Beijing 2008 : rings made of ivory
On 16th July, 2008 in Geneva, three weeks before the opening of the Olympic Games, China was given authorization to act as a commercial licensed partner within the legal elephant ivory traffic. Thus, the biggest black market for ivory in the world will consolidate its position. Thousands of ivory retailers throughout China can hold their heads up high as they cooly welcomed the tourists of olympic games. Within a couple of months according to the CITES program (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), the price of 108 t of ivory stocks auctionned by South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe is expected to increase after China’s accreditation, Japan being till now the only legal candidate. As a matter of fact, little legal ivory is sufficient to launder a lot of illicit ivory and there is no doubt the price of ivory will skyrocket after China’s entry into ivory stock exchange.
Round Robin # 2 After the “old ploughs” from Carhaix, don’t miss the old railway line sleepers from Carnac
Round Robin n°2
The prehistoric metropolitan area of Brittany is being invaded by the recycling of dangerous wastes, breaking the law June 2nd 2003 which prohibits the reuse of creosote saturated railway line sleepers in the public domain. In good weather conditions, one can smell the odour of tar rising from fences and boarders, from street flower boxes, sleepers-menhirs and stairs at the Césarine park. Carnac is not the only town in Brittany or in France to use end of life railway sleepers prescribed by outlaw landscape gardeners but in Carnac it appears to be a festival.
Round Robin # 1 A typical French scandal: breaking up in Bangladesh
Three French ship owners are sending to Chittagong (Bangladesh) vessels containing asbestos and other dangerous materials. The Descartes was supposedly sold by Gaz de France for operation to a Taiwanese company TMT, in fact after Marseille the Descartes stayed in a Chinese port for a couple of months before arriving in Bangladesh on July19th 2008; her only activity was to have her name changed twice. Other vessels include the Muadi a crude oil tanker which belonged to the oil company Perenco and the Serepca 1 also a crude oil tanker owned by a subsidiary of Total. The Edouard LD owned by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and Gaz de France was sold “for operation” to Dynacom, a Greek ship owner, with the same fate of demolition in view. In spite of the huge profits (750 $ per ton for vessels at the end of their lives to 1,000 $ per ton for the vessels containing stainless steel or non ferrous metals like the Descartes sold for 14 millions dollars), the French and European ship owners are making no efforts to improve the working conditions of Bangladeshi workers.
July 22 nd, 2008
