Mountain Forest Protection Campaign "Paradise is now shut and locked, barred by angels, so now we must go forward around the world and see if somehow, somewhere, there is a backway in." HEINRICH VON KLEIST	Looking for a sound domain name? Available domain names: Nice for a price!
Mountain Forest Protection Campaign (MFPC) This is a campaign against mountain forest destruction in the French maritime alps, paid with French and/or European Community taxpayers' money. "La forêt, un equilibre à maintenir? non, c'est un equilibre à detruire!". Translated from french, the forest is not an equilibre to maintain, it is an equilibre to be destroyed.	click to enlarge the image, photos taken end of Sep-2002

Endangered or already destroyed mountain forest

1. nilum.com/ville_fleurie Peyron mountain forest, community of Meolans-Revel.

Update: any hope abandonned; disregarding two years of protest published on this website, the road was constructed at the end of Aug-2002:

click to enlarge the image, photos taken end of Sep-2002

The destruction done is worse than expected. The new road including the bendings are so wide that two trucks can pass at the same time. This road was thought to be used for a single cut which will be finished in Oct-2002. Engraved were at least four bendings on a up-to 70% inclination of the ground. In addition, many new wood exploitation roads were constructed from the main road:

click to enlarge the image, photos taken end of Sep-2002
Compared to this forest road with 10% maximal inclination, the public roads to access the different parts of the village where the citizens are living are much steeper, less wide, and thus more dangerous, especially in winter!

2. www.nilum.com/gimette Gimette mountain forest, community of Les Thuilles.

All above sites are part of the Mountain Picture Ring (MPR). Visit the these sites and see what kind of destruction is going on. "Die Summe aller naturschädlichen Subventionen wird auf 2,5 Billionen Mark geschätzt."
Quote from the German weekly "Die Zeit", 14-Sep-2000, page 33, from an article entitled "Fataler Triumph".

The above quote in English:
"The total amount of subsidies which destroy nature is an estimated 1.28 trillion euro."
[Ed. note: one American trillion is a million millions, which is identical to one European billion; so 1.28 [American] trillion is 1,280,000,000,000)

"People aren't being a little stupid, but massively stupid. No one has an interest in saying this though." Quote, Charlie T. Munger, AGM, Wesco, 2001

Time to say our last good-bye to our little friends, the mushrooms

click on the images to enlarge






click on the images to enlarge. All photos taken in Sep-2002

Tourism Hype

• Economie Itineraires, No. 2, Information du conseil regional Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur

  On page one, an article in this official newsletter, entitled "Tourisme - Un enjeu regional de premier ordre" (my english translation is "Tourism - a regional task with highest priority") proudly states that 7.3 million euro (approx. US$ 7,300,000) have been "injected". There is no information whether it was the French government (which is my guess), who subsidized the tourism infrastructure, nor any information from whom the money was taken, nor were it went to - but on the same page is a picture of the president responsible for that region!

  If tourism were highest priority, why do they destroy the hiking trails in their precious forest?

Internet Hype

• In Le magazine du Conseil General des Alpes de Haute Provence, no. 13, Mai/Juin-2002 on page 4, the authorities of the department 04 seriously explained in an introductory sectio about the history if the internet, that the acronym WWW stands for "World Wild Web". This magazine had a multipage article about the internet and provided details about the subsidies they granted in the department 04 to support the local telecom and internet infrastructure.

  I could not find a correction of this acronym-misnomer in no. 14 of this magazine, where they proudly presented their new website www.cg04.fr - which, when I first looked was commented as being in "constant evolution". I believe that is another word for "under construction. If people are not satisfied what they find today, why not look again tomorrow?

  It is well possible they still believe it is a wild web and these are same people that make the decisions about the subsidies to be granted in the new technology sector.

  I found it especially enlightening that they believe their subsidies and activities in that sector would contribute to - what they called cyberrevolution and what the president of the Conseil général in the editorial on page three of that magazine called a "désenclavement", which means get out of isolation, hermitage, or prison. (When I read the editorial the first time I understood "désesclavagement", which translates to "abolishing enslavement".) Did he want to say, that without their activities the citizens of the departement 04 would remain isolated or hermits (or slaves as I thought earlier)?

  Enslaved by 56k Baud modems?

  Dial-in internet was already available many years before their initiative and I doubt, there is now more information available than before, just because the information arrives with higher speed than 56kb/s. The subsidies granted essentially support the provision of high-speed internet access such as DSL. They also experiment with internet by satellite in yet more rural areas. Internet by satellite is available since many years for example in Germany.

  The problem is in my opinion not a deficit of information nor the speed to access this information - the problem is a deficit trust - a deficit which grows with every euro spend by state subsidies!

FAQ

• Q: Who is MFPC?
  A: MFPC is non-profit society. The purpose of this society is to do protect the nature, especially the mountain forest in fragile areas, not for money, only for the enjoyment of exercising the human manipulatory drive,

• Q: Is it possible to get a job at MFPC?
  A: If you want to join the MFPC, fine! There are no salaries, no employees, no benefits, no office, just nothing -- not even unions are involved.

• Q: Could I join MFPC?
  A: As soon as you think you belong to MFPC, then you belong to MFPC. You will not be rewarded nor punished by saying, writing, or doing something unusual in one way or another, because there are neither rules nor regulations that you must observe as a consequence of belonging to MFPC.

• Q: How could I support the MFPC society?
  A: Please keep your checks! MFPC doesn't need any money. It is difficult and frustrating to fight stupidity, but try to convince people to stop the destruction of the mountain forest; even economically, the exploitation of such forest does not make sense. Don't organize! Individual actions are needed.

• Q: A group has more power to influence than an individual. Why not organize?
  A: Who could better answer this question than Michio Kitahara (http://indimani.virtualave.net):

  "You don't need an organization when you want to promote a belief, ideology, or knowledge. After all, there was no organization to speak of when the Renaissance began to spread, and the philosophy of the Enlightenment was not advanced by organizations. When organizations promote ideologies, you must expect human tragedy; if many people like your idea, they think and act like you, and there is no need for an organization to promote it. But if people do not like your idea and yet you want them to accept your idea, you need an organization to force them to accept it. Yes, this results in the violation of negative freedom and the beginning of human tragedy. Many, many examples, especially in religion and politics, are familiar to us. "Another problem of having organizations is that an organization must necessarily enforce the uniformity of ideas among its members. Otherwise, it cannot function as an organization. This means that each member is forced to conform to the ideas and behaviors set up by the organization. But by nature, each individual is unique. No one thinks and behaves exactly like you. As a result, organizations ignore and destroy individualism and enforce collectivism. An organization is either (1) ruled by a dictator, who punishes, eliminates, tortures, or assassinates anyone against him or her, or (2) characterized by constant power struggles and conflicts within it. "A friend of mine and I decided to start a movement called The Albinoni-Ricardo-Croce Society. This is not an organization but a movement, just like the Renaissance or the philosophy of the Enlightenment. The key idea of this movement is that you should devote your time and energy to a certain activity, if you want, in order to create something constructive that can be valuable to our species. You do this not for the sake of money but for the sake of enjoyment. You should be a dilettante. For example, you may spend your time and energy in art, music, science, philosophy, literature, ... just anything you like. This movement is named after three distinguished dilettantes: Albinoni (music), Ricardo (economics) and Croce (philosophy). This society has no president, no secretary, no meeting, no membership fees, no membership requirement, no membership list, nothing. So, if you like the idea, join the movement, and create something constructive and enjoyable that contributes to the improvement of our species. "

• Q: Where is MFPC located?
  A: Actually MFPC is a virtual society without a physical location, because a non existing organization has no headquarter. People like pictures, so I'll give you some clues: One individual active in the MFPC is located in the middle of the mountains - in an Alpine region called Ublantis. Click to see a photo of the Laverq valley This photo was taken in early November; the summits are already covered with snow.
  There is this only unbelievable, solid blue sky and a slow internet connection, which seems to be the only non-subsidized infrastructure -- except for the 60,000 holes in the many twisty, little roads, constructed and maintained by ... -- you guessed it, the Communist Cowards of the Valley Ublantis, in a desperate attempt to keep the tourists out of Ublantis.

The French Declaration of Interdependence

"Chacun a droit a benificier de la prosperite economique, du bien-etre et des richesses que, tous ensemble, nous produisons."
-- quote "Region info - economie no. 11", Michel Vauzelle, president of Conseil regional Provence-Alpes-Cotes d'Azur, June-2006

"Everybody has the right to profit from economic prosperity, comfort, and wealth that we all together produce."

What sounds to me more like Volksbeglückung expresses the french national state of mind in 2006. In the middle of 19.th century, the french philosopher Frederic Bastiat internationally famous (except in France), who never fighted with lies agains truth, had the courage to express the still persisting situation with clear words:

When the government exceeds these bounds and seeks to take from one person and give to another, it commits legal plunder.

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater evil than the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everybody else.

If you've got a better answer to the above question, please contact to MFPC.

Links

Mountain Forest Protection Campain (MFPC) Home: dotZEL.com/mfpc (this page)

Mountain Picture Webring (MPR) Home: dotZEL.com/mpr

Created in Aug-2000, last revised by 03-Jul-2006

All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. dotzel.com/mfpc believes the information on the dotzel.com/mfpc website is accurate at publication date and no responsability can be accepted for any errors. None of the information provided forms part of any contract. All information is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment of dotzel.com/mfpc.