Update: Gulf volunteering by Niki2

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Update: Gulf volunteering

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Wednesday, July 7, 2010 10:37
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Tuesday, July 6, 2010 11:16 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Some will consider this more "duplicative" thread stuff, but I will continue to give updates on my effort to get to the gulf, for those who were so kind as to make it possible or are interested. The rest of you need not read.

Two of the three local organizations I e-mailed have responded. Nothing new or surprising, but I thought I'd share their replies:

Quote:
Good morning Niki!

Thank you for your desire to serve. Currently we are posting volunteer opportunities on volunteermississippi.org [I'm signed up there]. As the spill continues and more non-profits are getting involved we will continue to post new opportunities online.

Hopefully your experience will allow you to be more involved than some without can be.

Let me know if this helps or if you have anymore questions.

Brandon Boltz
Jackson county VRC

Quote:
Hello Niki,

We currently do not have any positions dealing directly with the oil. Our biggest program is the "Coastwatchers", in which residents walk 1-mile sections of the beach at dawn and report their findings.

All the positions with which we are familiar involving cleaning animals or oil cleanup are only allowed to be done by certified hazmat trained individuals. You could try contacting the Audobon society [I did], but I am fairly certain they only take certified individuals as well [they do AT THIS TIME].

WIN (Workforce Investment Network) jobs is an organization that has information and paid positions working with the oil cleanup. You can call them at (228) 897-6900.
Sorry we could not help further.

Nothing unexpected in that. I wish to hell I was trained in hazmat or oiled-bird cleanup; I'm going to get the training once I can save up the money for the former, and will get the latter via IRRCC once I start volunteering there. But that doesn't help right now. This won't be the only one, but in future I'll be prepared.

My only hope is that, given this will go on for a VERY long time, eventually they'll call up volunteers from out of state, etc. Meanwhile, if anyone knows anyone down in the Gulf or in Florida who has information on how to "sneak" beach cleanup, I'd be most grateful. If I knew where to GO, I'd go.

Blows me away that I'm reading about people on the beach, children SWIMMING and coming out with oil on them, while they won't let volunteers clean up the beaches!!! How insane...

IF I never get the chance to go, all the donations reside in my PayPal account and I'll refund them or donate them, whichever you desire. I'm praying that doesn't come to pass, but it's sure hard waiting.

Still signing up for everything I can find.

Thanx again for all your help; a couple more contributions came in, so as of now, with my own $50, we're up to $350! Most likely air fares to the Gulf will be low, given the tourist problem, so if it doesn't take too long, maybe I can benefit from that. Either way, you've given me some money for housing and food on top of the flight, for which I thank you again.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off

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Tuesday, July 6, 2010 2:04 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Apropros of nothin, but just to bring a smile for ya today...

Obviously I still have military contacts, and if ya know anything about combat engineers you know just how much they love their job, especially when all the red tape, corporate profit-seeking, and union obstructionism gets shoved aside they get, as they say... "unleashed".

Seriously, they're friggin bonkers, but in a good way, and if you LET them, they'll build or bash just about anythin and everything, you just gotta admire that a bit.

But I was talkin about the volunteer issue with one of the NCOs and he said something that cracked me the hell up.
"Shit, she can volunteer for us, we could use a beer monkey!"
(This is an old joke, and denotes the guy stuck dragging around a little red wagon with a coleman cooler full of beer stuck on top of it)

Would that I had any kinda pull with BP, but I don't, it'd be like a guppy pokin a shark and we ain't got near enough blackmail on em for that yet, and so long as they're in charge, they're the main roadblock - workin on some state and local, but no hits yet.

-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.

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Wednesday, July 7, 2010 5:31 AM

KANEMAN

Are you still trying to steal peoples money for Twinkies? Have you any shame?

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Wednesday, July 7, 2010 6:14 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Had a strong feeling you couldn't resist, Kanegirl. Your heading is correct; you ARE offensive. And pathetic. Go play somewhere else, REAL people have things to talk about.

How I wish you did have pull, with anyone or anywhere, Frem. If they're working in the gulf, hell, I'd be their "beer boy" or anything ELSE!

Can you tell I'm very frustrated??

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off

”Niki--condescending arrogant fat old bi-polar hag....You are an asshole...one does not need a sockpuppet to tell you to fuck off"...”eat shit you big government whore.....” ...sayeth Kane

...Remember, remember, the ugliest members...

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Wednesday, July 7, 2010 9:39 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Well, problem with getting pull is what you usually have to use for leverage - and it's not enough to have the actions on tape, you have to connect them solidly enough to a single person that it'd stand up in court, and that person has to have enough authority to be worth bending...

There's actually a whole philosophy and set of rules about this kinda thing, even if no one ever admits it, Middle Easterners call it Baksheesh, the Spanish call it La Mordida, we call it Lobbying, but in essences it's all the same thing, a combination of favor trading, bribery, extortion, yadda yadda - and right now all I got is a pair of deuces and no credible bluff, so I need a better "hand" to play with - not that imma share details but wanted you to get the picture of where we are on that.

One thing BP has neither control nor influence over was the Ark Project, we were just a bit player in that, but someone with sufficient resources to pull it off decided to make the effort to preserve as many of the impacted species as possible and collect sufficient samples to preserve them in captivity just in case, with the hopes that once the mess is cleaned up they could be re-introduced - not all of the top deck elite are complete asshats, but they have to maintain a certain reputation cause socially they're like freaking sharks, and any sign of humanity is taken as weakness, blood in the water, and so they contract out stuff like that via blinds and fronts, and some of ours got a piece of it cause they needed a couple people with CDLs who were relatively discrete.

So, there's a backup plan in place, finally, against a total species wipeout, hopefully this mess gets cleaned up or mitigated soon though, cause extended captivity even in a perfect environment can be really detrimental to ever being able to successfully re-introduce.

You'd know, like, ten times as much as me about that, all I know is someone needed a couple truck drivers, neh ?

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Wednesday, July 7, 2010 10:37 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Bakshish (as we used to spell it) isn’t about extortion in any way, it’s bribery.

Quote:
Bakshish is a term used during the Byzintine Empire; it means bribe. This money paid out allowed for smooth movement over the caravan routes.

Today, America has its own version of bakshish. It's call political contributions. No matter how hard conservatives or liberals try to justify taking contributions from PACs or special interest groups, the fact remains that it is bakshish, a bribe.

That is where it started...Afghanistan and others being on the Silk Road, a kind of “toll” was paid by the Kuchis to pass through each warlord’s area. It’s still a very solid part of the Afghan mentality; hence all the corruption in their government.
The kind of power you’re talking about is much more complex and involves much more than just bakshish. Also much more effective.

Bakshish started as a small amount of money given for a favor (as in passage through territory); it's expanded to mean bribery, tips, and beggars cry "bakshish, saab" to get alms in the street. In Afghanistan, it's been so overworked that it's been referred to as "lavish remuneration and bribes, rudely demanded but ever so graciously accepted by the natives in return for little or no services rendered". It's unfortunately true; by the time we were there, bakshish was expected for virtually everything, and didn't necessarily mean you'd get what you wanted.

Yes, there are inherent problems in keeping species in captivity for any length of time. Some just wouldn’t survive; others would get too humanized; etc. Some species need to learn from a predecessor how to hunt, mate, survive. Just guessing, but it would seem if there was a way to save the DNA, freezing it or something, that would be a more viable alternative. Nonetheless, whatever anyone does is worth trying, lord knows it’s gonna be hard enough to rebuild, much less salvage the species that will probably be wiped out.

The other thing is you’d have to save a viable number of any species to keep from inbreeding. Depending on how long such a thing as this continues (and I fear it will be a LONG time!), it’s doubly hard to keep that going.

Reintroduction presents problems, too. You have to have the entire food chain for some species to survive, and down in the Gulf, that’s a LOT of different species in a very complex food chain, sadly. I was tickled to find that article by the guy in Florida who raises Gulf shrimp and has said he will donate to restock once things are cleaned up; we need as many of those as possible. The Gulf will change, no matter what happens.

The good news is that if it gets a CHANCE, the Ole Miss will recreate the wetlands on her own and start the process. IF they stop developing and let her have that chance. It would take a long, long time, but she dumps enough stuff in the Gulf to rebuild in time. I would think species higher on the food chain couldn’t be re-introduced until the entire food chain was re-established, d’ya think?

The one that worries me, along with sea turtles, is the manatees. I posted an article about the plans to relocate, but man, relocating those suckers is like moving an Orca; it’s done, but there’s got to be a real willingness to come up with the finances to do it, and manatees outside their normal ecosystem? I dunno; they are a pretty sensitive species. The loss of Pellies is horrific, but only because they’re suffering; they re-introduced them successfully once, they can again. There are Pellies everywhere. Same with other birds, shorebirds and others...it’s the species that aren’t as wide-ranging that are truly in danger.

Ach, you got me started. I’ll quit now.

I definitely wish anyone trying to do anything to salvage what they can all the luck in the world!

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off

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