Pacific Tribune
Gathering Art and Lifestyle News about Issues for the Pacific Basin
Bohemian rhapsody
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
Somewhere, in hippie heaven, Jerry Garcia is chuckling into his beard. The late titan of tie-dye, whose love of the colourful T-shirt style became a sartorial trademark during his reign as frontman of the Grateful Dead, would surely be chuffed that hippie fashion, an oxymoron to the most stylish of snobs, is making a big comeback.
A lesson and strategy from Europe on Financing windfarms
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008This is an excellent article by an actual banker himself that is active in finance.
Daily Kos: How to keep on financing wind farms when banks have no money left.
Banks are engaged in a massive deleveraging exercise right now. One part of that has been much described and commented upon: the elimination of bad assets, either by taking the losses or by dumping them on the tax payer. The other part of the process is much more devious, as it means choking off new activity, even when sound, to avoid any new build up of assets. Debts that mature and are paid help shrink the balance sheet; giving new loans goes against that process and is thus avoided as much as possible by banks right now.
New lending activity is therefore much more scrutinized from a risk perspective, sees its conditions made much less favorable than they used to be, and is especially frowned upon for long term commitments, as long term liquidity is scarce and expensive.
Leaving the village: Rural Alaska
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008Leaving the village: Rural Alaska | adn.com
Out-migration has been a fact of modern Alaska life for decades. But with young women leading the way, the annual net population loss from rural Alaska has more than doubled since 2006, according to the new study by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
54 illegals from Burma suffocated in the back of a seafood truck in Ranong Province
Thursday, April 10th, 2008full story here: Bangkok’s Independent Newspaper
RANONG TRAGEDY
54 Burmese job seekers suffocate in RanongFifty-four job seekers from Burma suffocated in the back of a seafood truck in Ranong province while being smuggled to the Phuket. An additional 47 workers survived the incident late Wednesday and alerted police.Twenty-one were hospitalized while the rest were detained for questioning.
Micronesian Voices In Hawaii Conference Opens Today
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008Pacific Magazine: Micronesian Voices In Hawaii Conference Opens Today
A two-day conference addressing Micronesian migrational challenges opens Thursday, April 3, 2008, at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The conference, titled Micronesian Voices in Hawaii, is sponsored and organized by the UHM’s Center for Pacific Island Studies.
Japan treats it’s World Heritage sites properly!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008asahi.com : Wilderness area makes eco-tourism its priority – ENGLISH
SHARI, Hokkaido–A typical overnight trip here goes like this: a long soak in a hot spring followed by a seafood feast and then bed before going on to the next tourist spot.But this, say local tourism officials, doesn’t come close to scratching the surface of what the area has to offer.
So officials are now promoting eco-tourism and encouraging visitors to stay longer so they can experience the wonders of the nation’s northernmost natural World Heritage site.
Chile’s environment is under attack
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008HidroAysén Project a Threat to Chile’s “Pride and Soul” Says NRDC Attorney
At right, Robert Kennedy Jr. addresses reporters during a press conference with
Victor Formantel of EcoSystemas
Photo by Benjamin Witte, Santiago TimesInfluential U.S. environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday wrapped up a week-long visit to Chile with a strong plea to protect Patagonia’s pristine rivers from pending hydroelectric projects.
“I’ve been to every country in Latin America and on every continent in the world. And there’s no place as pretty as Chilean Patagonia. That’s why I come here. If that part of Chile was in the United States it would be a national park. No question,” Kennedy told reporters shortly before meeting with President Michelle Bachelet.
In the rest of the civilized world, an economic collapse doesn’t also involve losing health benefits
Monday, March 17th, 2008just finished reading the excellent diaries by bonddad and Jerome a Paris. Please forgive my random and panicked thoughts. But I am panicked just like all of us.One huge thought is circulating through my brain. And I’m sorry to say this. We Americans are not very lucky. If we lived in any other industrialized nation, we would not need to add to all the other crises bearing down on us, how to come up with the scratch to pay for healthcare.
China to try free museums next month
Saturday, February 16th, 2008More here:China to try free museums next month
The Chinese government’s decision of free admission at state-run museums will be put into practice in March, deputy minister of culture Yu Youjun has said.All cultural and heritage protection departments should submit their plans for free admission to central authorities before the end of February, Yu was quoted as saying by The Beijing News Saturday.
The new policy affects state-owned museums run by the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. Seven provinces have been chosen to pilot the program before it is applied nationwide.
Public service television in Thailand
Friday, February 15th, 2008Bangkok’s Independent Newspaper
Optimism, as well as a sense of defiance, marked the first day of public-service television news. The station touched upon a highly sensitive issue in one of its news programmes.The news documentary looked at the October 6, 1976 bloodbath at Thammasat University, less than a week after new Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, in a CNN interview, attempted to distance himself from the event and downplayed it.
In that interview, Samak said one “unlucky” person only had died, contrary to an official death toll of more than 40.
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