PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN

From the New York Times.

Floods driven by record-breaking rainfall have killed at least 800 people and destroyed thousands of homes over the past week, officials said Saturday, in the latest disaster to test Pakistan’s already strained government.

Pakistanis on Saturday crossed a main highway damaged by a flood in Charsadda, in northwestern Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan. More Photos »

The crisis comes as the government is struggling to fight an Islamic insurgency and to cope with the aftermath of Wednesday’s plane crash in which 152 people died in the fog- and rain-shrouded Himalayan foothills just outside this capital city. It was the deadliest domestic plane crash in Pakistan’s history.

Officials said the deluge was the worst since 1929 in northwest Pakistan, where water levels in dams continued to rise. And with more rain forecast for all but that part of the country, increasing the likelihood of more flash floods and landslides, government officials issued pleas for international aid.
....

On Saturday, television stations broadcast grim images of people stranded on rooftops and wading through muddy water as they waited for rescuers or tried to recover valuables from houses.

A man identified only as from Charsadda told the AAJ television network that his whole village had been forced to spend the night by the roadside. “We have lost everything,” he said. “Nothing is left.”
....

Amjad Ali, a rescue worker in Nowshera, called conditions “very bad. They have no water, no food.”

Elsewhere I've seen the number 1,100 killed. The people in the area have seen enough troubles to last a lifetime. Pray that aid to those in great need will arrive quickly.

Lord God, we pray for those affected by the flooding in Pakistan. Give comfort and consolation to those who have lost loved ones. Stir up love and compassion in the hearts of those with means to provide speedy aid to relieve the suffering of all who have experienced great loss. In our common humanity, we pray to you, O God, Father of us all.

STORY OF THE DAY - ETERNAL REWARD

Of course I believe in heaven, my
grandma used to say. There's got to be
some reward for living with your
grandfather for all these years.


Posted without commentary. :-)

From StoryPeople.

"...LIKE A TUMOR ON THE BACK OF...KATRINA...."

From Tim Gautreaux, a writer and teacher from Hammond, Louisiana, in the Guardian:

Those who live in Louisiana all their lives develop an understanding of disaster. We know a hurricane can turn over hundreds of offshore oil rigs in one pass and then come to land and do the same to our homes. Refineries explode, rigs blow up, pipelines burst, well pressures cause accidents that take fingers, feet, arms, legs and life itself.
....

So, even though I am not an oil worker, the industry is part of my environment, my history, and when I saw images of the April Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire, I thought at once, "Wait a minute. Something's wrong. That rig is state-of-the-art, the size of a small factory, loaded with technology that rivals the space programme in complexity. Why is the fire so enormous?" And later, when the labyrinth of pipes and valves keeled over in a rumbling, hissing nimbus of flame, I was astounded, thinking, "Why didn't the blowout preventer shut down the well?"
....

The nightly news told of oil coming ashore. Unlike its neighbour states, Louisiana has no shore, no sand beach except for a small spit called Grand Isle, no dunes, hills, cliffs. The entire Gulf border and its wide attendant marshes are exactly at sea level. The shore is mostly gritty mud held in place by tall, dense marsh grass. What is not water is grass, thousands of square miles of it. When the oil kills the grass, the shore will begin to melt away. This coastal marsh is home to millions of birds – pelicans, terns, egrets, great herons – and a rich variety of mammals and reptiles. It is threaded through by countless miles of narrow bayous, inlets and lagoons, all spawning areas for shrimp and succulent blue-claw crabs, nesting grounds for vast flocks of migratory geese and ducks – a hot and humid greenhouse teeming with life.

Louisiana is a relatively small state, but it contains 40-45% of the nation's coastal wetlands. The neighbour states of Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have similar fertile and productive marshes, though such areas are much smaller.
....

I don't think people living outside the region understand what is happening. One so-called environmentalist suggested Gulf fishermen and oil workers should just get educated in green technology and work in solar panel factories. What are they supposed to do for 20 years until the technology is perfected and the factories built? Fishermen want to work as fishermen; the Gulf is 1,000 miles wide and they are independent members of a huge culture, not employees.
....

After a charter boat captain shot himself in the head, I turned off the television. But everywhere I went, neighbours, bank tellers, waitresses, university professors all fretted about the spill. Last year, one billion pounds of fish was harvested from the Gulf; now only a tiny fraction of that is being caught in the small areas still open, and chances are even that clean catch will be distrusted by buyers outside the region. How many years will it take for Gulf seafood's reputation for quality to return?

This disaster rides like a tumour on the back of the monster Katrina, a storm that in 2005 killed more than 1,800 people in the New Orleans area. Many residents of the region were finally getting their homes rebuilt, their boats and docks restored.

Read the entire poignant essay. The best of the English newspapers have covered the human stories and reactions to the oil gusher catastrophe with sensitivity and understanding. A tip of the hat to them.

Tim has published collections of short stories and two novels. He teaches at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana.

"WE'RE TIRED OF BEING RESILIENT"

"I don't know how many more disasters the Louisiana people can cope with," Mr Brigtsen said. "We're tired of being resilient."

Brightsen's is a lovely, small uptown restaurant which serves fine food. The first scene in the video shows the River Road and the Mississippi River levee at the end of the street.

Right across Dante Street from Brightsen's is Dante's Kitchen, another good restaurant. All over the city of New Orleans, small restaurants such as these serve very good to excellent food. Not all the restaurants will make it.

I'm like Brightsen's wife. I want to cry.

From the Telegraph in the UK.

THE PRICE OF PETROL IN FRANCE

Thanks to Susan S., who thought I may not have De Gaulle to send this out to the world. I thank Susan for many a laugh while I was putting the post together.

PS: Susan thought Counterlight, especially, might appreciate the post. I don't know. I think he may groan.

"RADIO EBORACUM - THE COVENANT"

From Pluralist Speaks:

Host: Good evening to this weeks' What's the Point? discussion forum on Radio Eboracum featuring some of this country's leading bishops. We have the Main Most Reverend Rowanov Treetri, Archbishop of Anglicanism, the Other Most Reverend John Sendmehome, the Archbishop of the North, the retiring scholarly Right Reverend New Testament Wrong, lately Bishop of the North East, the soon to retire Right Reverend John Sackme, Bishop of Imp, and Right Reverend Donald W. M. Troosers, Bishop of Peter Brough.

Archbishop Sendmehome never fails to be prepared with stories, and, although his stories sometimes don't actually relate to the subject at hand, they are always quite funny, or, at least, a little funny.

Three men start talking to a girl in church. One says, "Hello, I'm Peter but not a saint," and then the next one says, "Me, I'm Paul but not a pope," and then the last one says, "Well, I'm John but not the Baptist," and she replies, "Hello chaps, and I'm Mary but not the virgin."

Well, the archbishop's stories make me laugh, although I'm a wee bit ashamed of the admission.

I've read enough of the words of three of the bishops to know that Pluralist has them just right. Read the rest over there.

Oh, and Pluralist supplies his own original illustrations, one of which is pictured above, of the bishops who participated in the interview. If you scroll down, you will see on my sidebar Pluralist's illustration of me.

IS THE NEW BP BOSS OUR DUDLEY DO-RIGHT?

From Yahoo News:

BP's new boss says it's time for a "scaleback" in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Federal officials say there is no way the crude could reach the East Coast. And fishing areas are starting to reopen.

There were several signs Friday that the era of thousands of oil-skimming boats and hazmat-suited beach crews is giving way to long-term efforts to clean up, compensate people for their losses and understand the damage wrought. Local fishermen are doubtful, however, and say oil remains a bigger problem than BP and the federal government are letting on.

Other people contend the impact of the spill has been overblown, given that little oil remains on the Gulf surface, but Bob Dudley, who heads BP's oil spill recovery and will take over as CEO in October, rejected those claims.

"Anyone who thinks this wasn't a catastrophe must be far away from it," he said in Biloxi, where he announced that former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt will be supporting BP's Gulf restoration work.
....

As the work of plugging the well appears to reach the homestretch, so does much of the cleanup work. Relatively little oil remains on the surface of the Gulf, leaving less for thousands of oil skimmers to do.

Dudley said it's "not too soon for a scaleback" in the cleanup, and in areas where there is no oil, "you probably don't need to see people in hazmat suits on the beach."
He added, however, that there is "no pullback" in BP's commitment to clean up the spill.

I hope the new man in charge of BP, Bob Dudley, is serious about the commitment to clean up after the catastrophe. I hope he is our Dudley Do-Right, who will save us and not our Snidely Whiplash, who will tie us to the tracks when he gets the chance.

Oil remains in the Gulf, but most of it may now be underwater due to being mixed with dispersant. Some oil is still visible as you can see if you watch this segment from NBC's "Today Show" from a couple of days ago, as Bonny Shumaker takes NBC reporter Lisa Meyers on a plane ride over the Gulf. Meyers says of the oil, "...it could be washing up on the beach for weeks." I'll wager that oil will be washing up on the beach for more than weeks? To me, that statement seems wildly optimistic.

The 3500 wild creatures who have been found dead are perhaps only 10% of the number killed by the oil gusher. No one really knows the number, but it's far greater than 3500. I admire people like Bonny Shumaker, who continue to fight the good fight to save the Gulf and the coastline.

Cartoon from Wikipedia

GAY GAMES IN COLOGNE

From the Guardian:

Around 10,000 gay and lesbian athletes from around the globe are expected to descend on the western German city of Cologne tomorrow to participate in the international Gay Games.

Entrants from more than 70 countries are due to take part in an eclectic mix of events including football, transgender ballroom dancing and cheerleading. A cultural programme includes art exhibitions, choir concerts and film screenings.

Many of the participants have adopted false identities because of fears that they will be persecuted on their return home.

"We want to demonstrate that the exclusion of gays and lesbians, especially in the sporting world, has to end," said Thorsten Moeck, of the organisation committee.

"Among the represented countries are plenty in which it's still an absolute taboo to out yourself."

While most participants come from Germany and the US, the list of countries represented will also include Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico and Zimbabwe.

Since I'm not much of a sports fan, my favorites to see would probably be the "transgender ballroom dancing and cheerleading" events. I'm just saying.

Read the rest at the Guardian

UPDATE: One day, in the not too distant future, one would hope that gay athletes will not need to hold special games but will be welcomed as full participants in the regular games.

WEEP FOR RACCOON ISLAND

This Royal Tern was rescued, after we discovered it and alerted officials. It was so weak, and from its ordeal that I seriously doubt that it survived. Photo by Drew Wheelan



The picture on the left shows Drew Wheelan, the conservation coordinator for the American Birding Association, who writes at The Gulf Coast Oil Spill blog, which is managed by the American Birding Association.

Drew writes about Raccoon Island:

I continue to be baffled by the decisions being made by the response effort as it concerns wildlife. A most distressing situation that illustrates just how ineffective and poorly managed the response has been is that of the multi-species nesting colony on Raccoon Island. Known to many locals as Last Island, this 5 km. long island in the Isles Deniers chain in Terrebonne Bay contains one of the largest populations of nesting seabirds in the state of Louisiana, including thousands of Brown Pelicans, Louisiana's State Bird. One would assume that being such an important resource for local wildlife that it would be indentified as en extreme priority for protection and monitoring.
....

Raccoon Island, one of the most densely populated islands with birds in the entire state was left with one layer of deflective inner harbor type boom, which was completely useless against the waves and the wind from a storm in early July. As of last Friday, day 94, this boom was still piled high up on the beach, having been washed ashore with the same oil that drenched a large number of birds, an event that was brought to light by Cornell University biologists studying the colony. Had Tropical Storm Bonnie been stronger and hit Louisiana’s coast, Raccoon Island would have been utterly defenseless against the likely incursion of crude that would have been brought in with the waves as it lacked any boom at all. It makes no sense that this island was not identified as a higher priority, and now we are seeing massive effects which have been documented by New Orleans photographer Jerry Moran on his website.
....

From my journal, July 22, 2010, Day 93

"Yesterday I saw huge tracts of marshland in Barataria Bay with the thickest oil I have seen yet, and no clean up effort underway. We also saw a ribbon of fresh oil flowing into the marshlands, ten miles inside the bay. The wide swath of oil was over a mile long and so noxious that my throat still burns from the fumes. A small boat was present, but no skimmers were working to contain the oil, though we had passed many such boats, anchored in the bay before we found this oil. It is quite frankly, absolutely infuriating to hear the claims by BP that they are working to clean the Gulf. The efforts here are little more than a disorganized circus, and the fact that many birds are experiencing a respite from direct heavy oiling owes itself to nothing more than the weather, and the toxic dispersants having kept the Louisiana Crude from the shores. (My emphasis)

Drew's entire post is well worth reading, after which you will weep. I've had the link to Drew's post for several days, thanks to my friend Georgianne Nienaber at The Huffington Post, who has done her part in trying to tell the story of the perilous state of wildlife in the Gulf and on the coastline, but, in truth, I couldn't bear to write, because my heart was broken after reading it, which I realize makes me one sorry-assed reporter. All Drew's information is so very disheartening, especially in light of the dumbass statement by Thad Allen, retired head of the US Coast Guard, the present director of the federal government's response team.

Even though the leak stopped, oil likely will continue to hit the coastline and barrier islands for the next four to six weeks, Allen said.

Excuse my language about Allen's statement, but I couldn't help myself. As I said in my post:

"...for the next four to six weeks"! And that will be the end of the oil? To read those words spoken by the person in charge, a Coast Guardsman, at that, is chilling.

WE'LL BE LEFT BEHIND

from the Baton Rouge Advocate:

With the permanent sealing of BP’s ruptured oil well expected in the next two weeks, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen plans to begin discussions today with parish leaders on how and when the thousands of response workers and the vast amount of oil cleanup equipment will be scaled back.

“One of the reasons we’re here is to start a conversation with local leaders about how we transition from a response posture,” said Allen, who is in charge of the federal response to the leak. “Once the well is capped, what remains to be done?”

Allen said he plans to have “frank, open” discussions with parish leaders about what the federal government can do and what its requirements are, he said during a Wednesday news conference in New Orleans.
....

Even though the leak stopped, oil likely will continue to hit the coastline and barrier islands for the next four to six weeks, Allen said. (My emphasis)

He based that estimate on how long it took for oil slicks to make it to shore after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20 about 50 miles offshore.

Allen noted it is becoming more difficult to find oil.

“We’re seeing less and less oil, and the oil that we do see is weathered, it’s sheen, and sometimes it’s not that effective to skim it,” he said.

"...for the next four to six weeks"! And that will be the end of the oil? To read those words spoken by the person in charge, a Coast Guardsman, at that, is chilling.

Parish and state officials have said they’re concerned about how and when the response effort will be scaled back.

Billy Nungesser, Plaquemines Parish president, said Wednesday he is concerned the federal government and BP are going to end the response program too soon.

Nungesser is not the only one concerned.

“It is going to be a new fight from here on out,” he told members of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority at a meeting Wednesday in Baton Rouge. “There’s oil all over Plaquemines Parish this morning.”
....

Nungesser said he spent a day fighting with the Coast Guard and BP to keep equipment in place for fear it would not be returned after the storm.

“Why should I have to fight? They should be coming to me and saying, ‘Billy, what more can I do,’ ” he said.

But that would be in a civilized country.

I expect that the "conversations" with federal officials will not involve much listening on their part. They've declared the job done, although saying it is so will not make it so. An inadequate crew of people with inadequate equipment will remain to attempt an impossible task.