Free Marc

This ongoing tale leaves me completely apoplectic every time I hear "the latest" news in the saga. Here's the latest "latest".

Marc Emery has been sentenced to 5 years in prison in a U.S. jail. In 2005, upon the request of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, he was arrested by the Vancouver police. The U.S. wanted to charge him with "conspiracy to manufacture marijuana". Instead of telling the U.S. government to fuck off when they requested his extradition, (after all, the Canadian police didn't lay any charges even though these acts took place in Canada) the Canadian Justice Minister approved his deportation from his own country to the U.S. Marc surrendered, pleaded guilty to one count and is now in jail in Seattle serving his sentence.

So what did this evil, international mastermind do to warrant all this attention? He sold seeds.

Marijuana seeds.

Here's how it worked. You would consult his catalogue on the website which had detailed descriptions of all the different types of seeds. You would place your order by mail with a money order made out to Marc. You could order only 10 of any one type of seed and if memory serves, there was a limit of 3 different types - in other words a maximum of 30 seeds per order. Something like that, not a lot. Once the order had been shipped, your address and purchase information was destroyed. Within a few days, an envelope arrived in the mail. Easy, fast, convenient, personal. Great service. I know, I was a satisfied customer.

Oh, and he also shipped to the U.S. for the convenience of our southern neighbours. He had tons of customers and apparently he made a lot of money selling seeds which funded some of his other activities. He paid his provincial and federal taxes as a "marijuana seed vendor".

So now he's in an American jail.

What makes this prosecution so revolting is that this has nothing to do with seeds. It is completely political and a persecution of free speech. Marc was publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine. He had an online TV station, POT-TV. He was a founder of the Marijuana Party of Canada and ran for office - Mayor of Vancouver three times as well as an earlier candidacy for parliament with the Libertarian Party of Canada and in provincial elections. Documentaries and plays have been produced about him. His activities generated a lot of Canadian and U.S. media attention. He spoke at rallies urging the legalization of marijuana and financed pro-cannabis lobby groups and activists. He spoke out about what he believed in, and gave voice to something that many silent people also believe - that marijuana should be legalized.

No doubt, it's been a grueling time for Marc Emery these last years, up against governments with all their resources. I never believed that it would go this far. Who is it who believes that a jail cell is the appropriate way to get someone to shut up, to make someone stop voicing an alternative opinion?  Who are these morons? And how did they get so powerful, to enable them to create political prisoners of activists? Those on both sides of the border colluding on this need to get out more. Freedom of speech - what bullshit.

Thank you, Marc Emery. 

freemarc.ca
This Saturday, September 18th, is Free Marc Emery Rally Day. So far there are over 80 rallies scheduled worldwide, including in Shenchen, China. I'm not making this up. (Although somebody else might be).

Mapping the World

"Here, take a look at this. It's our house," he said, pushing the laptop over.

Indeed it was, clear as day. At first I didn't realize what I was looking at as it looked like one of the many pictures of the house I have on my own computer. Then it dawned. This was a picture of our house in British Columbia on Google Map Street View.

360-degree images at street level. Turn left, you see down the street. Turn right, you look the other way, down to the forest at the end of the street. There's the neighbors' houses. There's the neighbors' cars. There's the tenant's garbage bags, must be collection day. There's the tenant's grandkids' basketball net.

What's going on? Someone is wandering up and down the streets of this little town of 7000 people in the middle of Vancouver Island taking pictures of all the houses? Apparently so.

We checked out the old house in Ottawa. Yes there it was. Sort of. The new owners have ploughed under our front garden and replaced it with grass. Oh well. Chacun a son gout, to each his own. There's our neighbor's house across the street. This is becoming decidedly creepy to me. Does this mean that anyone can look at your house and your car and even at your kids playing in the front yard? Sure enough, there, at the end of the street are a couple of children on the sidewalk in front of the house. Recognizable to whoever wants to recognize them.

It gets worse.

That very night, I'm reading an article about this in the Herald Trib. Google is in hot water and the temperature seems to be rising. The German authorities are up in arms now because apparently as the company was sending all these people in their little cars and bikes down the streets of the country taking pictures, they were also picking up and recording information from people's unsecured wireless connections -  even email communications and visited websites, in violation of German laws on privacy and data collection. They've been doing this not just in Germany but apparently everywhere they've been street mapping. Google originally denied this but has now "reversed earlier denials" and admitted that they did it, saying however that the data collection was inadvertent and the result of a programming error.

Sure it was.

Aislin cartoon found through GOOGLE Image Search

Ivory Tusks

Last May, Philippine Bureau of Customs seized 793 kilos of ivory elephant tusks that were being smuggled into the country in a couple of containers coming from Tanzania (where elephants are an endangered species). Coincidentally (?) that same month hundreds of elephant tusks were also seized in Viet Nam, also coming from Tanzania, the equivalent of 700 elephants. The tusks trade for up to $1500 a kilo.

Today we hear that the Philippine government storage facility where the tusks were being kept is missing part of the seized shipment. Only two staff members had access to the storage area and there were no signs of forced entry.

News had been going around that one of these two employees had just bought two new cars and a beautiful house. He has not reported to work since Saturday.

By the way, don't ever do a google image search on "poached elephants". The images of slaughtered, hacked up elephants are hard to bear.

African elephant drawing from Rowland Ward.

The Money Shot

Former Philippine President Estrada, who was kicked out of office for high crimes and misdemeanours, was tried and convicted for graft and corruption, served 6 1/2 years of his sentence at home and was pardoned last year by current President Gloria, is running for the Presidency again in the upcoming elections.

This picture, on the front page of yesterday's paper, shows him passing out rolled up bills to baranguay residents on his campaign trail. This after passing out other gifts .

The price of a vote in the Philippines? Apparently he thinks it's 50 pesos - about a dollar.

Murder

This contains footage from a shocking slaughter that is going on even as we speak.




The pictures were taken from the Oceanic Viking, an Australian customs service ship sent to monitor the hunt and collect evidence for a legal challenge the government wants to bring against Japan's claim that it kills whales only for scientific purposes. (Like this whale and calf?) Story and newscast on CNN/Asia.

Japan kills more than 1000 whales annually, using a clause in the International Whaling Commission rules that allows whales to be hunted for "scientific purposes". This year they wanted to kill 50 endangered humpback whales but backed off in face of public outcry. They are now in the middle of murdering 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

The Director of the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research (ha!) that organizes the hunt is responding to the Australian outing of their atrocious activities by saying

"The Australian government's photographs and the media reports have created a dangerous emotional propaganda that could cause serious damage to the relationship between our two countries."

For an account of real whale research that doesn't involve murder, Alexandra Morton's book describing over twenty years of her life and work on the coast of BC observing and listening to these amazing animals is compelling and passionate. And possibly life-changing.