Thursday, December 17, 2009

Climate Talks and Electronic Garbage

Talks were delayed for nine hours at the World Summit climate talks at Copenhagen. Poorer, developing countries were angered at the proposal to use new Danish documents as the basis for negotiations, accusing the Danes of trying to shape the summit into something more favorable to developed countries.

But lets talk about something else:

"Every one of us knows that Africa has contributed virtually nothing to global warming but has been hit first and hardest," said Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, on behalf of the African Union.

Which got me thinking: It is economically beneficial for companies to export their trash and their polluting industries to third-world nations. Electronic garbage is healvily exported to other countries.

According to Charles W. Schmidt in Unfair Trade: e-Waste in Africa, "Hungry for information technology but with a limited capacity to manufacture it, Africa has become the world’s latest destination for obsolete electronic equipment. Much of this material is more or less functional and provided in good faith by well-meaning donors. But the brokers who arrange these exports often pad shipping containers with useless junk, essentially saddling African importers with electronic garbage."



Much of the useless garbage is purified and sold as raw material. The purification process involves burning away the plastic and other coatings, a process that releases a bouquet of carcinogens and other toxic chemifals into the air. But to the Nigerian children performing the work, the melted copper remains may fetch a dollar from the scrap-dealer.

Useful garbage, however, is much more profitable: Olayemi Adesanya, logistical coordinator from the Basel Action Network (BAN), a Seattle-based environmental group, says a functional Pentium III computer sells for about US$130 on Nigerian markets, while a working 27-inch TV might sell for US$50. (Scrap components--especially working hard drives--can also be readily sold in Nigeria to supply an emerging reassembly industry.)

No one knows for sure how much hazardus e-waste is exported to Africa because there are virtually no data concerning the global e-waste trade--harmonized tariff schedules that dictate fees for export commodities don’t assign codes to waste electronics other than batteries. There are tariff classifications for scrap (e.g., plastic, metal) and for new electronics by type (e.g., computer monitors, TV sets). Because the importers don’t want to pay tariffs on a five-year-old computer based on the price of a new one, they often use scrap classifications, measured in pounds, says Robin Ingenthron, acting president of the World Reuse, Repair and Recycling Association (WR3A), a nonprofit group trying to establish fair trade standards for the practice. Consequently, the volume, characteristics, and destinations of e-waste exports are shrouded in mystery.

Find more here
and Here

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bush Administration E-mails found!


It is now discovered that the Bush administration had used a private E-mail server hosted by the Republican Party during one of the
The 90-day period during which the 22 million E-mails were sent saw the controversial sacking of eight federal prosecutors in the Justice department and several other scandals of the Bush Administration.

One could argue that the government will run best if left to its own devices. Citizens may have the right to know where nuclear missles are hidden, but they don't need to know everthing about the government, things that would probably upset and confuse them. Many other sucessful democracies have provisions keeping national secrets safe.
However, the only reason these 22 million (That's with six zeros, by the way) missing e-mails, sent during the critical moments before the Iraq War, were recovered is by pressure from Capitol hill by two groups–Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive--filed lawsuits over the failure of the Bush White House to install an electronic record-keeping system.

Furthermore, after Watergate, the government is mandated to keep a record of all its communications- including E-mails. That the Republican Party went to the trouble of hosting its own server does not look like the work of an organization with nothing to hide.

Still, however, these E-mails might be nothing more than "George W. talking about baseball and pretzels stuck in his throat". Then we probably don't need to know at all.

Find more here.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Cuban Embargo



At present, the Cuban embargo, which limits American businesses from conducting business with Cuban interests, is still in effect and is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history.The United States has blocked all trade and most of all movement from Cuba since 1959, when Fidel Castro took power until poor health took its toll last year. Ten U.S. presidents were in office during Fidel Castros regieme. The oppressive nature of the regime did not change noticeably we have no reason to think that Castro has personally suffered any deprivation from the sanctions.

Recently, President Obama has already extended a hand by loosening restrictions on travel and remittances to family members living in Cuba. The United States has been waiting for some positive signals from the Castro regime by way of democratic reforms in order to consider lifting the embargo.

Now, Cuba expiriences normal trade with every country on the western hemisphere except the United States and El Salvador. Israel, Palau and the United States itself were the only nations that voted in favour of the embargo when the question popped up last October in the United Nations.

While the United States blocks trade and movement from Cuba, the cuban people ar suffering from lack of goods and an ignored dictatorship. Just ignoring Cuba, the primary effect of an economic embargo, is not going to make them change their oppressive habits, because the reason we started the embargo in the first place was to oppose the expansion of communism into the West. We were trying to force Castro to abandon his opressive ways. It hasn't worked.

The embargo on cuba is an obsolete remainder of a xenophobic philosophy. There simply is no reason to continue an impotent policy when people we want to help are suffering from it.

A Brief Glimpse at Africa



Recently the issue has been raised over American solutions to African problems. Arguments arise and ideas are conflicted, and so my opinion on Africa exists below:

First of all, helping Africa grants more than just material wealth. America as a Superpower taking the time to try to help destitute citizens in Uganda and Sudan gives the people in those countries hope (It also makes us look good, not that we're selfish enough to care about that). When Senator Barack Obama visited Kenya in 2006, he took an HIV test to encourage people to get themselves tested, something especially important on a continent with over 22 million people living with AIDS or HIV, 2/3rds of the world's total. His visit there also included dealing with corruption and poverty in Kenya as well. Today, Obama is the president of the United States and wields much more power, both physical and influential. How much is hope worth? If President Barack Obama of the United States of America came out with a statement with intention to help end African poverty, corruption, and genocide, how much hope will that give the people in Africa living with poverty, corruption, and genocide? America wields influence, and it doesn't cost much to use it.

Secondly, I'd like to talk about Uganda. One of the major issues unique to Uganda is the fact that a band of terrorists called the Lord's Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, that has been kidnaping children for use as child soldiers. In the last few years, the organization Invisible Children has emerged, with aims to help liberate the child soldiers and bring Joseph Kony to justice. Since then, the organization has expanded to include several others, notably Schools for Schools, which has raised over $320,000 and nearly 80,000 books for use in new Ugandan schools. The original intent of Invisible Children has never been carried out, however. Despite years of lobbying and raising awareness, the negociations with Joseph Kony for a cease-fire and end to genocide failed when he decided to stay in hiding. Since 2005, Joseph Kony has been wanted by the ICC for crimes against Humanity and is one of the most wanted individuals on the ICC's list. All diplomatic attempts to bring him to justice and stop genocide in Uganda has failed.

I encourage you to google these arguments and read much more eloquent summaries of these arguments.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Economy

Lately, President Obama walked away from a White House job forum stating he now had many "exciting ideas and proposals" for rectifying the large unemployment rate, now over 10%. The GOP is running its own alternative job forum, accusing Democrats of pursuing "Job Killing" legislation in health care and climate control that counteracts the economic issue.

I for one cannot see how such a viewpoint stands. Yes, sometimes a step foward in direction means a step backwards in another, but the way I see it, issues like health care and climate control cannot just be ignored. The state of so many things is like your teeth: You have to brush them every day or you'll get cavities, and in the long run devoting a little bit of time for preventative measures will be more effective than a root canal later in life, which costs a lot of money to get fixed and hurts very much.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Pakistan

Pakistan is a country bordering Afghanistan that is supposed to be America's ally in the war on terror. Lately, the reliability of Pakistan has been brought into question. Many people believe it could end the war with Al Qaeda or, by supporting the terrorist group, make the war on terror impossible to win. Obama's plan now includes sending 30,000 troops there next fall, and trying to persuade Pakistan that we, the United States, are not a threat.

Read about it here.


The United States has taken some flak in the Middle East as a meddling superpower, but the fact remains that we put our chips in the pot and need to continue our war on terrorism. We still need to put an end to the fighting (partially because we may have aggravated part of it). Pakistan has justification in distrusting Obama, but that just means we need to make our intentions clearer in our fight for an end.