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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (30587)	7/28/2005 9:46:37 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 362340

John Seed...Deep Ecology....... erraticimpact.com Scientists warn that we may be the last generation of humanity to have the chance to avert biological collapse and irreparable damage to the systems that support complex life on Earth. Paul Ehrlich thinks that we are sawing off the branch that we're sitting on. James Lovelock said it's as if the brain were to decide that it is the most important organ in the body and started mining the liver. Sounds to me like some kind of psychological problem. Yet psychology appears to be too busy to address such things. What are the matters of over-riding urgency preoccupying psychology? Where is everybody? Playing at business as usual. Fiddling while Rome burns. Shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (30587)	7/28/2005 10:09:36 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 362340

Record Rains Kill More Than 513 in India By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Associated Press Writer BOMBAY, India - Rescuers searched with bare hands Thursday for survivors buried under debris and rushed aid to villages cut off by record-breaking rains that paralyzed Bombay and its surrounding state, leaving at least 513 dead. Officials said 273 people died in Bombay, India's financial capital as well as the capital of Maharashtra state, after being crushed by falling walls, trapped in cars or electrocuted when the most intense rains on record swept through the city Tuesday evening. The Bombay Stock Exchange did not open Thursday as many banks and financial institutions remained shut. Phone networks collapsed, highways were blocked and the city's airports, among the nation's busiest, were closed. At least 513 people were reported dead in different parts of Maharashtra, said B.M. Kulkarni, the deputy secretary in charge of the state's emergency control room in Bombay. In the northern Bombay suburb of Saki Naka, relief workers and survivors sifted through rubble Thursday after a small hill crashed on a group of huts, leaving more than 45 people missing and presumed dead. "I was scared the hill would fall. I kept telling my cousin, 'lets leave,'" sobbed Aslam Khan. "But he wouldn't listen. Now it's too late." Bodies were piled onto trucks and private cars were flagged down to carry several dozen injured to hospitals. "People ran as soon as the hill started crumbling. But the old people had no chance," said Shabana Shaikh, who lost her parents in the landslide. She said authorities had asked shanty dwellers each year to vacate their decrepit homes. "But we didn't really expect it to fall," said Shaikh, her clothes caked with mud. Officials said parts of Bombay had been hit by up to 37.1 inches of rain Tuesday, the highest one-day total in India's history. Much of it came over a few evening hours. Photos showed the sprawling city covered with water, with cars choking almost every main road. Bombay's residents responded by opening up their homes and distributing food to motorists stuck in traffic and people wading through water. "They were just angels. Women and children were giving food, biscuits to people on the road and even assuring us that it was home-cooked," said G. Sawant, a manager at a private infrastructure company. Residents tied ropes across flooded roads to help people wade through waist-deep water as workers repaired communication networks and towed away abandoned cars and buses to clear the city's gridlocked highways. Train services had resumed and flights were to begin later in the day. Hundreds of Bombay residents began returning to their homes early Thursday in the worst-affected parts of the city's suburbs after spending two nights stranded in offices, buses, cars or trains. State police officials said rescue teams had begun distributing food packets and water to people marooned in villages cut off by flood waters. They were also recovering bodies floating in murky swirling water. Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI sent a telegram of condolences to Indian officials. In Vatican City, the pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano said Benedict was "deeply saddened" to learn about the deaths in Bombay — home to some of India's oldest Catholic churches — and other parts of Maharashtra. The deluge was unprecedented in Bombay, a hectic, cosmopolitan city that is home to India's financial and movie industries, as well as some of its worst poverty. Every year, Bombay comes to a halt for a day or two due to heavy monsoon rains, which pound the country between June and September and often leave hundreds dead across India. But this week's downpours left the city paralyzed. "Most places in India don't receive this kind of rainfall in a year. This is the highest ever recorded in India's history," R.V. Sharma, director of the meteorological department in Bombay, told The Associated Press. India's previous heaviest rainfall, recorded in the northeastern town of Cherrapunji — one of the rainiest places on Earth — was 33 inches on July 12, 1910, Sharma said.