Bullied Trump Loses Opera

Trump Bullied by Local Councillor :: HM Gov loses indentity :: Organic cotton empowering Benin's farmers :: Opera on USB

Trump Bullied by Local Councillor

Local councillor bullied by electorate.

Having ones grand plans for a megalithic golf course rejected by a bunch of small town councillors must hurt any ego ridden, toupee touting, grand dam of big business. Pity then a certain Mr D. "your fired" Trump who has had his plans for not one but two championship golf courses rejected by a local planning council in Aberdeenshire.

Donald Trump had hoped (and is still hoping by the look of things) to fill his little socks with a damp Scottish sea breeze and a quick round of the national game (golf) on the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire. [See Trump Tee'd off over course ]. In the mean time he has been demonstrating his unique understanding of the democratic process.

Answering the accusation that he and his faithful side kick (George "sock puppet" Sorial) have been "bullying" in their dealings surrounding their application for a project that includes a gated community of 500 garages, Trump said: "We are not bullying anybody. What is going on right now is that he [councillor Ford] is being bullied by his own voters but he is too self-righteous and caught up in himself to even see it."

Too self-righteous and caught up in himself - sounds oddly familiar, but Mr Trump, here in my little green book (101 Democratic principles) it clearly says "The politician shall do as instructed by the electorate" (or words to that affect). A "bullying electorate" is a new one on me.

A quick search of the interweb informs me of the interesting proposition that a certain elegantly coiffured American business man has a university named after him. Perhaps a short course in political theory wouldn't go amiss.

Luckily for the Trumpster, we in Scotland are blessed with a band of merry men, led by the all singing, all dancing fish king, Alex Salmon. I should know, I (more fool me) voted for the toadying, golf playing (I presume) surrender monkey.

Desperate to do something "big" for once (you know, play with some big boys) the Parliament decided to examine Trump Trump Trumpety Trumps planning application at the "ministerial" level. And just who is the MSP for the area in question (not to mention the country's most senior minister)? Why, who else but our estimable leader, the, at times, right honourable Mr Alex Salmon, MSP and leader of the SNP.

If you follow the link below and read on to the discussion at the bottom of the page, you may get the impression that if "you're not from around here like" cultural integration in Aberdeenshire is hard. It's not that bad, honest. However, do have a look out for the comments on eco-fascism. Aberdeen City and Shire have squandered the wealth from thirty years of oil and now the electorate see a false profit of fortune in the shape of a trumped up golf resort. It makes you weep, it really does.

More here: http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1914902007

HM Gov loses indentity

On Her Majesty's Service - lost down the back of the settee

Anybody brought up on a diet of bond films would think that civil servants always triumph in the face of adversity. Pity then the poor managers at HMRC (On Her Majesty's Service - lost down the back of the settee) who appear to be more Jim Hacker (hapless ministerial star of "Yes Minister") than James Bond. Now this story is more than a few days old so those with an interest in data security (ie the security of your personal details) will have read all about this anyway. But I would just like to take this opportunity to draw everyone's attention to one or two small points.

Firstly, the data that went missing: Generally, the panic here was over the fact that bank account details were included in the missing data. Account number, sort code, bank, that kind of thing. While that's bad, such information holds a relatively low value. Basically, it's only useful if someone is going to actually attempt to withdraw money from your account. Which is not as easy to do as applying for a loan in your name by using all the other goodies that were bundled on the disk such as: fore and surnames, dates of birth, home address and national insurance numbers. Now that really is valuable info.
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/22/id_profile_trade/]

Secondly, the audit office only asked for two pieces of information: names and NI numbers. So, why was the nation's identity given away? Quite simply, EDS (we won't do it for less) charges for all the little extras (querying government databases, encrypting the data, sending it all over a secure network etc. in order to present figures to the National Audit Office for example) at such an extortionate rate that HMRC 'HmM Really don't Count on us' couldn't afford to do their job the right way [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/25/tech_view_of_data_blunder/]. And why are EDS running IT systems at the shambles that is HMRC? Because of big Gordo's love affair with PFI. Sustainable textiles? No, what we need is sustainable governance.

Finally, in a stroke of opportunistic brilliance, the government suggested that the only way to keep every body's data safe is to put it altogether in one place, shake it up a bit and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Tasty. Righty ho boys, go right ahead, do as that nice man Mr Brown says: "What we must ensure is that identity fraud is avoided, and the way to avoid identity fraud is to say that for passport information we will have the biometric support that is necessary." Yes Gordon, that's exactly what we must do.
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/24/idcards.homeaffairs].

Organic cotton empowering Benin's farmers

Endosulfines - an organocholorine induced nightmare

Peter drew my attention to a program on the BBC Worldservice called African Perspective. The November 30 programme dealt with cotton farming in Benin, West Africa, and the problems caused by the widespread use of the pesticide endosulfine.

Roughly 10 million people depend on cotton in Benin, many of these farmers and their families have reported unexpected health problems. Between 2000 and 2004 the NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) The Organisation for the Production of Organic Agriculture in Benin recorded 575 pesticide poisoning cases of these 97 were fatal. In women pesticide poisoning caused by endosulfine is known to result in miscarriages.

Endosulfine is an organocholorine pesticide, this is an older group of pesticides (that includes DDT) which has been banned or severely restricted by the Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants. And while the WHO (World Health Organisation) have classified Endosulfine as moderately hazardous the United States Environmental Protection Agency rates endosulfine as highly hazardous.

In the local language pesticides are referred to as 'medicine' and are used for other purposes than just cotton spraying.

The govenrment lays the blame for ill health from pesticides use on bad practice by the farmers; but as many rural communities are illiterate awareness raising/education campaigns don't work. Moreover few have the financial means to store and handle organochlorines as recommended by the manufacturers.

Ecologist have found endosulfines in the water systems of entire regions.

Organic farming - a sustainable future

While organic cotton farming is relative new to Benin it is being embraced with gusto, particularly by the female farming community who have found that while endosulfine is expensive and it can be difficult making a profit at the end of the season, the yields provided by organic farming are higher (due to increased soil fertility) while costs are lower.

Organic cotton production has empowered women to run their own farms, with no pesticides to make them or their families ill they are able to work their own farms. The higher yields of organic production together with payments made direct to the farmers, lower costs and higher prices paid at market for their produce suggest an altogether better future for the cotton farmers of Benin; a sustainable future.

Opera on USB

Portable browser in a stick

Want to carry your favourite browser, all your bookmarks, toolbars, mini-notes and have everything looking exactly as you like it while surfing the web away from home. Then here's the ideal solution. Opera (the browser) on a USB stick. Actually, this would work on any portable device such as a digital camera, or MP3 player.

[http://opera-usb.com/index.htm]


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