TWO YEARS IN A
TREE
Julia 'Butterfly' Hill spent
two years in a tree to save it from the saw.
738 days up a thousand year old
tree called "Moon". Sounds uncomfortable doesn't it? But if you are against
deforestation and you want to save a forest that contains some of the tallest
and oldest trees in the world then perhaps you might understand Julia Hill's
motives. One of the reasons could also be that 'Butterfly' Hill is one of those
people who has seen death close up and understands that life is something
beautiful and unique. When she was 21 she suffered a car accident that meant
she couldn't walk for |
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10 months and since then has had a different
sense of what it means to live. When she went to a remote part of California
with the ecological group 'Earth First' and discovered that only 3% of the
original forest remained and that it was soon to disappear under the
lumberjacks* saw she decided to take action. "We need people ready to climb up
and stay there for a few days'' were the words of Almond, the group's leader.
Those few days soon became weeks, months and eventually years. Julia soon
became an international media star. With her mobile phone she spoke with
American schoolchildren, Japanese T.V. stations, an Israeli university and
Australian ecologists. Her 'office' was a tent fixed to a small wooden platform
and she also had another 'room' at a height of 60m which she used as a store
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room and observation point. Supplies were
lifted up to her by pullies, she captured ram for her water, solar panels
recharged the batteries she used and she cooked her vegetarian meals on a small
camping stove*. Naturally the lumber* company that wanted to cut down the trees
did not let her live peaceftilly. There were always lumberjacks at the base of
the tree threatening to cut it down at any moment and helicopters circled above
her creating a defeaning* noise that prevented her from sleeping. Then she had
to survive 140 kph winds during the storms provoked by 'El Nino'. And what did
she say when she finally came down after saving the tree and all those in a
three acre area around it? "I'm going to miss 'Moon' but I will continue
dreaming of my forest every day" (I) |
The new
EC Regulations; The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby
English will be the official language of the EU rather than German, which was
the other possibility. As part of the negotiations. Her Majesty's Government
conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a
5 year phase-in plan that would be known as "EuroEnglish". In the first year,
"s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants
jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favor of the "k". This should
klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter. In the sekond year
there will be growing publik enthusiasm when the troublesome "ph" will be
replaced with the "f. This will make words like "fotograf 20% shorter.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the
new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes
are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which
have always ben a dete-rent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the
horible mes of the silent "e'"s in the language is disgraceful, and they should
go away. By the fourth year, peopi wil be resep-tiv to steps such as replasing
"th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be
dropd from vords kontaiining "ou" and similar changes vud ofkors be apli'd to
ozer kombinations ofleters. After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sen-sibi
riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubis or difikultis and evrivun vi] find it ezi
tu understand ech ozer. ZE DREM VIL FINALI KUM TRU!! (F)