Friday, March 23, 2007
What's going on in Zimbabwe?
The inflation rate in some parts of the country are several thousand %
"a 2 litre bottle of milk cost Z$10 000 on Tuesday, but 24 hours later it was Z$17 000"
More about Zimbabwe from Public Radio International
"a 2 litre bottle of milk cost Z$10 000 on Tuesday, but 24 hours later it was Z$17 000"
More about Zimbabwe from Public Radio International
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Boaters Beware...
witches in the congo
Suspected Witches Dead in Congo/ 200 Believed Killed in Northeast:
KAMPALA, Uganda, July 5, 2001 — Villagers have hacked to death about 200 suspected witches in rebel-held northeastern Congo since June 15, blaming them for diseases that have gone untreated since Congo's war broke out three years ago, a senior Ugandan army official said today.
Ugandan troops, which had withdrawn this year from the district near the border, were sent back to the area to stop the killings and make arrests, Brig. Henry Tumukunde said.
"Villagers were saying that some people had bewitched others, and they started lynching them. By the time we discovered this, 60 people had already been killed by early last week. About 200 people lost their lives," Tumukunde said.
Tumukunde refused to say how many people had been injured or arrested. It wasn't clear whether the witches were mainly men or women.
Accused of Witchcraft
The killings began three weeks ago in Aru, 50 miles south of Sudan, but spread deep inside northeastern Congo, a country the size of Western Europe. The region of rolling savannas was once a rich agricultural area where wheat was grown and cattle raised, but a series of rebellions have left communities destroyed since the 1960s.
The war that began three years ago has only made matters worse. "The war forced people to move to other areas, and the internally displaced were the targets of local villagers, who accused them of witchcraft," Tumukunde said.
He said diseases endemic to the region were being blamed on witchcraft, noting that drugs to treat the diseases have not been available during the duration of the war. In much of the rebel-held 60 percent of the country, routes that would carry trade and aid back and forth are cut off. With no immunization programs or other health programs, measles and other diseases are killing people in large numbers. Plague has even made inroads. In the worst-hit areas, people are dying from a combination of disease and starvation.
Some charities have estimated an indirect wartime death toll of about 2 million out of a population of 50 million in the former Belgian colony.
Collapsed Society
In a report released jointly today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization, experts said after a recent 12-day visit to Congo that "every facet of society — whether human rights or economy, education or water and sanitation, housing or social care — has collapsed."
The 10-person mission blamed "decades of state and external looting of national resources" and war for pushing "Congolese households over the brink."
In Congo's countryside, there is hardly any running water or electricity. In the most devastated areas, people are desperate just for soap and salt.
Although Uganda had withdrawn troops this year from the Aru district, it still employs troops elsewhere in Congo.
Uganda and Rwanda joined forces in August 1998 in support of a rebellion seeking to oust President Laurent Kabila, whom they had backed in a previous, successful revolt that overthrew longtime President Mobutu Sese Seko of what was then Zaire in May 1997.
The senior Kabila's assassination in January and his son's ascension to the presidency appear to have cleared the hurdles blocking the implementation of a 1999 peace agreement signed by the Congolese government, the rebels and Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, who are all involved in the conflict.
KAMPALA, Uganda, July 5, 2001 — Villagers have hacked to death about 200 suspected witches in rebel-held northeastern Congo since June 15, blaming them for diseases that have gone untreated since Congo's war broke out three years ago, a senior Ugandan army official said today.
Ugandan troops, which had withdrawn this year from the district near the border, were sent back to the area to stop the killings and make arrests, Brig. Henry Tumukunde said.
"Villagers were saying that some people had bewitched others, and they started lynching them. By the time we discovered this, 60 people had already been killed by early last week. About 200 people lost their lives," Tumukunde said.
Tumukunde refused to say how many people had been injured or arrested. It wasn't clear whether the witches were mainly men or women.
Accused of Witchcraft
The killings began three weeks ago in Aru, 50 miles south of Sudan, but spread deep inside northeastern Congo, a country the size of Western Europe. The region of rolling savannas was once a rich agricultural area where wheat was grown and cattle raised, but a series of rebellions have left communities destroyed since the 1960s.
The war that began three years ago has only made matters worse. "The war forced people to move to other areas, and the internally displaced were the targets of local villagers, who accused them of witchcraft," Tumukunde said.
He said diseases endemic to the region were being blamed on witchcraft, noting that drugs to treat the diseases have not been available during the duration of the war. In much of the rebel-held 60 percent of the country, routes that would carry trade and aid back and forth are cut off. With no immunization programs or other health programs, measles and other diseases are killing people in large numbers. Plague has even made inroads. In the worst-hit areas, people are dying from a combination of disease and starvation.
Some charities have estimated an indirect wartime death toll of about 2 million out of a population of 50 million in the former Belgian colony.
Collapsed Society
In a report released jointly today by UNICEF and the World Health Organization, experts said after a recent 12-day visit to Congo that "every facet of society — whether human rights or economy, education or water and sanitation, housing or social care — has collapsed."
The 10-person mission blamed "decades of state and external looting of national resources" and war for pushing "Congolese households over the brink."
In Congo's countryside, there is hardly any running water or electricity. In the most devastated areas, people are desperate just for soap and salt.
Although Uganda had withdrawn troops this year from the Aru district, it still employs troops elsewhere in Congo.
Uganda and Rwanda joined forces in August 1998 in support of a rebellion seeking to oust President Laurent Kabila, whom they had backed in a previous, successful revolt that overthrew longtime President Mobutu Sese Seko of what was then Zaire in May 1997.
The senior Kabila's assassination in January and his son's ascension to the presidency appear to have cleared the hurdles blocking the implementation of a 1999 peace agreement signed by the Congolese government, the rebels and Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, who are all involved in the conflict.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Jr. Paper
are we just supporting our thesis with facts or are there other requirements?
Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
You may find this interesting given a class discussion we had a few weeks ago:
It is an in-depth study on the economic costs of global climate change that was conducted by Her Majesty's Treasury (which is essentially the British equivalent to the treasury department).
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm Take a look at the executive summary.
Some of you may have noticed that the debate on global climate change has been turned on its head over the past few years. These days it is the economists who argue for capping greenhouse gas emissions.
At this point--even in America--it is the consensus of virtually all of the scientific community that the planet is warming, the vast majority of the data suggest that an influx in greenhouse gas concentrations have played a significant role in this warming trend, and in all likelihood this warming trend will continue over the next century regardless of its causes.
It is true that carbon dioxide concentrations are higher today than they have been for thousands of years.
It is highly unlikely that this is due to anything other than human activity.
In the past carbon dioxide levels have shown a strong correlation with global temperature--and most would say carbon dioxide levels have a significant effect on global temperatures.
A few, very vocal scientists in the US maintain that today's warming trend is no big deal, while most of the rest of the world sees it as a serious issue.
The fact is, the cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions.
We can avoid an economic and social catastrophe. Therefore we should avoid it.
It is an in-depth study on the economic costs of global climate change that was conducted by Her Majesty's Treasury (which is essentially the British equivalent to the treasury department).
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm Take a look at the executive summary.
Some of you may have noticed that the debate on global climate change has been turned on its head over the past few years. These days it is the economists who argue for capping greenhouse gas emissions.
At this point--even in America--it is the consensus of virtually all of the scientific community that the planet is warming, the vast majority of the data suggest that an influx in greenhouse gas concentrations have played a significant role in this warming trend, and in all likelihood this warming trend will continue over the next century regardless of its causes.
It is true that carbon dioxide concentrations are higher today than they have been for thousands of years.
It is highly unlikely that this is due to anything other than human activity.
In the past carbon dioxide levels have shown a strong correlation with global temperature--and most would say carbon dioxide levels have a significant effect on global temperatures.
A few, very vocal scientists in the US maintain that today's warming trend is no big deal, while most of the rest of the world sees it as a serious issue.
The fact is, the cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions.
We can avoid an economic and social catastrophe. Therefore we should avoid it.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Jenson Arctic Museum, WOU
Friday and Saturday I was at a science fair at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR. At the university I visited the Jenson Arctic Museum, which is all about the cultures of the Arctic peoples as well as arctic animals. Along with a fairly large collection of preserved stuffed animals (the type that once were alive), they also had this collection of scrimshaw (top), this approx. eight-foot-long baleen tooth (middle), and this poster about marine mammals (bottom).
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
relation to the characters
there was this part in the chapter about Miss Sophia and Harney Sheperdson, running off. This reminded me of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the two family feud. How the Ms. Sophia (Juliet) and Harney (Romeo) run off, because they fell inlove. And their family blamed each other.
And then, on a later chapter, The Duke and the King, are putting on a play about Romeo and Juliet. i don't know if there is a connection, or something, and i found it amusing.
And then, on a later chapter, The Duke and the King, are putting on a play about Romeo and Juliet. i don't know if there is a connection, or something, and i found it amusing.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Huck Finn should be taught
I can see how avoiding the N-word is a good idea, but I think Huck Finn should definitely be taught.
A. the language is authentic to the time period
B. the plot conveys a completely different message. If anything, I would call it anti-racist.
C. the language conveys accurately how Southerners thought of African-Americans--and hence it conveys the relationships between the characters. In context it is accurate and necessary in order to understand how whites viewed blacks (as only partly human). People need to understand that that is how people thought and recognize its absurdity. Huck Finn, I believe, helps to accomplish this.
A. the language is authentic to the time period
B. the plot conveys a completely different message. If anything, I would call it anti-racist.
C. the language conveys accurately how Southerners thought of African-Americans--and hence it conveys the relationships between the characters. In context it is accurate and necessary in order to understand how whites viewed blacks (as only partly human). People need to understand that that is how people thought and recognize its absurdity. Huck Finn, I believe, helps to accomplish this.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
New I-5 Bridge
Hey, did you guys know they are planning out a new I-5 Bridge over the Columbia River?
They want to try to relieve some of the traffic problems by adding a third lane at the "bottleneck" at Delta Park and by replacing the green I-5 Bridge over the Columbia.
The other reason they need to replace the bridge is that it no longer meets safety codes for interstate freeways.
The Columbia River Crossing Task Force has been looking at various options for about a year. Basically using process of elimination, they have narrowed it down to two options:
A. New medium-height (no lift-span) bridge
Bus Rapid Transit
Express Bus service
B. New medium-height (no lift-span) bridge
Light Rail
Express Bus service
So now the choice is between Light Rail or Bus Rapid Transit.
(I posted more information on these forms of mass transit as a comment.)
The only thing I am worried about is that they still seem to be considering widening the freeway over the bridge from 3 lanes to 4 lanes. This seems illogical because it is impractical to widen the rest of I-5 into Portland to 4 lanes. So all it would do would be to create another bottleneck.
Widening I-5 all the way into Portland would increase capacity. However, I believe this would not be ethical for two primary reasons.
A. Widening I-5 would mean demolishing more houses in North Portland.
B. More capacity means more cars and more pollution. The effects of the traffic pollution are felt by the residents of North Portland, not the residents of Vancouver who produce it. Thus the true cost of driving is not felt by those committing the act. Rather, it is felt by the powerless and voiceless poor who live along the freeway.
I also am crossing my fingers that the final bridge design is interesting and distinct as apposed to something resembling the I-205 Glen Jackson Bridge (which clearly wasn't designed with aesthetics in mind).
What do you guys think?
The Columbia River Crossing Project website is http://www.columbiarivercrossing.org/
They want to try to relieve some of the traffic problems by adding a third lane at the "bottleneck" at Delta Park and by replacing the green I-5 Bridge over the Columbia.
The other reason they need to replace the bridge is that it no longer meets safety codes for interstate freeways.
The Columbia River Crossing Task Force has been looking at various options for about a year. Basically using process of elimination, they have narrowed it down to two options:
A. New medium-height (no lift-span) bridge
Bus Rapid Transit
Express Bus service
B. New medium-height (no lift-span) bridge
Light Rail
Express Bus service
So now the choice is between Light Rail or Bus Rapid Transit.
(I posted more information on these forms of mass transit as a comment.)
The only thing I am worried about is that they still seem to be considering widening the freeway over the bridge from 3 lanes to 4 lanes. This seems illogical because it is impractical to widen the rest of I-5 into Portland to 4 lanes. So all it would do would be to create another bottleneck.
Widening I-5 all the way into Portland would increase capacity. However, I believe this would not be ethical for two primary reasons.
A. Widening I-5 would mean demolishing more houses in North Portland.
B. More capacity means more cars and more pollution. The effects of the traffic pollution are felt by the residents of North Portland, not the residents of Vancouver who produce it. Thus the true cost of driving is not felt by those committing the act. Rather, it is felt by the powerless and voiceless poor who live along the freeway.
I also am crossing my fingers that the final bridge design is interesting and distinct as apposed to something resembling the I-205 Glen Jackson Bridge (which clearly wasn't designed with aesthetics in mind).
What do you guys think?
The Columbia River Crossing Project website is http://www.columbiarivercrossing.org/
