Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Economics Environment History & heritage Politics & government

[392] Of 59 years later

Today is the 59th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Approximately 80 000 people died on that day and many others in later due to deadly radioactivity. It was the finale of the greatest war in human history.

Let us hope that such weapon may never be used again. The first step to ensure that is to urge the US to adhere to ABM Treaty that it signed more than three decades ago. And the only way to do that is to remove Bush from the White House.

Go Ralph Nader!

Heh.

Anyway, I donated a few bucks to the local Green Party earlier. Hopes it is worth it.

p/s – there is a plan in California for a greater expansion of solar energy:

California officials are proposing that half of all new homes in the state be running on solar energy in 10 years, an effort spurred by $100 million in annual incentives paid for by electricity consumers.

Denmark is known for its wind energy, California will be known for its solar energy.

Categories
Economics

[391] Of $50 per barrel

I have always believed that $50 per barrel of crude oil is possible but for the price reach that level before the year ends is way too soon.

p/s – a must read entry. Extremely hilarious. I had my first smile of the day because of that blog.

Categories
Environment

[390] Of minor oil slick near Sabah

A few days ago, a pipeline in Sabah, a Malaysian on the northern part of the island of Borneo, ruptured, spilling crude oil into the sea. It was reported that an oil slick with the dimension of 2800 meters by 30 meters was observed. The pipeline was repaired quickly, preventing more spills and I am sure, cutting the owner of the pipeline losses, which happens to be Shell.

Though pipeline was repaired, slick was merely observed on the first day. A report in The Star, a local press has the exact wordings:

“One of our vessels is monitoring the oil slick,” the spokesman said, adding that there were no reports of casualties or immediate threat to people and facilities.

On the second day, Shell monitored again without doing anything. I was already agitated. Shell had this to say:

A Miri-based Shell spokesman said yesterday that the slick was “dispersing and disappearing” with heavy rains over the area while the emergency response team was also carrying out cleaning works.

“It is not a major slick, the amount leaked could have been about three barrels of oil,” he said, adding that the pipelines had been depressurised.

Three barrels. I do not really know how much is that but let say the thickness of the slick is one millimeter. We know the both the length and the width of the slick so, the volume should be 84 meter cube.

On the third day, or maybe it was the fourth:

“The situation is back to normal and the minor oil sheen has dispersed naturally,” according to a statement from Sabah Shell Petroleum Company.

What does that supposed to mean? Naturally dispersed? You have just responsible for tossing almost 100 meter cube of carcinogenic material into the sea and you call that being naturally dispersed?

It would only be natural if the spill were not there at all, you irresponsible dimwit! You should have cleaned your mess!

I wonder if passing the buck to Mother Nature is a culture in Shell Malaysia?

Categories
Liberty Politics & government

[389] Of Sudan and the United Nations

It is incredibly slow how the world community is reacting against the alleged genocide in Sudan. Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council merely passed a resolution threatening economic and diplomatic sanction against Sudan. That is probably a progress but nevertheless, it is a frustratingly slow development. The Sudanese government on the other hand has rejected the resolution swiftly.

Whether it is genocide or not, people are dying as the moments pass. I believe the United Nations should send a size of credible peacekeeping force to make sure Sudan would disarm the government-backed militias that are currently displacing many. Enough rhetoric; now it is time to act.

What I am more disappointed in is the Islamic community, especially the OIC which is currently led by Malaysia. An uproar was heard when the Muslims were the one on the other side of the gun. However, when one of them is holding the trigger, they stay quiet and act as if nothing big is happening.

This is absolutely true when I was attending the Friday prayer at the local mosque probably three weeks ago. After the prayer, somebody went up and announced a few minor things. But one of the not so minor issues was Sudan. He claimed that the media is manipulating the issue, depicting the Muslims as the aggressors. He went further but claming in actuality, it is the Muslims that are being oppressed.

Clearly in Sudan, it is the Muslims that are committing the atrocity, not the other way round. I who was sitting in the mosque hearing the announcement was utterly shocked. I stood immediately after that and left, disgusted by the hypocrisy shown by probably a prominent local Muslim figure.

The African Union (AU) had promised to send in some sort of force into Sudan but so far, nothing has happened yet. The AU said they have to delay the deployment due to logistic problem.

The Arab League offered help earlier but was refused by Sudan. Even if the Arab League was accepted by Sudan, I doubt it would do any good. The Arab League is useless because they cannot even solve their own problem and thus, there is no strong reason to see how the League would be of any help. In the end, it is only the United Nations that could help. The excessive red tape does not help however.

In the resolution, the UN gives Sudan 30 days to comply with the UN demands. I hope during those 30 days, Sudan will comply. I however do not feel Sudan will comply and if this if true, I hope those 30 days will end fast and thus, allowing tougher stances to be developed.

Categories
Economics Environment Politics & government

[388] Of DNC, John Kerry and Howard Dean

I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws

– John Kerry, July 29th 2004, Boston.

Nuff’ said.

Anyway, the Republican convention will be on August the 30th if I am not mistaken. It will be interesting to see how the GOP will react to the Democrats’ call for more positive competition instead of a cynical one.

So far, a lot of Bush’s campaign ads on the TV have been trying to discredit Kerry. Kerry has a few too but Kerry has not spent as much as Bush on negative ads.

And after four days of watching the DNC, I say Barack Obama is the best speaker.

Nevertheless, it is quite hard to see who will win the coming election.

On the other day, on the second day to be exact, Howard Dean gave his speech and he said democrats should not be ashamed of being democrats. People were confused with his words but later in an interview on PBS with Jim Lehrer, Dean explained that statement.

He said, people think Clinton got into office because Clinton was more of a centrist rather than a liberal. When he said that, then the “ah” came.

David Brooks, of who was on the show along with Mark Shields, disagreed and stressed later that Clinton won because Clinton took a sort of centrist position instead of a more liberal one.

Howard Dean is probably one of the true Democrats but I have to agree with Brooks. Clinton won because he took a centrist position.

I agree so because there is sort of case in economics that supports Clinton-was-a-centrist argument. It is something like this.

Imagine a one dimension line that represents a beach. At the same time, there are a lot of people on the beach, the sun is up there, clear sky and there are two ice-cream vendors at both end of the beach. Now, people from the right till the middle would go to the right-positioned ice-cream booth while the left-positioned will be visited by people from the left till the middle; this is based on the assumption that distance is the deciding factor on which booth should be visited and price is the same.

Now, if the right booth moved closer to the left while the left booth stayed left, the owner of the moved booth would get more customers. This is true because more people would be closer to the right booth than the left booth. If the right booth shifted straight to the middle while left stayed left, all the people on the right side would go to the right booth and half of the people on the left side of the beach would visit the right booth; the left booth would get only half of what it would have gotten if both booths had stayed at both end of the spectrum.

This is applicable to political party and certainly true in the case where there are two dominant parties. And this certainly dismisses Dean’s suggestion.

Anyway, I heard Ralph Nader has a good chance of getting into Michigan’s ballot. I would love to see Ralph Nader wins but given the situation, I will have to go with John Kerry.