 by Flemming Funch
From Danish Radio: The Earth Summit ended on Wednesday with green campaigners heckling U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and decrying the outcome as a major letdown for the poor and the planet. At a closing session in Johannesburg, speaker after speaker attacked as too weak a plan meant to tackle global problems from AIDS to depleted fish stocks. "We should never have such shameful summits again," said Ricardo Navarro, chairman of Friends of the Earth International. "We feel anger and despair because world leaders have sold out to the World Trade Organisation and big business".
I've sent around 32,000 e-mail messages since 1994. I've kept all of them. I had e-mail since 1983, but most of the time I didn't know anybody else who did.
Madonna is said to be dropping the material girl image, for a more wholesome spiritual image, getting scenes left out of her latest movie that are too risque. Hey, why can't she both be nude and spiritual? I don't see any problem. Oh, all the power to her.
So, are these the news items most important to me right this moment? Oh, I don't know, but it is obviously very subjective what people choose to consider important or news worthy.
In 1997 Reuters reported that the death of Princess Diana got more coverage in the British press -- measured in column inches of copy -- than did the major events of World War II. The figures were released by Durrants Press Cuttings, a 117-year-old press clipping service in London. "There is no other subject in our archives to compare with the volume of newspaper coverage devoted to Diana's death, funeral and subsequent stories," said the agency. For weeks after Diana's death on August 31, 1997, British newspapers devoted an average of 35 percent of their coverage to that and related stories. By comparison, the most dramatic moments of World War II merited only 26 to 27 percent of total news coverage.
I just realized that the free RealOne Player easily picks up a whole bunch of radio shows over the net, including some that I otherwise usually miss. Such as Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, which currently has a lot of coverage from the Earth Summit. I'm listening to it right now.
There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is. -- Albert Einstein
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