Gerald Ford, Ethiopia, William Holden, corn ethanol

bobharris

And in 1975, Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger gave Indonesia's dictator, Suharto (who was primarily armed by the US, and who had risen to power in a massive bloodbath), the green light to invade East Timor. According to the existing records, once this small matter was settled, they then discussed how Indonesia could make more money from oil.
...
Of the estimated population of 700,000, up to 100,000 people were killed in the first year. Amnesty International put the eventual death toll from the Indonesian occupation at about 200,000.

---

c/o/bilegrip
________________________________________________________
com
..a three-month basic infantry skills course offered by the U.S. military at the sprawling Ethiopian Training Academy in Hurso.

“They are very good, these techniques that they are teaching us,” Wonderfraw said through an interpreter. “I appreciate everything they are teaching us, especially the ambush. They instruct us on how to establish it and provide security. The ambush is very interesting for me.”

Troops attached to the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa have been training Ethiopian soldiers in basic infantry tactics, officer logistics and maintenance since 2003, when the U.S. government identified the East African country as an ally in its global war on terror. Similar training programs are ongoing in Djibouti and Kenya.

---

During the late seventies, Ford and his best friend William Holden had planned to reteam for a third film, a Western entitled "Dime Novel".

Why I thought a couple of years ago that William Holden was still alive, I reckon I had confused him with Glen Ford, who was alive until 2006
William Holden The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955) somehow defined Hollywood machismo for my childhood mind.
South Pacific 1958 featured neither, but cemented Orientalist imagery in my junior imagination.

---

blogspot
the names of Hell

---

nytimes
January 5, 2007

..the new study by the EPI.. found that the number of ethanol plants coming on line has been underreported by more than 25 percent by both the Agriculture Department and the Renewable Fuels Association
The EPI says that 79 ethanol plants are under construction, which would more than double ethanol production capacity to 11 billion gallons by 2008. Yet late last month, the Renewable Fuels Association said there were 62 plants under construction.
..third-largest crop in 2006 of 10.7 billion bushels.
..prices of corn soaring to record $4 a bushel ..farmers are expected to plant 85 million acres of corn this year, an increase of 8 percent over 2006 ..
..116 ethanol plants in production, and the 79 under construction, at least 200 more ethanol plants, with a capacity of 3 billion gallons a year, are in the planning stages.
ethanol distilleries now running or in the works will pull 139 million tons of corn from the 2008 corn harvest, according to the Earth Policy Institute. ..
.. over half of the projected 2008 corn harvest of about 11 billion bushels.

---

nybooks
Against the Day - longish review

---

flickr
Mother ca 1940
________________________________________________________________
Gerald Ford, Ethiopia, William Holden, corn ethanol