The Bali Climate Conference Circus and Zoo

The Bali Climate Conference Circus and Zoo
By George Smart and Joseph Glass
Nov 20, 2007, 06:06

Illegal forest fires in Indonesia and what they do.

Already the experts are warning the UN Climate Conference Circus in Bali in December will achieve nothing but a massive carbon footprint from all those extra unnecessary flights. The simple facts are the 3 main producers of greenhouse gases; the USA, China and Indonesia all pay lip service at best to the destruction of our natural environment, at worst as is the case with Indonesia, almost certainly deliberately causing pollution to make a buck from mega-profitable supposedly eco-friendly biofuels and carbon offsetting.

The latest predictions from the world’s leading climate change experts say that there is already enough carbon in the atmosphere to ensure sea levels rise up to 4.6 feet in the most vulnerable areas of the world, around the equator. So enjoy Nusa Dua while you can gentleman, for maybe as early as 2020 it will soon enough be Nusa Unda! And while they are there let us hope the delegates will have time to go to one of the beach fish restaurants along Jimbaran Bay for dinner, mmmm yummy, and see the thousands of dead fish washing up along the Kuta area coast right now; yes they are, the authorities yesterday had to stop people from going into the sea over health concerns.

But this fiasco gets worse, not least as it is being held in Indonesia, whose civilian administration government is screaming for financial aid at every opportunity, whose politicians are then personally pocketing the money they receive, whose businessmen supported by politicians are stealing land from villages around the archipelago to commit acts of illegal logging which get sold to western companies as timber from sustainable forests, to burn anything else to clear the land and destroy both wildlife and the atmosphere, to plant palm trees which do nothing except put the final nail in the coffin for the indigenous animals of the region, to produce palm oil which western corporations buy up to sell as biofuel in order to BS the world environmentalism is important to them. So villagers are having their land stolen, the planet and endangered species like the Orang Utang are being destroyed, foreign donations which were meant to stop all this are being pocketed by Suharto Inc. and the UN sponsored delegates coming to Bali to try and find a solution to all of this are staying in Suharto family hotels, while the UN puts Suharto at the top of their corruption blacklist; perfect!

Freshly deforrested and palm oil trees planted; big bucks for Indonesian politicians

Of course Indonesia, not Bali, is going to make a ton out of all these bums in beds during the current foreign tourist drought. Of which Indonesia’s tourism ministry plus their doting lackys and hacks are going to have a field day misrepresenting and no doubt claiming double the number of foreign arrivals to make it look like tourism congestion hiding the actual desert again, again, again. Of course this along with Bali Airport’s removal from the US Homeland Security blacklist, because US delegates could not attend unless it was, is currently being trumpeted by the PATA mites as “proof” Bali is now safe and a paradise once again for foreigners. Of course the 5000 extra policemen drafted in with clean uniforms and orders to shoot anyone resembling a bomber will ensure the only terrorists that get into the area are those with an invitation; no doubt this huge, massive amount of resource guaranteeing an uneventful conference will be heralded as proof Bali is safe again, although it never actually has been, even after the uniforms go home and the local plod get back to extortion as normal.

Not happy with wholesale stealing land from Kalimantan Dyaks (see: Indonesian Borneo), miss-selling the illegally felled timber, polluting the whole region’s atmosphere with black smog, to create bleak landscapes of nothing but palm trees, while all along taking large sums of money not to do just that from western governments keen to maintain their special relationships with Jakarta, the Republic of Indonesia is now seeking more money to steal this time mostly from its Arab friends. That’s right, after having secured and no doubt pocketed billions of dollars from idiot Australian, British and American tax payers, Jakarta is asking Arab nations to donate 50 cents per barrel of oil they produce! It is a fact that Indonesia knows International carbon credit and offsetting is a big bucks business and is expecting to earn a staggering $US13,000,000,000 from the Bali Climate Change BS Circus; that is on top of what they have screwed from western, especially Australian tax payers already (see: Indonesian Foreign Aid). If the Indonesian Government were legitimate, they would stop the illegal deforestation anyway of course, which is what it is, as it robs from the state and people. Just to give you some idea, Indonesia is estimated to lose 27,000sqkm of forest annually, the equivalent of a soccer field of trees every 10 seconds.

But the facts are that the relationship between politicians, armed forces and big business in Indonesia is so intertwined it is the damn suits in parliament that are guilty of the crimes in the first place. That is why the Indonesian Government [sic] will not stop the devastation even when they get their massive grants; because the politicians themselves are making large sums of money hand over fist from these illegal acts. What is more everyone knows that anything and everything Indonesia gets in International aid is subject to corruption on a massive scale with probably 80% of what they get ending up in the pockets of individuals and the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) that truly rule Indonesia. What makes this even more sickening is the TNI murder civilians including westerners using that cash and are now embarking on an ambitious military hardware acquisition program with their new “friends” Russia. Ironic then billions of Australian tax payer dollars go to Indonesia as environmental grants, get siphoned off and some is used to buy Russian stealth submarines and vector fighter planes which the Australian military then has to spend billions to counter; everyday Australians must be plain stupid to allow their government to continue doing this. While the everyday people of the Indonesian archipelago are choking on poisonous fumes, facing fuel and now food shortages as SE Asian rice production is beginning to drop dramatically due to climate change (yes, we know Indonesia managed to produce more last year but only with large scale chemical use which ultimately will poison the land), the street dogs in control of Indonesia make more and more money for themselves while threatening global security and the climate.

Proof that Jakarta has absolutely no intention or even perhaps ability to actually stop deforestation and with it smog or the abuse of other people’s land to produce palm oil comes from a recent sick joke of a court case against an Indonesian corporate logger Adelin Lis. Lis was the subject of an international manhunt and who was arrested in Beijing, then deported back to Indonesia for trial; pah! As head of the forestry Majur Timber Group and two subsidiaries, Adelin Lis was charged under anti-corruption laws with failing to pay forestry concession fees and compulsory reforestation funds. However judges at his trial ruled that the evidence was inadequate to prove anything other than "administrative neglect". Of course not coincidentally, when the police went to arrest Adelin Lis again to face further charges, he had disappeared, apparently with the help of the prosecutor who was meant to be trying to put him behind bars! What makes matters worse yet so all-telling is the Indonesian Forestry Minister, Malem Sambat Kaban, the man meant to protect the forests and recipient of much of the foreign aid to do so, wrote a letter to the judges urging them to drop charges against Adelin Lis. Even with the UN Climate Change Conference around the corner, even with Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior en route to block an Indonesian cargo ship laden with 33,000 tons of palm oil from leaving port, the clearly bent as they come forestry minister felt able to help Mr. Lis get off scott free.

The fact Indonesia is going to be one of the worst hit places in the world as the oceans continually rise, with action already to move Jakarta’s main airport because the existing one will one day soon be under water, shows just how little the greedy hate mongers in Jakarta care about anything, including tomorrow. They see a buck and want it; what comes next? The UN going to Bali to support Indonesia’s ailing tourism is nothing but a sad, sick joke which nobody but the same nasty extortionists in office in Jakarta will benefit from. The Balinese sure will not benefit past some extra labour need and therefore guarantee of a few minimum wage jobs for a week or so. The everyday people of Asia who account for two thirds of the world’s population and who will be hurt the most, with droughts, floods and disease, yes extra disease with global warming, with many of them migrating with government support to this day to coastal regions are going to suffer and big time. A conference in Bali of all places is not the answer; absolute accountability for foreign grants, international pressure to uphold the law and stop the wholesale rape of Indonesian citizens and forests alike, plus individual foreign tourists and investors saying “Screw you Indonesia” is what is needed. You think the weather patterns are a little crazy and problems with a malnourished third world are bad now? Just wait a few more years of unabated lip service foreign agenda and consumerism and see what hell we have already committed this earth; it will really spoil your ignorant pre-packaged day.

Just because western politicians work principly to fuel their large corporations, do not be taken as fools by them. Stop your governments from pouring your tax dollars into Indonesia with impunity all for the sake of short term regional influence and corporate shareholder profits. Do not go on holiday to Bali or otherwise pass more of your money to Indonesians, until this corruption fiasco fueled environmental massacre and anti-western hate program ends. For God’s sake, wake up.