Archive for August, 2006

Donate to the ff:

1. Project Sunrise = www.projectsunrise.org

2. Greenpeace = www.greenpeace.org

Let us keep the buzz in Guimaras!

1. Write articles, post entries in your blogs about Guimaras. (Share it with us)

2. Write to editors of news portals like CNN and BBC, International Herald Tribune etc. The editors now have their own blog pages. We will provide a sample letter and a list of all these addresses in the future.

3. Filmmakers = create your own videos, post them at youtube.com and share them with us.? Photographers, create your album of fotos at flickr and send us the url/rss feed.

4. Submit a statement from your group, include photos that says, Save Guimarasa

5. Text your friends in the Philippines and those who are living abroad.

6. Sign the Petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/guimaras/petition.html

Help Project Sunrise by checking their website at www.projectsunrise.org

Email: [email protected]

Text using Smart: [email protected]<space><yourmessage> and send to 200 Smart

Text using Globe: [email protected]<space><yourmessage> and send to 2860 Globe

2.50 pesos per text?

? Fishermen in Guimaras are in dire need of protective suits and masks to continue helping in the clean up. Some of them are using their bare hands to sift the oil out of the coastline.

There are some who are developing skin rashes and coughing from working in this condition. I dont know what organization to go to ask for help. (to donate please check www.projectsunrise.org

International Herald Tribune FINALLY published another article about the Guimaras oil spill debunking the first oil-spill assessment of environmental doom. If not written by Carlos H. Conde, a respected journalist in the Philippines, I swear I almost bit my tongue saying something smells fishy, although the fish that I´m now talking about is dead…

Anyway the article goes on saying that the environmental disaster is “not as massive as once feared” because 1.3 million of litters or 350,000 gallons of a 2-million liter oil tanker, quoting presidential press secretary Ignacio Bunye. The Department of Science and Technology reported that ONLY 100 KILOMETERS OF coastline were affected and not 220 kilometers as the initial assessment.

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Let´s go underground people! After posting two entries about Guimaras, Netsquared.org, (the guru for non-profit org support using online tools,) has featured them in their front page. Please check them out. I will be featuring social action networks here so people can get themselves organized and launch their own campaign for Guimaras.

The recent oil tragedy in (Guimaras island) Philippines has sent Filipinos to get new hairdos, or for those bold enough, some even going so far as getting their heads shaved clean. According to Greenpeace, hair has natural absorbing properties and can help in the oil-spill clean up. CNN reports that “oil clings to hair as the tiny scales on hair snag and hold the oil. Chicken feathers, wool, and straw may also be used, but human hair is found to be more absorptive.” President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has asked help from Filipinos to contribute a chop of their mane in drop-off centers. Aside from human hair, chicken feathers can also be used to help soak up the spill. “This is a national calamity that demands the cooperation and solidarity of all Filipinos,” said Arroyo.

To date, more than 200 kilometers of coastline and hectares of mangrove and seaweed plantations have already been affected. Now, parlors are teeming with people who are volunteering to have their hair cut off in support of Guimaras.

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It’s ironic that we have zero cleanup equipment in the entire country. While it takes months for them to argue about leaking/not leaking, your fault/my fault in the end they will just say it wasn’t anyones fault and we have to study how to be better prepared for this in the future.

The best campaign I believe is to show in timeline the obvious resistance to acknowledging the problem and manuevering, plus how ill treated the coastal folk were and how ill prepared the government was.

People have to stop using petron, thats the only way that anyone will even let it register. It doen’t matter how relevant the argument is at this point, merely that enough fear can be instilled into the corporate mindset to avois a drop in sales for their brands. Also if there were a negative customer feedback other brands might take advantage to pose as friendlier companies but might add to the pressure level for standards inadvertently.

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