Yet another reason why I'd rather live somewhere OTHER than America...
Dumb as We Wanna Be
I asked Dr. José Goldemberg, secretary for the environment for São Paulo State and a pioneer of Brazil’s ethanol industry, the obvious question: Is the fact that the U.S. has imposed a 54-cents-a-gallon tariff to prevent Americans from importing sugar ethanol from Brazil “just stupid or really stupid.”
Thanks to pressure from Midwest farmers and agribusinesses, who want to protect the U.S. corn ethanol industry from competition from Brazilian sugar ethanol, we have imposed a stiff tariff to keep it out. We do this even though Brazilian sugar ethanol provides eight times the energy of the fossil fuel used to make it, while American corn ethanol provides only 1.3 times the energy of the fossil fuel used to make it. We do this even though sugar ethanol reduces greenhouses gases more than corn ethanol. And we do this even though sugar cane ethanol can easily be grown in poor tropical countries in Africa or the Caribbean, and could actually help alleviate their poverty.
Yes, you read all this right. We tax imported sugar ethanol, which could finance our poor friends, but we don’t tax imported crude oil, which definitely finances our rich enemies. We’d rather power anti-Americans with our energy purchases than promote antipoverty.
“It’s really stupid,” answered Dr. Goldemberg.
If I seem upset about this, I am. Development and environmental experts have long searched for environmentally sustainable ways to alleviate rural poverty — especially for people who live in places like Brazil, where there is a constant temptation to log the Amazon. Sure, ecotourism and rain forest soap are nice, but they never really scale. As a result, rural people in Brazil are always tempted go back to logging or farming sensitive areas.
Ethanol from sugar cane could be a scalable, sustainable alternative — if we are smart and get rid of silly tariffs, and if Brazil is smart and starts thinking right now about how to expand its sugar cane biofuel industry without harming the environment.
The good news is that sugar cane doesn’t require irrigation and can’t grow in much of the Amazon, because it is too wet. So if the Brazilian sugar industry does realize its plan to grow from 15 million to 25 million acres over the next few years, it need not threaten the Amazon.
However, sugar cane farms are located mostly in south-central Brazil, around São Paulo, and along the northeast coast, on land that was carved out of drier areas of the Atlantic rain forest, which has more different species of plants and animals per acre than the Amazon. Less than 7 percent of the total Atlantic rain forest remains — thanks to sugar, coffee, orange plantations and cattle grazing.
I flew in a helicopter over the region near São Paulo, and what I saw was not pretty: mansions being carved from forested hillsides near the city, rivers that have silted because of logging right down to the banks, and wide swaths of forest that have been cleared and will never return.
“It makes you weep,” said Gustavo Fonseca, my traveling companion, a Brazilian and the executive vice president of Conservation International. “What I see here is a totally human dominated system in which most of the biodiversity is gone.”
As demand for sugar ethanol rises — and that is a good thing for Brazil and the developing world, said Fonseca, “we have to make sure that the expansion is done in a planned way.”
Over the past five years, the Amazon has lost 7,700 square miles a year, most of it for cattle grazing, soybean farming and palm oil. A similar expansion for sugar ethanol could destroy the cerrado, the Brazilian savannah, another incredibly species-rich area, and the best place in Brazil to grow more sugar.
A proposal is floating around the Brazilian government for a major expansion of the sugar industry, far beyond even the industry’s plans. No wonder environmental activists are holding a conference in Germany this fall about the impact of biofuels. I could see some groups one day calling for an ethanol boycott — à la genetically modified foods — if they feel biofuels are raping the environment.
We have the tools to resolve these conflicts. We can map the lands that need protection for their biodiversity or the environmental benefits they provide rural communities. But sugar farmers, governments and environmentalists need to sit down early — like now — to identify those lands and commit the money needed to protect them. Otherwise, we will have a fight over every acre, and sugar ethanol will never realize its potential. That would be really, really stupid.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Friday, September 08, 2006
Dancing in the Rain and School Festivals
OK Im getting pressure to upate again and I've been wanting to but I also wanted photos to accompany the blog.... my sources have fallen through!! I've forgotten my camera a couple times and then the time I remembered it, it died after taking 3 pics....grrrr! Oh well. When I get the pics, I'll update this entry!
So, first on my list of updates and news since I posted last is the Basara Matsuri. Its a festival that takes place in August in Nara. Teams will get together, sponsored by companies I think, and create a group dance with wacky costumes etc. Nothing has to be traditional -- its all about creativity. Anyway, there's always been a JET group and I decided to join it this year thinking that I'd get to keep the cool costumes that we usually get for free(a summer kimono, AKA a yukata). However, I found out that our sponsor changed this year and instead of a pretty summer kimono that I could cherish and take home as a cool souvenir, we were presented with black spandex shorts, a tight black tank top, a white apron to put over it, and red armbands and a red bandana..... The result: we looked like a team of crazy ramen cooks! Not exactly what I had in mind when I signed up.
Anyway, on the day I went to participate with everyone, we were to dance on stage and then dance a few times up a verrrrrrry long street. So, we practiced in the hot sun, sweating buckets, but having a good time in general. Then while we were dancing on the stage, I noticed that there were some very dark, looming and ominous clouds coming nearer and nearer.... We made it down to the train station and under cover before the heavens opened and pissed all over everything. The cooler temperature was great though and I actually twirled in the rain a little just to cool off. (Of course, all the Japanese around were staring, open-nouthed and pointing as I did this.... who knows? Maybe they're made of sugar and melt in the rain? ORRR maybe they're made of salt from all the fish and soy sauce they consume... That would make more sense!) Aaaaanyhow, after the downpour we made our way to the starting point to dance the street, thinking that since it downpoured once, we were safe....
Ha. Yeah right! Right as we started our dancing up the street it started to downpour again. And when I say downpour I dont mean Seattle-type downpour. I mean, its raining so hard you feel like you're in the shower with all your clothes on. I could barely keep my eyes open! The tiny street we were dancing in was turned into a raging river within minutes. We were dancing in 4-5 inches of water by the end. However, since there was nothing we could do about it and we couldnt just be pussies and stop dancing, we danced with more energy and enthusiasm than all the previous times! We has sooooo much fun and we laughing so hard, its one of the best experiences Ive had here so far. The rain honestly felt great and it was such a wonderful feeling of abandon! People on the side were cheering us on and all the other teams in front of and behind us were cheering for us and visa versa. What an incredible feeling of unity!
Afterwards we went back to where we had changed only to realize that none of us had towels or changes of clothes. We were stuck to just air dry.... To help this process along, we had to wring out our clothes. I ended up wringing everything out 3 times. There were puddles of water everywhere. Im waiting for the pictures. They should be pretty humorous, although Im not sure if they'll really show how wet we were. It was as if we had jumped into a lake with all our clothes on. By the end of the dance we looked at our hands and all our fingers looked like prunes!
I had to leave early, but as it turned out we won a "Special Award" and the team had to dance one more time on stage! I guess there are only 5 "Special Awards" given away each year by 5 famous people who come to Nara to watch the festival. It was such a surprise because, honestly, our dance wasnt THAT great and our costumes were goofy at best. They had to call our team name out like 3 times before they all heard it and were ushered to the stage by people in the audience. I heard it was really funny!
OK, now for the next event. AJET (the organization Im in) put on a Welcome Party Beer Garden to kick off the new JET year. Fortunately it didn't rain and we were able to have it on the roof top of the hotel. It was a nice night -- not nearly as full of debauchery like past beer gardens, but everyone still had a great time. Im still waiting for pictures from that as well and will post them when I get them!
Last weekend we went to the Yoshino River and had a BBQ. It was sooo much fun and the weather was gorgeous. The sun was warm but it wasn't very humid! Yaay! The river was pretty high though and the rapids were really strong! We went swimming anyway though and it was really nice. Adam got a little beat up by the rapids trying to cross the river back to where all our stuff was. No injuries but a couple cuts and bruises... He kinda got tossed over the rocks a bit! I was a little worried and ready to jump in and rescue him (lifeguard instincts are still there!) but he was fine. Whew! We made fajitas and potato salad which were a huge hit since mexican ingredients are near impossible to come by!
Group pic. We're eating BBQ'd sweet potatoes. Left to right: Kendra (NZ), Josy (UK), me, April (USA), Vinh (USA)
The boys: Chetan (S. Africa), Launey (Canada), Kabir (California). Despite what it appears, Chetan and Kabir are actually around 6' each... Launey is 6'9"!!! I come up to his shoulder...possibly a little farther, but not much!
The BBQ scene which of course Adam has a part in! Those are the fajita makings he's guarding...
And here's me in Launey's shoes.... I have my clunky Chaco sandals on and I can still fit inside his shoes with room to spare! I think they're a size 16, or maybe 18.... and yes, he played basketball in college.
Now this week is the school festival week called "bunkasai". All schools have them at the beginning of the fall trimester and they include music and drama performances one day, and food stalls, games and karaoke the second. So, today is the second day and I took a risk and bought some "thai" soup for lunch.... I don't trust the food here very much, especially since I KNOW there's no soap at all in the bathrooms. (Yeah... eww!) The student karaoke just ended, thank GOD!!! The problem with the students here is that contrary to American teens who know they don't have talent and don't perform unless they do, is that every student here thinks they could be the next Japanese Brittney Spears or Justin Timberlake! Honestly, the girls on stage 5 minutes ago sounded like chipmunks on crack! Not so cool. I wanted to bang my head against the wall.
On another note, Im becoming much more confident in my language ability. Ive been having people come up to me left and right asking for directions to something. The first one, I knew exactly what they were talking about and helped them. The second was asking for the ballet studio but I didnt know the word for that, unfortunately, even though I did know where it was! Oh well. I loved helping them out, though, cuz they asked me in JAPANESE!! They didnt even hesitate when they saw I was a foreigner! ANNND they understood my Japanese too!! WOOOHOO!
On the other hand however, I got English raped again yesterday afternoon. To be "English raped" means to have random people come up to you and A) Start speaking to you or asking you something in English, B) Ask you if you're from America, or C) generally just find any excuse to practice their English with you. Now, I realize it takes a lot of guts to come up and speak in a foreign language to a foreigner, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy being harassed by strangers JUST because Im foreign. What also pisses me off is the fact that they all assume Im American and speak English. I know Germans, French, Irish, English, Aussies, Kiwis, Scotts, Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians who live here and many more! WE'RE NOT ALL FROM AMERICA!!! I hate having to confirm stereotypes so I've started pretending that I'm German and don't speak English very well. A lady asked me yesterday if I was a native English speaker (which was better than asking if I was American, but still...), and I looked at her confused and said in Japanese, "No, Im from Germany. My English is really bad." Then, get this, she continued to speak English to me!! I kept speaking to her in my broken Japanese and she finally got the point. Grrrrr... There are quite a few times in my life where I've resented being American. This was one of those times. In fact, if I could just denounce my citizenship and have no citizenship to any country at all -- maybe just be a World Citizen, I'd be happy. I hate being stereotyped as one thing or another just based on what nationality I am. People are also giving me shit about wanting to denounce my American citizenship. Yes it would make things ultimately harder and, therefore, I probably won't. BUT, when my great-great grandfather left Germany, he did so because he didnt agree with the politics at the time and didn't like the Kaiser (in a nutshell anyway). So, why, I ask, if I'm feeling the same way now, do I get shit for wanting to disown my country? Am I unpatriotic? Maybe to an extent. I love it because its the place where I grew up and all my family is there. I do believe that there are good, considerate and intelligent Americans of course. But they're not the ones running the country and making all the important decisions. Im tired of the fuckwad leaders of this world screwing things up for the rest of us just because they're greedy, selfish, short-sighted and arrogant. And Im tired of the public believing everything and allowing themselves to be brainwashed. We're ready to move to a country where the President actually won a Nobel Peace Prize for PREVENTING a war instead of causing one. Talk about a good role model. That President would be Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica. He was the president from '86-'90 and then reelected this year. That's someone Im willing to support. Not the buttmunch in the Oval Office right now, that's for sure. Sorry America. I'm out! You let me down!
Anyway, sorry about the rant. Im done. This would be a much cooler post if I had pics to accompany it, but such is not the case at the moment! More to come later!
So, first on my list of updates and news since I posted last is the Basara Matsuri. Its a festival that takes place in August in Nara. Teams will get together, sponsored by companies I think, and create a group dance with wacky costumes etc. Nothing has to be traditional -- its all about creativity. Anyway, there's always been a JET group and I decided to join it this year thinking that I'd get to keep the cool costumes that we usually get for free(a summer kimono, AKA a yukata). However, I found out that our sponsor changed this year and instead of a pretty summer kimono that I could cherish and take home as a cool souvenir, we were presented with black spandex shorts, a tight black tank top, a white apron to put over it, and red armbands and a red bandana..... The result: we looked like a team of crazy ramen cooks! Not exactly what I had in mind when I signed up.
Anyway, on the day I went to participate with everyone, we were to dance on stage and then dance a few times up a verrrrrrry long street. So, we practiced in the hot sun, sweating buckets, but having a good time in general. Then while we were dancing on the stage, I noticed that there were some very dark, looming and ominous clouds coming nearer and nearer.... We made it down to the train station and under cover before the heavens opened and pissed all over everything. The cooler temperature was great though and I actually twirled in the rain a little just to cool off. (Of course, all the Japanese around were staring, open-nouthed and pointing as I did this.... who knows? Maybe they're made of sugar and melt in the rain? ORRR maybe they're made of salt from all the fish and soy sauce they consume... That would make more sense!) Aaaaanyhow, after the downpour we made our way to the starting point to dance the street, thinking that since it downpoured once, we were safe....
Ha. Yeah right! Right as we started our dancing up the street it started to downpour again. And when I say downpour I dont mean Seattle-type downpour. I mean, its raining so hard you feel like you're in the shower with all your clothes on. I could barely keep my eyes open! The tiny street we were dancing in was turned into a raging river within minutes. We were dancing in 4-5 inches of water by the end. However, since there was nothing we could do about it and we couldnt just be pussies and stop dancing, we danced with more energy and enthusiasm than all the previous times! We has sooooo much fun and we laughing so hard, its one of the best experiences Ive had here so far. The rain honestly felt great and it was such a wonderful feeling of abandon! People on the side were cheering us on and all the other teams in front of and behind us were cheering for us and visa versa. What an incredible feeling of unity!
Afterwards we went back to where we had changed only to realize that none of us had towels or changes of clothes. We were stuck to just air dry.... To help this process along, we had to wring out our clothes. I ended up wringing everything out 3 times. There were puddles of water everywhere. Im waiting for the pictures. They should be pretty humorous, although Im not sure if they'll really show how wet we were. It was as if we had jumped into a lake with all our clothes on. By the end of the dance we looked at our hands and all our fingers looked like prunes!
I had to leave early, but as it turned out we won a "Special Award" and the team had to dance one more time on stage! I guess there are only 5 "Special Awards" given away each year by 5 famous people who come to Nara to watch the festival. It was such a surprise because, honestly, our dance wasnt THAT great and our costumes were goofy at best. They had to call our team name out like 3 times before they all heard it and were ushered to the stage by people in the audience. I heard it was really funny!
OK, now for the next event. AJET (the organization Im in) put on a Welcome Party Beer Garden to kick off the new JET year. Fortunately it didn't rain and we were able to have it on the roof top of the hotel. It was a nice night -- not nearly as full of debauchery like past beer gardens, but everyone still had a great time. Im still waiting for pictures from that as well and will post them when I get them!
Last weekend we went to the Yoshino River and had a BBQ. It was sooo much fun and the weather was gorgeous. The sun was warm but it wasn't very humid! Yaay! The river was pretty high though and the rapids were really strong! We went swimming anyway though and it was really nice. Adam got a little beat up by the rapids trying to cross the river back to where all our stuff was. No injuries but a couple cuts and bruises... He kinda got tossed over the rocks a bit! I was a little worried and ready to jump in and rescue him (lifeguard instincts are still there!) but he was fine. Whew! We made fajitas and potato salad which were a huge hit since mexican ingredients are near impossible to come by!
Group pic. We're eating BBQ'd sweet potatoes. Left to right: Kendra (NZ), Josy (UK), me, April (USA), Vinh (USA)
The boys: Chetan (S. Africa), Launey (Canada), Kabir (California). Despite what it appears, Chetan and Kabir are actually around 6' each... Launey is 6'9"!!! I come up to his shoulder...possibly a little farther, but not much!
The BBQ scene which of course Adam has a part in! Those are the fajita makings he's guarding...
And here's me in Launey's shoes.... I have my clunky Chaco sandals on and I can still fit inside his shoes with room to spare! I think they're a size 16, or maybe 18.... and yes, he played basketball in college.Now this week is the school festival week called "bunkasai". All schools have them at the beginning of the fall trimester and they include music and drama performances one day, and food stalls, games and karaoke the second. So, today is the second day and I took a risk and bought some "thai" soup for lunch.... I don't trust the food here very much, especially since I KNOW there's no soap at all in the bathrooms. (Yeah... eww!) The student karaoke just ended, thank GOD!!! The problem with the students here is that contrary to American teens who know they don't have talent and don't perform unless they do, is that every student here thinks they could be the next Japanese Brittney Spears or Justin Timberlake! Honestly, the girls on stage 5 minutes ago sounded like chipmunks on crack! Not so cool. I wanted to bang my head against the wall.
On another note, Im becoming much more confident in my language ability. Ive been having people come up to me left and right asking for directions to something. The first one, I knew exactly what they were talking about and helped them. The second was asking for the ballet studio but I didnt know the word for that, unfortunately, even though I did know where it was! Oh well. I loved helping them out, though, cuz they asked me in JAPANESE!! They didnt even hesitate when they saw I was a foreigner! ANNND they understood my Japanese too!! WOOOHOO!
On the other hand however, I got English raped again yesterday afternoon. To be "English raped" means to have random people come up to you and A) Start speaking to you or asking you something in English, B) Ask you if you're from America, or C) generally just find any excuse to practice their English with you. Now, I realize it takes a lot of guts to come up and speak in a foreign language to a foreigner, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy being harassed by strangers JUST because Im foreign. What also pisses me off is the fact that they all assume Im American and speak English. I know Germans, French, Irish, English, Aussies, Kiwis, Scotts, Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians who live here and many more! WE'RE NOT ALL FROM AMERICA!!! I hate having to confirm stereotypes so I've started pretending that I'm German and don't speak English very well. A lady asked me yesterday if I was a native English speaker (which was better than asking if I was American, but still...), and I looked at her confused and said in Japanese, "No, Im from Germany. My English is really bad." Then, get this, she continued to speak English to me!! I kept speaking to her in my broken Japanese and she finally got the point. Grrrrr... There are quite a few times in my life where I've resented being American. This was one of those times. In fact, if I could just denounce my citizenship and have no citizenship to any country at all -- maybe just be a World Citizen, I'd be happy. I hate being stereotyped as one thing or another just based on what nationality I am. People are also giving me shit about wanting to denounce my American citizenship. Yes it would make things ultimately harder and, therefore, I probably won't. BUT, when my great-great grandfather left Germany, he did so because he didnt agree with the politics at the time and didn't like the Kaiser (in a nutshell anyway). So, why, I ask, if I'm feeling the same way now, do I get shit for wanting to disown my country? Am I unpatriotic? Maybe to an extent. I love it because its the place where I grew up and all my family is there. I do believe that there are good, considerate and intelligent Americans of course. But they're not the ones running the country and making all the important decisions. Im tired of the fuckwad leaders of this world screwing things up for the rest of us just because they're greedy, selfish, short-sighted and arrogant. And Im tired of the public believing everything and allowing themselves to be brainwashed. We're ready to move to a country where the President actually won a Nobel Peace Prize for PREVENTING a war instead of causing one. Talk about a good role model. That President would be Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica. He was the president from '86-'90 and then reelected this year. That's someone Im willing to support. Not the buttmunch in the Oval Office right now, that's for sure. Sorry America. I'm out! You let me down!
Anyway, sorry about the rant. Im done. This would be a much cooler post if I had pics to accompany it, but such is not the case at the moment! More to come later!
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