After all, Faure Gnassingbe gave in to the pressure, and announced that there will be presidential elections within 60 days in Togo, the BBC reports. Sounds like Ecowas will send election observers.

In an their LA Times editorial Taking Child Slavery Out of Valentine’s Day, Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), touch on an important issue that needs much broader attention: the refusal of major chcolate manufacturers to stamp out child slavery in cocoa production. However, they miss one important aspect of this issue. There are chocolate manufacturers who do comply with the Harkin-Engel Protocol: Fair Trade chocolate makers. Here are some examples of sources for “guilt-free” chocolate:

• Equal Exchange Online Store
• Global Exchange
• Co-op America
• Lutheran World Relief

If you live in Durham, NC, check out the selection of fine, fair trade chocolates at One World Market on 9th Street. (Shameless plug for my wife’s store :))

The Togolese army may yield to intense pressure from Togo’s neighbors,the BBC reports. If the rumors are true that elections will soon be held in Togo, it will be a very positive and hopeful sign for democracy and human rights in West Africa.

That is, provided the elections are free, and are monitored carefully by international observers. As Le Togolais (in French) points out, Faure Gnassingbe’s talk of “free, democratic and transparent elections” too much resembles his father’s rhetoric. Under Eyadema, it was code for “vote for me, or else!”

In the meantime, Faure and his generals proudly uphold the old man’s legacy of brutally suppressing any freedom of expression in the strees of Togo. Protesters have been shot and radio stations closed. Our thoughts are with our friends in Togo, and with the Togolese diaspora all over the world.

[update] IciLome has posted some gripping images of the protests in Lomé.

These guys: Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems, sell a $800 conversion kit to turn a diesel vehicle into a greasecar that runs of pure vegetable oil!

Makes a lot of sense – after all the original Diesel engine was designed to run on peanut oil. Burning veggie oil dramatically reduces emissions, and uses a renewable resource. After all petroleum is far too valuable to burn! We need petro for clothing and shrinkwrap and Legos and ziplock bags and other useful stuff.

More:
Car and Driver (March ’04)
Mercedes Conversion
greasel.com

Eight thousand protesters in Paris braved a chilly, windy day in Paris to protest the coup d’état in Togo, Le Togolais reports (in French).

300 protest in Abidjan

In Togo, more demonstrators were killed in clashes with the police.

Looks pretty good ….

… and runs on vegetable oil (20 percent, for now).
Read the rest of this entry »

In violent clashes in the Bé neighborhood of Lomé three protesters were shot dead by Togolese police, and dozens wounded, South Africa’s Independent Online reports.

With regional powerhouse Nigeria in the lead, West African nations are increasing the pressure on Togo’s leadership, while an opposition rally in Lome is violently broken up by Togolese police.

OCHA IRIN and the BBC report that officials from ECOWAS and the African Union are denouncing the recent coup in Togo sharply. The tensions increased, when earlier today, Togolese officials diverted a plane carrying a delegation from Nigeria to Lome, and sent the delegation to the Eyadema stronghold Kara. instead, the plane turned around and landed in neighboring Benin.

Obasanjo’s official spokeswoman, Remi Oyo, told reporters:

As a result of this unfriendly and hostile action, President Obasanjo has advised the executive secretary of ECOWAS, Mr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, of his decision not to participate in the delegation of leaders who were supposed to visit Togo’s president.

The BBC also reports that protesters in Lome have been violently dispersed and a radio station was shut down by the government after broadcasting an interview with opposition leader Harry Olympio.

Seems to me that it is high time for Faure Eyadema to set a date for elections in the 60-day timeframe the original Togolese constitution provided, and to invite ECOWAS to assist with ensuring that such elections be free and fair.

Today, I finally bought my new car, a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta GLS TDI. Two weeks ago, our mechanic confirmed that our 1995 Plymouth Neon had a blown headgasket. So I started shopping for a replacement. I found mine on Autotrader.com, for sale from a private seller in Cary for a very reasonable price. They had just bought the car for their son, who was supposed to be stationed in Texas for two years, but then was deployed to Germany. I had looked around and driven a number of Jettas, and really started to like these cars. So today, I wrote a check and bought the car.

Last summer, one of the gas stations in North Durham opened a B20 biodiesel pump and that sparked my interest in buying a diesel car. But when Laura stopped getting paid by WLP, and had to start looking for a new source of regular paychecks, I put my car-shopping on hold. At the time, there were also only few Jetta TDI’s posted for sale in the area. This time around, I found several 2000 – 2003 TDI Jettas, and I drove several of them. eventually, I had to decide between a red one with automatic transmission and new tires, and a green one with a stick shift and no new tires. I picked the green one, because I really liked the short, sporty stick shift., and because the price was a bit less.

So, now I am looking forward to pumping biodiesel for the first time tomorrow. For the time being, I’ll probably stick to the commercial B20, especially since it’s winter. But I’ll check out the local biodiesel scene, and maybe even tackle building my own biodiesel reactor.
More here:
carolinabiodiesel.org
localb100.com
biodieselnow.com

AlterNet contributor Dana Larsen probably was smoking some spinach herself, when she wrote this hilarious analysis of Popeye’s drug-related symbolism:

During the 1920s and ’30s, the era when Popeye was created, “spinach” was a very common code word for marijuana. One classic example is “The Spinach Song,” recorded in 1938 by the popular jazz band Julia Lee and Her Boyfriends. Performed for years in clubs thick with cannabis smoke, along with other Julia Lee hits like “Sweet Marijuana,” the popular song used spinach as an obvious metaphor for pot.
What’s In Popeye’s Pipe?, Dana Larsen, AlterNet.

She also suggests that the burning bush in the bible, through which the big guy chats with Moses, symbolized the cannabis plant, and that Popeye’s famous phrase “I yam what I yam” is an echo of Moses’ “I am whatI am” statement to the burning shrubbery:

So in this context, the use of phrase, “I yam what I yam,” can be seen as a reference to Popeye’s use of the burning cannabis bush, which creates his higher awareness of the self-reflective nature of the Godhead.

Waiter! I’ll have whatever Dana is smoking.

… in 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes and 33 seconds, that is. Ellen MacArthur just broke the non-stop singlehanded round the world record set just a year ago by Francis Joyon. She crossed the finish line off Ushant, France, after sailing her 75 foot trimaran B&Q solo around the world.

Ellen sailed 27,348 miles at an average speed of 15.9 knots, along a course similar to the Vendee Globe course. from France, arcoss the Equator, round the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean, through the Southern Ocean, Past Cape Leeuwin, Australia, across the Pacific, around Cape Hoorn, across the Equator, back to France.

President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo died yesterday at age 69. He was one of the original African dictators of the post-colonial era. This is his legacy in a nutshell:

Born to a peasant family in northern Togo, the young Sergeant Eyadema seized power in 1967 after staging one of Africa’s first coups soon after Togo won independence from France – an achievement noted and copied elsewhere.
BBC, Feb. 6, 2005

Sadly, Democracy in Togo, an ailing sapling under Eyadema, also suffered a “heart attack” when the military closed the borders and Army Chief of Staff Gen Zakari Nandja announced that the army had decided to hand power to son Faure Eyadema, 39. The African Union and the European Union denounced this Coup D’état.

Our thoughts are with our friends in Togo during these trying times.

The Vendeé Globe is drawing to a close after the first three sailors reached Les Sables d’Olonne. It took the winner, Vinent Riou on PRB, 87 days 10 hours 47 minutes and 55 seconds to finish the 23680 miles around the world, solo, at an average theoretical speed along the course of 11.28 knots (22 km/hr). And Karen Leibovic, on Benefic, had just rounded Cape Hoorn, and is working her way up the South Atlantic.

I had been following the adventures of one particular skipper, Nick Moloney, and Australian, who was ranked 7th (out of the remaining 14), when he had to drop out near Rio de Janeiro because the keel of his boat broke off.

Another interesting saling race is Ellen MacArthur’s around-the-world record attempt.

… yeah – like the word wide web needs more words! Well, here it goes ….