Note: This story, while perhaps amusing, has serious consequences because what underpins the revival of guano is related to the demise of oil.
I wrote a paper back in college on the Peruvian guano trade of the 1840s and the 1850s and I never thought I’d write another piece on guano ever again, but here I am writing on guano. The guano trade was responsible for the first real agrarian revolution where crop productivity increased dramatically. It allowed European farmers to feed a growing European population in the mid nineteenth century.
Guano is accumulated bird dung and it is found on bird islands and coasts around the world that also happen to be dry. In a wet enviroment, the excrement of birds simply runs off and gets washed away or it just gets absorbed into the detrius. As the bird extrement accumulates and dries, it becomes a dense organic material that is very rich in nitrate and phosphate. Around the world, guano deposits are usually found on dry oceanic islands lying in the middle of oceanic upwelling regions that support very rich fisheries. Living off the fish, and concentrated in great numbers by the small areas of available nesting sites, literally millions of seabirds, each excreting about 20 grams of dung a day, can generate massive amounts of guano.
As an organic fertilizer, guano has no substitute. It packs a punch in terms of density and fertility. The trade came to dominated by the British and led to a commercial boom in Peru. It also eventually led in 1879 to the War of the Pacific between Peru and Bolivia versus Chile. As a result of this war, Bolivia lost its outlet to the sea. While there are numerous islands that are guano islands (Nauru, Howland, Palmyra Atoll), no where else is there a greater concentration of guano and so readily accessible as in the coastal islands and desert coasts of Peru.
Swiss voters have rejected a proposal by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to reinstate the use of the ballot box to decide on naturalization applications in a referendum today. More than 63% of voters and all but one of the country’s 26 cantons on Sunday came out against the initiative, which also wanted to deny the right of appeal to rejected citizenship candidates. The Swiss naturalization law, however, remains one of the strictest in Europe.
Hillary Clinton swept to victory in Puerto Rico today. The margin of victory looks wider than expected. Polls had anticipated a 13-15 point margin of victory in Puerto Rico for Senator Clinton. Exit polls are pointing to at least a 2:1 margin or upwards of 30 points.
A few quick takeaways. Voters over 60 years age represented 39% of the electorate in Puerto Rico today. That is surprising because demographically, Puerto Rico is young. Clinton won 73% of this voter age group. And Clinton won seniors by a 77 to 23 margin. Clinton won the 40-49 age group (17% of the electorate) 65% to 35% and she won the 50-64 demographic (34% of the electorate) by 64% to 34%. Clinton even won the under 24 age group by 63% to 27%. In short, the victory was across the board. I have yet to see one group which Obama won.
With 51% of precincts reporting Clinton leads by 68% to 32%. The turnout was exceptionally low. I expect that fewer than 400,000 Puerto Ricans voted today. Over 2 million voted in the last primary cycle. That should net Senator Clinton over 120,000 votes in the popular vote tally.
Hear this Barack, this was January 13th, 2008 and you said not a word. You said not a syallable. There are no words that can express the contempt that I feel towards you. There is no way in hell that I am ever going to vote for you.
I will work with Republicans. I will donate to GOP 527s, I will give to the RNC. I will volunteer for John McCain. Maybe you are the “unity candidate” after all.
This political poster is from Switzerland’s SVP, the Swiss People’s Party. The SVP is currently the largest party in the Swiss Parliament having won 29% of the vote in the elections of October 2007. The SVP has been accused of racism and Islamophobia. The poster certainly does not leave much to the imagination. But Islam is a threat to Europe and European values and if the left won’t act, then I am willing to turn right on this issue. There is a reason why the right is ascendant in Europe and the reason is Islam. Minarets do not belong in the Alps.
Back in February, I had three friends from Rotterdam visit, a gay couple and another friend. All they could talk about was how Islam was changing Holland for the worse. Our tolerance was our own undoing they said. How can one be tolerant with intolerance?
On June 1, 2008, Swiss citizens are voting in a referendum on whether to give municipalities the final say on granting citizenship, and allow townspeople to vote in secret on whether foreign members of their community can receive Swiss passports.
Such votes were declared unconstitutional in 2003, but the practice continues in some pockets of the countryside, according to several lawyers. The ballot measure would also make it unnecessary for elected officials or townspeople to justify their decisions, and would deny rejected applicants any recourse.
Approximately one quarter of Switzerland’s five million people are not Swiss citizens. More on the referendum in Switzerland from New York Times.
With Senator Barack Obama poised this week to clinch his party’s nomination for President, there are growing fears in some quarters that the Democratic party may not be choosing its strongest candidate to beat Republican John McCain.
Senator Hillary Clinton has been making that argument for weeks. Now some recent polls and analysis, looking particularly at vital battleground states and support among white voters, have bolstered her case – even as Obama looks certain to become the nominee.
Obama supporters reject this argument and point to his record of boosting Democratic voter turnout, especially among the young. But sceptics in the party, already nervous about nominating Obama after the furore over outspoken pastor Jeremiah Wright, are growing increasingly concerned. ‘There is an element of buyer’s remorse in some areas. The question is whether it gets really strong now or in September – or even after the election is over, if he loses,’ said Steve Mitchell, head of political consultancy Mitchell Research.
Another boost to Clinton’s case came late last week after a pro-Obama preacher gave a race-tinged rant against her at Obama’s church in Chicago. In a recent sermon Michael Pfleger – a long-term Obama backer who is white – mocked Clinton as an entitled white person angry at a black man having beaten her. His angry, red-faced speech, in which he mimicked Clinton weeping, was played repeatedly across American cable channels and the Internet.
The news sent shock waves through Democratic circles; many had hoped Obama had put ‘pastor problems’ behind him. ‘It is more of the same problem as Wright. It reinforces the image among some voters that Obama does not share their values,’ said Mitchell.
Here is the Sunday June 1st, 2008, edition of interesting reads from around the world.
Vote Mugagbe, Or Else
Zimbabwe’s army chief yesterday told soldiers they must leave the military if they do not vote for President Robert Mugabe in next month’s run-off poll. The story in the UK Guardian and in the New York Times.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Piracy in the Caribbean is not new, nor is of lore either. The Miskito Coast has long been a pirate’s haven but now piracy is striking in the Grenadines and the Lesser Antilles. More from the Los Angeles Times.
Nepal Awaits the King’s Move
Nepal was back to work on Sunday as government offices and schools opened for the first time since the Himalayan nation turned into a republic, ending its 239-year-old monarchy. More on this from Reuters.
Diesel Fuel Price Skyrockets in Korea
The Korea Herald reports that the average price for diesel fuel in Korea surpassed that of gasoline for the first time yesterday, putting a further strain on truckers and transportation businesses. Experts say the diesel price will climb further, making it harder for the Korean government to resist calls to reduce taxes levied on diesel fuel. Meanwhile opposition parties yesterday demanded the mass resignation of the Cabinet, stepping up their joint offensive against the government’s decision to resume U.S. beef imports. Massive rallies are scheduled today in major cities in protest against the government’s gazetting of new terms for importing U.S. beef. More from the Korea Herald.
The Islamic headscarf in Denmark The Economist reports on the efforts of the Danish People’s Party to ban use the Islamic headscarf by public employees in Denmark.
Macedonia To Polls
The conservative VMRO-DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is expected to win on a surge of nationalist defiance after Greece blocked a NATO invitation to Macedonia in April in a 17-year row over the name it shares with a Greek province. The New York Times has the story.
