Earth Island Journal articles from March 2002

Earth Island Journal archives from March 2002

The Scotchgard cover-up. (Dear Journal).
March 22, 2002... The Scotchgard article (Winter 2001-2) was great! Last summer, I had some employees at the 3M PFOS plant in Alabama contact me. The info I got correlated with the health problems showing up in the first generation offspring. However, it also...

About that cover. (Dear Journal).
March 22, 2002... I have found EIJ the most informative environmental journal I've ever read and I've been reading it for years. I've also been very impressed with your recent covers -- outstanding and artistic. However, what happened to the last Winter...

Ames item off the mark. (Dear Journal).
March 22, 2002... In the "Ebb & Flow" column of the Winter 2001-2 Earth Island Journal, you reported that NASA's Ames Research Center has proposed combating global warming by moving the Earth further from the Sun. This item was culled from an article in the...

Responding to terrorism with war. (Dear Journal).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... You say it is difficult to dissent with what the US government does right now backed by patriotic support of the majority. You say it is then inevitable that millions in Afghanistan would certainly die from starvation over the winter. It is...

Bushwhacking the Enviros. (Editorial).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Within hours of the apocalyptic attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, George W. Bush commandeered the airwaves and informed the nation that the US was attacked "because we are a beacon of freedom and prosperity." Fearing that...

Go with the flow. (Ebb & Flow).(tidal power)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... US -- President John F. Kennedy believed that tapping the ocean's tidal energy at Passamaquoddy Bay near the US-Canadian border would prove "one of the most astonishing and beneficial enterprises undertaken by the people of the US." Kennedy...

Coffee from a test tube. (Ebb & Flow).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... UK -- Because coffee beans ripen at different times, they must be carefully selected and hand-picked. Now, Integrated Coffee Technologies Inc. (ITCI) is genetically engineering coffee plants that will all ripen at the same time when they are...

World's greenest hotel? (Ebb & Flow).(The Victoria Hotel)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... GERMANY -- The Victoria Hotel in Freiburg has become "the world's first zero-emission hotel." Each room is equipped with energy-saving lamps, mini-refrigerators and insulated windows. Roof-top solar-electric panels light the hotel's 63 rooms....

The final auto pile-up. (Ebb & Flow).(biodegradable auto parts)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... UK -- "Bury Your Car!" That rallying cry from the '70s is making a comeback. The University of Warwick's Manufacturing Group has incorporated elephant grass as a main ingredient in biodegradable plastic auto parts. Tomorrow's cars may no longer...

A brief history of humanity. (Ebb & Flow).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... GERMANY -- In an interview with Focus magazine, scientist and author Stephen Hawking warned that because "computers double their performance every month... the danger is real that [computer] intelligence will develop and take over the world."...

Monks and toads beat navy. (Ebb & Flow).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... US -- The majestic stretch of California coast known as Big Sur is famed for its sweep and serenity. It is the last place you would expect the US Navy would want to bomb. In fact, Navy jets were poised to start dive-bombing the Santa Lucia...

Yachts a good idea. (Ebb & Flow).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... US -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a new idea for gleaning information on the state of the Earth's oceans. They have joined forces with the International SeaKeepers Society [www.seakeepers. coral, an exclusive...

Down-to-earth energy. (Ebb & Flow).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... US -- The nation's appetite for energy is expected to swell by 32 percent over the next 20 years. During this period, 27 percent of the country's aging, polluting powerplants will be facing retirement. Since more than 30 percent of energy is...

Step in the right direction. (Ebb & Flow).(clean energy business park)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... US -- New York state is building the country's first "clean-energy" business park. The 21,000 square-foot Saratoga Technology Energy Park (STEP) building will be constructed on a 280-acre site near Albany. New York Governor George Pataki...

The prophet motive. (Ebb & Flow).(Islamic banking)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... PAKISTAN -- Both the Bible and the Koran condemn the practice of usury. Putting the Prophet over profit, Pakistan's highest court: has ruled that charging interest on money is a violation of Islamic law. Pakistan has now adopted an...

Loggers lose: a rainforest lives. (Ebb & Flow).(environmental protection law)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... PERU -- A vast expanse of old-growth rainforest that was to have fallen under the logger's ax has been preserved forever as Peru's newest national park, Parque Nacional Cordillera Azul. Scientists who surveyed the new sanctuary have discovered...

Reactors kill. (Eco-Mole).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... In a little-noted "correction" published in the July 30, 2001 Federal Register, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) confirmed that relicensing aging US reactors to operate for another 20 years would release 14,800 person-rems of radiation...

Barricked alive? (Eco-Mole).(investigation of Barrick Gold Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... In November 2000, the London Observer reported that Kahama Mining, a subsidiary of the Canadian multinational Barrick Gold Corp., was involved in the 1996 deaths of 52 mine workers in Bulyanhulu, Tanzania. In July 2001, Barrick sued the...

Bush pooh-poohs the poor. (Eco-Mole).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The Group of Eight meeting in Genoa, Italy last July floated a plan to help 1 billion of the world's poorest people obtain clean electricity from solar, wind and tidal energy. The proposal was the work of a multinational G-8 task force of...

Rifkin has a beef. (Eco-Mole).(author Jeremy Rifkin)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Author Jeremy Rifkin's invitation to address the College of Southern Idaho on the topic of genetic engineering was brusquely withdrawn when cattle and dairy interests realized that Rifkin was the author of Beyond Beef, a book critical of cattle...

Bush & Bin Laden, Inc.? (Eco-Mole).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Oil and power make for strange bedfellows. In June 1977, George W Bush started his first drilling company, Arbusto Energy, with a $50,000 investment from Houston businessman James R. Bath. Bath, along with Bush, had been suspended from the...

Rent-an-army. (Eco-Mole).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Squall magazine [www.squall.co.uk] reports that Britain's Ministry of Defense has hired a private firm to supply "corporately employed soldiers" to serve beside regular UK troops. "The soldiers," Squall notes, "will owe allegiance only to their...

Rent-an-army II. (Eco-Mole).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The day after a plane carrying Baptist missionaries was shot down by Peruvian jets on a drug interdiction mission directed by the CIA, ABC News reported that the US pilots directing the Peruvian fighters had been "hired by the CIA from...

Mole nip. (Eco-Mole).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... To the Smithsonian Institution for inking a 10-year deal to place a McDonald's in the Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small has already named the transportation exhibit hall after General Motors (in exchange for $10...

Mole kiss. (Eco-Mole).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... To Peter Werbe [www.peterwerbe. com], one of the broadcast media's rarest species -- a progressive radio talk show host. Werbe has been pushing the radical message for 30 years. His award-winning "Nightcall" program broadcasts to 14 US cities...

Mole kiss to representative Barbara Lee. (Eco-Mole).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... To Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), for raising a lone, brave voice for peace, conscience and the US Constitution.

Prairies preserved. (Positive Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The first 360-acre tract of Minnesota's new Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge was purchased last August by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The reserve -- intended to expand to 77,000 acres -- will preserve some of...

Rah, RA! Sun-stoked ferries. (Positive Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Last spring, a new tourist attraction began plying the waters of the Broads wetlands in eastern England -- the RA, a 30-foot-long solar-powered ferry named after the Egyptian sun god. "We felt it was a futuristic and fitting way of opening up...

Windmills in the sea. (Positive Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... British Energy Minister Peter Hain has announced a 1.6 billion [pounds sterling] ($2.4 billion) plan to construct 18 offshore wind farms with 540 3-MW turbines off the west coast of England and Wales. The British Wind Energy Association...

A Namibia-South Africa park. (Positive Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The particularly biodiverse region between South Africa's Northern Cape province and the town of Hobas in Namibia has been designated a trans-border conservation park. The new 5,086-square-mile park will occupy an area slightly larger than the...

Rabbis for human rights. (Positive Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Rabbi Arik Ascherman claims that his commitment to justice has carried him "from protest to resistance." Ascherman, the director of Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) [www.rhr.israel.net] has placed his body in front of Israeli bulldozers to stop...

Iran hails green action. (Positive Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Last June, Iranian President Seyed Mohammad Khatami offered the inaugural speech at the International Seminar on Environment, Religion and Culture, an event co-sponsored with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). President Khatami...

`Child-safe' chocolates. (Positive Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) has called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish a voluntary labeling system to indicate which brands of chocolate were produced without the use of child labor (HR 2330). Since the price of cocoa fell in...

Dolphins freed from OK corral. (Positive Notes).(show at Oklahoma City Zoo)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The Captive Dolphin Awareness Campaign (CDAC) has succeeded in closing the dolphin show at Oklahoma City Zoo. After months of protests, letter writing, Freedom of Information Act filings and monthly speeches before the zoo's governing trust,...

Bare-breasted poet. (Positive Notes).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... In Albion, California, a topless poet known as "La Tigresa" has been defending the forests by clinging to the running boards of logging trucks while chanting poetry and dancing to the beat of tribal drumming [www.earthfilms.org]. La Tigresa has...

Playing footsie. (Positive Notes).(London, UK, Financial Times Stock Exchange)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... London's Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE, pronounced "footsie") has launched a set of ethical stock indices known as "FTSE 4 Good." One hundred select companies will be listed on the exchange. According to FTSE's Helen Humphries, "A...

The Tomales Bay Institute. (Making waves: Earth Island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The Tomales Bay Institute, one of three new Earth Island projects adopted last October, has a mission to resurrect the idea of the "commons" in American public life so that it becomes equal to the market in terms of media reporting and public...

The world sustainability hearings. (Making waves: Earth Island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The World Sustainability Hearings project [see advertisement on page 39] is organizing a parallel event to the United Nations' Rio+10 Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in South Africa, September 2002, in collaboration with major...

City talk. (Making waves: Earth Island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... City Talk organizes debates on topical issues in sustainable development through meetings, print and broadcast media, and the Internet [see article on page 12]. Debates are both local and international, introducing voices from the outside to...

Global Service Corps. (Making waves: Earth Island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Global Service Corps is a founding member of Bay Area International Development Organizations (BAIDO), a network of 45 member organizations involving thousands of people in northern California and touching the lives of millions in developing...

Climate solutions. (Making waves: earth island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Climate Solutions co-hosted a press conference on November 16 with Washington Governor Gary Locke to publcize their report, "Poised for Profit: How Clean Energy Can Power the Next High-Tech Job Surge in the Northwest." The report, and comments...

Anne Brower, Dave Brower's wife, companion and collaborator, died at home after a long illness on November 14, at the age of 88. (Making waves: earth island in the news).(Obituary)
March 22, 2002... Anne Brower, Dave Brower's wife, companion and collaborator, died at home after a long illness on November 14, at the age of 88. With Anne's passing, the Eli community has lost another giant. Our prayers are with the Brower family who have lost...

Mangrove action project. (Making waves: earth island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Mangrove Action Project's (MAP) 2001 International Children's Art and Poetry Calendar is now available. MAP has created this colorful work in celebration of its 10th anniversary. The calendar features the art and poetry of children from 14...

Grassroots Globalization Network. (Making waves: earth island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Grassroots Globalization Network (GGN) held an open forum on California's North Coast in November 2001 to promote an independent business alliance. GGN also recently published the article "Renowned US Economists Denounce Corporate-led...

WildFutures. (Makine waves: earth island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... WildFutures (formerly The Wildlife Net work) has released a new film, On Nature's Terms: Predators and People Co-existing in Harmony. Produced by awardwinning filmmaker John de Graaf, the film documents the uplifting story of how ordinary...

Earth Island Journal. (Making waves: earth island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Earth Island Journal was nominated for the UTNE Reader's Alternative Press Award in the "Best Scientific and Environmental Reporting" category -- an award it previously won two years in a row. In September, the Orlo Foundation conducted a...

David Brower has been honored with a memorial sculpture designed by internationally acclaimed Finnish-American sculptor Eino [www.eino.org]. (Making waves: earth island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... David Brower has been honored with a memorial sculpture designed by internationally acclaimed Finnish-American sculptor Eino [www.eino.org]. Entitled "Spaceship Earth," the 15-foot-diameter, blue quartzite sphere will weigh approximately...

Seeking inspiration? (Making waves: earth island in the news).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Seeking Inspiration? Have a glance at www.wildnesswithin.com, an elegant collection of enviromental essays, photos and news, compiled by Bob Brower in honor of his dad, Dave.

Fuel-economy falsehoods. (Bluewater Network).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... High gasoline prices, mounting evidence of global warming and national security concerns about US dependence on foreign oil have led consumers and policymakers to take a renewed interest in vehicle fuel economy. The situation is deeply...

Condolences. (Bluewater Network).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The staff of Bluewater Network wishes to offer our heartfelt condolences to all who have been affected by the tragedies of September 11th and their aftermath. These events have shifted the nation's priorities to important and immediate...

The luxury of long-term thinking. (Bluewater Network).(environmental protection)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... For those of us who fight daily for the protection of the planet from the ravages of pollution and other environmental ills, the September 11 terrorist attacks landed a psychological body blow. The attacks changed our worldview, our work and...

Bluewater network milestones. (Bluewater Network).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The shadow of the September 11 terrorist attacks follows us all into the New Year. Yet despite the horror of those events, Bluewater Network can mark 2001 as another year of progress. Bluewater has succeeded in increasing people's awareness of...

Dolphin-deadly tuna surfaces in Spain. (International Marine Mammal Project).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Last September, Brenda Killian, Executive Director of the Earth Island Institute's (EII's) International Dolphin-Safe Monitoring Program and Dr. Paolo Bray, the program's European coordinator, flew to Vigo, Spain to attend the European Tuna...

Quileute Tribe. (International Marine Mammal Project).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... The Quileute Tribe is a small, federally recognized nation of 800 enrolled members, I whose 900 square mites of ancestral Lands include the Pacific Slopes of the Olympic Peninsula and the watersheds of the Sol Doc, Bogachiel, Calawah and Dickey...

Orcas in danger. (International Marine Mammal).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- The name and the familiar black-and-white image of the orca, the "killer whale," is omnipresent in this town. There is the Orca Inn, Orca Electric and even the Orca volleyball team. Sadly, the whale that inspires people...

Thursday's child sails for whales. (International Marine Mammal).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... Although I missed the record by about a day, I did make it to Japan on this, my third attempt to break the solo sailing record of 34 days, six hours from San Francisco to Tokyo, arriving in Misake, Japan on June 4, 2001 aboard my 60-foot ocean...

Africans talk about sustainability. (City Talk).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... In 2001, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rewarded the East African country of Uganda with a debt-relief package of $90 million -- a two-thirds reduction of the country's annual debt repayment. Uganda was granted this...

Sustainable agriculture in Tanzania. (Global Service Corps).
March 22, 2002... Tanzania is a long way from California -- geographically, culturally, climatically and agriculturally. This is impossible to forget as a Global Service Corps (GSC) volunteer in Tanzania. Especially when your morning commute suddenly is...

Sweden ranked "greenest". (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... SWITZERLAND -- The Swiss-based World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Canadian International Development Research Center's joint-report, "The Well-being of Nations," placed Sweden at the top of 180 countries graded on the basis of wealth,...

The kids are not all right. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... BELGIUM -- Researchers at the University of Liege believe that they have solved the mystery of "precocious puberty" that has caused immigrant girls from India and Colombia to start developing breasts at the age of eight and to begin...

Another nuclear near-miss. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... UK -- A nuclear disaster was narrowly avoided Last September when 24 radioactive fuel rods felt from a crane and crashed onto the concrete floor of the Chapelcross nuclear reactor complex near Annan. Chapelcross, which is run by the state-owned...

The med goes whale-friendly. (Europe).(Mediterranean Sea)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... ITALY -- Italy, France and Monaco have approved the creation of an 84,000-square km (32,400-square mile) whale sanctuary in the Mediterranean -- the first such treaty in the northern hemisphere to include international waters. Creation of the...

WTO Hoaxer applauded. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... FINLAND -- Last August, Hank Hardy Unruh took the stage at the "Textiles of the Future" conference in Tampere and railed against Mahatma Gandhi and Abe Lincoln. The 150 delegates, believing the speaker to be an official representative of the...

Roddick rocks the shop. (Europe).(Anita Roddick)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... UK -- Body Shop Founder Anita Roddick once said that she would sooner "slit her wrists" than become part of corporate Britain. Body Shop stockholders must have been ready to hand Roddick a razor after she strode to the podium at the Edinburgh...

Carbon storage in tree trunks. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... UK -- With the support of pop stars Stella McCartney, Atomic Kitten, the Pet Shop Boys and other British celebrities, Forest Futures has become, in the words of Green Futures magazine, "a veritable Heineken of the green movement." People are...

Tourism's a draining experience. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... SPAIN -- Water tables are falling worldwide and one of the biggest drains is tourism. A tourist visiting Spain soaks up 880 liters (232.5 gallons) a day, more than three times the amount used by a local resident. The UN Food and Agriculture...

Renewables sprout in Brussels. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... BELGIUM -- The European Parliament has approved a law requiring member nations to double the amount of renewable energy produced in the European Union by 2020. Even the German chemical industry association, VCI, has called on the US to abide by...

Gulag for scientists. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... RUSSIA -- Dr. Yuri Bandazhevsky discovered the hard way that it isn't safe to investigate radiological contamination. Bandazhevsky, the director of the Gomel Medical Institute in Belarus, reported finding high levels of Cesium-137 contamination...

Taking a back seat to Europe. (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... SWEDEN -- Portland, Oregon is celebrated as an eco-friendly town, with six percent of commuters using mass transit, but this pates to insignificance compared with European cities. In Stockholm, 70 percent of peak hour trips are on public...

Don't bogart that reef. (Europe).(coral reefs)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... UK -- Coral reefs are found in 101 countries and territories, but they occupy less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the world's ocean territory. According to the United Nations Environment Programme's World Atlas of Coral Reefs [www.unep.org;...

Bush to reefs: "drop dead". (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... SCOTLAND -- Glasgow University Marine Biologist Rupert Ormand warns that the world's coral reefs cannot survive the onslaught of global warming triggered by the burning of fossil fuels. "It is hard to avoid the conclusion that most coral in...

Green bombs set for future? (Europe).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... UK -- NATO could one day be firing "green bombs" that will still kill people but won't release toxic chemical byproducts. Munich University Chemistry Professor Thomas Klaptoke claims that a proper mix of explosive ingredients will "produce...

Chairman Murdock strikes a deal. (Asia).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... CHINA -- News Corp. media mogul Rupert Murdock has finally attained his long-sought goal of extending his communications empire to China. Murdoch's Star TV has been granted permission to transmit to cable viewers in "a restricted area in...

Agent Orange victims. (Asia).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... VIETNAM -- During the Vietnam War, the Pentagon sprayed 19 million gallons of Agent Orange herbicide over 3.6 million acres of Vietnam (not to mention Laos and Cambodia). The spraying of the dioxin-laced defoliant went on for nine years. Now,...

Buy a frame, doom an ape. (Asia).(logging of rain forest)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... INDONESIA -- Powerful syndicates are illegally cutting ramin trees in Kalimantan's Tanjung Puting National Park to feed the global demand for blinds, picture frames and moldings. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telapak...

Xena's Genephobia. (Asia).(genetic engineering)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... NEW ZEALAND (AOTEAROA) -- Last September, a crowd of 10,000 marched down the main street of Auckland to Aotea Square in a bitter cold downpour to protest genetic engineering (GE). Outfitted with banners, costumes and hundreds of colorful...

Oil in a day's work. (Asia).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... INDIA -- The Kerata University womens' college has replaced coke machines with stalls selling ilaneer (coconut water). The move was undertaken to boost local agriculture and give the boot to globalization. Meanwhile, the Express News Service...

Fighting dams with flashlights. (Asia).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... INDIA -- The Gujarat government is trying to force villages to abandon farmlands doomed to be flooded by the Narmada dam. When the villagers refused to leave, the government switched off their electricity. The village children who work in the...

Villagers save "mother forest". (Asia).(Dhani Forest)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... INDIA -- By 1987, the Dhani Forest in southwest Orissa State had been nearly destroyed by logging and cattle grazing, but the elders of five local villages along the Bay of Bengal decided to join forces to save the "Mother Forest." More than...

Renewable energy windfalls. (Asia).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... JAPAN -- The power and steel company NKK reports that orders for windpower plants increased by more than 350 percent in 2001, representing a combined output of nearly 49 MW. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry predicts these...

Add this to the bill of rights. (Asia).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... INDIA -- Last August, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the right to food was a legitimate human right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to Life. With millions of Indians facing starvation, the government...

The not-so-fertile crescent. (Middle East).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... IRAQ -- After the end of the Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein called for a massive construction project to destroy the culture of the rebellious Marsh Arab society by draining the marshlands of southern Iraq. This vast engineering...

New ozone-eating chemicals. (Africa).(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... NAIROBI -- Last September, as the Antarctic ozone hole over the South Pole expanded to expose more than 17 million square miles (about the size of North America) the UN Environment Programme [www.unep.org] issued some good news and some bad...

United against privatization. (Africa).(union members protest privatization)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2002... BURKINA FASO -- Union workers poured into the streets of Ouagadougou last August to protest government plans to privatize 13 public companies. "We've seen the consequences of the first privatizations, which brought about sorrow, misery and...