Egypt ahead

Didn't we all just burst with joy in solidarity for the Egyptian people when they achieved their aim of removing a US backed dictator of 30 years standing?

And marvelled at how much good will and fraternity was and is being shown by the people.  Men, women and children, secular and faithful, dancing together in the streets in celebration.  And then respect shown for the more than 300 protestors who lost their lives, becoming martyrs to the movement of 25 January 2011, when Egyptians finally had their say.

And then smiled, when the people came back to the streets to clean them up.  What an inspiration!

But I fear for Egypt.  I fear the military will dash the hopes and dreams of the Egyptian people by not ensuring as smooth a (and still ongoing) transition as was seen through the post Suharto era in Indonesia under the leadership of President, B. J. Habibie, in 1998.

And I fear more for Egypt, not from any internal threat, stuff up or constitutional meltdown, but from the usual running interference of the USA, its allies and organisations like the IMF and World Bank.

The Egyptian military may show true leadership and deliver a free and fair election process to their people, and the people of Egypt may elect a socialist government to redress the social inequalities, injustices and outrages perpetrated against them over the last 30 years, by a government which was propped up by the US and its allies, who turned a blind eye to, and even took advantage of the very same injustices for their own clandestine purposes when it suited them.

And if this happens, then just as the USA and its allies could not bring themselves to support a democratically, freely and fairly elected Humas* administration in Palestine in 2006, I fear the USA and its allies, will do the same again in Egypt.

They will deny a freely and fairly elected socialist government in Egypt, not because the election, when it comes, is not free and fair, according to international observers.

They will deny it as a knee jerk reaction to "socialism" and the prospect of a socialist government.

Because when it comes down to it, the USA is not about "freedom and democracy".  It is about what's in it for them.  (Not that that should be a surprise to anyone who's watched international affairs played out by the USA over the last 60 years.)

If the USA were a person, based on their actions and reactions toward other people (nations), they might well be declared a paranoid sociopath with gambling, sex, shopping and violence addictions.

They would be locked up for their own good and other peoples' safety, to undergo treatment, and not be let out again until they showed that they weren't going to wave a gun around and shoot themselves or an innocent bystander, and they showed that they could play nice and share with the other kids in the playground.

So I fear for the Egyptian people.  Because despite their hopes, they may end up continuing to be a pawn in the usual game, either under military rule or yet another dictator who will be anointed as acceptable to the USA and its allies.  It will be back to business as usual.

* I will not get into the debate over terrorist organisation status, corruption or any other argument which seems to be bandied about in regard to Hamas.  The election was declared free and fair, and they were the winners under the constitutional rules the election was held under.  Either it's free and fair and democratic - the people having spoken; in which case, suck it up and let them try to transition to a legitimate govt. without preconditions for recognition, or it's not free and fair democratic - in which case; complain and whinge all you want and try to effect change.

But don't trumpet freedom and democracy, and then deny it when you don't like the outcome, otherwise you might be seen for the raging hypocrites you really are.

Forget climate change science - here's why we should go renewable.

Forget the science on "climate change, global warming, anthropogenic global warming (AGW)" or whatever you want to call it - here's why I think we should go renewable, and invest in solar, wind, tidal and all the other potential sources of clean, renewable, green and greener energy that are now available to humanity.

First off, because I'm assuming that, regardless of the "side" your bias puts on, you don't drive a Model T Ford car, or ride a Penny Farthing bike, or wear the same suit you bought for your first job interview 20 yers ago, or probably even have the same job you had 20 years ago, or wear only "Made in [your country here]" clothing, and assiduously grow your own food, or buy local everything. (But if you do - good on ya!)

You do what we all mostly do, go with the times, and update your car, bike, fridge, computer, consumer goods, and if the rest of us are lucky - your suit, every few years.  Presumably, because the old technology is obsolete, and new items are better engineered, more efficient, prettier, smaller, bigger, more powerful, etc.  And you can afford it.

And if you have a fridge or aircon unit or a motor vehicle with aircon, or if you rummage through your bathroom toiletries for hairspay, deodorant etc, you'll notice these are no longer using* CFCs for cooling or as accelerants, because the world got together back in the 1980's to ban their use, in order to protect the Ozone layer and reduce and prevent damage.

Manufacturers succesfully transitioned to other less harmful chemicals, the sky didn't fall, the world's economies continued to grow, and the Ozone layer's health is improving.

(*The DuPont patent on "Freon" being due to run out, was also bandied about, but I digress.)

So it's not like we haven't already set the precedent for action on a global environmental emergency.

I also assume that you're not still using your very first computer and the same dial-up connection to the "internet", or the myraiad other examples of improvements in technology and productivity, that have impacted your llife since the day you were born, and you can point to, if you look around your office or home right now.

Remember Y2K?  In my opinion, Y2K was a "non event" because the global commuity again decided that there was an imminent threat; i.e. put simply (excluding conspiracy theories) - the fear that legacy computing systems which were built in the days of limited RAM, ROM and what are now considered laughably tiny hard drives, wouldn't recognise the date 2000.

This would impact on everything from your bank account statement to the plane ride you were about to take. So we decided we'd better do something about it if we didn't want a mess to wade through and clean up afterward.

(2000 zero zero, party over, oops, out of time.)

As a result of global action and investment (more USD $300 billion apparently), aside from saving the jobs of millions of financial industry workers* around the world, it created huge investment - and jobs, in computing and IT hardware, firmware and software industries.  I would also assert that this directly impacted hugely on what is a global industry called "the web", which continues to grow directly and indrectly, in ways that were unimaginable in the lead up to Y2K.

An ounce of prevention is cheaper than a pound of cure.

*They could be sacked in the wake of the GFC a decade later.  But that's another story.

These improvements in technology have allowed those of us fortunate enough to live in "the West", to enjoy the lifestyle which the rest of the world looks to also be able to also enjoy soon, by using the same energy technology we have used for the last 400 years. That is; coal, oil and every other fossil fuel we could cheaply dig or pump out of the ground or seabed.

But, now there is a more effective option with renewable energy technology, some of it proven over the last 40 years or longer. It creates clean energy, it's limitless*, it helps drive other forms of renewable energy, it's more healthy for us as a species and for the planet as a whole.

*Well, until the sun goes nova or the human race ceases to exist - whichever comes first, with the latter more likely than the former.

AND, the more R&D we do the better it will get, just like the R&D and investment money we've poured into the sunset fuels of yesteryear, over the last 400 years.

Fossil fuels did their job magnificiently, but they've done their time, because, well, we've simply got better ways of doing these things now to get the same or better result.

Like gas lamp lighters, carriage makers, vacuum tube repairmen, secretarial pools where the clatter of typwriters declared "money making activities happening here!", and all those other occupations which no longer exist, it's time to downsize, outsource, retire and make these obsolete energy sources redundant as soon as possible. 

Oh, and did I mention that I know that we'll make lot's of money doing it?

The Now Show - Dr Seuss at Copenhagen

Stop laughing, this is serious.

Affirm Humanity - Habitat for Humanity

Affirm Humanity - Habitat for Humanity

1.6 billion people around the world live in substandard housing.

Join with Habitat for Humanity (YouTube channel) as we build a new world.

Palestine 09

"They stole my land, burnt my olive trees, destroyed my house, took my water, imprisoned my father, killed my mother, starved us all, humiliated us all. But I am to blame : I shot a rocket back. So they stole more of my land, burnt my olive trees, destroyed my house, took my water, bombed my country..." Palestine09

Featuring words partly inspired by one of the hundreds of hand-written anonymous placards carried at the Jan 3rd demonstration in London our Palestine 09 design expresses vividly the cycle of despair that has turned the tiny Gaza strip into a war zone of Israeli reprisals using its overwhelming military might. JUST £16.99!  Helping to raise funds for the Viva Palestina aid convoy to Gaza.

Buy this T-Shirt

Aviation goes green - Air New Zealand biofuel test flight

With around 2% of global greenhouse emissions being generated by air travel and air transport activity, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has a keen interest in the development and take up of more environmentally friendly aviation fuels.  (Not to mention the potential $$ savings!)

Air New Zealand, in association with Boeing and Rolls Royce, finally got their test flight off the ground on Tuesday 30th December 2008, after more than a year of planning and behind the scenes work.

Scoop: Air New Zealand Biofuel Test Flight Underway

The test is seen by IATA as part of a short term goal, "... for its members to be using 10% alternative fuels by 2017".


IATA’s Green Vision: Algae Biodiesel By Barbara E. Hernandez

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!

If you're feeling great today, you may end up inadvertently spreading the joy to someone you don't even know.

New research shows that in a social network, happiness spreads among people up to three degrees removed from one another. That means when you feel happy, a friend of a friend of a friend has a slightly higher likelihood of feeling happy too.

Happiness is contagious in social networks - CNN.com

I can hear the conversation now ... "But Mom, research shows my facebook, myspace, youtube, twitter, blog and [insert other social media obsessions here] is good fo my health."

Fields of Fire - Cluster Bombs in Lebanon - Part 1

Fantastically, hideously, horribly, horrifyingly outrageous.

Lebanon is just the latest in a long line of troublesome targets to have been carpeted with these obscenities in the name of "defence", or just bloody minded retaliation.

How can any civil society permit the manufacture of and profit from these abominations, or their government to sanction and use these weapons of mass mutilation and death?

$1 a day to save the planet!

Kevin Rudd's emissions trading scheme: $1 a day to save planet

theaustralian.com.au. Lenore Taylor, National correspondent | October 31, 2008

THE Rudd Government has moved to ease fears about the impact of its emissions trading scheme, releasing Treasury modelling showing the scheme is affordable, with households paying up to $7 a week more for electricity and gas, and no industries forced offshore.

>> Full story

Rudd Government launches Australia's Low Pollution Future - The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation >>Press Release  (links to PDF documents only.)

Apparently, we're not going to reduce greenhouse gases, we're going to reduce carbon emissions.  The methane and nitrous oxide* emissions can look after themselves.

(*No wonder we're all acting as silly as drunk ducks ready for the Christmas dinner chop.)

And you'd think with all the talk of emission trading schemes and the imperative to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, that a story about an electric car network for Australia - well, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, would get a bit more traction.

Plan for electric car network

theage.com.au, Mex Cooper, October 23, 2008

Australia will become the third country in the world to have an electric car network in a bid to run the country's 15 million cars on batteries powered by green energy under a plan announced today.

Thanks to Kwoff for the heads up on the electric car.

AIM Emissions Trading Scheme Survey  1st July 2008

The Australian business sector is largely unprepared for the introduction of the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme according to the findings of a new survey of top level executives conducted by the Australian Institute of Management.

Only 36 per cent of those surveyed were aware the Australian Government’s emissions trading scheme, the centrepiece of the nation’s greenhouse reduction efforts is to commence in 2010.

Dalai Lama losing faith on talks with China.

It's a sad day when the Dalai Lama has doubts that his approach can work.

Australia Tibet Council - Dalai Lama Signals Strategy Shift With China

In an unusually strong statement, the Dalai Lama made clear he has doubts that his existing conciliatory approach towards the Chinese government can work. The Tibetan leader, however, added that his “middle-way” approach has received support from increasing numbers of Chinese scholars and said he still holds faith in the Chinese people and has not given up on efforts to convince them. Several international media outlets misquoted the Dalai Lama as having said he’d “given up” on pressing the Chinese government on Tibet’s future.

Full story - Australia Tibet Council - Dalai Lama Signals Strategy Shift With China

Silver lining in the financial crisis cloud

So the US congress pulled its' finger out, or should I say, pork barrelled its way out of total financial melt down hysteria, and passed the "confidence restoration" $700 billion USD Wall Street bail out.

Because some people are saying that the banks have liquidity i.e. credit to lend; they just don't trust anyone anymore, not even each other.  Now there's confidence for you.

The people who loaned money like it was created out of thin air so they could loan it to anyone who asked for it, have now decided they don't trust each other, so the rest of us pay the price?

Whether the bail out, err ... liquidity confidence building,  actually does anything, remains to be seen in the reactions from the NZ and Asia openings tomorrow, what with Australia being closed for the (ironic smirk) Labour Day holiday long weekend.

Anyways, a different buzz seems to be happening now, with talk generally turning to funding "nation building" projects rather than credit bail outs, to avert another Great Depression scenario.

Some visionaries have long been talking about the green economy.  And now pundits seem to be jumping on the "green collar" jobs bandwagon, and the opportunities for transformation of the polluting sectors of the world economy into low carbon emission economic drivers.

More recently in the Australian industrial heartlands, we've seen union leaders finally get the message.

In the words of noted industrialist, Henry J Kaiser;"Problems are opportunities in work clothes".

And let's face it, right now we're (collectively) facing a couple of doozies!  The global warming crisis and the global financial crisis.

What an opportunity!

Links of interest:

• Green Economy and Green collar worker (wiki)
• Green Jobs: Towards Decent work in a Sustainable, Low-carbon World (ilo.org)
  
• Rocky Mountain Institute
• Green Recovery program | Center for American Progress
• $100B Green-Collar Jobs Plan Recommended (Yahoo! News)
• Green Collar Jobs | The Montana Climate Action Project
• Green Economy 2008 US cities rankings (sustainlane.com)
• One Country's Success Story: Building a Green Economy (egovmonitor.com)
• Sustainability within a Generation - Building a Sustainable Economy | David Suzuki Foundation
• ESD Ecologically Sustainable Development in Australia 1992 (environment.gov.au)
  
• New prospects for nation building (abc.net.au)

But not from this mob .... (see also "Nation Building and the Future Economy", Address to the Infrastructure Association of Queensland, by Treasurer Wayne Swan 09/09/08)

Green makeoever to create jobs

I don't read the papers every day, not even online, but I reckon this got lost in the mainstream noise generated by the financial gurus running around like chooks with their heads cut off.  (Thanks to Kwoff for the heads up.)

Homes 'should get free green makeovers' | NEWS.com.au

By Cathy Alexander
September 21, 2008 03:25pm

UNIONS want a "green revolution" to sweep the country's homes, saving more than $400 on annual household electricity bills.

They have called on the Federal Government to pay for a mass retrofitting of homes to slash electricity use.

Homes would be kitted out with insulation, double glazing and smart appliances at a cost to the Government of $5500 apiece. ...

Not a bad start Sharon, but a solar hot water system and/or grid connect solar system as well, would be even better.

Kevin 747, global financial crisis and climate change

UNunited Nations

So Kevin 747 (guess the honeymoon's well and truly over eh?) did his big thing at the UN today, by rabbiting on about the global financial crisis (thanks for nothing Fascists Inc.!) and how Australia's exemplary financial prudence would have prevented all this.

Kevin Rudd urges big economies to show leadership (The Australian 26 September 2008)

Instead of focusing on climate change or world poverty as part of the Millenium Development Goals established in 2000, the Prime Minister spent most of his time talking about expanding financial regulation beyond commercial banks and trying to protect families who borrow for their homes from the effect of excessive risk and financial greed.

And sign up to the "clean coal" bandwagon so we can solve the real crisis facing humankind. (Oh puuleeease! Well, at least Fossil Fuel Australia Inc. has announced they're paying for their own R&D.)

We're Doomed!  Doomed I tell you!  Doomed!

I saw Letterman's climate change rant on the Late Show back on the 9th or 10th?, and thought I'd post on it, but never got around to it (life and other distractions - ya know?), but it seems to have made a bit of a splash, evidenced by the number of blogs referring to it, so it seems redundant of me to do it now.

Anyways, got me looking back through my climate change posts, and lemme tell you, if I ruled the world, things would be different around here!

Welcome

New blog of interest to me:  A Free Man's Life: a Canadian based blog with an American perspective other than that of the elephant* just south of the border!

*Pierre Trudeau: "Sleeping with an elephant".

Salaam, Shalom, Shanti, Mir, Friede, Pax, Paz, Peace

The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations as an annual observance of global non-violence and ceasefire. Every year, people in all parts of the world honour peace in various ways on 21 September.

International Day of Peace, 21 September 2008

Salaam, Shalom, Shanti, Mir, Friede, Pax, Paz, Peace

Links of interest:

• International Day of Peace (wiki)
  
• Peace One Day (wiki)
• Search for Common Ground
• Google News search International Day of Peace
• International Peace Day in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia (Byron Shire Echo)

Roots & Shoots (Goodall Institute) Each year, in support of the United Nations International Day of Peace, Roots & Shoots members and friends come together to promote peace. All over the world, young people craft Giant Peace Dove Puppets from reused materials and fly the Doves in their communities. From the high peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro to the low plains of Kansas, Peace Doves fly, held high by hopeful hands.

Peace is Hard ...

It's nice to know I'm not alone

I was going to post about Germaine Greer appearing on ABC TVs Q&A last night (one of the best so far, always has a lot to do with the calibre of the guests), but others have beaten me to it, so ....

OK, I could embed the cartoon here, but then you wouldn't visit the page and read all the comments, would you? (Thanks to Stilgherrian for the throw, it usually depends on whether I read your RSS or Andrew Bartlett's first! ;-)

Crikey - First Dog on the Moon - Why does everyone hate Germaine Greer?

Dare I say - the thinking man's pin-up girl?

Besides as MOH said, she is totally Australian; opinionated, rowdy, unimpressed by rank, wealth, possessions or any of those other modern yardsticks of "success", funny when she wants to be, and doesn't give a (Tawny) hoot about what other people think of her.

Our carbon footprint - we're megawatt performers!

Our 1.1kW grid connect PV system ticked over the 1 megawatt hour of energy generated a month or so ago, a bit under a year after we installed it under the former Howard Government's solar rebate system.

Based on figures from DEUS (NSW), that means we've saved more than 1 tonne of greenhouse gas emissions from going into the atmosphere. Woo Hoo!

It hasn't reduced our power bill by that much, because our supplier has brought in a "daily connection" charge, so the excess we've produced above our household demand and fed back into the grid, is chewed up by that. (Thanks Morris, can't wait to see how our environmentally minded privatised electricity providers will handle the greenhouse challenge, and pass that cost along.)

Anyway, reducing our electricity bill wasn't the motivation for getting the system installed, we've always (as much as the budget would allow) factored in reducing* our carbon footprint in our lifestyle activities and choices, so this was more about doing our bit to save the planet, than saving money.

This year we installed a solar hot water system. It came online when we had unseasonal rain, so we had to fire up the booster for the first two weeks, but the offpeak meter has only ticked over 14kW or so since it was installed more than 4 weeks ago. It will be interesting to see how much more this will bring our household carbon footprint down.

So, all this got me wondering. Instead of building new coal fired or nuclear powered stations to satisfy "demand", how about we (collectively) reduce waste, improve efficiency and increase household market share of renewables to reach the 60%-90% greenhouse gas reduction target?

It cost about $13,000 to create a "point of use" 1.1kW power station on our roof. It produces about 1MW of power per year, sends some juice back to the grid, and forestalls about 1MW of greenhouse gas per year going into the atmosphere from our household activities.

There are approx. 1.6 million private dwellings in Victoria (VIC) and 6.6 million in Australia (2001 census: Separate house and Semi-detached, row/terrace etc.). The new coal fired power station mooted for VIC is going to cost a minimum of $150 million, apparently a nuke could cost USD$1B, ... can someone please do the math?

As the Stern Review and Garnaut Climate Change Review have already pointed out, the economic "ROI" bean counting, will soon be far outweighed by the environmental, social and economic costs of doing nothing.

The sooner we (collectively) start, the cheaper the solutions are, and the faster we get to our 60%-90% of 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels target. (And maybe save the planet.)

And don't use "China and India ... blah blah blah ...", as an excuse. We were primarily responsible for our greenhouse gas emissions in the past, we're responsible for our contributions now, and we'll be responsible for them in the future. Time to collectively get to work, because the clock is ticking.

Links:

• NSW ceiling insulation rebate
• Solar Homes and Communities Plan Rebate
• Solar Hot Water Rebate Program - Home Page
• Your Home - Design for lifestyle and the future
  

* If we hadn't already insulated the ceiling and all external and internal wall cavities when we built our house, we'd be getting that done too!

"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Nagasaki 9th August 1945

My father was a WWII vet., served in the Pacific, and like most veterans, didn't speak much about his experiences. When I was younger, I could never figure out why he hated the "Japs" so much, and we used to knock heads over the morality of the nuclear attacks.

As I grew up, and saw documentaries and gradually heard the filtered stories of the appalling behavior, the brutality toward Allied POWs and occupied civilians by most Japanese soldiers, I came to understand a little, why.

Last year, SBS ran very late at night (after midnight if I recall), a documentary series on the war from the Japanese perspective. It was very enlightening, and very sad.

And it brought to mind the paradox that "They do what the do because they are what the are, and they are what they are because they do what they do".

But even today, and with many musings on this vexed issue, I still cannot reconcile myself to those events, and the many other "lesser evils" committed on all sides, not being acts of terrorism and crimes against humanity.

I just wish we lived in a mature enough world where this type of failure of global humanity, is not an option.

Why the nuclear attack on Japan was right (The Age 06/08/03)

Wartime records and memoirs show that the emperor and some of his aides wanted to end the war by the summer of 1945. But they were vacillating and couldn't prevail over a military that was determined to keep going even if that meant, as a navy official urged at one meeting, "sacrificing 20 million Japanese lives".

The atomic bombings broke this political stalemate and were thus described by Mitsumasa Yonai, the navy minister at the time, as a "gift from heaven".

Without the atomic bombings, Japan would have continued fighting by inertia.

This would have meant more firebombing of Japanese cities and a ground invasion, planned for November 1945, of the main Japanese islands. The fighting over the small, sparsely populated islands of Okinawa had killed 14,000 Americans and 200,000 Japanese, and in the main islands the toll would have run into the millions.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Paris Hilton makes sense.

OK, so she's not a dumb blonde, never was.

Showing yet again her nose for publicity, Paris displays some smarts, a wry sense of humour, and a pinch of street savvy slang. (Or maybe she has a good writer.)

Don't you Yanks wish the candidates made "pick me! pick me!" adverts about their policies, this straightforward (and genuinely funny)?

Dang! I really did want to keep detesting this woman ...

Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad (video at Funny or Die)

Sustainable development option links:

• The Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) (Australia)
• Rezachek & Associates' Energy & Environmental Resources (US link)
• U.S. Department of Energy Smart Communities Network (US link)

Lest we Forget

We knew the world would not be the same [streaming video]. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that one way or another.

-J. Robert Oppenheimer (wiki)

Hiroshima marks bomb anniversary with hope for US change

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) - The mayor of Hiroshima on Wednesday urged the next US president to work to abolish atomic weapons as the city marked the 63rd anniversary of the world's first nuclear attack.

• Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (UN) : wiki || IAEA
• Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
• Anti-nuclear movement in Australia. (wiki)
• New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone (wiki)
• The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, Auckland Harbour (wiki)
• New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 || NZ history online
• Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) : The nuclear chain
  

What's Up on Planet Earth? The Circle Game.

My friend bellizimo (EBAY profile) is visiting.

We are able to provide each other with mutual support and commiserations regards our long term ball and chains, exchange ideas and views, and learn from each other. She pointed me to one of her favourite web sites, which had a special page on African issues like Darfur, and with this profile;

African Relief - What's Up on Planet Earth?

Liberia, Another Story

In November of 2005, Liberia elected a new president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female head of state. After 14 years of civil war, this first democratically elected female president is bringing with her a tremendous amount of feminine energy. Devoted to creating peace and rebuilding Liberia, she has a huge task at hand, but so far, is making great progress.

She is committed to re-connecting Liberia with the international community, empowering women, and ensuring that Liberia’s prior war lord, Charles Taylor, stands trial in Sierra Leone for his role in supporting the reign of terror campaign, and for his crimes against humanity.

The Darfur link took me to the web site of the ICG, International Crisis Group, which I've been aware of since Gareth Evans (WIKI) joined it nearly a decade ago.

There are some interesting articles and papers in his extensive biography (ICG), including this one: "How to secure peace in Liberia", Comment by Gareth Evans and Comfort Ero in The Observer from June 29 2003.

Round and round we go in The Circle Game.