Moving...

Hello again!
Saturday evening and it’s a gorgeous day out there, with some cloud but the evening sun lighting up the old part of the city. I’ve been soooo lucky with everything in the last few days. Bar the internet hookup hickup last week everything has gone very smoothly so far.
I’m in a rush to get everything ready for when my relatives come tomorrow morning to collect my big old wardrobe and two bookshelves as well as my old stereo. The flat will feel really empty then, with almost all the furniture gone except what I’m taking with me to Scotland. But it’ll make life much easier for the removalists.
Keep fingers crossed that all will go well with the big piece (the wardrobe is really much too big for the staircase, even in its individual components) tomorrow. And that I’ll be ready when everyone arrives.
It’s been a fantastic experience. One should move house and relocate at least every five years or so. That way it would be much harder to accumulate too much stuff.
But I've had fun letting go of many valued possessions -- hundreds of books have found new homes, and pots and plants and dishes and pieces of furniture. My friends and companions have been exceedingly generous: I've been able to send a nice little sum to each of my favourite human rights NGOs, i.e. pbi – Peace Brigades International – and ask! – Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien. (For anyone wishing to donate: go to their websites:
http://www.peacebrigades.ch or http://www.peacebrigades.org and
http://www.askonline.ch -- thank you!)

I've lost weight in the process, grown muscles on my legs and arms, feel totally fit and healthy, have been sleeping better than ever -- this is an adventure that seems to agree with me. I must be one big adrenalin junkie...
Mind you, not all is easy. I went to say good-bye to my writing friends today and that was really hard. Almost as hard as saying good-bye to my parents and brothers and sisters-in-law and niece and nephews. I will really miss everyone! But many of them have promised to visit. And anyway, it's not as if Oban was on the other side of the globe. But it will be too far for some of my older, frailer friends to come and see me out there.

Here's hoping the last few days will go well.
Finally, guess what this photo shows...

Catching up...

Empty sunning planks at Marzili, Bern.

Hiya
It's been ages since I last wrote here. So just a few thoughts on packing up and moving house. Interesting process. Liberating. Letting go of old habits, old objects, old places, old friends, family. Strangely, I feel that we are reaffirming relationships, many people around me -- myself included, of course -- are reconsidering what really matters in life.
Only a few days more than three weeks to go until my departure day. Most things are in place. The old flat has found a new tenant; the old office as well -- two young part-time dads who share their office work. Finding them was a breeze, actually, but a major headache until contracst were signed as I'd have had to pay rent until end July -- really glad this has been resolved.
Most of the furniture I'm not taking with me has also found new owners. One of my favourite pieces, a beautiful 1918 dining room cupboard/sideboard is going to a good home, and for a good price, too. Does that make me sound mercenary? Hope not. I do want to sell off as much of my stuff as I can as I have pledged to give 1/4 to two of my favourite human rights NGOs -- ask!-Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien and pbi-Peace Brigades International. So the more people pay me the more those NGOs get. Simple, really.
I've had two trial runs at "garage sales" already but still lots more stuff to flog. A few pieces -- big posters in good aluminium frames, a fabulous handmade glass dish -- seem to please only me. It'll be a drag to just give them away.
As my flat is on the top floor and there's no lift, I've used the stairs to display some of my objects. Works pretty well, but setting everything out is quite a lot of hard work. Free gym time, so to speak. :)
The upside of being in such a period of upheaval is that my appetite is down and I've actually managed to shed about eight pounds without even thinking about it. Very nice indeed.

The Marzili on Monday, 24 March. Aare temperature: 6°C!

I'm inserting some totally unrelated photos here -- the only tenuous link being the weekday on which they were taken: three weeks ago exactly (Easter Monday). The natural world still looks almost as bleak as then -- the cold and wet weather we've had has blighted what blossoms came out on what have been maybe four lovely, warm days since Easter. Our magnolia trees are struggling, some of them already going brown, yet their blossoms hardly opened. Shame. But that's the way it is.
Today we've had some hail and torrential rain and lots of low-hanging cloud -- pretty miserable but great weather to be sitting at the computer all day.
Saturday and yesterday were quite sunny, if breezy and still on the chilly side. A taste of spring. At least the kids could run around outside...

The wide expanse of the sunning lawn at Marzili is empty. The Marzili has been one of my favourite summer haunts in Bern.
But it's fine not to be here this summer or next summer or whenever...

We were four or five hundred taking part in this year's Peace March on Easter Monday, March 24, 2008.
This is the head of the cortège going across the little hump-back bridge at the lower end of Marzili.

Weak EU Standards for Agrofuels

Hello again

Those of you who know me know that I'm a member of a lobby group that aims to disseminate objective information about Colombia. One of the big issues affecting the disenfranchised populations (most of them indigenous, Afrocolombians, poor people of mixed ethnic backgrounds) is the Colombian government's plan to use vast tracts of land to grow African oil palms to produce agrofuel. It's a good plan, perhaps, if fallow land is made to work. It's not such a good plan if entire villages are destroyed and thousands of people driven off their land by paramilitaries to appropriate the territory for national and multinational companies producing palm oil under inhuman working conditions. This is happening now! The EU must not ever import agrofuels from such sources.

Friends of the Earth Europe has exposed the following, which I'm copying here because it pertains to Colombia (and many other regions where big business is destroying small farmers).

Let's do everything we can to halt the conversion of food into fuel.

More info (in German) on the issue can also be found at http://www.askonline.ch and http://www.agrotreibstoffe.ch

***
NEW DRAFT LAW EXPOSES WEAK EU STANDARDS FOR AGROFUELS
Safeguards fail to protect the poor or environment

Brussels, 7 December 2007 - A leaked copy of a new draft law to regulate the use of agrofuels (biofuels) in Europe reveals that the EU will fail to protect the environment and the world's poor, warned Friends of the Earth Europe today.

Adrian Bebb, Agrofuels Campaign Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe said: "Europe's plan for how to produce agrofuels does nothing to protect the world's poor
and pays only scant attention to protecting the environment. This proposal shows that the EU will not be able to guarantee the sustainable production of fuels from crops. Now is the time to abandon this folly and introduce real solutions to the climate crisis."

Friends of the Earth Europe has obtained a leaked copy of the proposed Renewables Directive[1], due to be launched early in 2008. The Directive will introduce into EU law a mandatory target that all fuels for transport contain at least 10 percent agrofuels by 2020, and sets out a plan on how to achieve this "sustainably".

Friends of the Earth Europe criticises the draft Directive as it:

- Fails to acknowledge the growing international concerns about the impact of agrofuels on the environment and food security and presses on with a mandatory target.[2]

- Does not sufficiently address the knock-on effect of rising food prices.

- Will not prevent agrofuel production from pushing other farming activities (e.g. cattle ranching or other crops) into rainforests or other important eco-systems. The Commission proposes to just monitor the situation.

- Provides no criteria to protect people in developing countries from the negative impacts of agrofuel production. Land disputes, forced evictions, human rights abuses and poor working conditions occur frequently in many countries producing crops for Europe. The United Nations warned earlier this year that agrofuels could be "especially harmful to farmers who do not own their own land, and to the rural and urban poor who are net buyers of food."[3]

- Introduces only limited "sustainability criteria" aimed at preventing deforestation and damage to wetlands but ignores other important ecosytems such as threatened biodiversity-rich savannahs (for example, the Brazilian Cerrado). The criteria are only applicable to crops used as fuels in transport but not for the same fuels used to produce electricity.[4]

- Prevents EU member states from introducing stronger criteria at a national level.

The European Commission is expected to define the greenhouse gas savings that an agrofuel would have to meet - compared to fossil-based fuels - in order to be supported by the EU. However the leaked draft is still missing this figure, indicating continued internal disagreement within the Commission.

"Using crops to produce fuel is a false solution to climate change – the real solutions lie in forcing car companies to produce cleaner cars, improving public transport and making our towns and cities more energy efficient," Mr Bebb added.


Notes:
[1] www.foeeurope.org/agrofuels/documents/Draft_RE_Directive.pdf
[2] A paper this week by the International Food Policy Research Institute concludes that
agrofuel production "currently adversely affects the poor through price-level and price-volatility effects" and that if countries implemented their agrofuel targets then there will be a resulting decrease in food-calorie consumption across all world regions. (http://www.ifpri.org/media/20071204agm.asp)
For more warnings see: www.foeeurope.org/agrofuels/warnings.html
[3] http://esa.un.org/un-energy/pdf/susdev.Biofuels.FAO.pdf
[4] For example, more palm oil is used in electricity production in Europe than in cars.


****

A Friends of the Earth Europe position paper on agrofuels can be downloaded at:
http://www.foeeurope.org/agrofuels

For more information, please contact:
Adrian Bebb, Agrofuels Campaign Co-ordinator at Friends of the Earth Europe:
Tel: +49 802 599 1951, Mobile : +49 1609 4901163, Email: adrian.bebb@foeeurope.org

Rosemary Hall, Communications Officer at Friends of the Earth Europe:
Tel: +32 25 42 6105, Mobile: +32 485 930515, Email:
rosemary.hall[at]foeeurope.org

For the people, for the planet, for the future
******

Colombia: The government and the ELN

Hello again!
You know how close to my heart Colombia is -- I studied its literature when I was at university; I have relatives there; and I know a lot of Colombians in exile here in Switzerland. Moreover, since 2003 I've been a member (board member since 2005) of a human rights and peace NGO here in Switzerland, the ask!-Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien (www.askonline.ch). ask! primarily disseminates information about Colombia to stakeholders and policymakers in Switzerland and in Europe.
It is often very difficult to obtain information that has not been spun out of all recognition by the highly efficient government of Colombia, whose grip on the national media is perhaps even tighter than that of their friends in power on the northern part of the American continents.
Which means that, every now and then, I am taking the liberty of posting here something in English concerning that conflict-riddled yet extremely beautiful and vivacious country in South America.
Today it's a report from the International Crisis Group, a body of highly respected political analysts and top-level diplomats -- not a bunch of people to be disregarded lightly, I'd say...

*****
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW BRIEFING
Colombia: Moving Forward with the ELN?

Bogotá/Brussels, 11 October 2007: The peace process between Alvaro Uribe's government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) risks failure unless both parties establish the trust needed to overcome substantive bottlenecks.

Colombia: Moving Forward with the ELN?
*
The latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group examines the need for the government and the ELN, much the smaller of the country's two left-wing insurgencies, to restore momentum in their negotiations, including unilateral measures to stimulate confidence. Establishing a ceasefire is central to success but while the government wants the ELN to concentrate in specific locations and identify its combatants, the rebels feel that they must stay mobile within specified corridors to ensure their protection, including against the more powerful FARC. Both agree de-mining and a halt to kidnapping would be important steps but questions remain about their viability outside the framework of a ceasefire.
"The mutual distrust explains why no ceasefire has been agreed," says Crisis Group Analyst Juan Munévar. "The government suspects the ELN will continue to do intelligence, logistical and political work through its urban militias, and the ELN believes the government wants combatant identification only to gain a military advantage in case negotiations break down."
The peace process has moved from an exploratory phase towards a formal dialogue, with the accompaniment of Norway, Spain and Switzerland. However, eight rounds of talks since December 2005 have not yet produced tangible results. While Uribe's tough security policy has reduced the ELN's military capability, the group has managed to survive by staying mobile and adapting to local conflict conditions.
In order for the peace process not only to continue, but to succeed, it is paramount to focus on incentives and guarantees that will help overcome bottlenecks. The ELN and the government should make unilateral goodwill gestures with the aim of establishing mutual trust. The ELN should release kidnap victims, de-mine some areas, make available information on what percentage of its combatants and unarmed militias are women and children and propose a model for ceasefire implementation and verification.
The Uribe administration should be more flexible on a complete cessation of hostilities and the concentration and identification of ELN troops in a ceasefire. Norway, Spain and Switzerland should consider offering their know-how on implementation of ceasefires, temporary concentrations of fighters, protected corridors and third-party verification.
"Many in Colombia believe the ELN is no longer a threat, so the government is under no pressure to conclude the negotiations," says Markus Schultze-Kraft, Crisis Group's Latin America Program Director. "This reasoning is flawed. The ELN is not defeated, and unless the parties overcome their recalcitrance, the peace process may fail."
*****
Contacts: Andrew Stroehlein (Brussels) 32 (0) 2 541 1635
Giulia Previti (Washington) 1 202 785 1601
To contact Crisis Group media please click here http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?action=form&fid=16&l=1

*Read the full Crisis Group briefing on our website: http://www.crisisgroup.org

The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering some 60 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
****

55 and counting...

Hiya again
Today is day two of my fifty-fifth year. Still feeling a little under the weather from all the partying.
It's rare for my birthday to be on a Saturday so I grabbed the opportunity and had about forty people in my not very large flat. Those of you who know my home will appreciate that things got a wee bit cramped. Mind you, I've heard that everyone enjoyed the wonderful mix of people.
We had a United Nations of sorts, with friends and family of Italian, Spanish, Colombian, Chilean, English, American, German and Swiss extraction. I am proud and happy to be part of such a fascinating, truly multicultural network of friends and family. If everyone had been able to come that I invited, South Africa, Ghana, the Caribbean, Wales, Australia, Canada, France, Poland, Mexico, Scotland and Indonesia would also have been represented, and I'm sure there would be more. I'm naming all these countries in absolutely no particular order, just in the order in which they pop into my mind.
I had some of my closest family with me on my special day -- my Mum dropped by with berries and cherries, the very, very, very last harvest from the garden of the old house: come July 2nd, it will be in new hands that are unrelated to us. Good! I'm glad to know it'll be taken care of by a different set of people, people with different ideas, a different approach. May they be very happy there! -- both my brothers, my two sisters-in-law here in Switzerland, my one niece and two of my three nephews also came. The second nephew had two musical gigs on Saturday so he couldn't make it. Good for him to have work, though! One of my mother's two sisters also came, which gave me great pleasure.
If you think I'm quite a family "animal", you're right. Even though I don't have kids of my own, I think family matters. But friends matter just as much. They're the people we can choose to enrich our lives, while family is kind of thrown on us, or we on them.
At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed having everyone at my home for a few hours. I appreciate their generous and wonderful, original and thoughtful gifts. Most of all, I'm proud to say that quite a nice little sum of money came together -- I asked not to bring gifts but to donate cash, which will go 50:50 to two of my favourite human rights NGOs, i.e. PBI-Peace Brigades International (http://www.peacebrigades.ch) and ask!-Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien (http://www.askonline.ch) . Thank you for your generosity, everyone!
So, this is me 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10, or 5 x 11 years and two days old (thank you, brother Stefan, for that marvellous mathematical formula!). Some days it feels exactly like this, some days I feel like I'm still eighteen, some days more like eighty, but I suppose that's to be expected. Not a spring chicken any more, but still full of plans, full of beans. Until the next time, maybe when I'm 6 x 10 or 5 x 12 ... :)
I received some marvellous gifts, too, some of which were beautiful flowers. Does anyone have an idea what this one's called? It exudes a white milky sap when the stem or leaves are cut. The bud is a perfect pentagonal pouch. I was blown away by these, despite their total lack of fragrance. Otherworldly-looking, Australian, perhaps? Definitely exotic...
This rose lasted until almost two weeks later [which is when I'm adding these photos and comments -- some of the best things are long in the making, ha ha!]. No fragrance, either, but perfect petals.
Cheers! Peace!