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.

A Beautiful Week Yet Again

Thomas Berry

March 31, 2010

International Relations

Professor Sean

Afghanistan

Created in 1747 through the unification of the Pashtun tribes by Ahmad Shah Durrani, Afghanistan has had a colored past. In 1919, the country gained independence from Britain and tried to start a democracy that ultimately lead to a coup in 1973 and 5 years later lead to a Communist counter-coup. In 1979 the USSR entered the country to aid the Afghan Communist regime that began a ten yearlong destructive war. Because of fierce international pressure, the USSR withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. Between 1989 and 1996, Afghanistan went through numerous civil wars that ultimately ended up with the Taliban gaining control. Following September 11, 2001, a US, allied and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military force overthrew the Taliban. Following the Bonn Conference, in 2004 Afghanistan held a presidential election and the following year held national assembly elections. In 2009, president Hamid Karzai won re-election, but despite hard efforts on his part and that of the new Afghan government, Taliban resurgences have continued to make the country unstable.

Afghanistan is in the continent of Asia and the area known as the Middle East. It has a total land area of 652,230 sq km and it the 41^st largest country. In relative size, it is slightly smaller than Texas. It borders six other countries including, China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It has an arid to semiarid climate with cold winters and hot summers. The terrain is mostly rugged mountains with plains in both the southwest and north. It has the highest point of just less than 7,500 m. Afghanistan has many natural resources ranging from natural gas and petroleum to precious stones, coal, copper, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore and salt. Out of all the land in Afghanistan only 12.13% is arable land and only .21% has permanent crops. Only 27,200 sq km of land is irrigated and has limited sources of adequate fresh water. Earthquakes, flooding and droughts also occur in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s population is roughly 28,395,716 with a life expectancy of 44.4 years. Men slightly out numbered the women and the median age in the country is 17. Only 28.1% of the population is literate. The main ethnic groups are Pashtun with 42% of the population, Tajik with 27%, Hazara with 9%, Uzbek with 9%, Aimak with 4%, Turkmen with 3%, Baloch with 2% and other being 4%. The main religion is Sunni Muslim with 80% followed by Shia Muslim with 19% and 1% being other. The official languages are Dari and Pashto but many other languages and dialects are spoken.

Some of the main international problems facing Afghanistan are the number of refugees. Due to both instability and drought nearly 133,000 people are displaced. Another huge problem is the illegal drug trade with opium, which is used to make heroin. Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world due to the climate they have that is perfect for growing opium. Overall, Afghanistan is very diverse in many aspects from ethnic groups to natural resources to terrain and thus must be studied closely in order to properly simulate the country.

Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear - Gladiator

A new study done by funded by NASA, shows that the rainforest may be more resilient than previously thought. Prior knowledge and thought was that climate change would make rainfall in the amazon less, killing of many plant and therefore animal species and allowing for tropical grasses to take over. But this new study by Boston University researchers, shows that the worst drought in written history in the Amazon, the drought of 2005 that caused rivers and lakes to drive up and towns to move out, had to concrete damage to the vegetation. This report rebukes the WWF's claim that global warming would cause 40% of the Amazon to be lost. Overall, this new data shows vaguely that global warming might possibly not change the rainforest, it does not mean that climate change will have no effect, it will and we must continue to help our rainforest thrive.

The United States this weekend declared that it wants to list polar bears as endangered. The US states that with increase in global warming and melting polar ice, the bears need all the protection they can get so as to keep their numbers from going to helpless numbers. As of right now, polar bears are allowed to be hunting and the trade for these bears goes throughout the world, the US believes that this has to be stop so that the bears can have a fighting chance in the future. This proposal will be brought up in the 12-day Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species(CITES). 175 countries will discuss the fate of the future of earth's biodiversity, also up for talk is the ban on fishing for bluefin tuna.

Coming soon to the London skyline will be the first building to incorporate wind turbines into it's fabric. The building, nicknamed "the Razor" will have three wind turbines built into it that will account for 8% of it's energy needs. The London government has stated that all new buildings by 2019 must be zero-carbon, and this apartment complex is the first step it this goal. This building also does not have air-condition, instead it uses a natural ventilation system.

Well have a good one guys and remember, never let the fear of striking out stop you from playing the game - BR

-Thomas

A Beautiful Week

The same team that produced the Academy award winning documentary The Cove, is at work again. At a popular sushi restaurant in Santa Monica, one thing on the menu is whale meat. It is illegal to sell and trade whale meat of any kind. The crew took clandestine photos of the operation and went to the restaurant and order the whale meat. The waitress came back with a plate of "thick pink slices" of what the waitress said was whale meat. The crew took a few bites fore putting the rest in a bag and sending it off to be tested. Their suspicions proved true and the results were that the meat came from an endangered sei whale. The restaurant can now face prison time and up to a $20,000 fine that is due this week. The documentary The Cove unveils Japan's dolphin slaughter where the fisherman confuse the dolphins and then kill them by beating them with clubs or stabbing them with harpoons.

China and India today both agreed to be "listed" as parties on the last-minute Copenhagen accords, of which the US strongly back. these accords were put together last-minute when no deal was reached. India and China being "listed" falls just shorts of being in "full association" but is better then not being in connection with the accords at all. There is still much debate over a legally binding treaty on cutting carbon emissions and the newest release shows that another meeting will not occur till late 2012. There is still much controversy and debate on the whole issue foreign and abroad, but hope may come when we least expect it.

By 2011, washing machines might no longer be all "Wash". A UK company, Xeros, has developed a washing machine that uses 90% less water than traditional machines. This new washing machine uses only enough water to get the clothes wet and then fills the chamber with nylon-beads, that at the right humidity absorbs stains and clean the clothes. These beads can reused hundreds of time. The annual household bill would be cut by 30% when water, electricity and detergent are taken into consideration AND if all people in the UK were to switch to these washers, it would be the equivalent of taking 1.4 million cars off the road in terms of carbon footprint!

Well have a good week guys and always think positive!!!