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‘Even the devil wants to be listened to’

Here's a link to an interesting interview on Foreign Exchange about peacemaking in Uganda.


Here’s a link to an interesting interview on Foreign Exchange about peacemaking in Uganda. For more than a decade Betty Bigombe has been trying to broker a peace agreement between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army, an insurgent group that has allegedly perpetrated a wide range of human rights abuses in its pursuit of power, including the forced recruitment of child soldiers and child sex slaves. LRA leader Joseph Kony, who believes he speaks directly to God and who has fathered more than 200 children during the war, is seeking to establish a theocratic regime in Uganda, one that literally enforces the Ten Commandments of the Christian Bible. (Here is another reminder that every great religion can be perverted into a compassionless creed of conquest and atrocity.)

Bigombe describes the tedious and morally uneasy process of peacemaking, especially when it involves a leader, such as Kony, with so much blood and suffering on his hands. While Bigombe saw him as a "monster" for his atrocities, she sought to understand what made him do what he did. She also began to appreciate how self-interest — at times more than ideology — drives peace negotiations, in that all rebel leaders want to protect themselves from punishment or vengeance once they put down their weapons.

Here’s what Bigombe has to say about the challenges of peacemaking: 

It takes a lot of patience. But it takes a lot of listening. Even the devil wants to be listened to. Because they totally believe they have reasons to fight. It also takes personal risks. My approach [is] … don’t put time limits to these issues and these problems …. Because when you are trying to get people who have been killing one another, to start looking at one another differently, and in some cases even coexist, it takes time. Because what is going on in their mind is "We’ve been enemies for so many years, can I start trusting so-and-so?" It’s also my perception, my conviction, because I’ve been at this for quite some time, that over a period of time, when people are given a chance, they can change, they can reform.

You can see the interview here. It starts at the 15-minute mark.

Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

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The presidential candidates and the environment


With the February 5th primary almost here, where the majority of the states vote to choose who they want as their party’s presidential candidate, ever green is looking at their environmental history to determine who the standout candidates are.

How Green Is Your Candidate?

Senator Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential candidate who ever green stands behind. Her environmental record is ongoing; according to Grist, she has sponsored or co-sponsored almost 400 lawmaking proposals about energy or the environment. And this continues even as recently as last week. In the midst of her non-stop campaigning Clinton still managed to co-sponsor Senator Barbara Boxer’s bill to reverse the EPA’s global warming waiver decision. This controversial decision blocked states’ own efforts to cut vehicle emissions. Also note that 17 other senators co-sponsored this bill, including Senators Barack Obama, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Ted Kennedy, to name a few. Senator Clinton has also introduced legislation to amend the Defense Authorization Act to include global warming as a threat to national security. This amendment has passed congressional approval twice, was vetoed once by President Bush, and now again is pending his approval. For her campaign, she promises to reduce electricity consumption, support a $50 billion alternative energy fund, greatly increase fuel-efficiency standards, and green up low-income homes, among other things. Clinton’s presidential campaign is carbon neutral. And the nonpartisan group, League of Conservation Voters (LCV), gives Senator Clinton a 90 percent lifetime environmental voting record, which is a very high average considering it spans from 2001 when she was first elected to office.

Although ever green is not Republican, I do stand up for Senator John McCain as presidential candidate for that party. As noted in a previous ever green post, McCain co-sponsored the 2003 Climate Stewardship Act that the Republican majority Senate at the time rejected. According to the League of Conservation Voters, McCain is the only Republican presidential candidate who has done or said anything at all about environmental issues and global warming. The other candidates have barely acknowledged global warming as an issue or problem. Senator McCain, although only receiving a 26 percent lifetime environmental voting record, was the only Republican who bothered to answer the LCV’s questionnaire. For his campaign, McCain doesn’t lay out any specific numbers as do the Democratic candidates on environmental issues; instead he acknowledges that there is an interdependence between economics and the environment and that they both need to be healthy to work. He also is an advocate for nuclear energy as an alternative and clean energy source.

keeping the earth ever green

 

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How New Jersey became one of the nation’s top solar power states


Rise in the New Jersey solar market
The Garden State is living up to its name by having one of the nation’s top solar energy power programs. Since the program’s conception, solar installations have dramatically risen by over 300 percent.

Originating in 2001, through the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program (NJCEP) designed a model of green-energy plans and incentives that make environmentally-friendly energy consumption reachable and affordable for average consumers.

Especially attractive are the incentives for installing solar panels (also know as photovoltaics), which over a number of years can actually bring individual energy costs down to zero. These incentives include high rebates for cost and installation as well as special loans for businesses and schools.

New Jersey is now the fastest growing solar energy market in the U.S. When the program began in 2001, there were only six solar panels running. By 2006 the number of solar panel installations doubled and, according to the BPU, there are now over two thousand statewide. This number is second only to California — which, the BPU points out, has four times the population and energy needs of New Jersey.

New Jersey’s solar power programs are even attracting wealthy investors such as Ted Turner. Last year he partnered with Dome-Tech Solar to create DT Solar, a renewable energy company. Turner’s company just finished installing the nation’s largest corporate solar system for Hall’s Warehouse Corp. in South Plainfield.

Success through the Solar Financing Model
Leading the way for affordable solar power is New Jersey’s Solar Financing Model. Through state rebates, government tax credits, net-metering, and renewable energy certificates, the cost-effectiveness of buying and installing solar panels is reduced to 10 years or less. Cost-effectiveness previously had been measured at 25 years. 

This model has set a high standard that other states are using to create their own solar power programs. New Jersey currently matches cost and installation of solar panels up to 60 percent. Net-metering allows excess electricity generated to be sold back to utility companies. Renewable energy certificates compensate owners for every 1,000 kilowatt hours (1 MWh) generated by their solar energy installation.

Another incentive for solar panel buyers is a federal tax credit of up to $2,000 provided through the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT). This is the same act signed by President Bush that also gives rebates for hybrid vehicles and energy-efficient appliances, among other things.

However, the state’s program will soon be transitioning from rebate-based to market-based, says BPU Public Information Officer Doyal Siddell. This market-based program still under review would phase out the rebates and in turn could refocus buyers’ costs primarily on renewable energy certificates.

New Jersey as an environmental leader
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the net electricity generation for New Jersey was 4,709,000 megawatt hours (MWh) measured in November 2006. Nuclear, natural gas, and coal make up the largest energy sources comprising 4,588,000 MWh. Only 36 MWh are currently generated from solar.

New Jersey also houses the highest-capacity and oldest running nuclear power plants in the nation at Salem Creek and Oyster Creek respectively.

It is also one of the top five particulate air (soot) polluters in the United States.

New Jersey Governor John Corzine recently signed an executive order adopting strict rules and goals to actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The order mandates limits on greenhouse gas emissions, and electric companies will be fined if found going over. "I’m proud that New Jersey is helping to blaze that trail," Governor Corzine said in a press release.

The state’s goal is to have 20 percent renewable energy output by 2020, with 1,500 MWhs by solar power alone.

Growing market for solar power
The solar energy market currently makes up less than 0.1 percent of all energy produced across the country. The growing need for alternative sources of energy production could bring solar energy to a more prominent position. And in New Jersey,  businesses and homeowners now have the cost-effectiveness and governmental support to utilize the power of the sun.

keeping the earth ever green 

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