Rise and rise again until lambs become lions - Robin Hood

Today's week has been a fairly crazy week. Last week, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion and has since been spewing hundreds of thousands of oil in the waters surrounding it. This has called for much outrage by the environmental community and many hundreds of people to perform damage control to the situation, from cleaning up the oil, to press control. The rig, owned by BP, is getting much out-lash at the British company. This environmental disaster come just a few weeks after a tanker ship carry oil ran aground on the Northwestern part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, causing for thousands of gallons of oil to be spilled and killing thousands of animals and sea life. Earlier estimates of this rig spill put it at about 1,000 barrels a day, but new estimates from the US Coast Guard put the figure more at 5,000. The spill is heading inland towards the coast and could spell for extreme disaster if it reaches it. Forces, both military and civilian are combating the spill, though given the immense size of the spill, efforts are hard.

This year marks the year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar. The tiger throughout the world is one of the most endangered animals in the world, with more tigers in captivity then in the wild. With this stunning fact one would think tiger tourism in the wild would be thriving, everyone trying to see the last tiger. But India recently has come out saying it will not allow tiger tourism anymore. This decision come their corrupt government. Their motive comes from tourism. If the tiger becomes extinct in their parks, then it will be publicly know. Without tourist they can theoretically say the tiger is still living when in fact it has gone extinct. This decision is in outrage by tiger conservationists who believe the only way to save the tiger is through well-managed eco-tourism. With the year of the tiger at hand, we will just have to wait and see what unfolds.

Cape Code, the ideal vacation spot for the political elite in the Northeast is going to become America's first offshore wind farm area. The project name, Cape Wind, will consist of 130 wind turbines and account for 75% of the power for the cape Code and nearby islands like Martha's Vineyard. Many people, mainly the Kennedy clan, are distraught at this project saying that it will take away from the beauty of the region, be bad for ships and marine life like the whales and many birds that frequent the area. America currently uses only 2% wind power for our total energy consumption, and project Cape Wind is the Obama administrations effort to turn to more green energy for America. Obama hopefully estimates if all goes according to plan, wind will account for 20% of America's energy in 20 years. For that figure we will just have to wait and see...

Well have a good one folks...remember, rise and rise again until lambs become lions......

~Thomas

Earth Day

Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, started in 1970, the world has made leaps and bounds from conditions 40 years ago where rivers caught on fire and you could see the air you breathe. But we still have a way to go. Carbon dioxide in the air has gone up 19% since 1970, rising the average earth temperature by roughly 1 degree. Forests are being cut down, species are becoming extinct and we are depleting our natural resources both on ground and in the waters. We must continue to strive to protect and heal this earth. Since we have the ability to morph our world, we have the responsibility to keep the earth safe and livable for ALL forms of life.

New data from US and South korean intelligence has found new evidence to the sinking of the South Korean warship, the Cheonan. After US and South Korean investigation, new reports show that a North Korean torpedo sunk the South Korean warship the Cheonan. This is incident is one of the deadliest since the end of the Korean war. Advisors warn the president of South Korea to not to make any move against North Korea for fear of starting a full-out war against the two. Even though South Korea is more advanced and industrialized then the North, the North could severely damage the South's industrialized cities. Overall, news is still coming in and reports have yet to be finalized.

As many of you may know, the volcano ash from Iceland has caused thousands of flight to be cancelled throughout the world and thousands of passengers to be stranded all of the world for days. Finally flights are back up and running but it will take weeks for flights to get back on schedule and even more time to be back to normal. This incident alone caused the industry a nearly 2.5 billion dollars. A single trans-Atlantic flight brings in roughly 450,000 dollars. Worry is also still in the air for more ash is sailing towards Europe as we speak. Another volcano in Iceland is also expected to burst, releasing even more ash into the air. All this ash can get clogged in plane engines causing plane to malfunction and crash. All this ash in the air also will spread all over the earth and cause for global temperatures to fall in the long run. Overall the short-term effects are great, but we will just have to wait and see what is in store for the future.

Have a great week and happy earth day, give back to the planet

-Thomas

Model United Nations

Two weekends ago my class participated in Model UN in a crisis simulation. The country my team and I represented was Afghanistan. As many of you know, Afghanistan has been in the news a lot lately. This correlated directly to the simulation...almost every other news feed or report was about Afghanistan, this made the task of our team very difficult. We had to respond to constant threads, reports, news and actions by other countries and ourselves. After the first-half of the session we finally got the hang of it. We started to work well as a team, we delegated responsibilities, started responded to the news feed, set up dip corp with other nations and started to form future plans and actions for our country. By the end of the first day we had an agreement arranged by ourselves with NATO, the US, and Pakistan Civilian to finally wipe the Taliban out of Afghanistan. Overall, it ended with our country being blown up by a nuclear bomb and our president accused of doing drugs and our opium fields burn, but we all greatly enjoyed it!

If I could change anything it would be to pick our own countries or region used. Also, the new room and feed was severely backed up, it would be nice to have it when a news released or action happened, update would be instantaneous, but I know that is far from happening. Also, there was much confusion by the people running it at the beginning, which didn't help the situation.

I really enjoyed the whole simulation though. I am a hands-on learner and learn best by putting what I know to use and seeing things unfold through my actions. I learn best by seeing and then doing or just straight doing. Thus this simulation was greatly helpful to me because I was able to comprehend all the information very easily. Plus, I really enjoy this kind of thing and seeing my actions play out. Overall, I would love doing this simulation again but maybe try a different take like security council or general assembly or a sub-committee.

Overall, I had a very good experience in Model UN. The only thing I didn't really like was not picking the region or state done and the time delay between news releases and action, ect. Very good though.

-Thomas

Afghanistan- The one and only

Thomas Berry

April 7, 2010

International Relations

Professor Sean

Trade and Commerce of Afghanistan

Afghanistan is one of the least developed countries and poorest in this world. Though much of the economy of Afghanistan is still dependent on foreign aid, the country has seen dramatic improvement since the early 2000’s due to multiple reasons. One of these reasons is the huge investments and assistance by the United States and others. Another is the ending of a drought that plagued the country for four long years in the first decade of the 21^st century. The ending of this drought brought about unimaginable improvement in the agriculture area of the country.

In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan; civil war soon followed this invasion. These destructive occurrences crippled the country’s infrastructure and economic activity leading for Afghanistan to go from a traditional economy to a centrally planned economy. This centrally planned economy lasted until 2001 when it was switched with a free market economy. The economy of Afghanistan has fallen greatly since the 80’s due to factors such as loss of transportation to hampered efforts to rebuild the country. A big part of the Afghanistan economy for many years has been the trade of opium. In recent years, mainly due to the United States, this trade has been hampered at best and in past years has accounted for nearly a third of the GDP of Afghanistan.

Agriculture continues to play the biggest part in the Afghanistan economy, even though only 12% of Afghanistan’s total area is arable, and of that only 6% is actually cultivated. Of the land that is cultivated, irrigation is primitive at best, with people relying on winter snows and random spring showers to water crops. Very few machines and chemicals are used, and the country’s nut and fruit export is only $113 million, though estimates show that given the right investment this could jump to closer to $800 million. Wheat and cereal is Afghanistan’s mainstay. In 2005, estimates from the United Nations showed that roughly 9% of the entire Afghanistan population was involved opium cultivation. Opium cultivation, while illegal and risky, provides poor Afghans the chance to gain prosperity, even if it requires dealing with dangerous criminals. Opium catches ten fold more than wheat production and is the reason many Afghans switch to growing opium and won’t go back to growing wheat. It is also estimated that nearly 92% of the world’s opium comes from Afghanistan. This opium is this modified to make the narcotic heroin, which is then sold for a high price throughout the world. Heroin/opium alone in the world account for trade revenue of $120 billion. This is a major barrier stopping Afghans from farming other crops because of their pursuit for higher profits. Overall, Afghanistan thrives off of agriculture, and thus in order for the continued existence of Afghanistan, agriculture must be at a frontline when discussing the future prospects of the country.

Livestock, fishing, and timber all provide a minimum to the economy of Afghanistan. Since the beginning of the civil wars in the 80’s , much of the livestock in Afghanistan has greatly depleted. This is due to instability on the country and lack of grazing lands for the livestock. Fishing also provide a low amount for the economy, with some fishing being done in the lakes and rivers of Afghanistan. Forests only cover roughly 3% of the land in Afghanistan. Illegal logging, forest fires and the instability of the country have lead to massive deforestation in the country and bad forest management practices. As a result, this has lead to timber as a non-reliable source for the economy to rely upon. Overall, the instability of the country is the main reason behind of the decline in these three areas of the economy and with stability will see a rise.

Currently, the trade between Afghanistan and other countries is estimated at $5 billion US dollars a year. Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan has seen its trade with foreign nations increase significantly from trading with the United States to the EU and Japan. Trade with the United States alone is roughly $500 million dollars. Some of the biggest exports of Afghanistan are Afghan hand-woven rugs, antique replicas, furs and leathers. Afghanistan is also greatly endowed with an abundance of natural resources. These include natural gas with 36 trillion cubic feet, petroleum, 3.6 billion barrels of oil, coal, gold, copper, marble, talc, chromite, zinc, sulfur, lead, salt, iron ore and precious and semi-precious stones. These stones include emeralds, ruby, sapphire, lapis, spinel, peridot, tourmaline, and garnet. In 2008, China signed a contract with Afghanistan concerning a copper mining project. The investment by China is of $2.8 billion dollars and gives Afghanistan an annual income of $400 million in addition to creating 20,000 new jobs for Afghans. This mine is one of the largest in the world for copper. Natural gas is one of Afghanistan’s biggest endowments, but with recent and past instability, the means to capture this gas has been unsuccessful. Overall, stability of the country is the biggest factor in securing a better economy through natural resources.

The Afghanistan fiscal year starts March 21^st and goes through to the following March 20. The currency used is the Afghani (AFN). In 2009, the estimated GDP of Afghanistan was $13 billion and GDP growth in 2009 was estimated at 15.1% with a forecasted 7.6% growth in 2010. The GDP per capita was estimated in 2009 of being $457. The GDP by sector is agriculture at 31%, industry at 26% and services at 43% as of 2008. An estimated 36% of the Afghanistan population is below the poverty line and the labor force consists of 15 million as of 2004. These numbers are low due to the high amount of emigrants to foreign countries due to the country’s instability. The labor force by occupation is 80% is agriculture, 10% is industry and services is 10%. The unemployment rate was 40% as of 2008. The main industries produce textiles, soap, shoes, furniture, fertilizer, cement, hand-woven rugs, natural gas, petroleum, coal and copper. It’s exports as of 2009 was at $2.128 billion, with export goods being opium, wheat, nuts and fruit, hand-woven rugs, cotton, wool, hides/pelts, and precious/semi-precious stones. Afghanistan’s main export partners are India with 23.7%, Pakistan with 22.7%, the United States with 21.3% and Russia with 4.1% as of 2007. Imports as of 2009 were at $8.55 billion with goods ranging from food to textiles. Afghanistan’s main import partners are Pakistan with 23.9%, the United States with 11.8%, Germany with 6.8%, India with 6.5%, Turkey with 5.1%, Turkmenistan with 5%, Russia with 4.7% and Kenya with 4.4% as of 2005. As of 2007, Afghanistan has a public debt of $1.23 billion, to Russia and Multilateral Development Banks. It’s annual revenues are $2.587 billion and it’s annual expenses are $2.86 billion as of 2009. Overall, Afghanistan is a developing country and without stability, will not have a chance at development.