Indonesia's palm oil, mining and logging industries are enmeshed in a cat's cradle of overlapping land claims and corruption that are hampering attempts to stop deforestation and fires, newly released maps reveal.
Back on land, cradled by a bower of ancient trees, his pillow a clump of sweet cicely, the mariner finally understands that the earth, too, has a heartbeat and that we ignore it at our peril.
At a news conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's commissioner for tourism, Abdullahi Suker, said, "The objective of the exhibition is to promote Ethiopia's tourism potential by revealing to American viewers the country's unmatched historical importance as the cradle of mankind and land of significant archaeological discovery".
"We have returned to the Mount, to the cradle of our nation's history, to the land of our forefathers, to the land of the Judges, and to the fortress of David's dynasty," Dayan said.
Ten years on from the shock and awe of the 2003 Bush and Blair war – which followed 13 years of murderous sanctions, and 35 years of Saddamist dictatorship – my tormented land, once a cradle of civilisation, is staring into the abyss.
The patriarch is supposed to have left the cradle of civilisation for a new land, Canaan, a country that would fascinate and obsess humanity right down to the present day.
Now, keeping the fingers together and straight (but not tense), give the ball a very slight lift up and pivot your open hand inwards, still underneath the ball so that it rolls over the outer edge of your index finger and lands in the cradle position on the top of your hand.
How ironic is it that Africa is the called, "the cradle of all creation; the Mother Land".
He was especially moved by Sophia, 15, a refugee girl who sang a song entitled 'Africa, Land of Freedom – Africa, Cradle of Mankind' about her hopes and vision for a better Africa.
Some find it easier initially to learn by giving the ball a very light toss up from the palm and then positioning the cradle underneath it for it to land on.
The exhibitions begin with an inspirational quotation from Ataturk: for more than 7,000 years, it portentously declares, "have these lands been the Turkish cradle"; now, out of "thunder and lightning and the sun" emerges, triumphant, "the Turk".
