Well, Ain't That a...

For some time now I've been struggling to finish the Magnus army and get rolling on highlighting all the issues with water scarcity and water quality. Problem is it gets into the political zone when one cause of water scarcity is attributed to global warming and in trying to keep this blog above politics, I've tried to avoid news articles related to global warming. But it is there and it is attributed to why India and China might be facing a crisis in the next decade.

With that out the way, that's not the real struggle. Part of it is my interest in winning tournaments from time to time, which the lists did not bring for me, simply because I am no expert at playing them and my comfort zone is reduced. Part of it is with the release of MkII, I'm now re-learning how to play my main faction (Cryx). Part of it is life - I'm busy planning a wedding and it looks now as if we'll be moving in the near future.

But the real reason? I'm not committed at this time to raising awareness to water quality/scarcity. I don't mean to mislead either - it is a great cause and arguably a human right to access clean, safe water. It is the breathe of life.

But at this time something else has hit home. I'm sharing some personal information here so I do not mean to get sappy. My family medical history has battled cancer numerous times, almost always fatally. Stomach cancer appears to be the re-occurring theme, the kind that doctors suspect it's genetic, but there's never enough evidence. It's a bit of history that since there is no proof of actual genetic susceptibility, we just blow it off. I could make the case that I'm a higher risk class for cancer, but somehow I continue to smoke the occasional (and I do mean probably once-month) cigar.

For the last three years however I have a cousin who has been battling Stage 3 Stomach and Stage 4 lung. She's been on and off of chemotherapy. And while chemo has helped the stomach cancer into dormancy, the lung cancer has remained active. The doctors have been unable to remove the stomach cancer due to this.

She's under 40 (I don't go asking older women their ages, but I believe she's 37). Her husband and her were to be married last year in 2007, but fast tracked it June 2006 right when they discovered that she had cancer. They were supposed to move to Australia and he was supposed to receive a corporate position for moving there. Instead he left it all behind for her, which is larger

We thought she was getting better. She was switched to a less destructive form of chemo to maintain dormancy. Instead the stomach cancer is active again and came back with a vengeance - it's spread to her intestines, liver, and pancreas. We simply don't know how much longer she has left. About a month ago, my aunt was hoping at least to the new year.

I'm afraid this post is turning rather morbid, but the point is, water quality and scarcity just isn't my banner. This has turned personal. It's my crusade.

I'll have to figure out what how this translates into gaming for a cause. I had an idea when I first started water quality, but I need to see if it translates well enough. Right now I'm a depressed enough from writing this post that I'm in a near non-functional state for the rest of the day. Not good when I have a business trip to go on.

Nyssed me?

So the current plan as I mentioned earlier is to borrow some Merc models from my gaming group. Fortunately the prominent merc player from our group is not attending GenCon, so I'm free to romp around with his stuff.

However, it means I HAVE to paint up my eEiryss and procure the Nyss Hunters. I am going to try to assemble and paint eMags and Renegades according to how the studio painted Vinter. Ambitious schedule, but I think I can do it...starting next week.


Other than that, I've been catching up on some water news. Apparently the tropical rains around the ecuator have been moving north for the last three hundred years. I know there's some other effects at play here - wind currents and ocean currents too. But then again, I'm not a scientist. Just a wargamer.

I guess let's put it in perspective. If the jungle rains of Zul suddenly shifted north and the Broken Wastes became a hospitable grassland, how would that affect our beloved Skorne? The Totem Hunter?


It's also interesting how well we have it here in America. Sri Lanka's dengue outbreak is interesting because as an American, right now I don't have to clean up stagnant pools of water. It's also a form of biological warfare.

Now if only Circle convinced poisonous spores to open up and coax bacterium to infect Legion...

Arsenic & India

Solving India's Arsenic Problem

I'm a little puzzled how they intend to solve the water issue. At heart is are they re-routing part of the river or just simply shipping water over to these villages. It makes more sense to ship the water, but that comes at a cost and is vulnerable to disruption. In the long-run, I see this costing more...

However, it is a welcomed solution for lack of drinkable water in the region.

Water & Climate Change

Interesting article that I found while browsing for information: Water & Climate Change.

A few facts that I've picked up from the different websites so far-

• 2.5% of water on Earth is fresh water. Most is still frozen in the ice caps. About 0.7% of water on the planet is fresh water available for consumption.
• Approximately 800,000,000 to 1.1 bn people live without access to good water.
• Another 2.5 bn people live without proper sanitation.
• 67% of water consumption is used in agriculture, the basic industry of developing nations. Yet a majority of these nations in Africa, the mid-East & Asia lack access to freshwater.
• Climate change plays a big impact on the hydrological cycle on earth. Interruptions in the cycle won't replenish water fast enough to match consumption. Additionally, many of the sub-Saharan & mid-East nations live in an arid environment where water is already scarce.
  
• While dams & reservoirs alleviate water scarcity, they are dangerous to rely for two-fold - (1) the environmental impact & (2) unequal distribution of the benefits. Many people may be displaced due to damming, but they and many impoverished will not see the benefits of the dam - clean water and sanitation. Water from the dam typically services the needs of nearby cities instead. City populations are slated to grow due to urbanization - Asian cities alone are predicated to grow by 1 bn.
  

Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Spare

Well, when I first starting asking for suggestions for an issue to help raise awareness, I was flooded with responses from my group of friends ranging from silly nonsensical issues to Breast Cancer.

However, there was one issue I was floored with - Water Quality and Scarcity.

Think about how much water we waste, yet knowing that approximately 1.1 bn people in the world lack access to drinkable water. Even more suffer from poor sanitation. Violence has flared over the rights to drinkable water and riverways for more than a millennium.

I wish I could say more. It's such a basic issue, so prevalent in third world countries and even here in America. The best that I can do at the moment is learn more like everyone else.

I have provided some links to different sites for now and I'll post news as I can. Many of these are very informational to providing a better idea on water quality and water scarcity issues.

Circle of Blue - a very informational news site that brings together articles dealing with water issues, ranging from the droughts in California and Australia to water wars in southern Ethiopia.

Overcoming Water Scarcity & Quality Constraints - an economics paper dealing with the variety of water issues and how it affects the world, according to the viewpoint of economists.

Charity Water - this was the link that my friend sent that originally floored me and one of the two charities I will be donating to. They work through various different charity organizations, including Water for People, Healing Hands, Gram Vikas, Concern Worldwide & many others. While not explicitly a Christian charity, they do work with LWI & HH.

Wateraid - Another charity that I will be donating to. Wateraid beat out Water for People for two reasons: (1) Charity Water works with Water for People on projects, so I felt like I was duplicating work & (2) Best Business Bureau rated Wateraid higher than Water for People due to WfP's failure to meet BBB's compensation standard. This bothered me slightly. You can read more about it on BBB's entry.

Water for People - notable charity for water scarcity & quality improvement.



I have already decided that I'm going to run the Magnus agenda and will be building 500 & 750 pt armies. I would love to go to GenCon with this army, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have use 4-Star for that, so unless something changes real soon (aka Magnus gets another warcaster to work with), I don't see how that's going to be possible. Although I think I can participate in Hardcore, although the meaning of the army is slightly lost.