The high cost of gold
Ellner, Steve
As I placed my foot on the second, it was as if I suddenly had been clubbed on the back of the neck. I was mounting the stairs inside the cassock. My chin was violently jerked to my chest and...
...The majestic splendor of Venezuela's tropical forest belies its fragility...
...I'm glad we've been told of the Trinity...
...Luzardo, who is a member of the advisory commission for the Amazonian conference to be held in Brazil in July 1992, has advocated a "World Agreement for the Protection of the Amazon...
...An even greater hazard to public health has been the extensive utilization of mercury in the gold amalgamation process...
...Known as garimpeiros, tens of thousands of them (expelled last year from the Yanomami reservations in Brazil's state of Roraima) "I call it 'Environment.'" have arrived in Venezuela's Orinoco and Amazon River basins...
...The other conclusion is more theological...
...Some Catholic missionaries see their presence in 8 November 1991:631 the area as a contribution in this regard...
...The year began with Teddy Kennedy's nephew...
...Significant quantities of mercury have been detected near the confluence of the Orinoco and its main tributary, the Caroni River, in the vicinity of beaches and water taps which serve the inhabitants of Puerto Ordaz, the region's largest city...
...YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET THOMAS v. ROE he Anita Hill vs...
...STEVE ELLNER Steve Ellner writes frequentlyfrom Venezuela forCommonweal...
...Still to be answered, however, is the costliness of environmental neglect itself...
...I've reached a couple of conclusions...
...it ended with Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill...
...I respect dignified people...
...The same breed of gold miners who wreaked havoc in northern Brazil, both to the environment and its indigenous Indians, are now doing the same in Venezuela...
...The forest there is like a paper tiger," filmmaker and national Congressman Carlos Azpurua recently told me...
...In recent years, gold miners began using high-powered pumps connected to suction hoses which spray water from nearby rivers, removing vast amounts of soil in areas which were formerly covered by trees and other forms of vegetation...
...The government's "ecological decrees" last July were hailed as a definitive solution...
...To be human is to be constantly at risk...
...it advanced to Senator Robb and the beauty queen (plus a little coke...
...Being something of an introvert, I've brooded over this and kindred incidents, trying to suck some marrow of meaning from the hard bones of humiliation...
...The common denominators are sex and the U.S...
...According to Azpurua, techniques that have been successfully employed in other parts of the world fail to grasp the Amazon's uniqueness...
...REPORT FROM VENEZUELA THE HIGH COST OF GOLD ANOTHER PART OF THE (RAIN) FOREST hile the devastation of the Brazilian Amazon has become a worldwide cause ctlbbre, little attention has as yet focused on the fate of the extensive rain forest in neighboring Venezuela...
...Especially in the church, I'm glad there are so many who are able to carry off the grand gesture...
...While the gravity of the ecological damage that is being done is widely recognized here, no single criterion exists regarding corrective steps...
...Of equal concern is the sedimentation caused by soil erosion which threatens to clog up the turbines and other equipment of the Caroni's Guri Dam, the nation's main source of hydroelectric power...
...But try as I may, dignity is not mine...
...The developed nations would contribute in other ways as well: Japan, for instance, which imports wood from the Amazon, and Germany, which exports mercury, would commit themselves to taking effective measures to control this type of commerce...
...Given the large number of foreign and Venezuelan miners who operate without legal authorization, however, optimism regarding enforcement of the measure may be wishful thinking...
...Supreme Court reverses that landmark abortion decision--a reversal made all the more likely by the elevation of Thomas to the Court...
...Mixing the two has lowered the prestige of both...
...Governments would also monitor the investments of multinational corporations...
...Everyone is convinced he is anti-Roe and that his vote on the Court will either create an anti-Roe majority or, more likely, add to one that already exists...
...OF SEVERAL MINDS David R. Carlin, Jr...
...Nor is it for those whom I know the best...
...Ludicrousness ever lurks near at hand...
...I wonder if it has soured them on sex as well...
...He went on to point out that the practice of Yanomami tribes of dividing up once their membership exceeds a certain number is testimony to their sense that nature can support only a limited population density in the region...
...I've finally decided that it is simply impossible not to play the fool, now and again...
...One possible contribution of the technologically advanced nations which Luzardo failed to mention would be to determine whether any ecologically safe means of mining compatible with the region are available...
...Even if suction pumps are replaced by the 'safer' technique of bulldozing, the tenuous organic substance of the soil will still be broken up...
...Luzardo argues that the Amazonian nations by themselves are not in a position to deal with the full array of ecological problems in the region, and that assistance from the developed nations is imperative...
...His implausible profession of open-mindedness on Roe did nothing to help his credibility when he later denied Anita Hill's charges...
...Clarence Thomas slugfest of midOctober is the first installment of the Roe v. Wade slugfest that will take place if the U.S...
...He is coeditor of The Latin American Left: From the Overthrow of Allende to Perestroika, to be published by Westview Press, 1992...
...At all events, I think Dan Quayle should resign and allow Oprah to become president of the Senate...
...I only recall that the rest of Mass was occasionally punctuated by muffled screams of laughter from the congregation...
...The plan envisions the creation of a commission whose financial resources would be derived largely from the developed nations...
...They have been joined by an equal number of native Venezuelan miners, and by multinational interests...
...I don't know about you, but when I watch TV it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to tell whether I am seeing the network news or "A Current Affair...
...I honestly have little memory of what happened after that...
...Given the erosion-prone quality of the soil, deforestation is practically an irreversible process, the end result of which is total barrenness...
...If we are created in the image and likeness of God and if laughter is somehow the hallmark of genuine human intercourse, then so it must be for God as well...
...They say that all this scandal has caused people to get turned off to politics...
...Their enactment proscribed the use of mercury in the amalgamation of alluvial gold in the open air and called for government-supervised refinement...
...An even more extreme position is embraced by Alexander Luzardo, a leading conservationist and former congressman, who is wary of all activity in the region which promotes population concentration, even "ecotourism...
...Laughter alone affirms our common humanity...
...We can't escape...
...The culprit is gold...
...One key cabinet member who has promoted gold mining concessions with Mitsubishi and other foreign interests claims that large capital is more ecologically conscious and uses more sophisticated equipment which is less damaging than that employed by small miners...
...Luzardo points to a study of the Venezuelan territory of Amazonas, undertaken by the Ministry of the Environment, which recommends limiting the area's population to two inhabitants per square kilometer...
...During his confirmation hearings, of course, Thomas denied that he had made up his mind on Roe...
...the only truly "safe" method is the traditional artisan practice of panning, which few miners are willing to revert to...
...632: Commonweal...
...Protecting the nation's water and energy supply, its forest reserves, and freshwater fish, not to mention the global repercussions, cannot be denied and will have to come before all other considerations...
...One partial solution has been the beefing up of Venezuelan presence in the border area to check the entry of garimpeiros from Brazil...
...As I lay curled in fetal splendor on the top step of the altar, I was surrounded by a dull, gong-like reverberation...
...Capuchin Father Jesus de la Torre, who toured his order's mission east of the Caroni in September, noted that "the garimpeiros thrive on the neglect of the government in the region, which has been converted into a veritable 'no-man's land.'" Azpurua and others suggest that nothing short of the complete elimination of gold mining--both legal and illegal in most of the region will spare it from desolation...
...Only later did I realize that at the moment when I let fly with the missal and stand, the priest--a tall man--was still leaning over, his lips an inch or so away from the altar, whispering cabalistically to himself...
...But nobody believed him: not his enemies and not his friends...
...My chin was violently jerked to my chest and then to my knees...
...In an interview in September, Luzardo told me "the system of national parks is designed to protect nature, not to facilitate the arrival of outsiders...
...DONALD HAYNES Donald Haynes, a cultural historian, educational consultant, and writer for dramatic television, lives in the cornfields of New Carlisle, Indiana...
...The heavy book and stand flew from my hands...
...The Amazonian nations would constitute 50 percent of the voting power.This representational balance was designed to calm South American fears that the "internationalization of the Amazon" would infringe upon national sovereignty...
...Aristotle's "thought of thought" would be singularly lonesome...
...The prospect is forcing the government to reconsider its plans for expanding the complex...
...Without it, an ecological disaster is likely...
...With time, the pits created become mud holes which serve as breeding grounds for malaria-infested mosquitoes...
...Senate...
...Such help--which should go beyond the limited success of the "debt-for-nature swaps" in which thirdworld debts are condoned--is the responsibility of all nations because of the global implications of the area's ecology...
...The book took him just above the back of his knees, driving him forward with such force that the top of his head hit the tabernacle flush on...
...Azpurua and others call for miniprojects--small-scale tourism, the construction of small hydroelectric dams, and the collection of medicinal herbs--as viable and acceptable alternatives to help sustain the region's population...
...Unsafe levels of mercury, up to 3.414 micrograms per kilo, have been detected in the livers of several species of commonly consumed fish, although the contamination content in their muscles is still considered below the danger level...
...It is possible in the last analysis that thousands of mining jobs and the potential increase to the nation's gold reserves will have to be sacrificed because the other tradeoffs are too high...
Vol. 118 • November 1991 • No. 19
