Septembre

Good articlem, giving an update on how much the situation in Darfur is out of control. I've got no idea how this nightmare of this AK47 fueled machismo can be stopped...

"If you are about to visit Paris and want to try a new experience, a Paris Greeter will help you enjoy Paris as Parisians do.
The Paris Greeters are local Parisians who volunteer their time to share with visitors the districts of Paris they know and love so well. They will introduce places and insights into Parisian life that are not always found in the published tourist guides.

All our volunteer Greeters have a love of Paris and willingness to share with visitors it's art, tradition and culture. We want visitors to feel they have not only seen Paris but have been given a true taste of Parisian life.
Our Greeters are not professional tour guides but enthusiastic, friendly individuals with knowledge of Paris who will accompany you on a visit of the city, without charge, as a friend would."

There's been an article in today#s Le Monde about this non-profit association of volunteer tourist guides ( lemonde.fr/web/article/0 [lemonde.fr/web/article/0] ,1-0@2-3238,36-948436@51-940768,0.html ) .

From the page: "Une nation-Etat construite sur la base d'une identité religieuse - qui, par définition, sème l'exclusion, la division et l'intolérance parce qu'elle introduit une différence entre "nous" et "eux" - est plus encline à des crises de violence qu'un Etat-nation démocratique, laïc et pluraliste.
Au Pakistan, la question de la nation-Etat et de l'Etat-nation est rendue plus difficile par une grande contradiction contenue dans l'identité religieuse du pays. L'islam transcende l'Etat-nation, car il exige d'être loyal à une communauté transnationale de croyants, ce qui mine le sentiment de loyauté envers un Etat national délimité par des frontières géographiques et doté d'une souveraineté politique restreinte. La tentative du Pakistan pour se forger un "nationalisme islamique" est donc un contresens."

From the page: "SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 9: "At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity."

American companies help China build a surveillance system that comes very close to what George Orwell envisioned.

From the page: "Desde finales del 3.000 al 2.500 antes de Cristo, el canibalismo era común en toda la cuenca mediterránea europea y en Finlandia, y la carne de los fallecidos se tomaba tras hervirla unas tres o cuatro horas, "tal vez para asimilar sus características", ha explicado el director del Laboratorio de Antropología Física de la Universidad de Granada, Miguel Botella, quien dirige esta investigación en colaboración con expertos de la Universidad Autónoma de México y el Instituto de Antropología mexicano."

In another age you'd be considered food.

From the page: "'We first came here as refugees in 1947,' says Kajal Roy, his eyes watering from the smoke that fills his bamboo and mud home. 'We used cow dung for fuel then, as we do now. Nothing has really changed for us. When we fled from East Bengal to West Bengal 60 years ago, our land in the camp was marked out by a few pebbles: 20 square feet a head. The pebbles are still there, dug into the ground.'"

From the page: "The report states that as many as four million Iraqis are in dire need of help getting food, many of them children; 70 percent of the country now lacks access to adequate water supplies, up from 50 percent in 2003, and 90 percent of the country's hospitals lack basic medical and surgical supplies."

Jet stream shift, rainfall in the UK and climate change