RoguePundit

Unchecked Cargo

In our post 9/11 world, passengers are now subject to more extensive searches before they get on commercial aircraft.  The same isn't true for some cargo...yet.  

The Transportation Security Administration is phasing in a 2007 law requiring freight to be screened before going in the belly of a passenger plane with suitcases. U.S. passenger planes carry 12 million pounds a day of freight ranging fish to computers.

...

The law worries producers because the TSA will not be doing the screening. Although TSA workers have been scanning luggage since 2002, the agency is putting the responsibility for cargo on private companies, which it will certify and oversee.

Airlines and cargo handlers are buying screening equipment to perform bomb scans in their warehouses. But Sammon said those companies can't handle all the freight in a timely way.

The agency is urging manufacturers and distributors to join a new program that lets them satisfy the screening requirement if they impose strict security rules, such as employee background checks.

The concerns over outsourcing are an albatross.  The producers are worried about the costs of tightening their own security or suffering delays while awaiting screening.  Thus, it's time for some alarmism.

Fruit, vegetable and seafood wholesalers are worried that their perishables will spoil at airports next year because of a new security law requiring crates of goods to be checked for bombs before going on passenger airplanes.

Boxes of fresh food could sit in airport warehouses for hours, losing freshness and potentially facing unsanitary conditions while cargo handlers stack them up and test for bombs, said Chris Connell of Commodity Forwarders, which transports perishables.

"You could have people putting their hands in strawberry cases looking for explosives," Connell said.

...

Alaska's fishing industry, which produces nearly 60% of domestic seafood, is bracing for bottlenecks, said Jan Koslosky of Ocean Beauty Seafoods, which has seven fish-processing plants in Alaska. "There's absolutely no way all this cargo can be screened at the airport," Koslosky said.

But, there is the solution that the government is pushing.

Alaska seafood processors are slowly signing up for the program.

When the handwriting's on the wall, you may as well read it.

Deporting Criminals

Here's the latest deportation data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The data, from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009, shows that 10,793 people were deported from the Pacific Northwest, a drop of 117 compared to the previous year.

That marks the first time in the last five years that deportations from the Northwest have dropped. Deportations had increased from more than 4,000 in 2005 to nearly 11,000 in 2008.

But removals of people with criminal records went from more than 3,100 to nearly 4,500 between 2008 and 2009 — a jump of 39.7 percent. Since 2005, criminal removals have more than doubled.

The data "illustrates pretty vividly the priority we're placing on the removal of criminal aliens," ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said. "We believe it's the best way to enhance public safety."

Overall deportations in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Oregon, and Washington) sure bucked the national trend for some reason. 

Nationwide, deportations jumped to more than 387,000 in the same period — an increase of 65 percent over the previous year.

But when it comes to the deportation of criminals...

Federal authorities have identified more than 111,000 immigrants with criminal records being held in local jails, during the first year of a program that seeks to deport immigrants who have committed serious crimes.

Among the immigrants identified through the program, known as Secure Communities, more than 11,000 had been charged with or convicted of the most serious crimes, including murder and rape, domestic security officials said Thursday. About 1,900 of those have been deported.

...

About 100,000 of the detained immigrants identified through the system had been convicted of less serious crimes, ranging from burglary to traffic offenses, the officials said. Of those, more than 14,000 have been deported.

Can't find the statistic for how many of the 4,000 plus criminals who were deported from the Pacific Northwest were in jail for the most serious crimes.  Nonetheless, more than a quarter of the criminals deported from the U.S. this past fiscal year were from prisons in this region.

Pesticide Damage to Orchids

Cymbidiums are orchids that are famous for their corsage flowers.  Here's a beautiful example from this link.

It's rather obvious that growers would avoid using pesticides which could adversely impact the look or number of flowers produced.  However...

Tauranga grower Paul Hulshof poured a truckload of affected cymbidium orchids on the doorstep of Bayer Crop Science's Glenfield headquarters [Monday].

Mr Hulshof said the insecticide Oberon, distributed in New Zealand by Horticentre, had totally destroyed his crop and severely affected at least 30 other orchid growers.

Twenty-one months since he applied the insecticide he was still seeing deformities in his plants.

Frankly, I'm surprised that any grower would choose to expose large numbers of plants to a new pesticide without thoroughly testing it out first...many orchids are rather finicky.  Possibly the allure was that Oberon can work long-term on resistant mites and white flies. 

Cymbidiums take years from being cloned (or grown from seed) to reach flowering size.  It takes at least a couple more years for them to gain enough size to be divided.  In other words, it will be both expensive and time-consuming for growers to recover from this fiasco.  

New Zealand Export Growers Association chairman John van der Linden said orchid exports were worth $20 million a year. Forty per cent of New Zealand orchids had been sprayed with Oberon, and 20 per cent had been lost.

"It has not destroyed the industry, but I don't think it will recover because the key members are leaving, and growers are pretty dispirited."

He said Bayer had been quick to compensate growers for lost cashflow.

Bayer Crop Science country manager John Neal said the company had not admitted liability, but had settled 14 of 45 cases with growers, and would have half the claims settled by next month.

Note that in reaction to the deformity problems, Bayer pulled Oberon, relabeled it for use on tomatoes and peppers rather than ornamental plants, and started selling it again a month later.

Growers did not blame crop destruction on the insecticide itself, but on poor labeling and instructions.

It is understood they were not told the spray should only be used in cool months and should be sprayed only lightly. Those who used the product in summer months suffered the worst damage.

Densely sprayed crops were destroyed, and others produced deformed flower heads and other abnormalities.

It's always suspicious when legal settlements are closed or involve no admission of guilt or liability.  Little wonder that most of the growers are being careful about what they say...they don't want to go through a lengthy legal battle in hopes of receiving compensation.

Older Vehicles More Vulnerable

Here's the top 10 list for vehicles stolen in Oregon in 2008.

1. 1992 Honda Accord
2. 1995 Honda Civic
3. 1990 Toyota Camry   
4. 1990 Acura Integra   
5. 1996 Subaru Legacy
6. 1993 Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee
7. 1995 Saturn
8. 1999 Ford F150 Pickup
9. 1991 Ford Explorer
10. 1986 Toyota Pickup 4x2

Several of those were big sellers, but the Acura, Subaru, and Saturn?  Interesting that all of the vehicles are older.

Last year, 13,325 vehicles were stolen across the state.  Based on theft rates, Eugene ranked 20th in the nation for auto theft while the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton area ranked 81st--the only Oregon cities in the nation's Top 100.

The other Oregon metropolitan areas on the list were Salem at 128, Bend at 277, Corvallis at 295, and Medford at 311.  The "champ" in the Northwest was Yakima, which ranked third nationally.  Also well up the list were Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue at 26 and Spokane at 35.  By the way, the top 10 list of vehicles stolen in Washington was slightly different.

1. 1992 Honda Accord
2. 1995 Honda Civic
3. 1990 Toyota Camry
4. 1995 Acura Integra
5. 1994 Nissan Sentra
6. 1995 Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee
7. 1994 Saturn Sl
8. 1995 Nissan Pathfinder
9. 1994 Ford Explorer
10. 1993 Dodge Caravan

Meanwhile, the 1999 Dodge Ram was the most stolen vehicle in Idaho last year.

Gathering Only

In Africa, Botswana trails only Equatorial Guinea in terms of GDP per capita.  But considering the despotic leadership in Equatorial Guinea and how few of its citizens have benefited from the nation's oil riches, the average Botswanan is much better off.  Unfortunately, that thought doesn't necessarily apply to its Bushmen, whom the country is struggling to help.   

When Botswana's High Court ruled three years ago that the country’s Bushmen (also known as the San) should be allowed to live and hunt in their ancestral territories in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), it seemed a comprehensive victory for some of the world's last desert hunter-gatherers. But since then the authorities have issued no licences. In fact, none has been given out since 2001. And a recent court case does not inspire much hope for the Bushmen.

Relocated in the 1990s and earlier this decade, only a few Bushmen have been able to return to the empty scrubland of the central Kalahari since the 2006 ruling. Scores have been arrested for hunting without permits, according to Survival International, a charity that helps indigenous peoples trying to preserve their traditional way of life. This week, for the first time, six Bushmen, including at least one of the plaintiffs in the 2006 case, Tshetha Ntwatamogala, were convicted of illegally hunting gemsbok and eland in the reserve.

At 23,600 square miles, CKGR is about the size of West Virginia...which is a tenth the size of Botswana.  When Botswana was still a British protectorate, CKGR was created as homeland for the roughly 5,000 Bushmen them.  Decades later, Botswana forced them off of the land.  Were the Botswanans reacting against what could be viewed as apartheid or doing something worse to people of a different ethnic group?  And what about other factors, like for instance diamond mining.

In the early 1980s, diamonds were discovered in the reserve. Soon after, government ministers went into the reserve to tell the Bushmen living there that they would have to leave because of the diamond finds.

In three big clearances, in 1997, 2002 and 2005, virtually all the Bushmen were forced out. Their homes were dismantled, their school and health post were closed, their water supply was destroyed and the people were threatened and trucked away.

They now live in resettlement camps outside the reserve.  Rarely able to hunt, and arrested and beaten when they do, they are dependent on government handouts. They are now gripped by alcoholism, boredom, depression, and illnesses such as TB and HIV/AIDS.

Despite this, the glittering exports aren't considered blood or conflict diamonds. 

Diamonds have been the biggest engine of Botwanan economic growth--the fastest in the world since it gained independence in 1966.  The mining of diamonds, copper, nickel, etc. is responsible for 38 percent of the nation's GDP. 

But, let's not forget that conservation via social engineering has also played a major role in the Bushmen's situation.

Resettlement in the name of wildlife conservation and tourism promotion has been advocated by a number of African governments and environmental non-government organizations. Such resettlement has major human rights implications, especially in terms of reducing the standards of living and access to land of people are relocated. In May 1997, the government of Botswana chose to resettle several hundred residents outside of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the third largest game reserve in Africa. This resettlement, which had been planned since 1986, is having major effects on the people not only in the Central Kalahari but also those in the area where people have been resettled.

...

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the Botswana government had pursued a policy of "freezing" development in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. When the borehole at !Xade, the largest community in the reserve, broke down, it took months before it was fixed. Buildings and roads were not maintained in the reserve except for those going to Department of Wildlife and National Parks camps. Even drought relief feeding programs were slower in the central Kalahari than elsewhere in Botswana, a situation which threatened the well-being of people in several parts of the reserve.

Pressures were also brought to bear on people in the central Kalahari through selective enforcement of wildlife laws and what some local people perceived to be intimidation. Data collected on households in the central Kalahari and adjacent areas reveal that up to two thirds of the resident adult males of some communities have been arrested at one time or another by game scouts from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, police officers, or Botswana Defense Force (BDF) personnel. One of the impacts of high rates of arrest was that there was withdrawal of much-needed labor from households and communities. This was especially problematic if the person arrested and jailed was a bread-winner or a hunter.

Squeeze the people until most of them leave "voluntarily," and then employ a few of them in community based natural resource management.  Tourism supplies another 12 percent of Botswana's GDP.  From the Reserve's website... 

Safari lodges based in various parts of the Kalahari often hire people of Bushman origin to guide visitors into the desert and to impart their wisdom of how to survive. Often dressed in traditional animal skins and carrying a bow and arrow, they show you how to find water-filled tubers in the sand and explain how to catch an ostrich--which is no easy task!  Bushmen are great storytellers and like nothing better than to embellish a tale with elaborate and hilarious demonstrations, accompanied by their fast and furious clicking language. At the end of the day they take off their working clothes--in this case animal skins--and go back to their village. The romantic dream that Bushmen might still be able live as they once did is not a reality, and even the CKGR is no longer theirs as diamond mining companies are taking over what was once Bushman land.

The Bushmen are supposed to be satisfied with a few jobs serving and entertaining the affluent folks visiting, studying, and filming their former homeland.  About the only reason they'll be passing along tracking knowledge to their children is so that they can poach. 

Human rights groups tend to avoid mentioning the role of conservation in this issue, as they tend to raise money and seek political support in the same circles as environmentalists.  Returning to the original article...

As one of the judges in the 2006 case put it, letting people back into the reserve without letting them hunt is "tantamount to condemning the remaining residents of the CKGR to death by starvation". 

The government has long argued that hunting in the reserve must remain illegal to protect the wildlife, even though the Bushmen, who hunt with spears, bows and arrows, have a relatively small effect on the animals. Clifford Maribe, spokesman for Botswana’s foreign ministry, says that the authorities are acting in the Bushmen's own interests, pointing out that permanent structures such as clinics and schools cannot be built inside the reserve. "Living inside the game reserve limits their livelihood opportunities," he says. "Their standard of living cannot be improved."

However, facilities in support of diamond mining can be built within the Reserve.

Littering the Border with Water Jugs

The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge shares a five-mile border with Mexico.  For most of the decade, the Refuge has been a popular crossing point for illegal aliens (previous blog here).  The land is scarred with unauthorized roads and trails, and littered with hundreds of tons of trash--mostly possessions that wouldn't fit in awaiting vehicles.  There's human waste, cut fences that allow cattle into the refuge, cooking fires that get out of control, on and on. 

A robust wall could help stop--or at least slow--the flow of immigrants there.  However, there are some folks who are at least as concerned about how such a wall would impact the environment.  Meanwhile, there are groups who are trying to help make the trek through the area less dangerous.  Recently, some of them have run afoul of the law.  

Thirteen members of humanitarian organizations received fines for littering earlier this month after putting gallon water jugs along the Arizona border with Mexico, intended for undocumented immigrants entering the country.

The people were issued citations in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, which stretches 30 miles north of the border in southern Arizona, near the town of Arivaca.

Members of three humanitarian groups - No Más Muertes (No More Deaths), Samaritanos de Tucson (Tucson Samaritans) and Fronteras Humanas (Humane Borders) - tried to place gallons of drinking water in four specific points of the corridor at a time when forecasts had temperatures reaching 110.

No Más Muertes developed a program in which gallon jugs were left in large numbers at specific points with the date and GPS coordinates written on the side. The volunteers said they checked the locations weekly to replace the used gallons and to collect any discarded bottles and other garbage.

So if the desert there only reaches 105, folks should be safe enough when illegally crossing the border that they don't need the water? 

"Our job is to convince these officials that we can prevent human deaths, while preserving the land," said Maureen Marx, a retired nurse and a volunteer with No Más Muertes.

That's the best a retired nurse can come up with to help people and the environment?  Sad. 

Blameshifting to Climate Change

Once again, some bureaucrats have decided to blame climate change for their inefficiency.

Children die from pneumonia and other respiratory infections every year during the winter months particularly in Peru's southern Andes.

But this year freezing temperatures arrived almost three months earlier than usual.

Experts blame climate change for the early arrival of intense cold which began in March.

Experts in what?  The climate in the tropical latitudes of the Andes has been trending warmer, helping to melt glaciers and other permanent snowpack in the region.  But when the weather is more like what helped those glaciers form in the first place, that's also climate change?  Only in the sense that it's a reversion to the mean.   

The extreme cold, which has brought snow, hail, freezing temperatures and strong winds, has killed more children than recorded annually for the past four years. 

A total of 246 under the age of five have died so far, only half way through the winter months.

One third of the deaths were registered in the southern region of Puno, much of which is covered by a high plateau known as the altiplano which extends into neighbouring Bolivia.

Aid workers say prolonged exposure to the cold is causing hypothermia and deadly respiratory infections such as pneumonia.

Children, who are often malnourished, are more vulnerable to the extreme cold.

The capital of the Puno Region (state) is also called Puno.  The city is on the northwestern shore of Lake Titicaca, whose elevation is about 12,500 feet.  The average low temperature there just 37ºF. And with much of the region being at higher elevations, cold is the norm--despite being only about 1100 miles south of the equator.  However, this story was written by a BBC correspondent in Lima, a coastal city with a very dry and mild climate.  The all-time record low there is 48°F...and sensationalism sells.

The following is from an April article. 

In Puno, rain has destroyed harvested potatoes and freezing temperatures as low as -13.5º C (8º F) have destroyed more than 50% of the quinoa crops, a staple food. 

The rainy season in semi-arid Puno is from December to March, with April being a transition month to the colder, drier winter.  In other words, those rains weren't terribly abnormal.  Quinoa survives a fairly hard frost, and that was definitely a hard frost that hit just before the harvest.  Sad, but again not terribly abnormal.     

Thirty percent of Peru's children suffer from malnutrition, with the problem being worst in the Altiplano.  There is incredible poverty in many of the Puno Region's rural areas.  The poor can rarely afford heating beyond what's needed for cooking...and it's not like there are many trees there.  Here's a picture of Puno borrowed from Wikipedia.  It's grown in the years since I was there.

   

Finally near the end of the original article was a more honest assessment of the problems.

The government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas but critics say the cold snaps are predictable and the annual deaths preventable.

Many have blamed government inefficiency for the deaths.

But Peru's Health Minister, Oscar Ugarte, has said regional officials have not effectively distributed government resources.

I'm sure the national officials weren't paragons of efficiency either. 

At least the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) isn't as powerful there as it used to be.  As bad as the Peruvian government has been, those Maoist butchers are far worse. 

We Care...About Reelection

Remember that proposed tax on sugary beverages, like flavored milk (previous blog here)?  A similar tax is still under consideration in the House.  However, those who need to care what their constituents think about such proposals are getting nervous.      

Electorally vulnerable Democrats are urging the House Ways and Means Committee to drop language from its healthcare reform proposal that would tax food and beverage products, saying it would disproportionately impact the poor.

In a letter to committee chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.), 13 members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Frontline program, led by Reps. Debbie Halvorson (Ill.), John Adler (N.J.), Michael McMahon (N.Y.) and Ann Kirkpatrick (Ariz.), urge the committee to abandon proposed taxes on food.

...

One proposal would tax sugary sodas at a rate of 10 cents per can, which could generate $112 billion, according to estimates.

$112 billion over a decade.  The Senate's proposed 3-cent-per-can tax on all sugary drinks (which is supposedly off the table) was estimated to raise $50 billion over a decade.  Both would only raise a small percentage of the cost of the health care proposals being bandied about.  The solution is evidently to make the most expensive health care in the world even more expensive.  

The Democrats, all freshmen except Rep. Leonard Boswell (Iowa), say such a tax would hit poorer families hardest. According to an assessment by the Congressional Research Service, 70 percent of the money generated from a soda tax would hit those making under $92,000 a year.

And, the Democrats said, adding taxes to certain food items and not others would raise the cost of groceries; poorer Americans spend more of their money on food than wealthier families.

Well duh! But couldn't the Congressional Research Service have come up with a more relevant income than $92,000?

Do you suppose President Obama would veto a health care bill that would include him breaking his promise about not raising taxes on those making less than $250,000??     

"While we support health care reform and finding appropriate offsets, we would prefer that health care legislation does not raise taxes on middle class families and small businesses," the members wrote.

...

Those who signed the letter include some of Republicans' top targets heading into the 2010 cycle. The GOP already has top recruits set to run against Reps. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho), Frank Kratovil (D-Md.) and Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), while Reps. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) and John Boccieri (D-Ohio) could also face tough contests.

Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.), who faced a surprisingly close race in 2008, and Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) also signed the letter.

They just want to be on record as opposing the taxes before supporting them.

Not a Breadbasket

South Korea is the world's fourth largest corn importer, and it wants to change that...somewhat.  The following got a fair amount of press when it was first announced, but now it's fallen apart.   

South Korea’s project to transform Madagascar into its breadbasket, branded by some as neo-colonial, came to an abrupt end on Wednesday when the Indian Ocean island’s new president said he would shelve the plan.

Daewoo Logistic’s deal to lease a huge tract of farmland, half the size of Belgium, to grow food crops to send back to Seoul was a source of popular resentment that contributed to the fall of Marc Ravalomanana, the former president.

Andry Rajoelina, who was declared president by the military and constitutional court after months of demonstrations and who will be formally sworn in on Saturday, said that Daewoo’s plan was “cancelled”.

“We are not against the idea of working with investors, but if we want to sell or rent out land, we have to change the constitution, you have to consult the people,” Mr Rajoelina said in Antananarivo, the country’s capital. “So at this hour the deal is cancelled.”

...

Daewoo’s plan became the most high-profile of several similar smaller foreign agricultural investments in Africa. The race to outsource production is a sign of how countries, particularly in the Middle East but also in Asia, are seeking food security after last year’s food crisis, which saw record prices for staples such as wheat and rice, and the imposition of export restrictions.

The initial plan involved 3.2 million acres, which is about 2.2 percent of the nation's land.

Mr. Rajoelina, a former disc jockey who was sacked as the mayor of the capital last month, was the opposition leader.  Speaking of changing the constitution...  

"I accept humbly and with love--I assume as a duty--all responsibility, management and leadership of our beloved country, Madagascar," he said.

He also announced that the constitution would be changed - the current constitution sets a minimum age of 40 for presidential candidates, while Mr Rajoelina is 34.

...

The African Union had urged the army not to hand power to Mr Rajoelina, saying this would amount to a coup.

Seventy percent of the people in Madagascar live on less than a dollar a day.  

Possibly Going Paperless

Evidently, the following looked like a good investment at the time. 

Hearst owned The San Francisco Examiner for more than a century, but the rival Chronicle became the city’s dominant paper. In 2000, Hearst bought The Chronicle for $660 million, and sold The Examiner. But it kept many Examiner workers, significantly increasing the size and cost of The Chronicle’s staff.

The Examiner has since been reduced to a free newspaper, leaving the Chronicle the only major newspaper in town.   

From a Tuesday press release...

Hearst Corporation announced today that its San Francisco Chronicle newspaper is undertaking critical cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and nonunion employees. If these savings cannot be accomplished within weeks, Hearst said, the Company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper.

Hearst said that the Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year and that this year’s losses to date are worse. The Chronicle has had major losses each year since 2001.

... Survival is the outcome we all want to achieve. But without the specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicle organization, we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle or, should a buyer not be found, to shut the newspaper down.”

The newspaper has about 1,500 employees and a circulation of 339,000.  I haven't found the 2008 statistics, but from 2003-2007, the Chronicle lost 147,000 subscribers.  A subscription for home delivery in the city limits now costs $62 for eight weeks, which is a touch over $400 a year.      

Switching to a link from the Chronicle itself...

The company did not specify the size of the staff reductions or the nature of the other cost-saving measures it has in mind. The company said it immediately will seek discussions with Northern California Media Workers Guild Local 39521 and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 853, which represent the majority of workers at The Chronicle.

...

Doug Cuthbertson, executive officer of the local newspaper guild, said, "We're extremely concerned for our members and we have a meeting planned for 10 a.m. Wednesday with management to hear what plans they have and offer any plans we may have to address what's obviously a serious problem."

Rome Aloise, secretary-treasurer at the Teamsters, added, "It remains to be seen what they think is needed. I'm a bit skeptical that any further cuts on the wage side and the staffing side will make up the difference that's needed when revenues are nonexistent. The problems are on the revenue side. The solution is not necessarily on the worker side. I'm hopeful they have some ideas, but I'm not optimistic."

The only Hearst Corporation newspaper here in the Northwest is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which is also on deathwatch.  From its January 9 press release...

Hearst Corporation announced that it is offering for sale the SeattlePost-Intelligencer (P-I) and its interest in the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) under which the P-I and The Seattle Times are published.

Hearst said that should a sale of the P-I not occur within 60 days, it will pursue other options for the property. These options include a move to a digital-only operation with a greatly reduced staff or a complete shutdown of all operations. In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form following the conclusion of this process.

The PI lost $14 million last year.