St. Croix melee

There are lots of issues out there so i've decided to write about diverse topics in small doses.

Refinery on St. Croix everyone is aware that the Senator's voted against the deal with Hovensa but the melee on the local radio and the fear mongering in the community has gotten out of hand. Here is my take for what it is worth.

1. Aquifer pollution...if you go to the EPA site and read the report 95% of the contamination has already been cleaned up. No one is drinking ¼ cup of oil in their water.
2. Sale of the refinery...the cancelled agreement put off the inevitable. Hovensa didn't want to sell but was being forced to by the agreement. Legally, they could not be forced to accept any offer and i think they would have stalled until the 18 months were up which would put us back to where we are today.
3. WAPA and some gas stations are already making arrangements to get their fuel from other sources. Puerto Rico is ninety miles away... our fuel costs may go up but we will be able to get fuel delivered here just like all the other islands in the Caribbean do.
4. Jet Fuel i know one of our local purveyor's supplies jet fuel to planes flying in. His business is going to be adversely affected by the plant closure just as many others have been.  But maybe if he wants to stay in business he needs to invest in building more storage tanks.  The sky isn't falling. Planes can refuel in Puerto Rico. We may be impacted by fewer flights and less available jet fuel but keep in mind it is available just a short hop away.  The sooner those doing business in the aviation world start thinking for themselves the sooner we can move forward.
5. The refinery is not reopening and the sooner we deal with this...like they did in Aruba...the sooner we will be on the road to recovery.

Syria i'm with Juan Cole...a few Tomahawk missile strikes will not affect the course of the civil war in Syria and it just may involve us in one more quagmire. Civilians are going to continue to suffer until the parties involved are brought to the bargaining table.

The Rim Fire in California has been raging for over a week. Close family members and some friends have been suffering smoky skies and evacuation orders. One of the leading edges is 6 miles from the family cabin and all eyes are watching this monstrous fire. Its 23% contained and the fire fighters have been doing a phenomenal job.

Swimming this morning was beautiful. A little Green turtle floated right up to me and let me touch its carapace. The light was flickering everywhere and you could see Peacock Flounders 40 feet down. A huge Lobster was out of its hole and walking across the coral towards another Green turtle who tried to hide when she saw us hovering above. We missed the three Dolphin who were swimming through the bay but one fellow swimmer enjoyed watching them pass by. It was one of those mornings when you just didn't want to get out of the water.

See ya next week.

Privacy...not an option

Yesterday Pamela Jones claimed “there is now no shield from forced exposure.” Privacy is a myth, the rule of law has been compromised and she can no longer write on line.

Pamela Jones, a blogger, that focused on writing about legal aspects of the tech world, has shut down her site. She has joined the e-mail service's Lavabit and Silent Circle who have also shut down. 

Pamela Jones has enjoyed numerous awards for the work she has done on line at Groklaw but she claims:

"And the simple truth is, no matter how good the motives might be for collecting and screening everything we say to one another, and no matter how "clean" we all are ourselves from the stand point of the screeners, I don't know how to function in such an atmosphere. I don't know how to do Groklaw like this."

Unfortunately the sad reality is that everything coming into and out of everyone's e-mail servers are being monitored. Everything you do on line is tracked not just by companies trying to sell you something but also by your government. This has a chilling effect upon anyone who posts on line and because of this she found she could no longer write and has shut down her site.

My take from all of this is deep sadness that another person or company has been silenced by the surveillance society we find ourselves living in. For that is exactly what our government wants you to do...go quiet. 

How many more will go quiet rather than risk having their on-line presence be intimately monitored by their government? How many viewpoints that don't toe the line will have their voices go unheard because their government could label it subversive? The effect upon journalists, bloggers and independent minded people all over the country is chilling to say the least.

Where is our so called “free society” and will an underground one be the only recourse? Do we really want to censor everything we say and do? What do we have to look forward to? Is it those Sci Fi scenarios, will they become the future reality? i don't know and although disheartened going silent is not an option.

See ya next week

Photo day

A lovely place to bird

What a mess, sometimes i wish i was one of those people who can ignore the violence taking place in other parts of the world. Egypt is on meltdown, the military peaked and decided to use force to disperse the Morsi protestors. Baradei has resigned and autocracy is rearing its ugly head. i'm not going to write about this except to say i had hoped they would avoid military aggression but today it is obvious that they are returning to the way things were. It is disheartening when a country that had displayed such promise goes backwards.

On to other things...we missed the meteor showers as our skies were covered in the typical patchy clouds which made viewing difficult. Oh well, there will be others. This piece today is going to be more photo heavy.

Such a sweet little church

The things we look at while driving along

 Gotta have a rainbow

Those sweet Grey Kingbirds have successfully finished building their nest, the Thrasher's don't know as yet because its babies are driving it NUTS.

 Gotta have clouds...they make this place

I love this tree...a view from the other side.

and some old dead coral

Know where this old place is?

And a sunrise

See ya next week
 

I just love St. Croix today, yesterday and every day

This morning was another of those “i just love St. Croix” days but so is every day, especially when the air is clear, the lighting is magnificent, the wild life interact and the woodlands just glow.

All of us have great stories about interacting with nature and how it affected our mental states. Swimming with dolphins definitely tops my list along with seeing big turtles, finding Hope the Whimbrel, or just looking at that cool dragon fly or cricket that landed close enough to really see it in all its glory.

i get such a thrill watching a bird nest through the entire process from building to fledging, i'm like a kid easily entertained for weeks at a time. Maybe it's not St. Croix but just nature that really trips my trigger. A pair of Grey Kingbirds are building a nest just off the deck again and i already feel like i know them. The male is a bit of a slacker but that female just yells and yells at him to get him moving and quit dropping the sticks.

Not a Kingbird or Thrasher nest

The gang went out swimming this morning and when we got to the Off the Wall Buoy there was this big old crusty male Green turtle cruising slowly looking for a mate. He had had it rough and was missing most of his tail. White meat was showing on his front two flippers but at least he still had them. He looked at us, deleted us from his curiosity bag and kept on moving towards the wall. We weren't what he was looking for and he wasn't wasting time with us.

Just as we were going to take off another large male, Hawksbill this time, appeared close to the surface. His curiosity bag was overflowing and he hung out with us even going so far as to let me touch him when he swam right next to me. i wondered if he was the male from a few years ago that had come in and bonked his beak against my mask because he got that close. It's easy to hope that an old friend has reappeared but the likely hood of that is pretty slim with nature. Just getting that close was a treat in and of itself.

Hawksbill Turtle

Anyway we left him alone and went on our way only to have one of the gang stop to point out a shark following a turtle very close. i missed that one but hope the turtle got away unscathed. There were large schools of wrasse, dorgons, and yellow tailed snapper along the edge. The sun beams were doing their dance under water and even though it wasn't the clearest of days the wild life was accommodating.

At home while eating breakfast on the deck looking out over a glorious sea and a teeming woodland an adult Red tailed Hawk out showing its juvenile the ropes hushed the screaming Pearly-eyed-Thrasher chicks. We've got so many thrasher nests around here that have been successful it just breaks my heart when i see the Grey Kingbirds once again trying to build a nest in their territory. i wouldn't cry if a hawk nailed a few of those darn Thrashers.

The Kingbirds like to nest in the West Indian Cedar's and its always a treat to see a flash of bright green when an Antillean Crested Hummingbird decides to come get some nectar from the same trees flowers. The Green Caribs seem to like the hibiscus and papaya flowers better. Underneath the cedar the Zenaida Doves peck away at the dirt looking for grubs. A lot is going on around those native trees if you take the time to look.

One thing that has been puzzling me for years is why do i see Magnificent Frigates predominantly flying east. In the morning, mid-day and in the evening they are always heading east unless we have a hurricane coming and then that is the only time i see them flying west. i must not ever see the same ones. i'm sure now that i've put this in writing i will only see them flying west.

Squid above the fern

Monday while out there swimming we had 16 Squid which are one of the coolest things you can watch in the water. They change color, blink, try to hide, group up then split to get you away from the group. When they do that its hard to know which to follow but if you stick with one it will eventually lead you back to the pack while giving you a light show you won't soon forget.

This island is so beautiful, so many cool things out there for anyone to observe. i wish there was some way to always accentuate the positive. i guess what i wish for everyone that lives here is to take a few minutes and really connect with the life all around you. All it takes is five minutes of really observing any where you are on the island. Even the dump and the oil refinery have their own unusual beauty when the light is just right.

See ya next week