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The Plundered Planet: How to Reconcile Prosperity with Nature – by Paul Collier (The Observer – May 16, 2010)

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/

How can the west stop poor nations being exploited for their natural wealth?

Imagine a small nation, undeveloped yet fantastically rich in a natural resource that offers it a one-off chance of great wealth. An aggressive, sophisticated foreign power wants that commodity and is prepared to do anything it can – diplomatic or military – to get it. What hope does the nation have? You wonder if Paul Collier’s new book has been timed as a tie-in with the DVD of Avatar, the story of a gentle planet that suffers “resource curse”.

Extractables are a curse: no poor nation in modern times (except, perhaps, Malaysia and Botswana) has prospered as a result of them. Many, from Sierra Leone to the Democratic Republic of Congo, have been repeatedly ravished over decades because of the wealth under their soil. And the reversal of this rule provides Collier’s central question: how are we to redirect the whole sorry story of mankind’s inequitable and short-sighted plundering of the planet’s resources?

Policymakers in development love Collier, because he offers routes out of ideological thickets.

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Audacious Environmental Hypocrisy: James Cameron – Grow Up – by Ann McElhinney (BigHollywood.brietbart.com – February 24, 2010)

Beautiful but Dangerous Avatar – Ann McElhinney’s You-Tube posting speech, above is from the conservative CPAC convention (February 2, 2010).  Ann McElhinney, the director of “Not Evil Just Wrong” and “Mine Your Own Business” speaks about anti-development bias in James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar and about environmental indoctrination in public education system in US.

This column below is from: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/

Ann McElhinney is a conservative documentary film director and producer.

I thought Avatar was a great film, beautiful even.  Cameron is such a good story teller he even had me rooting for the blue rain forest people and wishing death on all the appalling Americans in final battle scene.
 
But seriously, James Cameron grow up. Avatar is an anti-mining, anti resource development rant worthy of a not very clever spotty undergraduate.

James Cameron is a self confessed unrepentant greenie, and in the world he creates mining is evil and life in the rain forest is just spiffing. So lets throw a few facts in the way of Cameron’s gorgeous but idiotic narrative.

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Avatar activism: Pick your protest – by Henry Jenkins (Globe and Mail – September 18, 2010)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Henry Jenkins is Provost’s Professor of communication, journalism and cinematic arts at the University of Southern California and the author of Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture.

Five Palestinian, Israeli and international activists painted themselves blue to resemble the Na’vi from James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar in February, and marched through the occupied village of Bil’in. The Israeli military used tear gas and sound bombs on the azure-skinned protesters, who wore traditional kaffiyehs with their Na’vi tails and pointy ears.

The camcorder footage of the incident was juxtaposed with borrowed shots from the film and circulated on YouTube. We hear the movie characters proclaim: “We will show the Sky People that they cannot take whatever they want! This, this is our land!”

The event is a reminder of how people around the world are mobilizing icons and myths from popular culture as resources for political speech, which we can call “Avatar activism.” Even relatively apolitical critics for local newspapers recognized that Avatar spoke to contemporary political concerns.

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Avatar as a criticism of mining or a reflection of deep cultural memory – by Jack Caldwell (I Think Mining.com – January 4, 2010)

http://ithinkmining.com/

My grandson, four-years old, and me went this afternoon to see Avatar.  This is the billion-dollar-grossing movie from James Cameron that is now all the rage. 

Opinions on this movie are all over the map.  The quarrelsome son who could never agree with his father, a mining consultant, says “It is the best movie I have ever seen.”  My son-in-law and daughter said “We have seen that story before in Dances With Wolves.”    The blog-sphere is awash with comments on the movie’s religious significance, its tree-hugging philosophies, and the racism of depicting innocent savages as blue-tinted aboriginals fighting to protect a forest from mining by white-men Americans.

I personally found the movie just too long and too noisy—even my grandson remarked “it is a loud movie.”  And I felt uncomfortable most of the time thinking that I had read this story too often for my own good in the mining news columns of the past few years.  Here is a link to one blog that analyzes the mining-related aspects of the movie, saying:

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Movie “Avatar” has few fans among mining execs – by Steve James (Reuters.com – March 11, 2010)

The article is from the Reuters website: http://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – It’s enough to make a mining executive grit his teeth or his kids to give him the silent treatment. In a case of art imitating life — with perhaps a little poetic license — Oscar-winning movie “Avatar” paints big mining companies as the villains of the future.

But real-life executives are not entirely amused by their fictional colleagues being cast in evil roles in what is already the biggest-grossing Hollywood movie of all time.

“Let me put it this way, my kids saw the movie, and my kids know I’m a miner, and they didn’t say anything to me,” said Peter Kukielski, head of mining operations for ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS) (MT.N), the world’s largest steelmaker.

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Avatar (Mining Movie – 2009)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Avatar is a 2009 American[6][7] epic science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver. The film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system.[8][9][10]

The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na’vi—a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film’s title refers to the genetically engineered Na’vi-human hybrid bodies used by a team of researchers to interact with the natives of Pandora.[11]

Development of Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film.[12] Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999,[13] but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film.[14]

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Mine Your Own Business (Mining Documentary – 2006)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Mine Your Own Business is a documentary directed and produced by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney in 2006 about the Roșia Montană mining project. The film asserts that environmentalists’ opposition to the mine is unsympathetic to the needs and desires of the locals, prevents industrial progress, and consequently locks the people of the area into lives of poverty.

The film claims that the majority of the people of the village support the mine, and the investment in their hometown.[2] The film presents foreign environmentalists as alien agents opposed to progress, while residents are depicted as eagerly awaiting the new opportunity.[3]

Film content

The documentary follows Gheorghe Lucian, a 23-year-old unemployed miner from the Roşia Montană in northern Romania, whose chance of a new job disappeared after an anti-mining campaign orchestrated by foreign environmentalists.

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What’s wrong with Ontario – and how to make it right – by Adam Radwanski, Tim Kiladze and Tara Perkins (Globe and Mail – February 18, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

“Northern cities, such as Thunder Bay or Sudbury, could become
national leaders in the resource sector, particularly if the
province gets serious about developing the so-called mineral
“Ring of Fire.””

“Ontario’s once thriving mining community has lost some of its
lustre.Not only have Western Canada’s vast oil sands and gas
deposits stolen the spotlight, but foreign giants such as Vale
and Xstrata swooped in in 2006 and bought out Ontario mining
stalwarts such as Inco and Falconbridge. In the years since,
mining has felt more like a part of Ontario’s past than a
focal point of its future.”

“Plus, there remain resources to develop. For those who believe
that Ontario’s northern mining deposits are tapped, look no
further than a company like Detour Gold, which is developing
a gold mine north of Timmins.”

It got most of its attention for its warning of a $30-billion deficit, and its 362 cost-cutting recommendations to help avoid that fate. But the scariest number in Don Drummond’s landmark report to the government of Ontario is a much smaller one: two, as in 2 per cent.

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Quebec still favours relaunch of asbestos industry – by Michelle Lalonde (Montreal Gazette – February 16, 2012)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

MONTREAL – The Quebec government continues to favour a relaunch of the asbestos industry – despite a storm of recent controversy, including groundbreaking criminal convictions of two European businessmen for causing thousands of asbestos-related deaths, and far-reaching concerns about the research upon which the province bases its pro-asbestos policy.

Members of the anti-asbestos movement say the Canadian and Quebec governments have long relied on questionable studies produced by researchers at McGill University and elsewhere, funded by the asbestos industry, to promote chrysotile asbestos as relatively harmless if used safely.

McGill is conducting a preliminary review of the research of professor emeritus John Corbett McDonald to determine whether a full investigation should be called into whether some of that research was influenced by the fact it was funded by the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association.

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Ontario First Nation wins injunction to stop gold drilling – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – February 12, 2012)

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

When members of Wahgoshig First Nation spotted a drilling crew on what they say is a sacred burial site, they demanded to know who the strangers were and what they were doing.

The Wahgoshig, whose Algonquin reserve of 19,239 acres is 113 km east of Timmins, running south from Lake Abitibi near the Quebec border, say they were met with silence. But what was happening on the land was anything but silent, according to court records.

The prospecting work involves clearing 25 sq. metre pads, clearing forest, bulldozing access routes to the drilling sites and the transportation and storage of fuel and equipment.

The workers were with Solid Gold Resources Inc., a junior mining firm that has a 200-square-kilometre prospect at Lake Abitibi near the Porcupine Fault zone. The land they were on, says Wahgoshig band chief David Babin, is not part of the reserve itself but does include the traditional lands the Algonquins have lived on for thousands of years.

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North Country (Mining Movie – 2005)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

North Country is a 2005 American drama film directed by Niki Caro. The screenplay by Michael Seitzman was inspired by the 2002 book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, which chronicled the case of Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Company.

Plot

In 1989, Josey (Charlize Theron), returns to her hometown in Northern Minnesota with her children, Sam (Thomas Curtis) and Karen (Elle Peterson), after escaping from her abusive husband. She moves in with her parents, Alice (Sissy Spacek) and Hank (Richard Jenkins). Hank is ashamed of Josey, who became pregnant at the age of 16, and believes that this was the result of Josey being promiscuous.

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Africa: The Back Story to Cida-Mining Partnerships – by Catherine Coumans (All Africa.com/Mining Watch.com – February 9, 2012)

www.allafrica.com

Catherine Coumans is the research co-ordinator and Asia Pacific program co-ordinator for MiningWatch Canada. She is the author of Whose Development? Mining, Local Resistance, and Development Agendas.

Analysis

Mining companies’ branding of themselves as bringers of development needs to be critically examined against the burgeoning ‘resource curse’ literature that links mining to deepening national impoverishment in mining-dependent developing countries

The Canadian International Development Agency’s funding of Corporate Social Responsibility projects mostly near mine sites is intended to help Canadian mining companies compete for access to lucrative ore bodies in developing countries in the face of increasing local opposition to mining.

As I write this, thousands of Cajamarcans in Peru are protesting Newmont Mining Corp.’s proposed Conga mine that will destroy four lakes they depend on for their water supplies and livelihoods.

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Ian Telfer helped ‘facilitate’ secret trades in insider tipping and trading scheme, OSC alleges – by Drew Hasselback (National Post – February 8, 2012)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Ian Telfer — one of Canada’s most prominent mining executives and chairman of Goldcorp Inc. — helped an old friend, the executive assistant of GMP Securities LP’s chairman, disguise an illegal insider tipping and trading scheme, the Ontario Securities Commission claims in a statement of allegations released Tuesday.
 
The OSC alleges that in at least two cases Mr. Telfer advised Eda Marie Agueci to communicate using her BlackBerry’s PIN-based messaging service to keep her activities secret from GMP. The securities regulator also alleges Mr. Telfer helped Ms. Agueci facilitate a secret trade in a company that eventually became Gold Wheaton Inc.
 
“His conduct was contrary to the public interest,” the OSC alleges.
 
The allegations against Mr. Telfer are part of a larger OSC case that names Ms. Agueci, who worked at GMP Securities for about 20 years, as the “central figure” in a scheme in which she is alleged to have used her position to access non-public information on pending deals, then pass this information to eight other individuals.

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The Devastating Costs of the Amazon Gold Rush – by Donovan Webster (Smithsonian Magazine – February, 2012)

This article is from: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/?ref=home

Spurred by rising global demand for the metal, miners are destroying invaluable rainforest in Peru’s Amazon basin

It’s a few hours before dawn in the Peruvian rainforest, and five bare light bulbs hang from a wire above a 40-foot-deep pit. Gold miners, operating illegally, have worked in this chasm since 11 a.m. yesterday. Standing waist-deep in muddy water, they chew coca leaves to stave off exhaustion and hunger.

In the pit a minivan-size gasoline engine, set on a wooden cargo pallet, powers a pump, which siphons water from a nearby river. A man holding a flexible ribbed-plastic hose aims the water jet at the walls, tearing away chunks of earth and enlarging the pit every minute until it’s now about the size of six football fields laid side by side. The engine also drives an industrial vacuum pump. Another hose suctions the gold-fleck-laced soil torn loose by the water cannon.

At first light, workers hefting huge Stihl chain saws roar into action, cutting down trees that may be 1,200 years old. Red macaws and brilliant-feathered toucans take off, heading deeper into the rainforest. The chain saw crews also set fires, making way for more pits.

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NEWS RELEASE: Credibility of Governmental Officials and CEOs Experience Biggest Drops Ever, 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer Finds

Trust in Government Suffers a Severe Breakdown Across the Globe

NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Blame for the financial and political chaos of 2011 landed at the doorstep of government, as trust in that institution fell a record nine points to 43 percent globally, according to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer. In seventeen of the 25 countries surveyed, government is now trusted by less than half to do what is right. In twelve, it trails business, media, and non-governmental organizations as the least trusted institution.

France, Spain, Brazil, China, Russia, and Japan, as well as six other countries, saw government trust drop by more than ten points. Government officials are now the least credible spokespeople, with only 29 percent considering them credible. Nearly half of the general population — the first time the Barometer looked at this broader group — say they do not trust government leaders to tell the truth. 

“Business is now better placed than government to lead the way out of the trust crisis,” said Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman. “But the balance must change so that business is seen both as a force for good and an engine for profit.”

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