often because they were retired.
#1
I know a number of British expatriates over here in South Korea. To a man they're totally disgusted with the UK government and its policies on immigration and taxation. None of them plan on returning to the UK when their contracts here are up. These are educated, intelligent people; the kind of people a country can't afford to lose. Britain appears to be trading people like this for would-be dole cases from Islamabad and Kingston.
Posted by: Mac ||
04/08/2007 18:30 Comments ||
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#2
Getting out while they still can.
Sad, really, what has happened to Britain just in my lifetime.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/08/2007 19:24 Comments ||
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#3
Not counting the tax evading 'artists' who take up residency in the Netherlands.
Does that mean 37 percent of the immigrants don't work? Does that mean they're gonna go immediately on the dole? Are the Brits insane? Does that mean the educated, intelligent Britons are leaving because their country is being overrun with low-class, low-skilled islamic bumpkins? Please tell me it isn't so.
#6
"Not in work" may also mean housewives and elderly parents, Elmereter Hupash6222. But likely it means at least some came straight from the madrassah to Heathrow airport... where they signed up for resettlement funds, funds for training so that they'll be able to get a proper job, support for the wife and children and elderly parents, housing assistance... Whereas those emigres "not in work" are retired, so their government pensions go directly to supporting the economy of their new host country. Once again the British pound (or perhaps it's the euro now?) is helping support the world's economy.
#7
I've read blogs by people from Britain's most recent class of graduating doctors. The matchmaking scheme to connect them to jobs is quite Orwellian. A lot of them are considering emigrating.
I'll have to find the link; it was featured on a recent "Grand Rounds" blog carnival.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/08/2007 21:15 Comments ||
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Above source is in French -- My one year of high school French was decades ago, so this commented report/response is from J. Peter Pham at "The Tank" of National Review Online.
Le Figaro reports that French prosecutors have charged forty-two members of the country's political establishment in connection with an illegal scheme that supplied arms worth some $790 million to fuel the civil war in oil-rich Angola which only ended in 2002. More than 300,000 people died in the conflict.
Arms companies had to sell arms, after all; people had to eat, workers had to work, shareholders needed dividends. Phwench gummint takes care of their own arms makers even as they cluck about everyone else ...
Those charged include Jean-Christophe Mitterand, son of the late French president who served as his father's chief advisor on African affairs; Jacques Attali, another senior aide to President Mitterand who is presently a member of the French Council of State; and Charles Pasqua, a former minister of the interior who is currently both an elected senator from incumbent President Jacques Chirac's party and the appointed head of the National Institute for Higher Security Studies (Inhes).
While all those accused have denied wrongdoing, the broad indictment which embraces prominent figures from both major French political currents the left-of-center Socialists and the right-of-center Gaullists hardly diminishes the increasing mood of cynicism as the electorate approaches the first round of elections scheduled to take place in two weeks, to say nothing of the skepticism that those abroad might have about the France's role on the world stage after twelve years of its lame duck president as poseur of global conscience even as the French courts now unveil that most of this bloody traffic took place on his watch.
#1
The government of Rwanda is making accusations and naming names as well. Not to mention the prosecutions for Oil For Food... it isn't a good time to be a corrupt in France, apparently.
Many Americans know Rudolph W. Giuliani only from his performance in the smoke and ashes of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York a steely image that has propelled him atop the polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Now, some groups at the center of the 9/11 experience are laying aggressive plans to tarnish that image and undermine the central pillar of his candidacy.
Officials from a national firefighters union, along with some relatives of Sept. 11 victims, say they will publicly attack decisions Giuliani made as New York mayor before and after the terrorist strikes. Among other complaints, they say that Giuliani failed to support modernized radios that might have spared the lives of more firefighters at the World Trade Center, and that he located the city's main emergency command center in the complex, even though it had been targeted by terrorists eight years earlier.
Giuliani aides say the accusations are baseless and driven by politically motivated unions with strong ties to Democrats. So far, the International Assn. of Fire Fighters, the country's biggest firefighter union, says it will aim its anti-Giuliani effort at its own 280,000 members. But union President Harold A. Schaitberger said the group will also "stand ready" to support a much more public campaign by families of firefighters and workers who died in the World Trade Center.
Some organizers are comparing that potential campaign to advertisements by the group Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth, which used personal testimonials from veterans to accuse 2004 Democratic nominee John F. Kerry of exaggerating his achievements as a Navy lieutenant in the Vietnam War. Kerry disputed the claims, but many Democrats believed the Swift Boat group effectively pierced his image as a war hero and ultimately doomed his candidacy. "It might have the same effect [as the Swift Boat campaign], but our effort will be 100% accurate and truthful," Schaitberger said.
The union's actions are among several threats that could put Giuliani on the defensive in discussing the very aspect of his record that defines his national persona. Lawyers want to question the former mayor under oath as part of a federal lawsuit alleging that the city negligently dumped body parts and other human remains from ground zero in the Fresh Kills garbage facility on Staten Island. Giuliani's testimony "could undercut his hero status," said Norman Siegel, the lawyer representing families who brought the suit. Siegel is also consulting with some families who have discussed forming a committee aimed at influencing the presidential race.
In a separate matter, one of Giuliani's most prominent political rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), is considering calling the former mayor to testify before a Senate committee on whether the government failed to shield recovery workers from the effects of polluted air after the attacks. The hearing could provide the unusual spectacle of one party's presidential front-runner questioning the other party's front-runner on an emotionally charged subject central to both of their campaigns.
#2
When you debunk Dem heroics they call it "Swift boating." In honor of this POS union stooge, think I will name Dems smearing true heroes "Schaitbergering."
Posted by: regular joe ||
04/08/2007 10:35 Comments ||
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#3
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), is considering calling the former mayor to testify before a Senate committee on whether the government failed to shield recovery workers from the effects of polluted air after the attacks.
And give forum to her husband's ineffectual and mismanaged [lack of] actions which resulted in the buildings falling in the first place. When did the Sudanese offer to turn over OBL? Burn, Sandy, Burn. Faster, faster. Down the memory hole.
#5
Ryuge: you don't ever need to add 'more at link', or words like that. All Rantburg readers will assume that you've edited the post to remove the fluff, etc (you did do that, didn't you? ;-), and thus will always know that there is 'more at link'. Thanks,
AoS
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2007 13:10 Comments ||
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#6
Will do, Steve. Thanks.
(BTW, what does AoS stand for? Act of Steve? Apparition of Salmon? Ahoha of Snackbar??)
#10
I think everyone was too busy to worry about safety. There isn't much that can keep firemen away from an attempt to rescue or recover other firemen. It's sort of like keeping US Marines off the battlefield.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/08/2007 21:17 Comments ||
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#4
I am not concerned with assessing any fines on the illegals, just that they not be rewarded for cutting in front of the line. They have to go back and get behind those who have been trying to do it right. That said, I have no problem with allowing more legal immigrants and/or work permits to let the line move faster.
#5
Sort of ironic, isn't it? They come here to escape their corrupt Federales and then turn around and demand that our own laws be abrogated corrupted in their favor.
They need to piss up a rope. Muslims long ago wore out the notion of preferential treatment. Mexicans aren't going to get any either.
#6
"We have no way to come up with that much money, and Bush knows that," she said. "He is doing this on purpose so we don't ever become legal residents."
Maybe Bank of America would give her a loan.
Anyway, it's a helluva lot better deal than I'd give them. I'd deport them. Period.
#7
Just out of curiosity what exactly are immigration rights? Does anybody else get the impression its just another eroneous phrase like... animal rights?
#8
According to AP, illegals are starting to pay taxes to the IRS, so they'll have a documentary evidence of being here when the next amnesty rolls around. link
Pedro Morales filed his first income tax return four years ago, a difficult decision for an illegal immigrant and one that caused years of headaches because the apartment manager who prepared his return made so many mistakes. Morales, 37, through an interpreter, acknowledged that many of his neighbors in Johnson County, Kan., who are illegal immigrants don't file income tax returns.
But Morales has continued to file taxes with the help of more-informed preparers, hoping to build a tax history that will help his case when he eventually applies for permission to remain in the United States. Morales isn't alone. Many immigrants are filing tax returns either because of requirements showing a five-year record of tax payments when applying for a green card or a simple desire to get a refund.
It's difficult to determine how many immigrants are filing income tax returns in the U.S. because the Internal Revenue Service doesn't track tax filers by their immigration status. But paid tax preparation chains, such as H&R Block Inc. and Liberty Tax Service, say they have seen anecdotal growth and are working hard to attract more of them through targeted offices or greater marketing in their native languages. "It's the fastest-growing segment of our population," said John Hewitt, chief executive of Virginia Beach, Va.-based Liberty Tax Service. "There's going to be a spectacular opportunity in the next three to five years with (immigration) amnesty and guest worker programs creating 10-15 million new taxpayers."
One measure of the immigrant market is the growth of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs, which the IRS issues to immigrants to use on their tax forms instead of Social Security numbers. Last year, the IRS issued 1.5 million ITINs, the most since the program was started in 1996 and a 30 percent increase from the 1.2 million issued in 2005. In total, the agency has issued 10.8 million ITINs since the program began, although it noted some of those are for people living overseas with some tax-filing responsibility. The IRS has said it doesn't provide income tax information on individual filers to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
#9
puts the lie to the agenda-driven academic studies taht says the illegals pay their taxes and incur no benefits. If they're part of a cash-based busines, easy enuf to not pay taxes. To date, few have availed themselves of the ITIN's, so either they are not paying taxes, or they are using someone else's SSN, committing Federal fraud (along with entering illegally). How many American citizens have suffered ID theft, IRS audits, et al, due to the illegal flood? You won't become extremely interested til it happens to you, will you? As far as '08, McCain can kiss my ass.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2007 22:27 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
