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Oil fields in Arctic or killing field for polar bears?

Ratul Sur — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:09:08 +0000

Sounds like US are venturing to jeopardize the balance of Nature and its possession. The US administration has given acquiescence to seven oil companies to drill oil in the Chuckchi Sea, which is the habitat of a large number of polar bears. Sounds like what President Bush told in his 2006 State of the Union address now finds the way to actuality. Bush had said,

we have a serious problem, America is addicted to oil.

Now this addiction becomes an obsession and is poised to destabilize the existence of polar bears. At this juncture, one point that comes first in mind is why the US companies are targeting the Chuckchi Sea? According to the Mineral Management Service, Chuckchi Sea is one of the few frontier areas where oil and gas deposits could amount to 15 billion barrels of oil (more than Prudhoe Bay).

At the same time, Chuckchi sea is also the owner of another rare natural vanity- 10 percent of the world’s polar bear population. Polar bears are the first creature that was enlisted as the first creature to be affected by the climatic change. The huge loss of ice in summer in 2007 as environment journalist Stephen Leahy puts it has lead many scientists to believe that Arctic could be ice-free in summer as early as 2012. Though the polar bears were declared as endangered species, the official announcement of which was supposed to come on January 9th ,silence reigned in the US Fish and Wildlife Department. This portentous silence, as it might be called, facilitated the auction of 30 million acres of area in Chuckchi Sea, worth $2.6 billion in spite of 670,000 comments in support of protecting the polar bear under Endangered Species Act including letters from eminent polar bear experts and more than 60 members of Congress.

The loss of habitat for the polar bears, lack of food might be fatal. Also, the melting of ice due to oil operations will affect the polar bears as they might drown in the water. At this stage, what comes at the top of the mind is that, had the polar bears been declared endangered on January 9th, the auction of Chuckchi Sea would not have occurred so effortlessly. Adds to this is the productive game of hunting poar bears which is a 2-million dollar per years income for the people of northwest Canada. Such kind of drill is likely to affect not only the polar bears, but also bowhead whales and gray whales. Though the industry claims that it has good records of maintaining the safety measures, it might not be the case everywhere. Oil drilling cannot be done safely in the Arctic offshore ecosystem. There is also a chance of an oil spill which might cause ecological debacle. The Inupiat people’s maritime culture will be hampered. Besides this, normal industry operation like seismic survey, vessel traffic, aircraft, pipe construction will have to bear the impact of the lease.

However, the US government showed its furtive attitude to set the auction for only $2.6 billions as several lawsuits are still awaiting. So , there is a feeble possibility that might nullify the sale altogether and the Government has to return the money to the bidders and stop petroleum operation there completely. At the end of the day, as it seems now, President Bush is correct about how addicted US is to oil, inviting their grief themselves- climatic change, pollution and hence pillaging the resource. The situation is alarming. Keeping in view the battle royale in November, its time to relook into the matter with political intercession.

Via: msnbc

DRC- Dilemma of Resources for Congo

Ratul Sur — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:55:28 +0000

Democratic Republic of Congo, the third largest country in the world, almost the size of Western Europe is grasping after the noose of poverty and hunger has strangled its economic throat. Gaining its independence in 1960, DRC has been put into frying pan from fire.It has since then been witnessing ethnical riots and pseudo-colonial aggression from countries like USA and EU who have been vying desperately to grab the natural resources of the country which is the largest exporter of cobalt and fourth largest exporter of diamond, DRC has suffered from ethnic scuffle. Carrying a huge resource for bio-fuel, Congo is also carter of an odd 56% mal-nourished people and 70% of people suffering from hunger, Congo is baffled how to use the natural resources at its disposal.
According to UN reports by economist Dr. Schmidhuber, there are 85- 115 millions of hectares of land of which only four millions can be irrigated. Yet after having such land resources which can cultivate food for 2-3 billion of people, the country has to import food from European Union. The blatant reason lies in the fact that only 5% of land in Congo is cultivable.
So, if DRC has such potentiality, doled out by Nature, for its people why it is so lowly placed? The greedy Goliaths of the world are eyeing DRC as their prime prey. Of these economic giants, China has successfully forayed into territory of bio-fuel resources in DRC. According to a report by John Farmer and Ann Talbot China has established itself in Congo by providing US$ 8 billion dollars for infrastructure projects and mining operations. This will give China control over several important copper and cobalt mines. This is just the beginning with mines. Still Congo has eerie 85- 115 hectares of land left and tropical forests. These forests can be planned to be used for palm plantation to meet the spiralling need for agro fuel for European and US cars as well as China’s demand for palm oil.
UN economist Dr. Schmidhuber says that Congo can use the maverick expanse of land for cultivation of palm oil. He says that the palm oil can help the poor farmers in Congo who live earning less than half US$ per day to produce their own fuel and limit food production. But there is a possibility that it might lead to ecological imbalance. If palm oil plantation wrack those people who are dependent on the forests for their livelihood, it is certain that it will disturb equilibrium between economy and ecology. Palm oil plantation will be possible when the forest will be accessed. This means forest will be logged, timber will be sold and revenue will result.
Already a Chinese company has signed a billion-dollar contract to start cultivation of palm oil in 3 million hectare of land which means a huge loss of forestry. Congo’s fuel price problem has reached nadir point resulting in hunger problem. Dr. Schimidhuber stresses too much on the cultivation of fuel crop. But if fuel crop is cultivated at the cost of food crop how the productive land will help to eradicate hunger, one of the burning problems of the country? If most of the farm land is used for cultivating palm oil, 145,000 small-scale farmers will finally migrate to cities which will aggravate the agro-based problems.

R4— Relaxation, Recreation, Renovation, Repose

Ratul Sur — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:21:01 +0000

R4 is a revolution in the audiophile music system. Audiophiles cannot imagine it to be that good with ‘traditional music player of 21st century’, but when it comes to R4 by Vita Audio, it really makes some difference. This hand crafted, all-in-one audiophile music system looks sleek with a white piano lacquer finish. The slot loading CD player plays CD-audio, MP3, WMA music discs and DAB radio. The USB port helps playback of MP3 and WMA music files. The system can also be controlled by an unusual remote control ‘rotodial’ which makes life more pleasurable. The rotodial though is mounted on the top of R4 in an alcove, it can be removed.
The DAB radio can receive digital signals in UK. USB - which can play media files stored on memory sticks. With two auxiliary inputs for MP3, the output has been single with 3D enhanced stereo sound. 2.1 speaker gives 80W output. The system is also equipped with stereo headphone output.The RDS acts as a backup to the FM. Integrated iPod dock can support iPod Classic, iPod Nano 1st, 2nd 3rd generation, iPod Touch, iPod mini, iPod with colour display. The 4th generation iPod has a place in the R4’s dock, including iPhone when in airplane mode. The tone can be selected according to user. The user guide for MP3 files, CD and USB is provided with the system. The system has been kept simple with effortless handling. The 8 Kg system is available in Rich Walnut veneer (499.99 pounds or $974) and Dream White high gloss lacquer (549.99 pounds or $1,071 ). Demand for the system is likely to outshine supply According to R4 sources; the system will be available from late June/ early July.

Inflation in U.S. — The loosing worth of economy

Ratul Sur — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:08:18 +0000

Inflation in a developed country or in a developing country is an inevitable menace. Some nations try to rein the vicious spiral by enforcing strict fiscal measures. Inflation in US has been relatively steady. Though, there have been occasional cases of erratic high inflation, US have maintained a steady inflation rate of 3% for the last 30 years. In India, inflation has escalated to 8% on 30.05.2008.
If we scrutinize the reason for inflation in recent US, we will see that increasing cost of business plays an imperative role. The reason for inflation in US being significantly low is that the people have relied too much on the stock market rumble of the 90s for the supply superfluous cash. US economy says that even 3% inflation has a momentous role to play. US economists say that after 30 years of 3% inflation, one million dollar will buy about $400,000, that means 3% of inflation has already devoured 60 % one million dollar. Though 3% inflation is considered to be manageable, rate of inflation will rise once again, when the majority of the US middle-class will get saturated with debt. This will create an impasse in the sense that it will stagnate the economy until some of the debt is paid.
The recent inflation in US has brought to focus one obvious factor- no stock- even a commodity stock is resistant to inflation. Though gold has managed to make a come back to deal with a price above $700/oz , oil-and- mining put a halt in its drop, resource stock are getting over-heated. This is the case especially with the precious metals like gold and heavy stocks. This calculated fall of dollars is likely to turn into a fiasco. If this is not controlled in time, it will adversely affect the economy. US economists fear that it will eventually take gold near $ 1000 and oil near $100. Gasoline prices have hit up to $3.8 a gallon and diesel price by 64% from a year ago.
Inflation, as Peter Schiff puts it, is America’s ‘greatest export’. The substantial increase in prices of domestic consumer goods is created by the growth in money supply. This is a direct effect of the artificial demand of inflation, which has put more dollars in the hands of the US consumers. In USA, there are two ways open to the US citizens to use up the excess dollars. One- to buy US financial assets and two- to exchange the dollars with commodities like gold or oil. If they exchange it, then it comes back once again to the economy without adding any extra value.
But in the end, let us concentrate on the fact whether low inflation has any effect on the mechanism of business. Though low inflation increases the chance that at some point, the business mechanism will generate deflation, the danger is not great. In fact, deflation and low inflation revolves round the same point somehow. All economists put their belief in the Fisher theory which states that if one can change the average trend rate of inflation and then wait long enough, nominal interest rates will adjust point-to point to the change in the rate of inflation and real rate of interest will return to equilibrium. There is no reason that we cannot rely on this theory since the failure of this theory (if it happens) will only cause a certain degree of wealth to be redistributed from creditors to debtors.

NREGA- a tale of deprived lots

Ratul Sur — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:14:37 +0000

Having provided a job security to the rural people, at least for a few stipulated days, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has made a strong impact in rural India. According to the information available from the NREGA fact sheet, this scheme has assured 100 days of employment yearly to the households employed in the NREGA. The share of the marginalized groups in total NREGA employment gives a happy picture. It says that 40% of woman folk, 36% of Scheduled Tribes, 26% of the Scheduled Tribes have been benefited by the NREGA. But don’t be allured by what has been said so far, in fact what we have seen is the bright side of the moon. Let’s take our rocket on the other side and land on a dark ground. One such dark ground is Orissa. Here a survey was conducted by Social Science Institute of Allahabad in October 2007. This study brought to light the foul play going on in the name of NREGA. The results of the study shows that only 60% of the days of employment recorded in the Muster Role (MR) were confirmed, with the rest 40% unaccounted. The flawed Job Card (JC) adds to the woes of the poor people. No where in the cards are written what amount of wage is to be paid to the labour. In some cases it has also been seen that the worker himself does not fill the JC, in most of the cases it is filled by the Village Level Leader (VLL) in the presence of the worker. Also, the name of the worker is entered in the code format, and in English. So, mostly it is impossible for the illiterate workers to read the document. Further, the VLLs become the master of the manipulation game. There are two kinds of MRs maintained by the state- ‘kaccha’ (unofficial) and ‘pucca’ (official). But, in fact, more importance is laid on the ‘kaccha’ MRs and the ‘pucca’ MRs have been pushed to backstage and have been rendered to be redundant. The VLLs assign more importance on the ‘kaccha’ MRs and conduct the official work in them .They later enter the names in the official documents. Not only that, most of the people involved in this racket gets their own share. The study reveals that the BDO claims two to three percent, the block chairman has three percent, junior engineer has five percent, auditor has one percent, cashier has one percent, and above all the Panchayat Officer has and the executive officer has 20-22 percent. Imagine how much the poor man gets after a hard days work. More than that the Zilla Parishad wants their people to get into some job because they can get more shares from that. Moreover, fictitious names are enrolled in the muster role and are shown to be paid from the fund. Lack of vigilance and lack of enforcement of laws has enhanced the problem. The Social Audit and Muster Roll Verification by the Gram Sabha are not carried out in the proper way; they are only done to follow the direction of the Government and that also in a very casual manner. The Civil Society Organization has been kept out of the Social Audit, in spite of earlier decision to include them.
However, the National Institute of Rural Development has come forward to help them in conducting the social audit which in turn may keep the transparency of NREGA and pave the way for a fair play.