Buzz of the Summer Gone

Living in Corsica, one thing I clearly noticed this Summer - the first Summer I have spent on my grandma's property up in the mountains in approx. 25 years - is the scarce number of pollinators compared to 25 years ago. There was no scientific study on my part; I just pitched my remembrance of those bygone Summers vs. 2016, as flawed an indicator as this might be. As a child and teen coming to the island for the Summer holiday with my family, we would come across a healthy number of bees, wasps, bumble bees, butterflies and other winged creatures in our surroundings, without looking for them. The place was literally buzzing!

Sometimes you would get half a dozen wasps joining us for lunch (a hazardous gatecrashing that would meet its comeuppance, let us it be known!), and you had pollinators and all means of flying insects buzzing around us when we were relaxing on the terrace. Admittedly we had natural pollinator magnets close by, namely a huge bougainvillea and a lush peach tree (now both gone), but even if you ventured outside of the confines of grandma's property, you would come across pollinators without looking for them.

Summer 2016, my first Summer back in the old family holiday house after about 25 years, I was really able to gauge the stark difference in population numbers. What struck me most was the scarcity of honey bees - and alarmingly every single one of them I spotted on the terrace (a paltry dozen in the space of four months), were either dead or dying! Night-time wasn't faring better, as the moths I came across were few and far between compared to 25 years ago! The moths were also very small (the length of a thumbnail) for the vast majority (90%), and rather bland in colour (plain taupe or light grey) and insignificant in looks. What happened to those flamboyant, geometrical moths of my childhood?

WHY THE DECLINE?

Pollinators worldwide are in serious trouble, and I am able to witness it firsthand on my tiny isle without any scientific measurement systems. Pesticides, insecticides (including the notorious neonicotinoids), herbicides and other agribusiness by-products from intensive farming are directly responsible for pollinator decline. In addition to pollution, you have other factors like degraded natural habitats of meadows, prairies, pastures and marshes, the systematic mowing of road verges - underrated buffer zones that act like mini-ecosystems and whose wildflowers (if any left) play a role in feeding pollinators. In the last 25 years, the earth population has increased by 2 billion people, and the galloping demographics coupled to our consumerist ways are tipping the earth's ecology to the point of no return.

"This much is clear: we ignore bees at our own peril. What happens to them will eventually happen to us." - Joel Sartore, photographer, National Geographic

Here in Corsica, the local environmental agencies implement the insecticide-spraying of our resort towns, shorelines and wetlands a couple of times every Summer, late afternoon, supposedly to kill off mosquitoes, but the controversial insecticides are harmful to bees, moths and butterflies. Of course the agencies will not admit to it, while the islanders tend not to question the controversial ecological agenda that is being played out on different levels by the government and corporate interests, leaving our wildlife at the mercy of uncertainty and unsafety.

Queen Rusty-patched Bumble Bee, Madison, Wisconsin by Clay Bolt Nature Photography

THE CASE FOR THE RUSTY-PATCHED BUMBLE BEE

Across the Atlantic, award-winning natural history and conservation photographer Clay Bolt - a bee enthusiast - took matters in his own hands when he found out about the near-disappearance of the rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis), a native northeastern bumble bee whose very existence, on top of the dangers listed in our above section, has been further compromised by commercially-reared bees imported from Europe (and used for the pollination of greenhouse crops) which infected the rusty-patched bumble bee with fungal pathogens when coming into contact. The sharp decline of the bumble bee is staggering: 90% of its historic range since the mid-1990s!

Female Worker, Rusty-patched Bumble Bee, Madison, Wisconsin by ibid.

Clay set out to document the fate of the rusty-patched bumble bee, not only by way of investigation but also by raising awareness. He joined forces with The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation on their petition to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and Environmental Protection Agency in order to save the bumble bee, first by getting it listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Meanwhile his 19-minute documentary, A Ghost in the Making: Searching for the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee, is reaping nationwide and international recognition, having been shortlisted by four film festivals. The best award it garnered though was for the USFWS to finally agree (3 years 8 months after the petition was launched) to propose ESA protection to the rusty-patched!

The Xerces Society

"Pollinators are critical components of our environment and essential to our food security—providing the indispensable service of pollination to more than 85 percent of flowering plants and contributing to one in three bites of the food that we eat. Bumble bees are among the most widely recognized and well understood group of native pollinators in North America and contribute to the pollination of food crops such as squash, melon, blueberry, cranberry, clover, greenhouse tomato and greenhouse pepper, as well as numerous wildflowers." - The Xerces Society

FULL-BLOWN MECHANICALLY-CONTROLLED DARWINISM?

Some might argue that federal protection is too little too late, and that the USFWS and EPA are part of the problem they created in the first place - I agree. On his journey, Clay came to question whether saving one species rather than another made any sense. You cannot just save the one species by disregarding the wider environment because all species are interconnected. If one species is endangered, it is as a result of imbalance in the environment that is also impacting other species. Only a holistic approach can save the world, yet at this point we are too far gone down the path of ecological destruction for a holistic approach to be made possible. We humans are the problem to the decline and disappearance of fauna (and flora).

Male Rusty-patched Bumble Bee resting on Joe Pye Weed, Madison, Wisconsin by ibid.

So what can be done when our world has become what I would describe as full-blown mechanically-controlled Darwinism? How do we disentangle our economic models from the exploitation of nature's resources? How do we reverse the changes and grant nature its power back? If we cannot stop the process, does it mean we should just give up? No. What we can do is salvage what we can, review our consumer habits in order to slow down the process that way. Sounds lackadaisy but indeed all we are left with is damage control. Individually we can take matters in our own hands like Clay did, and it is up to us how we choose to do it. We can, for instance, make our garden, terrace or balcony pollinator-friendly. Go organic and encourage others to do so, shun pesticides and anything GMO-based. 

A Ghost In The Making: Searching for the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee 
from Day's Edge Productions on Vimeo.
Further Resources:

• Honey, Please Bee Lovely! by La Baguette Magique
• Monsanto: Deadly by Name, Evil by Nature by ibid.
• The Raw Deal by ibid.
• Clay Bolt Nature Photography and his bee-specific website, Beautiful North American Bees
• #RustyPatched Bumble Bee by A Ghost in the Making: Searching for the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee
• Bumble Bees: Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee (Bombus affinis) by The Xerces Society
• Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee Threatened with Extinction by ibid.
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes ESA Protection for the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee by ibid.
• The Rusty-Patched Bumbled Bee: The Story of a Declining Pollinator by ibid.
• Fact Sheet: The Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee by USFWS

Mankind, The Unkind

2016 might be the Year of the Monkey according to the Chinese astrological calendar, there is still a lot of monkey business going on - out of sight, out of mind - that is making life for our smart cousins, the Primates, Hell. The one positive is that the astrological year has brought the monkey plea to the fore of the wildlife conservation agenda. Meanwhile a picture like this one is almost impossible to look at! It summons anger, resentment and powerlessness in me, and you are bound to feel the same:

PETA

This innocent little monkey sat forlornly in a padlocked cage, has likely been snatched out of his wild habitat by unscrupulous wildlife dealers, and this reality signs up the very downfall of Mankind: our flawed propensity for control of the natural environment, stealing it and locking it away, and our self-serving endeavours that put Man in the centre of the equation, using wildlife as a resource to meet our needs: entertainment (zoos, circuses and exotic pet trade), fashion (fur), medical science (testing labs), not to mention sustenance (meat) and sport (trophy hunting, poaching).

The 'Man' part of the noun 'Mankind' has the propensity to be the 'Kind' part that it is attached to. Kind to themselves, others, animals and the world at large. We truly have this kindness in us. We have a good heart at heart. Then a flurry of externals come to play, notwithstanding our lifestyle choices that command implicitly or complicitly the unrelenting attack on the natural environment. Here is the catch though: all is interrelated within the macrocosm and microcosm of life:

"Man has little chance to stop being a torturer for man so long as he will continue to practice on the animal his job as executioner." - Marguerite Yourcenar

P.S: You can do your bit! Help monkeys by hurting a bottom line, that of Air France, which is one of the last major airlines in the world to still transport primates to labs and other dens of death! Sign PETA's petition and boycott Air France until they stop being a shameful part of the deadly trade!

P.P.S:  Be a savvy consumer! PETA has issued a comprehensive database on cruelty-free companies.

Inspire Aspire - Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough is a living legend. He harks back from the world of nature conservation and stands at the forefront of the collective psyche, in his home country and overseas! He is one of those rare and endearing national treasures whom we wish would be bestowed the gift of immortality by a nature faerie!

Sir David Attenborough is 90 years young! (pict source)

His passion for the natural world is infectious and we can only bow to his skill and savoir-faire in delving right into the depth of his knowledge base to bring out the right dosage of scientific knowledge which he then effortlessly distills out like with a pipette, translated in plain English to a broad and loyal TV audience, in long wondrous sentences that all to themselves have educated at least a couple of generations of kids outside of school. Sir David has made a resounding success out of his fascinating science-laced story-telling set against high-quality visuals and that makes him, in my mind, the best nature documentary broadcaster ever!

"Your lifelong service has created the most extraordinary educational legacy." - UK Prime Minister David Cameron to Sir David Attenborough, BBC One's Attenborough at 90

I have never come across one single piece of criticism towards the gentleman and that proves something. He is respected in his circles and beyond. He is an institution of fascinating science dissemination all to himself and a pillar of society who thrives by introducing us to nature with a childlike twinkle of awe in the eye.

Smart and passionate about nature! (pict source)

A plethora of members of the wild order have been named after him, as a sign of recognition and honour for his invaluable contribution to wildlife. This includes a dragonfly from Madagascar, and also a wingless beetle, a tiny spider, an ancient pygmy locust, a ghost shrimp, plesiosaurs (prehistoric creatures), a pitcher plant, a daisy, and the Sirdavidia genus! And as further homage to his worthwhile contribution to the United Kingdom, he was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in 1985. The high number of awards and honorary degrees he has 'collected' along the years matches the uniqueness of the man.

What makes Sir David so popular has to do with his unique way in sharing his knowledge, and in his friendly persona, his humility, courtesy, go-getter attitude and strong work ethics, surrounded by a stellar team of audio-visual colleagues from the BBC  and elsewhere who excel in the art of film documentary of a high calibre à la National Geographic - although it could be that National Geographic got inspired by Team David in the first place...

David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies 3D series, Episode 1: The First to Fly

This is no fly-on-the-wall haphazard camera phone moment. You are talking the Deluxe package of well-researched, well-documented, budgeted high-end productions that take weeks of preparation and filming in often remote areas of the world, in difficult weather conditions. Yet the passion of every member of the crew for the natural world permeates every second of an Attenborough documentary. It is one Heaven of an experience! The end result is a reward to their hard work: superb cinematographic views, captivating story-telling through Sir David's unmissable voice-overs, seamless montage, mastering of light and shade to their best effect, the crisp close-ups captured in their minutiae, the patient time lapses. All fuse together into a finished article of compelling delight to watch and behold!
 
Let us note in passing a few of Sir David's royal credentials. First off, he shares the same birthday year as the Queen (1926), which makes him a cool 90 years young! Like 'Lisbeth', he is not about to retire! Thus don't let his age faze you for Sir David is not your average senior citizen! He's a picture of health and still clocks more miles in a year than the average person half his age would in their lifetime. Globe-trotting the world for wildlife's sake is second nature to him.


Meanwhile Sir David's anti-celebrity status makes him instantly loveable as an ordinary man who just happens to have an extraordinary life and who's old enough to be your grandad. Except this one is still hustling, having fun for a living! His positive attitude and adventurous inclination have inspired anyone with a case of wanderlust to chase the dream rather than stay stuck in the safety of some hapless job. Not everyone will make the journey though because not everyone is cut from the Attenborough cloth. And if David wasn't enough, think about his brothers' contribution to society, actor, film director and producer Richard and motor industry executive John.

Sir David has wide knowledge and wisdom; he cultivates simplicity and honesty like we would garden herbs - daintily. He is no 'look-at-me' show-off. There is no ambiguity as to where he stands: nature is the star of his show, not him. It does help that he has the physical elegance to carry this through and his poised voice is instantly recognisable: he has the clear-cut elocution, the well-balanced pitch and warm tone of a classically-trained actor.

The famed naturalist has had a profound impact on nature lovers like myself. He has turned the combined celebration of biology, ecology, conservation and filmography into an art form with a strong pertinent message. He cultivates a sense of humour but there is no pathos in his speech when, say, a lion kills a wildebeest because he understands nature: life out there revolves around the battle of the fittest.

In good company, with a black noddy. (pict source)

An enjoyable character and an incurable optimist, he casts nonetheless a critical eye on the way man has been treating the planet. He brings to our attention that since he's started working, the Earth population has trebled in size, resulting in exponentional land encroachment and loss of natural habitat. As human demography is exploding, wildlife will suffer even more severe losses.

This is a man who goes beyond the format of traditional wildlife documentaries like only a well-travelled, curious, original adventurer of his calibre would. Education and creativity go hand in hand. He pushes the boundaries of curiosity and nature fascination always. For instance, The Amber Time Machine (2004), part of the Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal Voyages series, explores the identity of creatures trapped in amber.

His latest documentary to date, Life That Glows takes us on a journey through bioluminescence, light created by living things. He also launched David Attenborough's Great Barrier Reef, an interactive journey.

Two giants! Sir David Attenborough 'rubbing shoulders' with an elephant seal bull. (pict source)

In cleverly bringing together pertinent scientific knowledge, the latest technological prowess, captivating story-telling combined with those spicy anecdotes of the natural world, not to mention an upbeat and warm personality, Sir David has made a success out of nature reporting and created by the same token a captive audience that spans wide and far. From the Royal echelons down to the inner cities, the nature presenter is a social leveller, handing out to us a tasty serving of nature at its best for us to enjoy, understand, learn from, love and respect. Long live Sir David! May your rare talent keep inspiring generations of nature lovers and may the wonder for the wild order, alongside wildlife itself, never go extinct!

Europe's Bogus Green Economy Leaves a Trail of Destruction

If you believe that doing the right thing for the environment is to follow governmental advice and feed wood pellets to your pellet stove/ wood-burning stove, you are buying yet another corporate lie they sold you! Screech to a halt right here and ditch the pellets while I spill the beans...

Forest-based biomass is no panacea. Rather it is an ecological disaster disguised as 'sustainable' replacement to fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) and nuclear energy by our governing puppets. Let me be clear about this: by buying wood pellets, Europeans are contributing to the catastrophic deforestation of Europe, Canada, Brazil and southeastern America, and the utter destruction of (mostly) untouched primeval natural habitats. Besides biofuels are also responsible for Indonesia's vast deforestation, in which case the lowland tropical forests are being eradicated to make way for palm oil monocultures (for bioethanol).

'Struggle Between Heaven and Earth', Mount Rarau, Romania, by Robert U., via National Geographic

Back to the West, not only are mature trees chainsawed en masse in order to produce virgin lumber pellets, but every wildlife component of the woodland is affected too: the undergrowth, flora and fauna, not to mention soil erosion, aquifer and marsh disruptions. Road infrastructures, lumber mills and processing plants effect the landscape further, totally transforming it beyond recognition. And from there onwards is an open-door policy for further looting of natural resources under all its guises and the transformation of natural woodlands into man-made wastelands and monocultures.

"... the benefits of biomass burning for carbon emissions may be bogus, while its consequences for forest ecology are becoming all too evident. The threat to the continent's forests is big and immediate." - Fred Pearce, Up in Flames

To put it simply, woody biomass is Europe's own legalised EU-funded Borneo jungle disaster right on our doorstep - or a few hundreds miles away, depending on where we live. The demand for biomass was engineered by Big Corporate in collusion with governments under the thinly-veiled green revolution nonsense purported by Agenda 21, Al Gore and consorts, in a way that has nothing to do with ecology. It accelerates further the destruction of our planet via lucrative bogus schemes. This is nothing but a big bucks ecological disaster!

Saruman's oeuvre? Enviva facility in Ahoskie, North Carolina (US), supplies Drax power plant (UK)

Prime ancient trees are being felled in places like France's Cévennes, Slovakia's Poloniny National Park, and the Carpathian old-growth forests of Romania all the way to Poland. Likewise across the Atlantic, North Carolina wetland and hardwood forests are reduced to those moulded, compacted sawdust pellets that are then shipped all the way to Europe to produce energy. According to Fred Pearce who conducted research on the wastefulness of biomass, 'Almost half of wood harvested in the EU is now used for energy, while 60 per cent of the renewable energy is generated by biomass burning for electricity and heating. It supplies about five per cent of EU energy needs.' The figures add up to an ecological disaster!

"... this sector [Southeastern US] has been driving the destructuion of wetland forests and conversion of hardwood forests into pine plantations in an area that has already lost most of its unique wetland hardwood forests." - EU Bioenergy

The logged trees are trucked to the plants to be processed: dewatered and pulverised to sawdust - yes to sawdust - then compacted to a paste - yes to a paste - and spewed out into pellets. The process is wasteful, CO2-intensive, and therefore an aggravating factor to climate change. Thus how governments justify biomass as sustainable is beyond me. Wood as renewable energy is another idiosyncrasy because clear-cut old-growth (i.e. the chopping down of secular trees) contradicts the very notion of renewability, itself skewered under a short-term fast-turnaround natural-resource-intensive model that the industry operates under.

Photography by David Marcu (Romania), via Unsplash

This makes UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change and France's Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (to name just two) farcical by name and by nature since they are indeed, like other fellow EU member states - and in compliance with EU's bonkers legislation on renewable energy - to be held accountable (alongside the EU technocrats) for the destruction of European and Pan-American forests.

"Using forests to produce energy is like pouring gasoline to put out a fire." - Larry Edwards, Greenpeace

Meanwhile resilient yet vulnerable protected ecosystems that have survived to this day are already or soon-to-be getting loggers' attention, and this is bad news. The 8,000-year-old Białowieża Forest stretching down the border between Poland and Belarus is Europe's very last primeval European forest, and home to the European bison and a plethora of remarkable pedunculate oaks - some of which have even been individually named as if they were pets. Yet despite its UNESCO World Heritage protection, the forest is under threat:-

"The property protects a diverse and rich wildlife of which 59 mammal species, over 250 bird, 13 amphibian, 7 reptile and over 12,000 invertebrate species. The iconic symbol of the property is the European Bison: approximately 900 individuals in the whole property which make almost 25% of the total world’s population and over 30% of free-living animals. " - UNESCO 

Don't fall prey to governmental garb, they're the ones promoting the destruction of our woodlands! Do yourself and the Earth a favour: ditch woody biomass and stay away from the catchment area of power plants fuelled by such! Spread the word around and share this article.


Further Resources:

• The Uncontacted vs. The Disconnected by La Baguette Magique relates the losing battle of the Guarani Tribe against Big Corporate in Brazil
• Fuelling a BioMess: Why Burning Trees for Energy Will Harm People, the Climate and Forests , a comprehensive 40-page report by Greenpeace
• Up in Flames - How Biomass Burning Wrecks Europe's Forests, a 16-page case study report by author and journalist Fred Pearce
• Green Invasion by Fred Pearce, via EU Bioenergy
• [Case Study] Slovakia - Up in Flames ibid.
• [Case Study] Gardanne, France - How Biomass Burning Wrecks Europe's Forests, ibid.
• [Case Study] Romania - Up in Flames, ibid.
• [Case Study] DRAX, UK - Up in Flames, ibid.
• Bioenergy and Social Injustice in Southeastern US by Linde Zuidema, ibid.
• Uncovering the Truth: Investigating the Destruction of Precious Wetland Forests by Dogwood Alliance 
• American Companies are Shipping Millions of Trees to Europe, and It's a Renewable Energy Nightmare by ThinkProgress
• Menaces sur la Forêt Française : Quand l'Industrie Biomasse Débarque en France et en Europe, a French documentary (teaser) by Benoît Grimont, via Réseau pour les Alternatives Forestières.

Harambe to Homo Sapiens: 2 Degrees of Separation

Here's another irony. Only one week ago, we might have not heard of Harambe while he was still alive but now that he is dead, his Swahili name full of fortitude and noble grace has come booming centrestage as a rallying cry from behind the locked Gorilla World enclosure of Cincinnati Zoo - the second oldest zoo in the US - as a painful reminder of our human failings. Such a tragedy is imputable to us in our tampering with the natural order, with the laws of nature.

Harambe the Western lowland gorilla

It's all about control with us. Yet animals do not belong in zoos or circuses. As the manipulators and controllers of nature - that we never leave alone to sort itself out - we humans have thrown it out of whack. Today we are faced with a shrinking wildlife count, the looting of our natural resources by Big Corporate (TransCanada anyone?), pollution at every corner of the globe and a galoping worldwide population whose consumerist needs and fads cannot be sustained.

Here the laws of nature had been flawed from before Harambe had even been conceived. The magnificent Western lowland silverback male gorilla, part of a critically-endangered species (traditionally found in the dense Central African rainforests), was born in captivity (at the Gladys Porter Zoo) on 27th May 1999 and relocated to Cincinnati Zoo in September 2014 in order to fulfill the gene pool and as a star attraction in his own right that got the zoo a bang for its buck in the entertainment stakes. Then last Saturday, an unsupervised 4-year-old kid intent on getting close and personal with the young primate, fell into the exhibit moat at Gorilla World. By that point, the writing was on the wall, bearing Harambe's name.

"Despite its massive size and ferocious reputation, the gorilla is actually a peaceful and social animal. Gorillas and humans are close relatives, and share many things in common. They are very intelligent, have emotions and personalities, and live in family groups." - Cincinnati Zoo, Western Lowland Gorilla

The inquisitive gentle gorilla, described as 'very intelligent and curious' by the zoo itself, dragged the kid out of harm's way (see video footage). Harambe wasn't acting out of sorts or displaying any animosity towards him. Yet the keepers didn't take any chances, because as much as zoos are artificial environments, we are still dealing with wild animals forcefully confined into unnatural habitats. And in a country where litigation and media are trigger-happy, so had to be the next course of action. Except this was anything but happy. Taking a chance with an inquisitive wild animal was not on the agenda, so the zoo’s own SWAT Team, the Dangerous Animal Response Team, was dispatched over and put control back into the controlled environment of the zoo: they shot Harambe dead.

It was, as The Conversation noted, a lose-lose situation that claimed the life of a gorilla pottering about minding his own business, a curious kid who soon enough will realise the consequences of his decision, and the keeper who ruled out tranquilizer shots, and instead took the great ape's life. No doubt will that guy be forever haunted by his decision, despite it being for the kid's best interest.

There is no happy ending to the story and no winner. Just one hapless chain of events triggered by an unsupervised kid (where were the parents?!) that spelt disaster along the way, not only to Harambe, but to the other gorillas, his former caretaker, the zoo staff, the kid's family, the local community, conservationists (Dr. Jane Goodall), animal lovers, and the animal kingdom at large. Hereby we have witnessed yet another failed experiment of human foray into wildlife, snatching it from the wild, parking it into zoos for breeding programmes and boosting the balance sheets, and making spectacles out of jailed animals plucked out of their natural habitats for our eyes only.

King Kong (1933), movie poster revisited by graphic artist Laurent Durieux, commissioned by Mondo.

And you know what? I cannot help but think of King Kong as I am penning this. Do you remember how the story goes? A magnificent gorilla plucked out of the jungle and brought back to New York City, which he then tries to escape, cradling in his hand a young American woman he had saved earlier on from an unchartered faraway island. No happy ending for this guy either. Before I bow out to honour Harambe's memory and legacy, I shall leave you with a ponder:

"Surely we can begin to agree that animals which share 98 per cent of our DNA should not be kept as entertainment for us to gawk at in a zoo." - Mimi Bekhechi, PETA UK Director, via The Independent.

Please join me in signing the Justice for Harambe petition.

Harambe

Little People, Big Hearts

I have a problem with today's society. There is an urge for 'being somebody', for being noticed, being with it, breaking it, making it, becoming famous. What rigs it even more is that the quest for be(com)ing somebody is defined by one parameter - the popularity contest. It is driven by celebrity culture, inflated by social media (creating the ephemeral buzz and elusive cool factor) and misguided by the reality TV agenda (whereby we are sold the idea that anyone - just anyone - can be someone). In a world where individuals are hungry for fame and still stand famished as the fame they're craving for does not sustain in the long run, I am wondering: what's wrong with just wanting to be/ stay ordinary - as in not famous - at all?

My great great grandad Ferdinand's village in Picardie, France (pic source)

Ordinary and be of worth, able to accomplish worthwhile things, like a job done right, and be a caring child, spouse, parent, friend, neighbour. To establish and maintain one's value system and cause no harm nor prejudice. Respectful of life in all its representations, down to nature that surrounds us. Give a meaning to life that is not dependent upon external objects.

I have discussed the ordinary folks before now and to me they are anything but ordinary. I hold so much respect for them! No need to be searching high and low for we are surrounded by them in our own lifelines. Take my maternal great great auntie, Claire, an industrious Corsican woman who worked her land her entire life, with nothing like a day in lieu or a pension to fall back on. Take my paternal great grandad, Louis, who started work at 6 years of age down his local textile mill in Picardie, northern France, and later took his leave... to experience the trenches of the Great War. Or how about Louis's dad, Ferdinand, a weaver and family man whose life was stolen off him at 45 on his way to work, engulfed by snow drift in the wee hours of the morning... His tragic passing didn't make the news.

Ferdinand is buried in the Fluquières cemetery (pic source)

Those are ordinary folks, working-class heroes in their own right. They glide in and out of the grand scheme of things, and get no mention in history books. Yet in the great architecture of the universe, those are the artisans who laboured their lives away and still managed to grow spiritually and enrich their communities with a strong set of values. 

Dignity, pride, honour, honesty, respect, grace, compassion, loving care, knowledge, inner wisdom, gratitude, acceptance, resilience, bravery, labour - and an immense strength of character that we, the modern folks in quest of the un-ordinary, should take a leaf out of. These 'behind-the-scenes' folks were used by governments and corporate but still held their all while acting as the cannon-fodder that fuelled the mills during peace and the artillery during war. They still found the time and energy to be creative in their frugal ways, attend to their land agroecologically (way before the term was coined!), make do with little they owned, fix and build things, make life beautiful, feed a family and raise the kids right, go to church, believe in Heaven and redemption and hone their own conception of the after-life, and an earnest belief in the continuous betterment of man.

They lived in rural communities and were in tune with nature that they nurtured, knew every plant, concocted herbal remedies, understood the weather patterns, nature cycles, the seasons and the lunar calendar, and referred to the almanac. They were fabulous story-tellers, and the guardians of family anecdotes, local legends and folk tales. They met up with family and friends in a spirit of conviviality. They always had a bowl of soup at the ready for someone even poorer than themselves who would come knocking on their door. They were hardly school-educated, and so what? They could function autonomously, solidly grounded in common sense and observation. They were entrepreneurial, inventive and never backed down. They lived a simple life but that didn't make them the commoners they may be described as by whoever is hungry for fame and a material lifestyle that ends up tarnishing their soul. For to be rich is to own inner riches, and these cannot be bought.

No Monkeying Around the Year of the Monkey!

PETA UK emailed me a bulletin last week that highlights the irony of 2016 as The Year of the Monkey in the Chinese Astrological Calendar. This is no reason for celebration because the assumption that monkeys will be more respected this year is only... an assumption.

Female macaque and her baby. Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur, from her book We Animals.

As far as honouring our primate friends, take a closer look. Irrespective of the Chinese New Year, monkeys will be disrespected every step of the way. Expect them to pay for their ultimate 'sin' of being the closest representative within the animal kingdom to our gene pool. For sure, monkeys will look fine and dandy (but will they be feeling this way?), paraded around in ceremonial attire and fancy finery in celebration of the Chinese New Year, but this is as far as lauding the monkey will go.

This year, like every year, monkeys will still end up as delicacies on the tables of the Far East, or feed the sordid domestic and commercial pet trade across the globe, or end up as tasteless trophies on some hunter's wall. But the Gallery of Shame doesn't end there. They will still be snatched off the wild in paradisiacal hotspots like Mauritius and stowed away in sinister breeding farms before being lucratively traded like mere commodities to the notorious cages of Primate Products, Inc., and on to the death labs of the National Institutes of Health (USA) and the unsuspected science departments of seemingly 'friendly' universities out there.

Injured macaque. Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur, ibid.

This year, like every year, monkeys will still be tampered with, tested upon, and submitted to the unspeakable: the immoral, unethical and utterly dispensable cruelty of vivisection: animal experimentation that gives a bad name to science and those who make a living out of it, in their despicable justification that pain to animal is gain to science, and to humanity at large, and all performed in the name of medical advancement and clinical progress and the beautification process of our made-up environments and any item thereof that demands a little animal intervention.

I could keep on painting a dark picture of monkey life in 2016. Yet by taking action - rather than turning a blind eye and looking away from these disturbing vignettes - will we be able to lift off the darkness that shrouds monkey life. There are good people out there. Individuals like you and me, ordinary folks, unsung heroes who lead decent lives and try their bit to make this crazy world a tad more sane and humane! There are high-profile defenders of the noble animal cause, and those who have specifically dedicated their lives to primates, like Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas, while some like Dian Fossey tragically paid with their lives the price for their dedication! There are photographers like Jo-Anne McArthur who through her compelling project We Animals has made it her goal to document what is really going on out of sight, out of mind, behind close doors, and beyond official PR.

Scared macaque. Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur, ibid.

It is a moral duty of mine to expose the flip sides, so that you do not get yourself fooled. What you are shown and told by the (mainstream) media and the globalist political agenda, do not take at face value! Go scratch the surface, do a little dig and see for yourself and think about it and make up an opinion that is yours. Meanwhile the Year of the Monkey will truly be a cause for celebration for me the moment monkeys are restored their dignity by those who stole it from them in the first place: their cousins, We Humans.

Female macaque with her young. Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur, ibid.

P.S: All photography in this article by Jo-Anne McArthur, taken at a Macaque Breeding Farm in Laos. Her awesome book We Animals - which I recommend you purchase - features arresting text and photography that will shake you to the core!

P.P.S: Act your bit now by signing those two important petitions: (1) Cruelty Free International's petition to urge Mauritius to stop exporting its monkeys to the USA and Europe for lab experiments! (2) Dr Ruth A. Decker's petition to University of Wisconsin against the unethical torture and killing of baby monkeys!

Awesome Acts of Kindness for the Earth!

No better way to kick the New Year into shape than with La Baguette Magique! In this mini-series, we have it all covered: Self, Others and good old Mother Earth! In our previous article, I gave you 3 Hints 'N' Tips to make the friendlier You: getting back in touch with a long-lost relative or friend, treating your loved ones with one of your creations, and connecting you to the local community with a little banter...

Now how about addressing what good we can bring to the Earth, in three easy steps...

'Gathering', oil on canvas by Martin Wittfooth, 2015

For the Earth #1:

•  Make it last! If your fixtures, fittings and homewares are not plagued by the dogma of planned obsolescence, you should be able to get some mileage out of them. Thus go easy on style fads and trends that encourage us to constantly reinvent our surroundings by replacing the old with the new. As long as that kettle is still in working order, or that family heirloom sofa still looks and feels good, why give in to the temptation of replacing them? Give the Earth - and your purse - a hand by making your belongings last longer.

For the Earth #2:

•  Don't be owned by objects! This is an extension of #1. Basically less is more. The model wants us to keep buying and we may have Father of Public Relations Edward Bernays to blame for this, but can we not just shop with our eyes sometimes? Bernays engineered the desire and compulsion to buy and linked pleasure with purchase. Up to us to put the brakes on. Another good point for the earth - and the purse!

'Dukkha', limited edition print by Lindsey Carr, via Etsy

For the Earth #3:

•  Leave nature alone! That sounds like a given but we need to state it loud and clear, especially as regards those sensitive natural areas of the world, with fragile and threatened ecosystems. They are paying the price for their beauty by attracting hordes of tourists. Even if tourism is branded as ecotourism, it still puts undue pressure on the environment. Those cruises to the Arctic 'to watch the melting icebergs before it's too late' is short of vain and self-centred! It is a full-blown aberration!

There you have it, my friends. Our list of Acts of Kindness for Self, Others and the Earth is far from exhaustive. It is a taster, a starting point to a form of contentment in life and to a thought process. If you seek further inspiration, do check my Inspire-Aspire series. Have a wonderful year!

2016 More or Less

Enters New Year. As it swooshes down the catwalk of time, to the sound of firecrackers, bows of appreciation and glances of envy, it needn't bow out to the boos. New Year, unlived yet enlivened, spells a frisson of hope and promise and tipsy delusion, as we prepare to wear it and kiss it and taint it. Enters New Year and Exits Lady Macbeth, the year that was and is no more. New Year comes dressed up with little more than an itsy-bitsy accoutrement of fantasies dressed up as resolutions.

Park La Brea Housing Development, Los Angeles, CA, photography by Jeffrey Milstein, via Wired

Resolution, little more than the promise to self to make this year 'better', according to parametres that each self holds within the safe of their hearts and minds. Resolution, the quick-fix, short-lived counter-balance remedy to the obligatory guilt trip that seals off holiday indulgence, and all of our slack and sloven moments that took the year past, past its prime.

However we wouldn't be hard put upon if we took a long hard look at the way we conduct our lives - or rather at the way we conduct Life.

Beverley Hills, ibid

To look in the mirror, past that face that is looking back at you. See the bigger picture. Take a bird's eye view of Life, beyond the picket fence of fenced-in existence and suburban linearity. And that is when the realisation might happen. That collectively humanity are the result of what collectively humanity create. What we put in, we get out, with all the consequences that impact our environment in its broadest, wildest - and wisest sense. The natural world we have remade to fit the human vision of a humanised world, where nature is tamed, dislodged out of its environment, flattened out, plasticised and monetised.

Life is beautiful and precious. Life is an entitlement and a right. Yet humanity in its inhumanity will disfigure it or kill it, as the world is wasting away under the waste it creates. Now do we still want to be single-mindedly navel-gazing at the size of our waistlines and base a resolution around that - even build a social media audience around it, when we need to look at the bigger picture and rethink society as a whole... Here is a New Year's resolution that is worth its weight in gold: this year I shall not keep up with the Joneses!

P.S: Make 2016 a year that counts, by following La Baguette's mini-series, Awesome Acts of Kindness for Self, Others and the Earth!

Urban Belles

Urban belles are no urban legends. You may call them urban faeries for they are agents of beautification. They are right up my street - and yours - and commonly found, should we take the time to adjust our eyesight and look at the unseen! An act of nature catching the controlled human mind off guard, seeping into the nooks and crannies of brick and mortar, disused land and unloved spaces, spreading a little loveliness and love wherever they are 'allowed' to, which most often occurs in uncouth spaces. Those are places of unloveliness and lovelessness, with limited human interference or temporary respite therefrom: industrial compounds, wastelands, building sites, train tracks, dockyards, disused/ off-the-tourist-trail public areas, and 'neglected' planters and parterres.

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing." - Camille Pissarro

Against herbicidal odds and other wildlife-unfriendly signs of human intervention, wild flowers manage to come into their own, aided by the pollinating magic of bees, butterflies and consorts. Their seeds are carried through by a whimsical breeze or a bird or rodent. Seeds ensconce into a crack, with a little soil underfoot to take root, and a little sprinkling of rain and smattering of sunshine for stimulation. Seeds will crack open and a stalk peep out of a crack or other repository. The plant will gather strength and grow, bud, blossom and propagate, offering its all to whoever pays attention to its splashes of natural beauty and sweeps of untamed mane.

How odd then - I might hear you say - that if lovelessness and unloveliness are associated with untidiness and uncaring, love and loveliness are associated with tidiness and care, and everything in its place, according to the reorganisation of nature under the urban model. There nature is harnessed, like it is on a leash. The only accepted representatives of greenery within the urban environment are domesticated and engineered elements of flora, generations away from their gene pool and those distant cousins brought to us by Mother Nature.

Nature on a leash: tamed and clipped and pruned and corsetted and restrained and contained, and aggregated, with colours and shapes tampered with, and temperaments subdued. Let us note in passing the pumped-up begonias, oversized marigolds, bicolor petunias, same-height tulips, redesigned jonquils and unscented carnations. And let's compare their visual appeal to that of the wild flowers, in all of their spontaneity of being: spirited, unstructured, convoluted, unexpected, unpredictable and other lovely inconsistencies. I'll have wild and unleashed every day!

The wildflower photography by Magali Roucaut takes us on a fresh-eyed photographic discovery of Paris, with a luscious journey to boot, where wildflowers take centrestage over buildings and monuments. Her website Paris Fleurs Sauvages is testimony to the surprising biodiversity found within the French capital and its immediate suburbs, and all those wild flowers will surely be the most valuable contributors to the renowned Parisian honey being produced from beehives placed in the most unusual places, like on the rooftops of the Opéra Garnier! The wild flowers were pictured by Magali between 2007 and 2013, and a selection of them are currently displayed as part of the Paris Fleurs Sauvages exhibition, Chai du Parc de Bercy, Paris, until 4th October 2015. (Original source: Paris ZigZag).

Chemtrails Spin a World Wide Web

Ignorance is bliss but it is no blessing for we live in times of high uncertainty where we should begin to scratch the surface of the big illusion manufactured en-masse by the media and the governing elite, because like in The Truman Show all is not as it seems. Anything stranger than fiction is unsettling but we ought to investigate it.

The Truman Show Minimalist Poster by Tchav, via DeviantART

I first came across the word chemtrail only a few months ago, while watching a video by British astrologer and truth seeker David Cammegh. He was talking about U.N. Agenda 21 and - amongst other topics - population control: how we are getting routinely and purposely poisoned by heavy metals and chemical aerosols sprayed by civilian and military aircrafts over our populated areas. This left me cautiously perplexed, and I chose to shrug it off as 'Here we go, another conspiracy theory!' As much as I am open-minded, there are times where I draw the line at inconvenient truths - merely for my own sanity. I did have a quick look on Wikipedia though, which comforted me in my assumption of chemtrails being little more than some fuzzy conspiracy theory. That reassured me, and I could neatly retreat back into my comfort zone, pull the wool over my eyes and forget about it. Of course we should be ill-advised to consider Wikipedia as the almighty source of information and as strict purveyor of truth and unbiased knowledge.

Want to see chemtrails? Step outside and look up the sky, it's that simple. Just stop being self-absorbed into your smartphone and distracted by other gadgets! Honestly, when was the last time you had a good look at the sky? You'd be surprised at how modified it is looking these days...

I was to make another encounter with geoengineering (the science behind chemtrails) a few days ago, while researching the Europe migrant crisis. This time over, I decided to delve into the subject. There are literally tons of recorded evidence on geoengineering activities, yet by the same token, once you try to find out the reasons behind the scheme, access any official (declassified) documentation released online, and ultimately how to get governments to stop this machination that has been programmed by those who are supposed to protect us, it seems that 'Citizen Lambda' is powerless. This should not deter us from spreading the word, recording the evidence (more of that in a minute!), and contacting the press and our local or national chemtrail watch organisation.

As a starting point, if you want a general grasp and not get distracted by the zillions of blogs out there, you need to watch this compelling account by Rosalind Peterson in her keynote speech at the 60th Annual DPI/NGO Conference on Climate Change (United Nations, New York, September 5-7, 2007.) I promise you that you'll never look at the sky the same way after this!


Geoengineering is a controversial Frankenstein science and a freakish large-scale control programme that has gained prominence since the late 1990s. It tackles weather modification programmes under the premise of fighting climate change, fostering agriculture crops, protecting us from harmful UV effects, and - wait for it - shielding us from the possibility of bacteriological warfare! Geoengineering presents itself as a friend, but - as with Monsanto - don't be fooled by the spin doctors. It sends out unmarked military aircrafts the size of commercial carriers on daily missions across (mostly) the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, to spray our blue skies with a lethal cocktail of nano particulates made up of aluminum, barium, arsenic, spores, fungus, viruses and other deadly pathogens all at odd with anything to do with 'the better good'. In fact, unsuspecting civilian populations have long been their government's testing ground for biological and virological weaponry of all kinds, with chemtrails now being the vehicle of choice.

Geoengineering is also behind those freak weather conditions that curse certain areas of the world, namely California (hot Summers, severe droughts, tree depletion and raging fires), northern US Midwest/ East Coast (Winter snow blizzards), Europe (flash floods), and the latest Chinese Winter snowfalls. Whatever happened to the laws of nature, the US have vowed to control the weather by 2025. Isn't this scary?!

What my back yard looked like on 08 Sept 2015 at 10:51am...

We are talking unprecedented air pollution carried out on a massive scale. The toxic white trails and plumes and haze that evidence the shady airborne activities are said to remain in the sky up to 20 hours. In fact, from my personal findings, they were still visible 24 hours after spraying took place. Unlike contrails (*) a.k.a. condensation trails, chemtrails are not made to dissipate fast, but rather stay in suspension and then slowly disperse for maximum effect and coverage. 

You can be sure that pollution this size and concentration brings an array of health problems, from respiratory (asthma) to digestive, via heart problems, headaches, mental fatigue, apathy and stress. Move over Prozac Nation, we are now Chemtrail Nation! The rise in the number of Alzheimer cases and autism has been reported by the medical world this decade. We know about the correlation between Alzheimer's, autism, Parkinson's disease and aluminum exposure, and adding more of the offending substance into the astmosphere will only exacerbate neurological diseases to pandemic proportions. As for autism, already linked to the notorious glyphosate found in Monsanto's Roundup, it is too being exacerbated by the tons of chemicals pumped daily into our skies and elsewhere in our environment. Cancers are linked, amongst other factors, to pollution and that includes chemtrails.

... and my front yard at 10:55am

At this point, with the information I have been able to garner online, I am sceptical as to any geoengineering philanthropy goal. It seems to be merely a cog in the wheel that spins for the Military, Big Pharma and the GMO lords, and for the engineered depopulation of the earth, a.k.a. genocide, not only of human life but also animal life, as evidenced by inexplicable high numbers of them dying off. Not to mention that chemtrails contaminate our water supplies and our food chain. Now at this point, for us to turn a blind eye on chemtrails is sheer folly as this is happening so blatantly in broad daylight before our very eyes, should we at least take the trouble to lift our eyes from our daily vagaries.

My Personal Frontline Diary Account (French island of Corsica, 08 Sept 2015):

Monday 7th Sept had been a blissful day, clear blue skies, not a cloud. I was almost ready to discredit any chemtrail existence from my neck of the woods. Next day, I woke up unusually late, feeling drowsy. I knew something was up straight away as I headed for my window, flung open the shutters and was faced with a show of sinister proportions. I dashed outside with my camera, spotted at least two airplanes, and then a third, spraying the sky until it had turned white. If I had been in denial before, this time I could not, due to the sheer intensity of the spraying and the formation of erratic and persistent trail patterns across the sky in the space of a few minutes.

I have increased contrast to display the layers of haze.

(*) Chemtrails vs. Contrails: Chemtrails are 'unnatural-looking cloud trails occasionally produced by airplanes that don't dissipate normally, and that end up blanketing the skies with a hazy muck. They differ entirely from water vapor contrails produced when water vapor condenses and freezes around small aerosol particles released from aircraft exhaust.' (source: Natural News).

★ 14-Sept-2015 Update: As much as I have an open mind and - at the same time - refuse to get bogged down in the controversies plaguing our world, I can assure you that chemtrails are not being mistaken for contrails (see above paragraph for definition). Now pay attention, I'm gonna debunk the debunkers. I live on a highly touristic island, in a tourist hotspot, with July and August being high-peak season. Yet over the high-peak season, we had clear blue skies. Understand that bar the odd brief quick-dissolving contrail high up in the sky, I did NOT notice any of the suspiciously persistent cottonwool-like trails and heavy criss-cross mucky haze that I now come across daily. If those are supposed to be nothing more than condensation trails - as opposed to chemtrails - how come are we getting so many of them now that tourist season and air traffic are off peak?

Further Resources:

• Geoengineering Watch is the most comprehensive professional website, with a scientific bias, dedicated to chemtrails and HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), another controversial collateral 'delight' in weather modification technology, jointly run by the US Air Force and Navy! It emits a range of frequencies into the ionosphere that produce pulses, and those bombard chemtrails to engineer the weather. Expect all sorts of induced anomalies like freak storms, tornadoes, earthquakes... and tsunamis (cue the Fukushima disaster)! The good people behind HAARP and their emissaries across the world not only care about the weather but also about our welfare, by constantly bombarding us with ELF (Electromagnetic Low Frequencies). Is this in order to keep us lame and subservient consumer-only 'no questions asked' individuals?
• The World of Geoengineering (June 2012 world map) by ETC Group
• The HAARP Report delivers unequivocal visual data on the manipulation of our weather patterns leading to the destruction of our ecosystems. A must-watch!
• Five Pieces of Evidence Suggesting that California Drought May Be a HAARP-Manufactured Event by Natural News: As supported by this HAARP Report video, the engineered droughts in California, through manipulation of the Jet Stream, can only serve the darker agenda, like that of UN Agenda 21 and its forced population relocation ideology. Another speculation is directed at the powerful GMO mafia's ultimate ambition of absolute agriculture control (with the planned eradication of The Golden State's independent/ alternative growers and organic producers). And let's not lose sight of the fact that a State as spirited and freedom-loving as the State of California can only attract defiance from federal powers.
• New NASA Research Points to Possible HAARP Connection in Japan Earthquake, Tsunami by Natural News
• Chemtrails: Delivery System for Dept. of Defense's Toxic Cocktails by Mercola.com
• First Case Study to Show Direct Link Between Alzheimer's and Aluminum Toxicity by Dr Mercola
• Chemtrails: Learn How to Protect Yourself from Those Treacherous Poisons by Natural News
• 60,000 Antelopes Died in 4 Days - And No One Knows Why by Live Science. Further developments on the sudden mass deaths of the Saiga antelopes on the steppes of Kazakhstan (deathtoll now estimated at 150,000+) have been pieced together and relayed by EneNews, and there seems to be an explanation behind this that rules out chemtrails. Heavy nuclear tests were carried out in the region back in 1989, which would have weakened the herd's immune system, from generation to the next. Thirty five years later, the Pasteurella infection they caught proved fatal to them due to their deficient immunity. Meanwhile elsewhere in the world, sudden mass animal deaths have remained unexplained to this day, and will require further investigating, as to whether or not they are linked to chemtrail activity. This is often made difficult by the undercover/ classified nature of chemtrails. It remains that health is at risk, as highlighted in our article.