In 2009, we saw a number of vendors turn their attention to addressing memory limitations in the data center.  From the Intel Nehalem processor’s integrated memory controller and ability to address more DIMMS, to Cisco and their UCS Extended Memory Blades, it seems that the core data center infrastructure providers are working hard to innovate around server memory limitations. This type of validation for the problem has been welcomed and extended by vendors like RNA networks who launched similar software-based offerings earlier this year, with broad support for leveraging server memory footprints across multiple platforms and operating systems. All of these advancements point to the realization that by combining large memory servers with unused network resources (memory), companies can reduce IT infrastructure costs and complexity and extend the life of their infrastructure investments.

Just as a desktop computer slows down when its memory gets full, limited memory prohibits the data center from operating at peak capacity.  This is a great use case for virtualization, and we expect the focus on “Memory Virtualization” to continue well into next year.  After all, who wouldn’t want to improve performance without investing in expensive hardware upgrades?  On that note, RNA networks expects demand for memory virtualization to accelerate in 2010, fueled by the following predictions.

1. Storage will Run out of Headroom

Storage is often looked at as a way to address I/O bottlenecks and  memory capacity limitations, but this approach does not address the core I/O issue  without large latency and throughput implications. Storage acceleration can only marginally improve application performance, whereas memory is 100 times faster than storage and is ‘application-aware’.  Meaning, memory operates at the application layer where it can more easily and quickly interact with active data – providing orders of magnitude increases in utilization, performance and speed. Regardless of the type of storage (spinning or SSD) or the acceleration options (NFS, storage caching), memory will remain the fastest option.

2. Data Volumes will Outpace Available Server Memory

The rate of proliferation and amount of data in the data center that must be quickly analyzed and interpreted is growing exponentially.  Memory density is not, and the density improvements available (16GB DIMMS for example) have cost implications that make them prohibitive for many applications. Methods to make data available to distributed servers are expensive in terms of programming complexity, bandwidth and IT oversight.  Not to mention the scaling issues.  As data volumes continue to grow it will outpace available memory on a server.

3. Memory as a Service in the Cloud

The success of a cloud, whether hosted or within the enterprise, hinges on its ability to ensure SLAs and keep costs down by harnessing as much utilization of the infrastructure as possible.  Tools to provision servers, storage, and I/O bandwidth are common in the cloud.  In today’s world, memory is available as a component of a server – requiring it to be provisioned and managed in concert with processor capacity. But in practice, many application workloads are either highly compute bound (requiring minimal memory) or highly IO bound (requiring minimal CPU power but access to large data spaces). Yet these two resources are tightly coupled in terms of their provisioning and management, resulting in “lumpy” allocation of resources and suboptimal utilization. Memory virtualization breaks the fixed relationship between memory and servers, giving cloud providers far more flexibility and scale. Pools of networked memory are fundamental requirements for clusters, and will be a key component of the cloud infrastructure.

4. The Concept of ‘Caching 2.0’ will Take Off

Changes in the data center landscape will give rise to a new caching model that reduces replication, enables large network-based in-memory application sets, and supports a broad range of data types and scalability.  Conventional alternatives such as adding more database nodes, expensive storage or faster processors can no longer keep data centers running effectively and efficiently.  Caching 2.0 dynamically scales as the volume of data in the enterprise increases. By applying memory virtualization across the existing infrastructure and enabling terabytes of active data to be kept in memory, companies will be well-equipped to stay ahead of the curve. We believe this memory-based application architecture will emerge over time as a foundational pattern for optimized data center operations.

Ülkemizde kısayoldan zengin olma metodlarına gün geçmiyor ki yenisi eklenmesin.İşte son bomba.. Dağdan inenlere aylık 5 bin TL (eski parayla 5 milyar) maaş bağlanacak.. hemde bu 2 yardım paketinden sadece ilki diğeri görüşme aşamasında..

Terrörist olası geliyor insanın yahu.. Devletini , milletini satası , şehit anası ağlatası geliyor… Gazilere ve şehit ailelerinin yerine koysanıza kendinizi.. Enayilik lan.. Yanlış tarafta savaşmışsın gibi..

Üniversite bitirmiş insan evlatları işsizlikle boğuşurken , kadro beklerken vs.. Bir de “Dağdan İnme”lere iş imkanı verilecekmiş.. Bence bunlar bile yetmez.. Erken emeklilik de lazım.. o kadar mermi attı adamlar kolay mı..

Hükümetimiz terörle mücadelede ne kadar etkili çözümler buluyor öyle.. pekekenin uyuşturucudan kazandığı , dış destekten aldığı para az gelmiş yeterince eylem yapamamışlar malum c4 borsası bu sıralar fena.. bu kadar dış destek yetmiyor bi de içerden omuzlayalım demiş olsalar gerek..

Askerliğe yan gelip yatma yeri diyen.. Çocuğuna dövizle askerlik yaptırıp (tertipi olan aqp kafalı eniştemin anlattığına göre çok mübarek bir insanmış kendisi.. tüm nöbetlerde Kur’an okumuş [yan gelip yatarak okumamış].. resim de çektirmişler çok şeker çocuk.. ) şehitlerimize kelle diyen bir başbakan ve alayı kürt bir kabineden daha azını beklemek mallık olur..

The good and the bad bananas

By ROGER M. BALANZA

Two events that hardly caught the attention of the public as the country grappled with the damage of super typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng had bananas at the center.

First. Pseudo environmentalist groups battling aerial spraying at the Supreme Court used banana to illustrate the alleged damage of the farm practice in communities near banana plantations particularly in the Davao Region.

Second. The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), the umbrella group of banana growers, shipped out from Davao to Luzon tons and tons of Cavendish bananas to help feed hungry victims of the calamity.

Between the two, who is the bad banana, and the good banana?

Let’s take the first and skewer the Interface Development Interventions (IDIS), Mamamayang Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (MAAS), the pseudo-environmentalist groups behind the lobby to ban aerial spraying in the banana plantations.

Last week, IDIS and MAAS went again into their boring routine of dramatizing their cause, parading at the Supreme Court picket a weighing scale with Cavendish bananas on one side and human images on the other. This dramatic presentation purportedly wants to send the message that banana plantations have been killing people through aerial spraying. This is another of the scare tactics employing baseless claims, lies and falsehoods that these fake NGOs (in Davao City, NGOs when referring to IDIS and MAAS is spelled out as No Good Organizations) have been employing since the battle over aerial spraying started three years.

While the show was good for media mileage, the IDIS and MAAS argument is nothing but rotten bananas.

The banana industry in the Davao Region alone employs about 200,000 direct-hired workers. About 5 million people are engaged in support industries to make the export Cavendish banana industry the Number One Industry in the region. About $400 million is brought in annual export earnings, fueling the economy of the region. The banana industry also is the flagship industry in almost all provinces and municipalities in the Davao Region including Caraga which picked banana growing as the main focus of their One Town One Product (OTOP).

And here’s the shocker. Contrary to the lies and falsehood being peddled by IDIS and MAAS and lately by its offspring Task Force Aerial Spraying (which counts members in the capital region who knew nothing about the banana industry and the good it has brought to the people), studies by government agencies showed no one has died nor contracted diseases for exposure to fungicide since aerial spraying was used in the Davao Region about 50 years ago.

This is not tall tale but a documented finding of the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, the Department of Health in Region Eleven and by a Special Team commissioned by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte composed of the health, legal and planning departments of the city government. Mind you, these findings have been presented as evidence to rebut the claims of IDIS and MAAS about alleged the threat to health and environment from aerial spraying.

And yet the Davao City Council approved the ordinance banning aerial spraying, the only safe and surefire method of fighting off the deadly Sigatoka which in the past ravaged thousands of hectares of banana plantations in other countries. Fungicide used in aerial spraying is a non-toxic anti-pest chemical according to the FPA, also in papers presented to the Davao City Council. If the Davao Region bananas are widely accepted throughout the world, it is because they pass international standards on health and safety. Aerial spraying, administered by personnel under the guidance of FPA and other government agencies, help maintain quality and volume of bananas, reinforcing the stability of the industry as one of the country’s primary export.

This is the industry that IDIS and MAAS —a motley group of fake environmentalists making noises to lure foreign donors at the expense of the people of the Davao Region depending on the banana industry—want to kill.

As far as we are concerned, the bad banana on the issue of aerial spraying are IDIS and MAAS and the gullible supporters they marshaled into their cartel of liars and fakes to kill Davao Region’s main industry and the people depending on it.   

Now let’s take a look at the good banana.

PBGEA quickly responded to calls to donate food and other forms of aid to typhoon victims and immediately sent out to the Social Welfare Development two shipments (7,500 boxes of bananas in eight 20-footer and 14 10-footer container vans) of nutritious, export-quality bananas for repacking and distribution to typhoon victims in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

The good bananas behind these humanitarian endeavor were PBGEA members Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc.,Sumifru, Lapanday Foods, F.S. Dizon and Sons, AM Soriano, Marsman-Drysdale and Unifrutti.

The bananas were a welcome change from the usual relief goods being packed and sent to evacuation centers, where many victims supposedly had instant noodles coming out of their ears.

Even relief workers benefited from the shipments of the energy-boosting fruit as aid. Bananas consist mainly of sugars and fiber, which makes them ideal for an immediate and prolonged source of energy, as most athletes already know.

The DSWD said it distributed the bananas as follows: two 20-footer and five 10-footer vans in the National Capital Region; two 20-footer vans in Pangasinan; three 20-footer and six 10-footer vans in Region 4-A; three 10-footer vans in Region 3; and one 20-footer van to various other evacuation centers. The fresh green bananas were shipped last week for free on board vessels owned by Solid Shipping and Aboitiz Shipping.

There were no reports of people being poisoned by the bananas, as they probably would have been if the fruits were saturated in dangerous chemicals as the Davao NGOs claim.

Then again, no one has ever complained about poisoning after eating in-demand Philippine-grown bananas or even in the plantations where they are grown before the NGOs came along with a great idea to scam foreign funding agencies.

And PBGEA did this without any fanfare.

But no one has heard about the anti-spraying NGOs giving anything to the flood victims, either. They were too busy holding rallies and photographing themselves while at it, to get some more money from their clueless donors.

While people suffered hunger in the wake of the killer typhoons, IDIS and MAAS and their underlings were at the Supreme Court trying to convince the Justices to stop a farm practice that makes the banana industry alive.

People should be wary of IDIS and MAAS. They could bring more nightmares than all the typhoons that visited the country, with their evil intention to kill an industry upon which thousands of people depend on to live.

Para dediğin balığın yanında rakı demektir………

Doğrusu şöyle olacak:

“Üzerinde TL yazan, ayın birinde hesaba yatan, ikisinde sırra kadem basan, çıplak gözle hiç görülmemiş kağıt parçası”

Yeni dünya, sadece kredi kartının geçtiği yerlerde yaşayabildiğimiz, bonuslarla sevindiğimiz, salak bir PC oyununun figüranlarından birine dönüştürdü bizi.

Sonuç olarak sadece salgı ve dışkılarımızdan kurtulmak için

yaşıyoruz…

Im Zuge der SPD-Krise in der SPD-Krise der SPD-Krise wurde kurz einmal etwas angedacht, was nun sicherlich schon wieder weit in den Schubladen verschwunden ist. Schließlich scheint sich auch die Parteispitze wieder aus der Parteispitze per Akklamation zu wählen, pardon zu Wahl vorschlagen. Aber zurück zu dem, was wieder in der Schublade liegen dürfte: Die Rede ist von Vorwahlen.

Also genau das, was in den USA im letzten Jahr erst mega spannend war und dann irgendwann vollkommen nervig lange dauerte, als sich Hillary Clinton und Barak Obama um die Nominierung als Präsidentschaftskandidat stritten. Könnte sowas auch in Deutschland funktionieren? Könnte die SPD, oder die ganze Opposition ihren Kanzlerkandidaten zuvor vorwählen lassen?

Beim Gedanken, dass sich Wowereit und Gabriel (und was weiß ich, wer 2013 sonst noch aus der SPD in Frage kommen könnte, zum Beispiel Maas, Drohsel oder Kraft) mehrere Wochen lang Bundesland für Bundesland ein packendes Vorwahl-Gefecht bieten, wird meine journalistische Begeisterung direkt geweckt. Und das bedeutet so viel wie: Die Medien wären dabei. Das kann kostenlose Wahlwerbung sein, kann aber auch nach hinten los gehen. Und überhaupt, wer soll das bezahlen? Wie soll der Modus aussehen?

Viele wollten, dass nicht nur die Parteimitglieder abstimmen, sondern alle die möchten. Und zwar, um möglichst große Zustimmung für den Kandidaten zu haben. Alternativ vorstellen könnte ich mir auch einen Oppositions-übergreifenden Vorwahlkampf. Das natürlich nur, wenn man wirklich gemeinsam eine neue Regierung stellen will. Und dann wird wohl kaum eine der Parteien mehrere Kandidaten ins Rennen schicken, und damit ihre Chancen noch verkleinern. Eine oppositionsübergreifende Vorwahl (sagen wir Gabriel vs. Lafontaine vs. Trittin) würde auch ihren Reiz haben. Auf der anderen Seite jedoch nur neue Gräben aufreißen.

Aber was zerbrechen wir uns den Kopf. Das hier ist Deutschland und eine Vorwahl wäre wohl eine Sensation. Aber ihren Reiz hätte sie auf alle Fälle. Ein Hauch von mehr Demokratie. Welche Partei wollte die doch gleich mal wagen?

The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) yesterday dismissed claims by elements of non-government organizations of getting death threats for campaigning against aerial spraying purportedly from goons hired by banana planters.

PBGEA is the umbrella group of export Cavendish banana growers which questioned a Davao City ordinance banning aerial spraying in the banana plantations.

Anti-aerial spraying activists have lobbied for passage of the ordinance quashed as unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals in a ruling now on appeal with the Supreme Court.

The NGOs in the forefront of opposing the ordinance—which PBGEA said could kill the million-dollar earning industry—are the Interface Development Intervention (Idis) and the Mamamayang Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Maas).

Maas president Cecilia Moran told a press conference in Davao City that unidentified men have been tailing her and cased her house in Calinan.

That claim is preposterous, said Anthony Sasin, PBGEA spokesman. He advised the anti-aerial spray activists not to resort to underhanded tactics and instead wait for the decision of the Supreme Court.

Why blame us? They say the threats come from banana plantations? Why don’t they face up to the persons following them? They are supposed to be brave, Sasin said.

Idis and Maas were known to insult to their face even the justices of the appeals Court in Cagayan de Oro City.

While the Court of Appeals was hearing the case last year, in separate incidents Idis and Maas elements picketing the court chained themselves on the gates of the appeals, hurled bananas at the lobby, gifted the justices with rotten bananas while holding a noisy rally in front of the building.

At one time, irate justices called police to arrest the activists for disrupting court proceedings with their noises. Some members were hurled to the police station and locked up by police after holding a die-in in the middle of the road fronting the appeals building that disrupted vehicular traffic.

Moran said at one time she noticed a motorcycle parked in front of her house in purok 12, barangay Dacudao in Calinan last week after she arrived home from a trip to Manila. Moran and several other members of Maas had made a two-month long road tour of schools and colleges in Manila to lure students to support the campaign against aerial spraying.

But Moran could be seeing the shadow of angry banana farm workers whose employment is are threatened by the prospect of where banana plantation workers have disowned her for leading the fight against aerial spraying. She said other members of Idis and Maas also experienced the same harassment. Banana growing in Calinan is a major industry and employs about 10,000 people.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has also told Maas and Idis members not to take the threats seriously.

They people from the banana industry would  not resort to this of tactic. Their problem is not with people like you but with higher government agencies, he said.

Fear of ban displaces 2,000 banana farm workers

The ban on aerial spraying on farms may have been aborted but it had already taken serious toll on a former banana planting community in Davao City that shut down at the height of the controversy.

A large banana plantation facing dire straights if the ban is implemented has done the inevitable: close before the company is sent to bankruptcy.

The former farm in Barangay Mandug is now home to about 2,000 displaced workers who lost their income when the Lorenzo family decided to cease its operations.

Lapanday operated a 200-hectare banana plantation in Mandug, employing more than a couple of thousand in the plantation and the processing plant for packing and handling.

The decision to close the banana farm came  a couple of months after the city government introduced an ordinance that banned aerial spray. The ordinance was later ruled as unconstutional by the Court of Appeals.

The Lorenzo family tried to convert the area into industrial parks and housing subdivisions, even in a city which had a lot of those ventures.

“The diversification into real estate business failed to take off. Most of the land in the former Lapanday plantation is now idle,” related Manila-based business writer Conrado Banal. “Believe me, I went there to check.”

Banal wrote that Mayor Rodrigo Duterte recently visited the former farm , and the city chief executive supposedly admitted to the people of Mandug that he had been misinformed regarding the “ban.”

In the visit, Duterte reportedly saw personally the misery of those fathers who lost their jobs at the Lapanday farm, “s their families went hungry.”
Duterte was quoted as saying the city government would just wait for the final decision of the court regarding the aerial spraying ban. The city government announced recently it is bringing the case to Supreme Court.

Banana plantations in the country cover some 50,000 hectares in 11 provinces in Mindanao and employs around 500,000 workers. Owners insist they must use aerial spraying to become viable.

In deciding to abandon the plantation in Mandug, the Lorenzo family figured that the switch to “manual” spraying would only result to their bankruptcy.

The family had to spend heavily on new equipment, aside from absorbing the loss in yield due to the “uncertainty” of the “manual” method.

The world demand for banana comes up to about 15 million tons a year, but several countries compete strongly for the market. The Philippines is ranked the third biggest banana exporter in the world, accounting for some 12 percent of the market.

Banana plantations abroad use aerial spraying of the fungicide to control the “Black Sigatoka” disease. In the United States, Australia and Europ, they apply aerial spraying in farmlands, and with the blessing of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Catholics join fight vs. anti-aerial spray activists

 Anti-aerial spraying activists now making noise in Manila should visit the Davao Region where Catholics are up in arms against banning aerial spraying in banana plantations.

In Manila, the Interface Development Interventions (IDIS) and the Mamamayang Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Maas) are on a road tour to drum up support for bills pending in Congress calling for a stop to the most efficient, safest and effective method of fighting the deadly leaf disease sigatoka.

Davao City-based, IDIS and Maas were in the forefront of  lobby for the passage of a Davao City ordinance banning aerial spraying which is now being contested in the Supreme Court.

While IDIS and Maas had lured the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University to support their cause, Catholics in Panabo City in Davao del Norte are repudiating their arguments.

Panabo City is home to Tagum Development Corporation (Tadeco), the pioneering banana growing company of Don Antonio Floirendo which first brought the Davao Region in the world map of Cavendish banana exporters.

Panabo City residents have come face to face with the banana industry for nearly 50 years and have never complained about threats of aerial spraying to human health or the environment. The Cavendish banana export industry is now a major industry in Davao del Norte and grown in all its municipalities. Region-wide, the industry directly employs about 200,000 workers and earns annual export revenues of $400 million

A number of Gagmay Kristohanong Katilingban (GKKs) or Basic Christian Communities of the Roman Catholic Church in and around banana plantations in Davao del Norte are now banding themselves in opposing moves to ban aerial spraying in major banana plantations dotting the region.

The GKKs are also working it out that their parish priests will have major involvement in preventing the passage of two national proposed legislations now pending deliberations in Congress.

Congressman Rufus Rodriguez of Northern Mindanao has filed a bill in the House of Representatives while Senator Miguel Zubiri has its own version now pending in the Senate. Rodriguez is representing a district where there is no major banana plantation. Zubiri is from Bukidnon where fruit and vegetable plantations thrive.

Tirso Dalagan, GKK president in Barangay San Miguel in Tagum City said he has initial meeting with his group in appreciating moves to prevent ban of aerial spraying, saying his community may suffer from economic imbalance once aerial spraying will not be employed in nearby banana plantations of independent growers.

Likewise GKK officials including small-scale banana growers in Barangay Cuambugan, also in Tagum City are up in arms after an NGO, which never conducted a study on ill-effects of chemicals in the northern Davao region, pushed for the banning of aerial spray.

While GKK members of Mesaoy in New Corella town said they knew of the ill-effects of unregulated use of chemicals in tending banana farms, they still band themselves into one to ventilate the issue that in aerial spraying there is less health hazard compared to ground spraying which is recommended by the health department.

They also disagree with the NGO that the communities in and out of the banana plantations have contracted various diseases that they attributed to aerial spraying.

Meanwhile former GKK president of Checkered Farms in Panabo City, Noel Ruello said over a local radio station that in all the years that he spent inside a banana plantation since he was 14 years old, he never heard of one being hit by showers of aerial spray having contracted a major disease, which may cause death. He himself was hit several times by the showers but has not contracted skin or internal diseases as a result to direct exposure to fungicide.

Ruello also said an aerial spraying activity does not use chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides or nematicides, only fungicides.

Labelling aerial spray fungicide as most hazardous is injustice since fungicide used contra ‘ap-ap’, ‘alipunga’, ‘an-an’ and ‘bun-i’ are more dreaded and poisonous.

Ruello also said a fungicide used in spraying the canopy of banana plantation prevents the spread of a fungus causing ‘sigatoka’ that causes premature aging of banana leaves.

Ruello also hit hard the NGO by bringing the issue to Luzon dioceses to solicit support from church leaders in its advocacy. He said church leaders in Davao del Norte understand more the health advocacy related to aerial spraying here, adding the NGO is barking up the wrong tree if only to continue enjoying support from an international funding agency based in Netherlands.

SSK ve Bağ-Kur emeklisine bayram müjdesi. İşçi Emeklileri Derneği, maaşlarını bayramdan önce alabilmek için Çalışma Bakanlığı’na talepte bulundu. işçi Emeklileri Dernek Başkanı Hasan Ekin, aylıkların bayram öncesi yatırılması için girişimde bulunduklarını ve bununda kabul görüldüğünü söyledi.
Hasan Ekin, 630 lira emekli aylığı aldıkları gerçeğini düşününce, bayramların da kendilerini sevindirmeye yetmediğini bildirdi.
Hükümet işçi emeklilerine maaşlarını yarın itibariyle ödemeye başlayıyor. Buna göre emekli sigorta numarasının son rakamı 3, 5, 7 ve 9 olanlar 16 Eylül Çarşamba, son rakamı 1, 6 ve 8 olanlar 17 Eylül Perşembe, sonu rakamı 0, 2 ve 4 olanlarsa 18 Eylül Cuma günü maaşlarını alabilecekler.

Last Friday, I marched along with other eco-groups and farmers from Davao against aerial spraying in Davao, a practice which the American marine biologist and nature writer, Rachel Carson once described as a ‘poison rain,’ in her monumental work the Silent Spring.

Participating in the event struck a sentimental chord, since the protest that I am part of echoes that of the historic struggle to push forward public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment. It was in Carson’s Silent Spring that the modern environmental movement was borne of.

Greenpeace considers itself an heir of Carson’s legacy in advancing a greener and more peaceful future. So standing in the protest somehow puts me into solidarity with those who’ve laid the ground for the struggle that we are now continuing.

It has been said that Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT in 1972 in the United States and that the book’s inspiration led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

It is tragic that 50 years after the Silent Spring, the people of Davao under the banner of the Mamamayang Ayaw Aerial Spraying which is composed of aerial spraying-affected communitites from seven villages in Davao City as well as support groups including various non-government organizations, lawyers, youth, doctors, organic producers and other civil society groups are still struggling against the onslaught of aerial spraying.

It is with all hope that I share the vision of a comprehensive ban on aerial spraying with the people of Davao.

If you want to learn more you can visit dirtybananas.org

Or click here to take action

Chuck Baclagon

Click here for more images

Bereits vor der Landtagswahl in Thüringen verkündete SPD-Spitzenkandidat Matschie, er sei zwar offen für eine Koalition mit der Linken, werde aber deren Kandidaten, Bodo Ramelow, nicht zum Ministerpräsidenten wählen. Ramelow wiederum verwies darauf, dass es in einer Koalition üblich sei, dass die stärkere Partei den Ministerpräsidenten stelle. Und bereits die Umfragen sagten voraus, dass die Linke stärker sein werde als die SPD – und so kam es denn auch.

Dass die stärkere Partei den Regierungschef stellt, mag in einer Zwei-Parteien-Koalition richtig sein – auf eine Drei-Parteien-Koalition lässt sich dies indes nicht ohne weiteres übertragen. Denn in einer Dreier-Koaltion ist es möglich, dass eine Partei zwar die stärkste ist, die beiden anderen jedoch zusammen mehr Stimmen und Sitze haben. Die erste Partei hätte dann innerhalb des Regierungslagers zwar den größten Stimmenanteil, aber keine Mehrheit – das typische Problem relativer Mehrheiten, mit dem bei mehr als zwei Beteiligten prinzipiell zu rechnen ist. In einer Zweier-Koalition hat die stärkere der beiden Parteien hingegen immer die absolute Mehrheit der Stimmen innerhalb des Regierungslagers.

Im konkreten Fall Thüringen werden die Grünen jetzt allerdings gar nicht für die Mehrheitsbildung benötigt, so dass eine Rot-rote Koalition gebildet werden kann, in der die Spielregeln eines Zweier-Bündnisses gelten: die stärkere Partei stellt den Regierungschef. Und selbst wenn die Grünen für die Mehrheitsbildung benötigt worden wären, hätte die Linke doch mehr Stimmen und Sitze als SPD und Grüne zusammen, so dass der Anspruch Ramelows auf das Ministerpräsidentenamt berechtigt ist – nur die Begründung (“stärkste Partei”) stimmte nicht.

Im Saarland ist es tatsächlich so, dass die SPD zwar mehr Stimmen hatte als die Linke, aber nicht als Linke und Grüne zusammen. Insofern kann Heiko Maas (SPD) seinen Anspruch auf den Chefsessel nicht aus dem größeren Stimmenanteil der SPD ableiten, sondern nur daraus, dass die Grünen – falls es denn zu Rot-Rot-Grün kommt – auch Heiko Maas bevorzugen und nicht Oskar Lafontaine als Ministerpräsident haben wollen.

Ravel L150

Vandaag reden we naar Bauche, deelgemeente van Yvoir. Onze auto geparkeerd op de place de la bonne auberge, fietsen afgeladen en weg waren we.

Via Yvoir waar we de Maas overstaken en om die een stukje richting Namen te volgen. Ter hoogte van Anhee nemen we rechts een zijarm van de Ravel 2 de L150 richting Maredsous. Een licht oplopend fietspad langs de oude spoorlijn brengt ons via Falaen hoog door de vallei van de Molignee. Een mooi stukje fietsweg. De abdij van Maredsous is ons einddoel. We drinken er min of meer uit plichtsbessef een Maredsous (al wordt die in Moortgat gebrouwen), maar ergeren ons een beetje aan de merkantiele trekjes van deze moniken. Wie een écht bier uit deze streek wil drinken, kiest beter een Li Crochon, in één van de vele cafés langs deze route.

Abdijkerk in Maredsous

Maar Maredsous blijft een mooi optrekje en ik kan me voorstellen dat de abdijkerk en de hele omgeving rustgevend, inspirerend en bezinnend kan werken.

De terugweg naar Yvoir is lichtdalend. Op het terras van café du parc drinken we een Gauloise om onze dag af te sluiten in de ‘Chez Jeanine’  met een lekkere maaltijd.

klik hier voor meer foto’s

MYVIEWS

Archbishop Capalla’s forgers

duping Jesuit institution

“Davao farmers who are in Manila to push for a nationwide ban of aerial spraying of pesticides get support from students of Ateneo de Manila University.”

This is the lead of news reports published in local dailies this week in Davao City.

The Jesuit-run Ateneo should be careful about dubious groups masquerading as environmentalists using the revered institution for personal greed.

“Seeking for divine help while representatives of Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spray (MAAS) patiently wait for action from Environment Secretary Lito Atienza, the students belonging to the Ateneo Student Catholic Action offered a holy mass and lighted candles at the Ateneo College Chapel recently, praying to put an end on the practice of dispersing pesticides from an aircraft in banana plantations in Mindanao,” said the report.

We pity the Ateneans who are ignorant about MAAS and its leader Dagohoy Magaway and the kind of swindlers hiding behind this so-called NGO. Three years ago, while the aerial spraying issue was at the center of heated debate in Davao City, Magaway bared an alleged pastoral leader signed by Archbishop Capalla supporting the ban on aerial spraying. Capalla would later disown his signature and slammed Magaway and Maas as forgers.

The report follows with our comments to warn the Ateneans about being misguided by Maas:

“Aerial spraying aims to rid banana crops of the Sigatoka fungus but causes proven health and environmental problems since harmful chemicals are indiscriminately applied with no distinction between pests and humans.”

The Department of Health in Region XI, the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) and a Special Investigating Team created by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte have conducted studies to deny claim of risk to health and environment from aerial spraying.

“AtSCA and Development Society among others, joined the clamor to stop what has been called “toxic rain” and committed to launch a signature drive and spread information about the plight of communities affected by aerial spraying through various communities and social networking tools.”

In Davao City, residents know what is toxic rain: the lies and black propaganda levelled by Maas and its sister the Interface Development Interventions (IDIS) against the banana industry which feeds and employs thousands of people and brings in export revenues of about $400 million annually.

“As an organization rooted in faith that does justice, AtSCA stands by MAAS and pledge to support their quest for human rights, including the right not to be poisoned with hazardous substances, by telling others about their stories and hopes,” said Michelle Roque, president of AtSCA.

By hurling mud to cripple or kill the banana industry, MAAS is guilty of violating the basic human rights to live and survive through gainful employment and the right to live sans hunger.

“We promise to spread awareness about the issue and to help the victims of aerial spraying in Mindanao in whatever way we can,” added Cherryl Si, president of the Development Society.

Yes, and even Ms. Si herself should be enlightened and she could avoid being a fool if she comes down to Davao City to personally learn the truth about aerial spraying from actual experience and knowledge and not through the forger Magaway and his Maas.

“In a statement, AtSCA called on the banana industry “to prioritize the welfare of the people over any profit-generating strategy” that undermines the rights of the people.”

Without the banana industry in the Davao Region, the right and welfare of the people to live decent lives is lost. Maas’ ultimate aim is to kill the industry, cause unemployment and sow economic chaos, a formula that enemies of the state use to  topple the government. Is Maas a front of the communist rebels?

“We invite banana planters to explore alternatives to aerial spraying since these are equally effective in ridding crops of pests as seen in Bukidnon and North Cotabato where banana plantations continue to thrive despite compliance to provincial bans,” said AtSCA.

This is another misinformation brought to Manila by Magaway to gain ears to his demented logic that lies can win the battle for him against aerial spraying. There are at present aerial spraying applications in Bukidnon and Central Mindanao.

“AtSCA cited a recently released study commissioned by the Department of Health that showed traces of pesticides in blood of residents and in air and water samples in Sitio Camocaan, Hagonoy, Davao del Sur. The study recommended a ban on aerial spraying and a shift to organic farming methods to protect public health.”

The DOH in Region XI has disowned any role in the study whose findings were never validated. The alleged environmentalist-toxicologists behind the study are now in the Most Wanted List of residents of Camocaan in Hagonoy who have resented the falsity hurled against the industry that has brought—not threats–but peace and progress and development to their communities.

“Representatives of the Ateneo Catechetical Instruction League, Ateneo Christian Ministry Group, Youth For Christ—Ateneo, Sanggunian ng mga Mag-aaral ng Loyola Schools, Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, and the Office of Social Concern and Involvement also joined the solidarity mass and candle lighting. Members of the Alternative Research for Empowerment, Concerned Citizens Against Pollution, EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Green Families and Communities Network, Interface Development Interventions and Mother Earth Foundation also came for prayer.”

There are always two sides to a coin in scams THE CONMEN AND THE VICTIMS. As an institution of learning considered as the best in the country, Ateneo should advise its students to lead the fight against the conmen using the institution to peddle lies against an industry upon which hundreds of thousands of people depend for survival.

Davao anti-aerial spray lobbyists financed by European donors

European Union’s biggest non-government organizations funding environmental causes abroad feeds the kitty of environmentalist groups fighting aerial spraying in export Cavendish banana plantations in Mindanao.

The Netherlands arm of the Philippine women’s support group Damayan, based in Ultrect, said the Dutch funding agencies remit substantial euros to the local lobby groups for their campaign against the banana industry.

But Damayan said these Dutch NGOs may not have known that their financial supports for humanitarian aid are being used to fight off an industry that earns dollars for the Philippines and provides employment to hundreds of thousands of people.

In the front-line of the campaign against aerial spraying of fungicide in banana plantations are the Interface Development Interventions (IDIS) headed by Lea Jasmin Esquillo and Mamayang Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Maas) chaired by Dagohoy Magaway.

The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) earlier said NGOs opposing aerial spraying are either hired by foreign companies to kill the Philippine banana industry or fake groups espousing environmental concerns to lure foreign donors.

Damayan also said the Dutch NGOs are awash with euros and could spell trouble for the banana industry, if they are not informed about how their funds are being misused by local environmentalists.

If what we heard is true that Dutch-funded cause-oriented groups are into lobbying against Davao’s banana industry then said industry is in trouble as, said Damayan, in an email to PBGEA.

The banana industry is a David facing off with the Goliath in the well-funded Dutch NGOs, it said.

Damayan said one of the Dutch NGOs funding the local environmentalists is one the European Union’s biggest and supported by thousands of institutional and individual donors.

The PBGEA has raised questions about where IDIS and Maas get their funds for pushing their campaign in Cagayan de Oro City and Manila as it trailed the fate of a Davao City ordinance banning aerial spraying in banana plantations in the city.

PBGEA had questioned the ordinance at the Court of Appeals in Cagayan de Oro City, which last year declared the ordinance illegal. IDIS and Maas had brought in a large group of their members to Cagayan de Oro City to conduct sit-ins and rallies while the appeals court was hearing the case.

The case is now with the Supreme Court, with IDIS and Maas repeating their Cagayan de Oro City stunts with pickets and speaking engagements.

In Davao City, residents of banana plantations deplored attempts by Maas to lure support for their campaign in Manila in speaking engagements coordinated with the Jesuit-run Ateneo University.

Cecilia Moran of Maas and a resident of Dacudao in Calinan is spearheading the speaking engagements.

Moran and a certain Liezl Bacalso were reported to have talked to the parishioners during mass for the Feast of St. Ignatius at the Ateneo de Manila University last July 30 to the seminarians at the Ateneo School of Theology, to students of the Ateneo Law School at Rockwell in Makati; and to socialites at the Nine-Mile Bar along Kalayaan Avenue in Quezon City.

Liza Mosqueda, a neighbor of Moran and an officer of the Gagmayng Kristohanong Kalingban (Small Christian Basic Communities) of the Catholic Church faulted the Ateneo priests for allowing Ateneo to be used by Maas.

Two years ago as the debate over aerial spraying was at its hottest in Davao City, Maas chairman Dagoboy Magaway circulated an alleged diocesan letter purportedly signed by Archbishop Fernando Capalla. Capalla would later disown his signature in the letter which he said was a forgery.

Mosqueda said the priests lack basic knowledge about aerial spraying and should been careful about Moran, said to be in Manila on a six-month tour sponsored by the National Task Force Against Aerial Spray.

They do not know anything about banana much less seen a Cavendish banana plantation, said Mosqueda, referring to the priests and members of the task force behind the Moran speaking tour which, according to an Ateneo law student in Davao City, “is grossly one-sided and ia repudiation of Ateneo’s time-honored tradition of being issue-confronting but dialogic and educative.”

Moises Torrentira of Subasta, Calinan said Moran and Bacalzo, who lived for years near banana plantations in Calinan without getting sick, should stop their lies against banana growing and the aerial spraying of low-dose fungicide as they know deep in their Christian hearts that they are not telling the truth.

Barangay captain Romulo C. Tubal of Dacudao, Calinan said Moran and Bacalzo do not represent the majority sentiments of the people who are daily witnesses to the good agricultural practices of the industry and who have actual experience for the past 30 years of the effects of low-dose fungicide to their health and environment.

No Baygon in Davao bananas

By ROGER M. BALANZA

Baygon, the widely advertised insect repellent commonly used in households to kill mosquitoes, flies and cockroaches is not used in export Cavendish bananas.

The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) yesterday lamented that many people equate the word “pesticide” to insecticide and what immediately comes to mind when the topic of aerial spraying arises is “Baygon,” a widely advertised anti-insect product.

Some people believe that what we are aerially spraying is an insecticide as strong as Baygon which is so far from the truth,” said Anthony Sasin, spokesman of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA).

Sasin lamented that some people equate the word “pesticide” to insecticide and what immediately comes to mind when the topic of aerial spraying arises is Baygon.

Sasin belied claims that banana companies are aerially spraying  pesticide other than the mixture of water, oil and low-dose fungicide to control the dreaded Black Sigatoka fungus.

“The formulation consists of 81.63% water, 16.84% mineral oil and 1.33% fungicide which makes it as benign as the commonly used fungicides sold over the counter in most pharmacies and rub by people on their faces, necks and other body parts to control fungal infections,” said Sasin.

According to Sasin, “PBGEA is against the aerial spraying of hazardous chemicals as it inimical to people’s health and the environment and that it is a contravention of their commitment to Philippine laws as well as to international covenants governing the use of such chemicals of which the Philippines is a signatory.”

He stressed that the Philippine export banana industry is not aerially spraying hazardous chemicals and any other pesticide except the low-dose fungicide formulation as prescribed by law.

He said that “Latin American countries producing bananas have been using it for the past 110 years, we have been using it for the past 30 years and we have proven beyond reasonable doubt that it is not harmful to people’s health and the environment” citing the results of their painstaking review of cases of illnesses presented by the anti-aerial spray movement all of which, he declared, ” were falsely attributed to aerial spraying.”

“It will therefore be highly irrational to ban maximum residue limits of  .05 parts per million of fungicide which sickened no one while allowing certain levels of  the more obnoxious carbon monoxide emissions,” Sasin said referring to the odorless and colorless gas from motor vehicles which proved fatal to many.

Dini bayramlarda ikramiye verilmesini öngören yasa teklifi 17 bayramdır komisyonda bekletiliyor.

Bayraktar, 2001′de TBMM’ye sunulan kanun teklifiyle memurlar ile Bağ-Kur, memur ve işçi emeklilerine dinî bayramlarda olmak üzere yılda iki ikramiye verilmesinin öngörüldüğünü hatırlattı. Bayraktar, yasa teklifinin o tarihten itibaren tam 17 bayramdır komisyonda beklediğini anlattı.