Indians...the Dot Kind...in the Antarctic...arghhh???

Today India came one step closer to establishing their second Antarctic research base. Yeah, second. The ATCM or Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meet approved India's proposal. Indian scientists want to set up this second station to continue doing research on how and why India broke apart from Antarctica...didn't we learn that back in Middle School or something...plate tectonics and the super Continent and blah blah blah.

Well yeah it seems bizarre, but I applaud their attempts at another ice base. I can really give two shits about their research there but the fact that India will soon have multiple research bases in Antarctica shows something rather significant. India is becoming a big boy and is slowly becoming a part of an elite group. The fact that India and its slightly over 50 year democracy now has the capital to commit to such a project is a direct sign of its growing economy, prosperity and wealth. Not too many states have the excess funds laying around and scientific smarts to set up such a project.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/ATCM_to_clear_Indias_proposal_on_new_Antarctic_base/rssarticleshow/1980955.cms

Iran's Assistance In Iraq

Egypt Is to Hold a Key Meeting Regarding Iraq...Iran is to Attend.

So today Iran's foreign minister announced that he and a delegation from Iran will be in attendance at a conference to be held at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Our very own Condi is to be there as well, and she has made it very clear that this is not a conference at which US-Iranian relations will be brought up. She has made it clear that this a conference for Iraq and is Iraq is of utter importance...

There is no way around the US-Iranian relations when it comes to the matter of shared security or dually assisted security and reconciliation of the various sectarian groups within Iraq. For Iraq to stabilize it is of utmost importance that her neighboring states have a hand in doing this, as I mentioned in my "Iraq's Contiguous States" blog. Not only will the help of Iran lead to a stable Iraq, it should also help to normalize relations with the US, or maybe even mend the image of the US within the region, one that has dubbed the US "The Great Satan".

The reason I say there is no way around US-Iran relations is because both states accuse one another of destabilizing Iraq and the region. Iran claims the US has spies embedded within their nation and the US claims the Iranians are assisting the Shia militias including that of Muqtada al-Sadr in the South. There is talk that a US-Iran conference or at least meeting, a bilateral meeting, will come out of the talks at Sharmel-Sheikh.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6604943.stm

IPI Pipeline to be Built by June 30

So today members of the Indian and Iranian governments met to continue talks on the so-called trilateral regional friendship. All three states have resources to offer whether it be Iran's massive amounts of crude, or India and Pakistan vast reserves of natural and other types of gas.

What does all this mean for the region and the rest of the world? Up until recently Iran had a very "you with us or against us" mentality when it came to foreign affairs. Iran has for decades been looking export revolution and Islamic governments, as some claim they are still attempting within a few gulf states. This trilateral friendship within which one member happens to be the worlds second fastest growing economy maybe seen as a threat, on the economic scale by many in the west. India can potentially lock down and secure the mass amounts of oil required to fuel their economy into the future, Iran can be a significant power in the region, while gaining key allies and creating a favorable market for their oil...Pakistan's role in this is rather questionable. Pakistan is certainly an asset to this trilateral partnership...but Musharraf's role in this may hurt his image more here in the west which will put him further on this tight rope he has been walking on between the West and Pakistanis. Come June 30th we'll see how this goes...

Polygamous Lesbians Flee Sharia

So, about 7 years ago Nigeria adopted Sharia law, Islamic Law and Jurisprudence. It was reported today that a group of 5 Polygamous Lesbians fled the country in order to avoid being stoned or possibly put to death. Within Sharia law lesbianism is outlawed as is polygamy. These women are now seeking asylum in various states, but have ran into complications as many governments do not allow polygamy coupled with lesbianism.

Check out the flyer from the big wedding pow-wow!!!

Sudan Turns Down Food Aid...

Sudan's Turns Away "GM" Sorghum...

Today members of the UN WFP (world food program) inspected and allowed a shipment of Sorghum from the US to be given as aid to the 2.4 million refugees they are feeding in Southern Sudan.

Initially Sudanese authorities did not allow the shipment claiming it had been genetically modified, however there is no such thing as genetically modified Sorghum, or not yet at least.

This could be an attempt by the Sudanese government to try to get the UN WFP to purchase domestically produced Sudanese foods as a means of helping their economy. This however cannot be done as the various aid groups including UNWFP cannot afford to do this and rather take the food aide given.

It may be far fetched to say this...but perhaps the Sudanese govt. is looking to use the revenue from the purchase of domestic foods to continue their support of the Janjaweed Militias in the south.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6594947.stm

Ethiopian Rebels Attack Chinese Operated Oil Field. 74 Killed

These occurrences have become far too common. It seems every month our trading floor goes crazy because some European or American and now Chinese has been kidnapped from an oil field in Nigeria because the local militias decide they want to disrupt extraction.

These attacks cause massive fluctuations in crude oil prices for the consumer.

Can you blame these rebels?

The latest attack was one in Ethiopia, until recently foreign oil operations in Ethiopia have not experienced such attacks, but it seems this type of attack is increasing throughout Africa, starting in Nigeria, now on to Ghana, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia amongst others.

These local militia groups attack these oil fields because they are being robbed of their countries resources and essentially wealth. Don't get me wrong...these big firms pay these states tons of money, provide some oil revenue and subsidized prices but none of this ever reaches the people. It is for this reason these militias attack, their land is stolen and they are given nothing...its a shitty situation yea??

Somalia....who? huh? ummmm.....

Millions Are Being Killed in Somalia...Mogadishu is Burning...But Nobody Seems to Care....WTF

Somalis are caught up in the worst violence of the last sixteen years, yet no one knows or seems to care. Millions are dying there, yet it is not even aired on nightly news broadcasts...whats the deal? Of the worlds states Somalia can certainly be considered one hell of a failed state, yes. The US went into Mogadishu to act as the defenders of the free world, one incident (the downing of a Black hawk and the subsequent events that followed) acted as the catalyst for the western world to forget about the plight of the millions of Somalis who are being killed, raped, brutalized and forcible removed from their lands. With the new year came an effort by the west, but not a helping effort but rather an effort that killed many more thousands and drove out the Islamist regime within Somalia. The US and Ethiopian governments staged a well executed aerial assault on what the US has claimed is a part of its on going efforts in the war against terrorism. However, these so-called terrorists, are actually the only force able to restore calm in the country and the US went ahead and eradicated that group to again allow the country to fall into the hands of various war lords who cannot provide peace...which is the first step in fixing the problem of this failed state.

Drop Food not Bombs...Popular western media pays no attention to the cause...as the theme has been...Africa is the forgotten about continent...maybe second however to Antarctica and all them penguins... even with the Genocide occurring in Darfur western media may play a small snippet here and there and this is done because they are pressured to do so. So what about the Somali's?? The AU claims they cannot enter because it is far to dangerous...the UN just doesn't seem to care...the Arab League has tried holding talks...these efforts will do nothing...ground forces are required in order to stabilize the state or region or call it what you will. Though Somalia is a failed state the UN, as fellow human beings, should intervene for the sake of humanity.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest_international.cfm?id=632972007

I JUST F-IN HAD TO!!!!!

"If the Bees Disappear Man Would Have Only Four Years of Life Left" -Albert Einstein

Cell Phones to be Blamed for the End of Human Life on Earth...

A recent story was released in which scientists throughout the US and Europe is claiming that Bees are being killed off due to excessive cell phone use...pretty bizarre. The claim is that bees are dying off through what has been dubbed CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder. The basic claim is that the low levels of radiation released through cell phone transmissions are interfering with bees’ navigation systems and leading them to stray away from their hives and colonies only leaving the queen, and a few measly youngins and eggs behind. The number of commercial bees on the west coast has dropped by 60% in recent years and as high as 80% decline on the east coast and now this phenomena is hitting Western Europe. For years the scientific community has been puzzled about this bizarre happening but now there is evidence to back the claim of CCD due to cell phone use.

So what do we do? Cell phones have undoubtedly become a very necessary piece of our lives, but hey we got by before them...well we can't get rid of them so I certainly am not suggesting that. It seems we have come to a point, not recently but a long, long time ago, a point where we as humans have realized that we can very easily bring our end through so-called progress. We have interfered with our natural world and surroundings so much that there really is no turning back. We must utilize our genius and know-how to repair the damage or merely sustain what we still have. I sure as hell hate getting stung, but a world without bees...are you kidding me?

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=vn20070422090610628C964265

Fake Elections in Bhutan

Today the tiny, extremely isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan staged a mock election. This sounds rather bizarre, yes, but in a country where the former king, Jigme Wangchuk, said he did not care about the Gross Domestic Product of his state (GDP) but rather the GNH or Gross National Happiness of his people it shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The pristine state has intentionally isolated itself for decades and even centuries as a means of preserving their heritage which is centered around Buddhism. This tactic of isolation goes as far as not allowing foreign visitors until very recently and even then visitors must purchase daily visit visa permits at a whopping rate of $300 a day.

The reason for the mock election is to train the people of Bhutan how a democratic system works. This mock election involves various parties who are named after the national symbol of the dragon, the parties are the blue, green red and yellow thunder dragon parties. This mock election involves high school students as candidates and the two parties that receive the highest votes will go to Thimphu for the second phase of the election.

The state has advisers from neighboring India monitoring the elections. Though we in the west are firm believers in Democracy, there in Bhutan is it really required? The country has flourished for centuries under the same type of monarchy but this will all change by 2008. The states neighbors, namely Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) have all experienced tremendous political turmoil and have very flawed "democracies". In a state where voting is completely foreign and the status quo is very much accepted and works very well is there a need to complicate the lives of these peaceful people with the turmoil, corruption and bullshit that comes about through complicated politics? especially in that region of the world???

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6578421.stm

Asian Markets Continue to Develop and Flourish

Sensex Closes 277 Points Up

So today the sensex, which is the Bombay stock exchange rallied and closed at 13,987 points, which was a 277 pt gain from market opening. These figures have been steadily increasing for the past few years, but very much so over the past few months as there have been some major mergers and acquisitions on the part of Indian firms.

Today's gnarly rally was headed by the big IT firms, namely Satyam Computers and IT giant Wipro. Along side the IT firms Indias industrial sector and also certainly helped the markets. TATA which has diversified into various sectors of industry of the past decade remains one of India's largest firms. TATA along with the world's largest steel firm, Mital have led India's and Asias economy to the point they are at today.

This shows that it is still an awesome time to get into these foreign or developing markets. India's economy is developing quite rapidly and is moving away from strictly human capital based industry into mo

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Mkt_buoyant_Sensex_closes_277_pts_up/RssArticleShow/articleshow/1928557.cms

States contiguous to Iraq

So today US Defence Secretary Robert M Gates was in Egypt. While in Egypt Mr.Gates addressed a few issues while speaking before the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo. One major issue of discussion is an obvious one…hmmm what’s been going on in the Middle East concerning Americans for a little while now…yea that’s right… the building of another Pizza Hut in the UAE…no, that’s not right. The issue at hand was obviously that of Iraq. Mr. Gates made it clear that the assistance and backing of Egypt is required if Iraq is to be kept from divulging into further chaos

The issue at hand is not just Iraq divulging into further chaos, but the possibility that the entire region could be destabilized based on the notion of sectarian differences coupled with a historical desire of the ruling Islamist regime of Iran to export revolution and strengthen Shia Muslims throughout the region. It is really a scary thought if you think about it. For decades Saudi Arabia has been Iran’s ideological enemy as well as Sectarian opposition. Historically Saudi has been the regional power broker, a position Iran has been seeking for quite some time.

In many states throughout the Gulf, Qatar and Bahrain to name a few, have very similar social structures to that of Iraq, minus the Kurdish population. Within many gulf states there are Shia populations of significant size that are not represented as they are led by governments installed during the British Mandate Era that are Sunni dominant. This creates a powder keg in the region as far as sectarian differences go.

If the states contiguous to Iraq (Syria, Iran), and neighboring states to Iraq are not allowed to play a significant role in the reconstruction there could very well be massive chaos across the region and the Iraq issue will not be resolved