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Nasty Stuff

John Baez

Here's some stuff that's a bit too unpleasant to fit into my collection of fun stuff. It's mainly about scandals, human rights and economics.

What's New?

A noteworthy story, passed on by my friend Steve Forcey.

Earlier this year the President of Peru, Alan Garcia, sold the rights to explore, log and drill 70% of his country's portion of the Amazon rainforest to international oil companies, saying "There are millions of hectares of timber there lying idle." But indigenous people live there. They blockaded the rivers and roads to keep the companies out. Garcia responded by declaring a state of emergency and sending in the military. On June 5th they opened fire on the protesters with live ammunition and stun grenades:

But then something surprising happened. The Peruvian Congress, presumably shamed by this incident, repealed the laws that allowed oil company drilling, by a margin of 82 votes to 12. Garcia was forced to apologise. The protesters have celebrated and returned to their homes in the Amazon.

But of course the battle is not over.

• • •

Iran's national poet, Simin Behbahani, has written a poem about the situation in Iran - the re-election of Ahmadenijad, followed by protests which the government has violently tried to crush. You can hear it here:

It is perhaps more of a malediction than a poem in the sense we may be used to. A portion, in translation:

If the flames of anger rise any higher in this land, your name on your tombstone will be covered with dirt.
You have become a babbling loudmouth; your insolent ranting, something to joke about.
The lies you have found, you have woven together. The rope you have crafted, you will find around your neck.
Pride has swollen your head, your faith has grown blind. The elephant that falls will not rise.

• • •

It turns out that Elsevier has been publishing a phony medical journal: the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine! It's run by the pharmaceutical company Merck, the secret goal being to advertise Merck products:

In a mealy-mouthed statement, Elsevier says that it "does not today" consider this publication "a journal" — despite its title. You can see PDF files of the first two issues here, together with an analysis of them: Note the "honorary editorial board".

• • •

The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy. - Steven Weinberg

© 2009 John Baez
baez@math.removethis.ucr.andthis.edu

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