Nature Alert: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: The Shocking Story of How America Really Took Over the World:

Saturday, 3 April 2010

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: The Shocking Story of How America Really Took Over the World:

Subject: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: The Shocking Story of How America Really Took Over the World

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Confessions-Economic-Hit-Man-Shocking/dp/0091909104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270285989&sr=1-1

For anyone with a concern for the environment, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, this book is essential reading and guaranteed to make you see things very differently.

Chances are it might provide answers to some of those questions which make you scratch your head and wonder 'why do they (governments) do ......'., or maybe even, 'where is all that USAid money ($11.5 million 2004 - 2008 & I think $8m 2008 -2010) for orangutans being spent and why?'.

If that kind of money is really being spent by USAid, and both habitat and orangutans are disappearing faster than ever, what is it going to take to turn things around?

Anyone with experience of Indonesia will know full well the money mentioned above 'should' be doing a lot of good and the results/benefits should be very, very apparent. I have always wondered why do USAid need so many people in Indonesia; even why does the US government with all its own internal budget problems, send all this money over to Indonesia'. I mean, can anyone imagine people in Congress thinking, 'hey, why don't we send some big bucks to save orangutans in Indonesia instead of spending it here in the US?' Same goes for the EC, UK, Australian governments; I'm prepared to bet most of those politicians could not find Borneo on a map.

Anyway, food for thought, maybe.

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.