59 / Sending In The Marines

The picture of the Casa Rosada proves I'm in Buenos Aires. The other picture, which shows a poster pasted around the City of Buenos Aires, proves that not everyone thinks that sending the U.S. Marines into Haiti, to provide humanitarian assistance to this earthquake-devastated country, is a good idea.

58 / More On Taxes: Modern Egypt

I am in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but am still thinking about Egypt and taxation.

The picture shows a very common sight in Egypt, buildings finished on the ground floor, or on the first several floors, but with an unfinished top, characterized most notably by rebar projecting from unfinished columns.

Our guide, on the way between Cairo and Alexandria, told us it was the Egyptian property taxation system that causes this to happen. According to him, as long as a structure remains "under construction" there is no tax on the entire property.

Kind of explains why most small towns and half of the big cities seem uncompleted.

57 / A World Class Library

I love libraries. Some of my favorites: The Santa Cruz City-County Downtown Main Branch; The UCSC McHenry Library; the public library in Toronto, Canada; the "stacks" in the Stanford University Library; the British Library on Euston Road in London.

Here is the latest edition to my list of wonderful libraries: the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in Alexandria, Egypt (pictured), which I just visited yesterday.

During the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, the Royal Library of Alexandria was the most famous, and probably the largest, library in the world. It, and a replacement library, were both destroyed by fire. The current library, dedicated in 2002, is another "world class" library, and it has intentionally put itself forward as a worthy replacement for the historic Library of Alexandria, and is aiming to provide a comprehensive library service for the entire world. That means that we all have a free "library card" for this spectacular library.

On the library's main website, investigate the its special projects, found under the "initiatives" tab, and specifically including its ISIS project - the International School of Information Science.

You would have to be a pretty "old hand" in Santa Cruz to remember the name Bill Hinchliff, but I do remember Bill, who looked very much like Walt Whitman, and who had his same exuberance, and who was actively engaged in the public life of the Santa Cruz County community in the 1970's. Bill waxed ecstatic, at every opportunity, about the power of knowledge, and about the power, above all, of making human knowledge available to all, through the human invention of the library.

My visit to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, yesterday, brought tears to my eyes - and a fond memory of Bill Hinchliff.

56 / Progressive Taxation In Ancient Egypt

Today I went touring in Alexandria, Egypt and visited the Amud El-Sawari Monument, which is perhaps best known as the site of Pompey's Pillar (pictured).

I was most interested in the "Nileometer" (the actual name on the sign), which was a canal system that connected the Nile River to a Temple formerly located on the site (the Temple not, incidentally, actually connected in any way with the Roman political and military leader named Pompey). In effect, the "Nileometer" was a device that provided a water level measurement for the Nile to the Priests in the Temple, and this measurement was then used by the Priests to assess taxes.

If the water level measure was high, so were the taxes. If the water level measure was low, then taxes were low, too.

Since high water levels in the Nile were directly associated with "good years" for agriculture, and thus were linked to agricultural and property income, the ancient system was a way to make taxation "progressive," i.e. increasing taxes when income increased.

Not a bad principle to try in our country! We've been heading in the opposite direction, as those who follow tax policy know.

55 / Travel Advisory

Here are a few notes on my travels in Egypt.

As those following along may remember, I began this trip in Hawaii, back in January, and while I didn't stay at the Outrigger Hotel on Waikiki, I have stayed there in the past, and loved it. Here in Luxor, I am staying at the Steigenberger Nile Palace (pictured), which does have a certain Outrigger feel to it. No beach, but it's right on the Nile, with boats galore, and lots of good restaurants. I recommend it!

Then there is Luxor itself. Again, I like it! For instance, it's not every city that has a convenient downtown Temple (pictured), dating from 1280, BC.

In Cairo, I went to the Egyptian Museum (no pictures allowed) which was thronged with people, and filled with the most amazing things. However, the materials were poorly displayed, for the most part, and the presentation didn't do justice to the treasures on show.

In Luxor, not far from the Luxor Temple, the Luxor Museum (pictures also not allowed) has fewer objects and fewer people, but the presentation of the materials is so well done that these treasures from Egypt's past truly come alive.

If you've read the book Loot (recommended), you will remember an opinion that is consistent with my own thought: the Luxor Museum is a "must see" the next time you're in Egypt!

54 / Ojala

My very favorite word in Spanish is Ojala, roughly meaning "hopefully."

Spain, of course, was largely under the influence of the "Moors," or Arabs, from 711, AD to 1492, AD, which is the same year that Columbus set off to "discover" the Indies. The Alhambra, shown here, and which I visited in Granada, is among the legacies that the Arabs left to Spain.

But the Arabs left another legacy, too: the legacy of the word Ojala, a word still used in Egypt, in almost every conversation I've had, as "Inshallah."

"If God wills," and "if God allows," is a thought worth pondering. We tend to assume that it is we who will decide what is going to happen in the future.

Ojala / Inshallah!

53 / Only Remembered

War Horse is a powerful play about World War I, which I saw in London. Birdsong is a powerful book about World War I, which I read during this around the world trip.

Both of these works explore (and celebrate) the power of memory as an essential and redemptive force in our lives. At the play, I was brought to the emotional brink by both the words and the melody of the War Horse theme music, "Only Remembered," which captures so well this essentially human truth:

Fading away like the stars in the morning
Losing their light in the glorious sun
Thus would we pass from this earth and its toiling
Only remembered for what we have done

The world we most immediately inhabit is the world we create. It is our glory, if there is any glory in what we do.

Today, as I visited both the Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple, I thought of this music. Both of these Temples are incredible monuments to the desire of human beings, everywhere, and in every time, to be remembered for what they have done.

52 / The Solar Boat

It strikes me that Egyptians during the times of the Pharaohs really did not believe that life was "over" when death came.

At least not for the rulers!

The Pharaoh Cheops built a magnificent monument, in the form of the Great Pyramid at Giza, but this was not solely to memorialize his greatness during his term of life. He fully expected to return to the East Bank of the Nile, and to sail there on the fully preserved "solar" boat that he hid, quite successfully, to one side of the Pyramid. The story of its discovery (and subsequent restoration) is itself a story worth knowing.

The boat is called a "solar" boat because it is expected to carry the Pharaoh into the sunlight, into the East.

This belief in the physical reality of a life after death continues. Our guide, Noha, is a devout Muslim, with somewhat of an evangelistic bent. She made clear that what we do in this life is important, really, because of what it will mean in the next.

The world view of the Pharaohs is alive today.

51 / Cairo: Land Use And Transportation

Now in Egypt and seeing the sights, I have been guided today by Noha Nabil Mostafa, a very knowledgeable and professionally trained "Egyptologist." By the way, that is not my group in the picture with the Sphinx, but the picture does reveal the way tourism is currently being experienced near the Great Pyramids on the Giza Plateau.

Noha was interested not only in helping us to understand what we have been seeing in Egypt, but also in finding out what we do in the United States. Before she knew what I did, she launched off into a critique of Egyptian land use policy (illustrated), objecting very strongly to second home developments moving forward on the "green fertile fields" surrounding Cairo (her words).

I told Noha about Measure J, and its protection for commercially productive agricultural lands in Santa Cruz County, and her eyes got wide. It appears that this rather straightforward approach to land use policy resonates (at least with her) in Egypt, too.

The air pollution issues that the pictures make visible, related I feel certain to the truly horrific traffic in Cairo (pictured), were not as much at the top of Noha's consciousness. The smoggy air that permeates Cairo and its environs, and that makes the Great Pyramids largely invisible from any significant distance, is almost certainly not just the result of early morning fog from the Nile, and dust storms from the desert (excuses put forth to explain the lack of visibility of the Pyramids). I think the visibility issues are much more likely linked to the incredible traffic and the lack of much in the way of contemporary pollution reduction on the multitudes of cars that jam every street.

As those who listen to my KUSP Land Use Report know, land use policy, transportation, and air quality problems are all related. Even in Egypt!

50 / A Brief Book Review

With all the travel I've been doing, I have found lots of time for reading. In London, Sheila Willmore recommended Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks. A harrowing tale of World War I, Faulks says the title "is intended to bear several meanings, but the most important is to sugges tthe indifference of the natural world to the human - human, as Philip Roth has put it, in the worst sense of the word." In fact, the book is meant to suggest that the nature of human action in the world we create is unlimited - in this case in a negative direction. Birdsong is convincing that the horrors of the Second World War, the war I know more about, and that I have always assumed was precedential in this respect, were merely a continuation of the unlimited world of horrors created and discovered by humans in the "Great War."

49 / Patterns At The Alhambra

Yesterday, I visited the Alhambra. When my sister Nancy heard I was planning to go to the Alhambra, she called it the "most beautiful building in the world." While I am doing my best to get around the world, I definitely haven't been to every beautiful building, everywhere (and Nancy, neither). I would have to guess, though, that the Alhambra is going to be at the very top of anyone's list of beautiful places. It truly is spectacular.

Pictured are various patterns in tile that appear in the many rooms of the Nasarid Palaces, the most spectacular part of this most spectacular place.

Within the arena of human creation, the possibilities are unlimited. And the Alhambra pushes those limits!

48 / Connectivity #2

Internet "connectivity" is one thing and "real" connectivity is another. In Europe and other parts of the world, people are able to connect themselves to other people and other places by using buses and trains.

In the United States, that's the exception, not the rule. In the United States, people are connected by automobiles.

The bus system in Spain is impressive (failed internet connections aside). Whether in Madrid or in the smaller Spanish cities, the bus stations are centers of life, with hundreds of buses leaving Madrid each hour, for destinations everywhere. They are almost always to the minute on time, and the apparent confusion along the platforms, as thousands of people come and go, belies the system's incredible operational effectiveness.

The same for trains.

I've been taking high speed trains in Japan, Britain, France, and soon will take my second trip on the Spanish AVE system. I will be leaving Malaga on Friday at 11:05 in the morning (and my prediction, based on my experience, is that I will be leaving Malaga at exactly that time). Arrival in Madrid (Atocha) will be at 1:40 in the afternoon. Therefore, a trip from the southern coast of Spain to the capital city, 344 miles to the north, will take two and three-quarters hours. I think I'm right in calculating that as an effective 125 mile per hour trip for the entire journey.

It would be nice if California had a train system like that - if we could "do it right." I'm following the High Speed Rail efforts in California closely, and I don't have much confidence, unfortunately. But that's another story.

47 / Connectivity

In my "real" life in Santa Cruz, California, I rely on instant "connectivity." My iPhone gives me internet access virtually everywhere. Computers with larger screens, at home and at work, mean that I am always "on."

I thought it could be the same while traveling. In many ways, both Europe and Asia have internet technologies that are actually in advance of those in the United States.

The bus company ALSA, for instance, one of the largest in Spain, provides a "super" service connecting Madrid and Granada, which not only provides onboard movies, and a live assistant to cater to your needs, but also wireless internet access right at your seat.

I got the wireless to appear on my computer and iPhone, and "bien fuerte," very strong (five bars). In fact, though, despite the bars, there was "limited or no connectivity."

This posting is late.

46 / Dubious About Dubai

In my recent travels I have been to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Paris, Venice - and now Madrid. All great cities.

I am not planning to go to Dubai.

This year in particular, I have been trying to think about how the world that humans create relates to the World of Nature that we have not created, and upon which we ultimately depend.

Our cities are certainly prominent parts of the world we have created, and that we continue to create, but the great cities I've visited (and even great cities that no longer exist, like Tenochtitlan) seem in some sense to be "organic," rooted in and related to both history and to place. Great cities, though they are human contrivances, pay respect to the Natural World, and to the natural limits of our human existence, which must inevitably reflect the place in which we find ourselves, and the history of what we do and have done there. There is, in other words a reason for most cities to exist.

There seems no natural reason that there should be a city where Dubai has been built. No organic form reflects either Nature or History. Just check the picture. Compare to Venice and to Tenochtitlan.

If I am right, it is a profound error for humans to think that they can or should do things that have no natural connection to either Nature or to History. In this sense, I am dubious about Dubai.

45 / Venice And Tenochtitlan

Venice is truly a marvel of human creativity. A picture of Venice from the air shows why it is called the "City of Water."

Having seen Venice, I cannot help but wish that I could have seen Tenochitlan, another "City of Water." Destroyed after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, Tenochitlan was, at the the time of the Conquest, perhaps the most beautiful city in the world.

I am in Madrid, the capital city of Spain. I regret the Conquest.

I am in Madrid, but I am dreaming of Tenochitlan.

44 / Finding Your Way Around Venice

The Correr Museum exhibits a large, hand drawn map of Venice, prepared in the 1500's. It is truly a work of art.

I found it interesting that this old map from the 1500's seems to tally almost exactly with the modern day map in my Venice guidebook. This is not to say that nothing has changed. As an example, the structure in which the museum is located is not actually on the older map, since this "wing" of the buildings surrounding the Piazza San Marco was constructed after the conquest of Venice by Napoleon, in 1797. The Napoleonic era structure that now houses the Museo Correr replaced another building that filled the same space.

What the old map proves, though, is that the "form" of the City has not significantly changed. It would be possible to get around Venice today following the old map.

Getting around Venice, however, is not that easy, map or not, at least not if your objective is to get to a specific place. You can't follow the proverbial "straight line." The streets are narrow, irregular, and the most important streets are canals. Getting over those canals is not possible at every intersection, and there are really only three bridges that allow you to get over the Grand Canal.

The way to find your way around Venice is to get to a main location, nearby to where you actually want to go, and then work yourself through the narrow streets and alleys starting from there. Two main landmarks are the Piazza San Marco (with its towering campanile) and the Rialto Bridge, one of the main bridges over the Grand Canal, and an important destination in itself.

Once you get the hang of it, you just look for the signs that give you a general direction to follow towards the major landmark you need to find (per Rialto, or per San Marco, or per Academia). Then, wind yourself along in the general direction you want to go. Deal with the details later.

As a philosophical system to guide life decisions, this sounds like a good idea! On a more practical level, I hope this system works when we try to attend the Barber of Seville at a theater, located somewhere in Venice, later on tonight!

43 / No Pigeons

The Piazza San Marco, in the heart of Venice, is known for its pigeons. They're dangerous, I'm told, and and their abundant discharges can soil an otherwise happy experience.

It's my first trip to Venice, and I am having no problems with pigeons. This being Carnevale, the pigeons have been displaced by throngs of celebrating and bedecked strollers, not to mention the unbedecked hangers on (like me) who like to look.

The "purpose" of Carnevale in Venice, at least as far as I can tell, is to get yourself outfitted in the most arresting costume possible, hiding at all costs your true identity. You then saunter slowly along the streets, allowing the uncostumed multitudes to take your picture.

Group and individual categories clearly exist! Prizes for the best costumes!!

I went to see museums, and the Doge's Palace, and they were spectacular. But the real action this week is in the Piazza San Marco, and in the picturesque streets.

42 / Revisiting 1962

I lived in Tours, France from the Fall of 1962 to the Spring of 1963. During that time, I was a student at the Stanford Overseas Campus then located in Tours. I hadn't exactly forgotten that part of my life, but I must say that I never would have thought to revisit Tours in connection with my recent trip to France. I was in France to visit my sister Nancy, and her husband Rick, and to see for myself if their bed and breakfast hotel and art studio, Maison Conti, was as beautiful in real life as it appears on the Internet. (My conclusion, incidentally: it is).

My plan for France was simply to hang around Montmirail, relaxing at Maison Conti and visiting with my expatriate family members.

Nancy, however, had other ideas. For her, my time in Tour was vivid, since she quite clearly remembered the many letters I sent home from France. She thought I should go back to Tours, and recapture"les temps perdu," as Marcel Proust might have said.

I remembered my time in Tours as a difficult and rather unhappy period. I was a lonely college sophomore, missing home, and trying rather unsuccessfully to turn my high school and college French into real communication. That was not, apparently, the way Nancy remembered the experience (as she saw it in my letters). Therefore, Nancy decided on a trip to Tours.

I am happy that Nancy did take me back to Tours. Forty-eight years after the last time I was in Tours, I was able to guide our group directly to the former Stanford Campus, now a different school, the Universite Francois Rabelais. The statue of Rabelais is still across the street, right next to the River Loire, and the picturesque streets of the old part of town were just as I recalled them.

Tours is a much bigger place, now, and there is actually a subway stop at Place Anatole France, where the Stanford campus was located. My perspectives have grown, too. From my current perspective in this present time, my past experiences now seem happy ones.

41 / Maison Conti

In France, when not visiting with the President, I've been visiting with my sister Nancy and her husband Rick, who decided several years ago to move to France.

Nancy's daughter Emily Wilson is now living in France, where she is an actress; Emily's husband is Jos Houben, an extremely talented artistic director and actor, who leads the Jacques Lecoq school of drama in Paris. Their young son, Quinn, was a constant presence (and a joy) during our visit to Maison Conti.

Maison Conti is an exquisite bed and breakfast (and an art studio) that needs to be seen to be believed. Luckily, with the magic of the internet, you can click the link and get a great idea!

40 / I See The President (Of France)

Nicolas Sarkozy is the President of France. I did not expect to meet up with him on my first full day in France, but as it turns out, there was an opportunity to do that, so I did.

Marilyn and I are visiting my sister Nancy and her husband Rick, who run an incredible bed and breakfast establishment in Montmirail (Sarthe). This is not Montmirail (Marne), or the other Montmirail located in France. There are actually three different villages called Montmirail in France, and I have now heard some very amusing stories about bed and breakfast guests who have managed to get the three confused. If you do that, you can actually mess yourself up pretty badly. At any rate, the Montmirail we are visiting is in the general vicinity of Le Mans, and from that Montmirail it's a nice hour or so drive to Amboise, in the Valley of the Loire, and the site of a pretty spectacular Chateau and the house where Leonardo de Vinci died.

There is now a new toll road/freeway that could cut time from the journey, but we chose a route from Montmirail to Amboise that took us on what would be called "back roads," or "country roads," in the United States. These roads are incredibly picturesque, and take you through small village after small village. You see lots of hay in various stages of production, old stone buildings, and animals.

Usually (at least I assume this is true) you do not see the President of France.

Today, however, as we drove into Mondouble, one of those picturesque little villages, a somewhat sizable crowd (say 200-300 people) stood along the road, and in a convenient parking lot next to the French version of a 7-11 store (called 8 a huit). A fairly large cadre of national and local police were also on the scene, which was made attractive by the light snowfall which gave everything a very brisk and shining look.

Upon inquiry, we learned that the President of France was expected momentarily, and that this was the occasion for the gathering. Parking our car about 200 feet from the crowd, Rick suggested we meet President Sarkozy.

We did. That's him behind the umbrella!

Kidding aside, we were actually able to see the President, and Marilyn took a few good photos. President Sarkozy acted like politicians everywhere, shaking hands and proceeding immediately into the first available warm building.

It was a great way to start our visit. We really felt honored that the President would turn out personally!

We liked the Chateau, too!

39 / Theatre Review

London is a great place for theater. In our five days here, Marilyn has seen Twelfth Night, by the Royal Shakespeare Company (to which she did not give a great review) and we together have seen:

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
The extremely popular War Horse
The Thirty-Nine Steps
Six Degrees of Separation at the Old Vic
The Misanthrope, with Kiera Knightley
Becket's Waiting For Godot with Ian McKellen

These plays were "all good," but the performance of Waiting For Godot was the best I've ever seen and the new version of The Misanthrope, by Moliere by way of contemporary author Martin Crimp, was spectacular. Speaking of spectacular, War Horse is the probably the most spectacular puppet show you'll ever see, if you favor puppet shows!

38 / The "Local"

In Britain, "living locally" definitely means patronizing a neighborhood "local," sometimes also called the "public house," or "pub" for short.

The Sherlock Holmes on Northumberland boasts a full restaurant menu. It's good!

The Coal Hole, on the Strand, has terrific pies (I particularly recommend the lamb-apricot).

I haven't been inside the Bung Hole (at least not yet), but I do like the name. It's on High Holborn, and I guess it's supposed to be a wine bar. As you can tell from the link, it doesn't get universally good reviews, but with apologies to one of my legal colleagues (you know who you are, Bill), I am almost positive you can get a Guinness at the Bung Hole, and I doubt you can go wrong with that.

The idea that our daily existence might, quite logically, revolve in significant part around a privately-owned but "public" house, "local" to one's place of residence, indicates that there are different approaches to social organization. Having now been able to witness the "pub scene" up close, I'm thinking that had I been brought up in England (or Ireland), I'd be putting down a Guinness daily. For a non-drinker, that's saying something!

37 / Look Right

I like the fact that the London curbs provide a reminder that different social choices have been made here than in some other places, and that if you'd like to avoid being creamed by a double-decker you should "look right" as you leave the safety of the sidewalk.

The realities of our human-created world are infinitely malleable. It's our choice, and there's no "right" answer, in the sense of any "inevitable" answer, to how things are "supposed to be."

Things are quite different in the Natural World, where natural laws control. There, you may or may not "look right," but you had better "do right," or you'll be creamed for sure.

36 / Restaurant Review

On a sunny Friday in London it turned out to be possible, for almost the entire day, to forget the controversies and philosophical thoughts that mostly preoccupy me - even on a trip intended to provide a respite from such cares.

First, a nice long walk from the Grand Hotel on Trafalgar Square to the British Library; then, lunch with a British friend; then, an unexpected trip by bus to the Old Vic, to see a free performance of Six Degrees of Separation; then, a quick drink at the Royal Festival Hall, a walk along the banks of the Thames, past the British Film Institute and the skateboarders and the outdoor book fair, to a performance of Top Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre. Finally, a walk back across the Golden Jubilee Bridge to the Embankment Underground Station, close by the hotel.

Here's what I left out: dinner at the Giraffe Restaurant and Bar (very near the National Theatre). This place gets a rave review for food, atmosphere, and friendly service. I promised them a blog reference. They deserve it! Next time in London, head for the Giraffe!

35 / An Exchange of Correspondence

My postings to this blog are intended to reflect my thinking on how the world we create by our own "political" actions (the world we most immediately inhabit) relates to the World of Nature. In the World of Nature, human beings are "creatures," not "creators." It is this World of Nature upon which all life ultimately depends, including our own, and to the extent we forget our ultimate dependence upon the World of Nature we put all life in peril.

For me, an "environmentalist" is someone who appreciates both that we are ultimately dependent on the World of Nature, and thus must respect its laws and limits, and that we are also creative beings in our own world, a world created by our own "political" choices. True "environmentalists," thus, seek to use the political powers to which we have access to change the realities of our world, and to reflect in our world the laws and limits of the Natural World that we do not create, and upon which all life ultimately depends.

One thing we now know is that the political choices we have made in our world, basing our civilizations on the burning of hydrocarbons, is radically undermining the long term stability and viability of the World of Nature, and that we need, as a matter of the very greatest urgency, to stop burning carbon fuels.

For me, therefore, every expression of satisfaction about the "discovery" of a new oil field, or every effort further to develop and exploit oil fields that we already know about, sends exactly the wrong message, from an environmental point of view. The momentum of our past choices is carrying us forward towards the continued use of hydrocarbon fuels; that's understood, but it's not a fact that should be celebrated, and "environmentalists" should not be continuing to push forward this wheel of doom.

In this context, I have personally concluded that the "Tranquillon Ridge" oil development proposal, as touted by Governor Schwarzenegger among others, would be terribly detrimental. The idea is to allow new oil drilling on the Tranquillon Ridge, in "state waters," with the promise that this new drilling will be coupled with the cessation of other oil drilling in federal waters, and with some land donations, and that the upshot of new oil production on the Tranquillon Ridge will be to ratchet down oil development in the future. (Incidentally, or maybe not incidentally, the oil company involved, and the State of California, would make a lot of money).

Because I continue to participate in a nationwide coalition of environmentalists against offshore oil drilling (a coalition I and other Santa Cruz County officials helped create) I am aware that the approval of the Tranquillon Ridge "deal" by California will almost certainly assist efforts to open up new OCS oil drilling around the nation's coasts, including new drilling in federal waters off California. Several days ago, I wrote about this, and expressed my opposition, and I heard just this morning from one of the attorneys for the Environmental Defense Center, the environmental group based in Santa Barbara that has been spearheading environmental support for the Tranquillon Ridge deal. Thus, I can now add the following exchange of correspondence.

Environmental lobbyists will be meeting today (Thursday) in Sacramento, to debate the merits of the Tranquillon Ridge proposal. I wish I could be there!

From: Gary Patton
To: lkrop@edcnet.org

Linda:

I am on an "around the world" trip, and will be until March 15th, so I am out of telephone contact. The best email for me is: gapatton@stanfordalumni.org. I think that Pedro Nava reprinted and distributed an item from my blog (www.gapatton.net) which commented on the paid lobbyist issue. I haven't seen what he did. While I do have email access, I am mostly out doing things during the day (or most recently sleeping off jet lag), and so I am not on my computer on a constant basis, as I normally am. Thus, I've just woken up (in London), and see that I have nine pages of email items to review, including this email from you, which is near the top of the list. I haven't reviewed the other nine pages, nor have I seen the item to which you are responding. Hopefully, Pedro did not misquote my blog post.

As to what I said on my blog post, I do think that the EDC has put itself in in untenable position vis a vis the paid lobbyist issue. PCL, the Sierra Club, NRDC, and other environmental groups, as you probably know, did recently complete an extensive set of negotiations with a major landowner and several developers (the Tejon Ranch negotiations) in which the environmental groups signed off on an agreement that they thought had environmental benefits (other environmental groups disagreed). This is pretty much the same kind of thing that the EDC has done with Tranquillon Ridge, and I don't fault the EDC for that effort.

Additionally, I don't fault EDC for recovering its costs of negotiation. The environmental groups negotiating on Tejon recovered their costs of negotiation, too.

Here's the problem I see with the agreement you executed: instead of simply agreeing "not to oppose" the deal you negotiated (as the groups did in Tejon) you negotiated an agreement to "support" the deal. Further, and this is the real problem I tried to identify in my blog post, you contracted to support the agreement by actively lobbying with governmental agencies having approval power whenever PxP requests you to do so, not as EDC may independently decide. Therefore, by the terms of your contract, EDC is no longer an independent voice on this proposed deal; you are the voice of PxP with respect to the benefits or not of the deal you negotiated.

I realize, on the merits, that there are arguments for the agreement. However, the arguments pro and con were not debated generally in the environmental community prior to the agreement being finalized, and so we can only comment on the agreement now, after it has (reluctantly) been made public by EDC. I, personally, think that the contract is a "bad deal" for the environment, particularly as it will almost certainly "undo" efforts at the Congressional level to constrain future developments on the federal OCS. Naturally, I'm sorry that EDC thought otherwise, though I respect the difference of opinion.

The lobbying provisions of the contract, however, make it clear that EDC's current position is, of necessity, the position of PxP, and so for those who tend to suspect that PxP sees this deal from the perspective of making money for PxP, instead of from the perspective of environmental protection, it means that any arguments by EDC at this juncture should receive exactly the same deference that an argument by a paid lobbyist for PxP would make. Oil companies do have good arguments, sometimes, and environmental lobbyists are used to negotiating with lobbyists for the oil industry, and I hope that environmental lobbyists approach that kind of negotiation professionally, focusing on the merits. But make no mistake, from my point of view EDC should be treated like any other paid lobbyist for the Tranquillon Ridge deal; you are getting money for supporting the project. What the environmental groups in Sacramento should do should be based completely on what they think about the merits of the proposal.

As I say, on merits, I think it's a "bad deal" for the environment, and lobbyists used to dealing with the "fix is in" type of proposals (and this is one of them) will be legitimately skeptical that opening up new drilling in state waters is going to lead to a good long term result.

Sorry we disagree on this one. Best!

Gary A. Patton

=================================

From: Linda Krop [mailto:lkrop@edcnet.org]
To: gapatton@wittwerparkin.com

Dear Gary:

I wish you had spoken with me first. At least as a courtesy. But also to be responsible and get the facts. I can respond to these allegations and accusations. (E.g., I am not a paid lobbyist for PXP. I am an attorney representing Get Oil Out! and Citizens Planning Association, two groups that have been fighting offshore oil for more than 40 years.) Please, let's talk, and next time please talk to me before writing something like this. I would certainly have done the same for you.

Linda Krop, Chief Counsel
Environmental Defense Center
906 Garden Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone (805) 963-1622, x106
Fax (805) 962-3152
www.edcnet.org

34 / All Politics Is Local

A fifteen-hour flight from Singapore to London provides a convincing demonstration that "living globally" is highly unnatural. I just experienced such a flight, and it convinced me that there is a very good reason that the slogan says "think" globally, but "act" locally.

To the extent that things are "natural" they are, by definition, rooted in the specifics of local places, climates, cultures, and customs. And to the extent that Tip O'Neill was right (and I'm inclined to think he was) all "politics" is "local," too.

"Politics" is the activity by which we decide, together, what sort of world we want to live in. But we live today as if we were able to make such decisions on a "global" scale. The "New World Order" of George Bush is inherently anti-political and unnatural, and yet that is the model by which we are attempting to define our future.

No wonder we have lost touch with the World of Nature. We act like it doesn't matter.

33 / Losing Touch With The Natural World

The International Herald Tribune is the English language paper of choice for U.S. travelers outside the United States (though I must say that the South China Morning Post, available in Hong Kong, is also a very good English language paper).

At any rate, the Monday, February 1, 2010 edition of the International Herald Tribune, as placed outside my hotel door in Singapore, had an interesting column by Tom Zeller, Jr., titled "Failed efforts in protecting biodiversity."

The phrase that particularly caught my eye was this one: "That developed societies are losing touch with the natural world is not exactly news..."

Well, it isn't. And my tour of the growth spots in Asia, including Hong Kong and Singapore, convinces me that we have, indeed, lost touch with even the existence of the natural world. The focus of human activity, everywhere, is to build a world that is of, by, and for the humans, without much attention, in any way, to the ultimate dependence of everything we do on the World of Nature.

The photo illustrating today's posting is of the Marina Bay Sands, a new casino under construction in Singapore, and due to open by the end of this year. It is truly one of the most striking architectural constructions I have ever seen, resembling a ship stranded in mid-air. The link shows what it's going to look like when it is done.

Zeller quotes Ray Anderson, the founder of "Interface," a carpetinbg conmpany, and the author of the book Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose - Doing Business by Respecting the Earth:

There's a web of life and we're part of it. We're not above it and we're not outside it.

So true. But as the new Singapore casino illustrates by its very design, we continue to think that we can sail on in a world that we make ourselves, and remain, as we build our world, above it all!