Why?
A BBC World report from Fadhil Badrani inside Falluja should be read

BOO!

It's Haloween, and a lot has happened.

Began the month on Vancouver Island, in the Walbran Rainforest with 500 of my closest frinds for the Tree of Life Celebration. Using a recent Weyerhaeuser clearcut as his 'extreme canvas', artist John Quigley positioned 10 bus loads of men women and children to form a giant tree with the words 'wake up' underneath. Pictures and commentary from the event are at the IMC (2), the TOL website, and at the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.

The whole event was designed to bring together people upset about clear-cut logging on the island--and specifically to shine a spotlight on Weyerhaeuser's destructive forestry. Success on both counts. It was the biggest gathering BCs forest in over a decade.

Cracking Down on Dissent

The Financial Times writes that Greenpeace can't organize protests against Exxon anywhere in the US for the next seven years.

Essentially launching a legal pre-emptive strike against protest, Exxon even invoked post-9/11 security fears as justification for the action. "when the country was on orange alert" Exxon told the FT, "The current climate makes Greenpeace's activities directed at ExxonMobil all the more irresponsible and dangerous".

There's no reason for Exxon to consider "Greenpeace's activities" any more "dangerous" now than it would have 10 years ago. If anything, the activists charged in the case did the company a favor by harmlessly exposing flagrant security breeches at the HQ. Better a tiger-suit-wearing solar-advocate than a gun toting terrorist, no?

Exxon knows this, but decided to invoke the pall of terrorism anyway. Why?

Hmm... yes, well it's been some time since reporting on my goings on. Mainly because it's hard to get internet reception on Rantee Bay. I may pass along some personal pictures of Rantee, Railei and some of the other wonders of Thailand when/if I take some time to scan the pics. (It's time for a digital, I think).

Meantime, a quick look at the 'ol site statistics says that the good people at Weyerhaeuser now comprise a full %3 of traffic to the site. That either means

(a) All this work is finally paying dividends , or;

(b) This blog is really lame.

Please... vote below.

Pemberton Protected (for now)

After hearing from over 1,500 close personal friends, Weyerhaueser decided that logging a scenic hillside overlooking the local elementary school was a bad idea (go figure). See reaction from all sides here.

On to the next community.