Issues dear to my heart: the environment -- the War in Lebanon/Gaza/Israel -wildlife of sorts in Bern -- ...

Update of October 5, 2006: Things seem to slowly begin to happen. For some concerted calls to action and talks and getting a move on, this is probably the best site:
http://www.crisisgroup.org


(originally posted on August 12, 2006)
Hello again

Despite a unanimous UN Security Council resolution for immediate ceasefire the war rages on in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Israel. By day 30 of this senseless war, 1120 innocent Lebanese and Israelis had been killed,*) thousands more injured and dying, most of them without any hope for proper medical assistance. What mad wastefulness! Such hatred being sown; ten years of reconstruction work smashed to smithereens in just a few days -- it's barbaric, yet the world just seems to be looking on. We'll see whether this latest resolution has any effect -- from where I am sitting, Israel still seems hell-bent on destroying everything within its reach in Lebanon.

*) source: http://www.ceasefirecampaign.org/index.php?id=1

On August 10, 2006, a plot was uncovered to blow several passenger planes up in the skies above the Atlantic ocean, or perhaps above US cities. The west is harvesting the fruit of hatred that has been growing since 1948. If the U.S. and Israel had been looking for ways to look really bad to the rest of the world, their advisors would have told them to do what they have been doing the past thirty days!



While all this has been going on I've been trying to keep my head above water by focusing on some curious creatures who decided to share my living space for a while.

Here's the latest addition to the 'family' -- a beautiful dark-brown moth (about 2.5 cm long) I first saw a few days ago. I think it's a female because of the absence of the brush-like antennae used by the males to detect a hint of pheromone across the most amazing distances. I gave her plenty of opportunities to leave but she stayed until early yesterday, hiding from the light just below the ceiling on the thin curtain in my study. I was sorry to find her gone the day that I was getting the room ready for a visitor from Sweden.

A Geometer Moth (Geometridae)? Length in all approx. 2-2.5 cm

Three years ago early in October, after a record-breaking summer here in Bern, I was amazed to find the kind of huge moth (wings about 5-6 cm long) clinging to the peace flag on my balcony that I had seen the previous September on the sun-warmed walls of houses on the Ligurian coast of Italy:

Just like last year, a big sunflower blossomed and ripened on my balcony ...
... and now the nifty little coal tits are at it, pecking out the seeds. Sometimes, two or three of them congregate, hanging upside down as they cling to the small drying leaves around the big seedplate. They'll dig out a seed and flit off to a place where they can hold it between their claws to keep it in place while they peck open the husk. If that's not an intelligent way of getting at food, I don't know what is.

Here's a picture taken from a CD-ROM -- the 'Atlas der Schweiz' -- a treasure trove on the fauna and flora of Switzerland:

I'm not the only one to be interested in the environment, thank goodness! Greenpeace are doing a great job and I applaud their imaginative campaigns. [dead link removed on 15 Mar 2010]

Because the war in the Middle East still preys on my mind, and because this is the least I can do right now, here come a couple of links to websites and blogs that have lately caught my attention:

My paper today carried an article about blogs being written all over Lebanon, some by candlelight and on battery-driven computers. Lots of very well-written entries at http://www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/

Currently Blog of Note on Blogspot -- not the world's most fantastic writer, nor is it very clear who the writer is, but of great interest nonetheless -- Reading While Falling, One American's blog from Beirut at http://readingwhilefalling.blogspot.com/

And YOU can sign a ceasefire petition and/or donate money at
http://www.ceasefirecampaign.org/index.php?id=1

Thank you! and may Peace be with you!