Thursday, February 20, 2003

Children and Humanity's Future Richard Eckersley writes:  Late last year I asked Year 11 students at a private boys school whether they’d ever thought about the meaning or purpose of life.  Almost all raised their hands.  I asked if they had ever felt that life seemed meaningless or pointless.  Quite a few –between a third and a half – indicated they had.  Most admitted to having some sort of spiritual or religious belief, but none volunteered a description of that belief. The boys’ responses don’t fit neatly into the popular images of young people today – either the portraits of happy, hedonistic teenagers and young adults, revelling in the freedoms and opportunities of contemporary life, or the pictures of distress and disillusion amidst material excess, social inequity and spiritual dessication. What is emerging from the scientific research into well-being are the subtleties, complexities and depths of the human psyche, and of the personal, social and spiritual ties that lie behind our health and happiness.  At the same time, science is straining to define and differentiate these things.  Our politics and economics have barely begun to come to grips with them. If we want to assess the state of society, a good place to begin is with young people and how well they are faring.  There is growing evidence that developmental stages and transition points in life, from before birth to adolescence, are crucial to adult health and well-being.  What happens at these times matters for life, and it makes the young susceptible to the effects of social failing and disruption. (02/20/03) POLITICS: Russian Style Yulia Latynina writes: When Darkin took over as governor. Among his first acts was to allocate the entire regional pollock quota to a trio of friendly firms. When the proposed quota was sent to the State Fisheries Committee for approval, Nazdratenko rejected it and gave the pollock quota to companies that, shall we say, had flourished during his time as governor. In a way it's not hard to understand Nazdratenko. Who is Darkin, after all? Just a run-of-the-mill businessman. After the death of a local crime boss called Baul, Darkin was caught up in the middle between two criminal bosses nicknamed Karp and Vinni-Pukh. They even unloaded a machine gun right under his nose. Nazdratenko is in a different league. No one leaned on him after Baul's death. Quite the opposite: Local legend in Vladivostok has it that Baul drowned shortly after his relationship with Nazdratenko took a turn for the worse. Something about missing campaign funds. (02/20/03) Oil Above $37 Washington Post -- Oil prices forged to fresh 29-month highs on Tuesday as the United States and Britain pushed for a second U.N. resolution on Iraq that could open the way to war on the world's eighth largest oil exporter. A snowstorm that swept across the eastern United States over the weekend supported prices, boosting heating demand at a time when U.S. fuel stocks have already fallen well below normal levels. U.S. crude futures, which were closed on Monday for the Presidents' Day holiday, rose 25 cents to $37.05, the highest level since September 2000, and barely four dollars below peaks struck during the 1990-1991 Gulf War. ... U.S. households are already facing higher heating costs, after heating oil futures rose to their highest level since 1979 this month. Supply has tightened as high crude prices force domestic refiners to cut back production. After a series of severe storms in the U.S. northeast already this winter, the world's largest heating oil market was again battered by Arctic cold this week. Heavy blizzards hit New England on Monday, closing most major airports between Washington and New York. Temperatures in the Northeast are forecast to rise this week then fall back again. (02/20/03) Failure to Rescue Timothy Wilken, MD writes: It appears that NASA missed the opportunity to rescue the Astronauts. In retrospect, the left wing was obviously damaged at liftoff on Jan 16. If NASA had even acknowledged the possibility that the wing was damaged, things could have gone differently. NASA could have lifted a second shuttle into orbit, rendezvoused with the Columbia, and transferred the astronauts to the rescue shuttle and brought them home safely. But, NASA was sure the left wing was not damaged. What was the basis for this surety? They had not even examined the wing. In their surety, they further neglected to order an emergency space walk by the astronauts to  inspect the possibly damaged wing. ... No one at NASA wanted to have a problem. No one wanted to explain why the insulation came off the rocket. Certainly, no one wanted to declare an emergency. The possibility of damage to the left wing was known on January 16, there were two full weeks before the scheduled return to Earth to take action. But NASA had “no concerns whatsoever,” no action was taken, the shuttle was ordered to proceed with the landing as planned, and the 2.1 billion dollar space shuttle was lost with seven of humanity's finest dead. (02/20/03) Pedaling onto the Information Superhighway CNN World News -- BAN PHON KHAM, Laos (AP) -- Villagers in this remote jungle hamlet have lived for years without electricity or telephones, relying on occasional visitors and a sluggish postal system for news of the outside world. But soon many of its residents will be jumping on stationary bikes to pedal their way onto the Information Superhighway. Custom-built computers -- running on bicycle-powered generators -- will transport villagers from rice fields to chat rooms and Web sites worldwide. They'll be able to monitor rice and vegetable prices, sell handicrafts and e-mail relatives. The project, expected to launch as early as this spring, gets around the lack of phone lines through a clever application of the increasingly popular WiFi technology, which is used to wirelessly connect laptops, handhelds and other devices elsewhere. For the first time, villagers will also be able to make phone calls, using Internet-based voice technologies. And because much of the project is built around nonproprietary, or "open source," software, villagers will essentially own the system. The project is the brainchild of the Jhai Foundation, a San Francisco aid organization started by Vietnam War veteran Lee Thorn. (02/20/03) Congo Ebola Outbreak Confirmed BBC News -- The government of Congo-Brazzaville has now confirmed that it is the deadly Ebola virus which has claimed the lives of 64 people, in the north of the country near the border with Gabon. The World Health Organisation in Congo says it is hopeful that international aid to fight the spread of the virus will now be forthcoming. For the past four weeks the number of dead in the districts of Kelle and Mbomo has continued to climb daily, as the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation have struggled to contain what they suspected was an outbreak of Ebola. Confirmation came late last night, after blood samples from residents of Kelle were analysed in a Libreville laboratory, one of less than 10 in the world able to test for Ebola. (02/20/03) Bad Things will happen if Trees are cut down. New York Times -- In her sunlit kitchen, Nellya A. Prushenova does the dishes in a pail of steaming water that she melted from ice, and talks animatedly about a frightening new neighbor. It is not human, or even animal. It is a new oil pipeline, which will run near this tiny village in the mountainous Russian region of Buryatiya, just north of Mongolia, into China. Oil companies and government officials say it is important — it will bring money and forge a new trading tie. Ms. Prushenova does not see the allure. The main problem, in her words, is the construction. Bulldozers will be tearing up the land her grandparents grew up on. Trees will be cut down. Worst of all, the sacred places — a bald patch on a mountain, a hill — are in risk of being violated. "Bad things happen when trees are cut down," said Ms. Prushenova, a rail-thin history teacher in the local school who brings in extra income as a fortuneteller. "A child can get sick, or all of our cattle might die. Maybe there will be a flood. Our nature is very easily offended." Her anxiety is shared by a small group of villagers in this settlement of 1,500 people. The villagers practice Buryat shamanism, a set of beliefs that centers around a reverence for nature. Trees and rivers are worshiped. The main prayer rite in the spring celebrates, as Ms. Prushenova says, "the earth waking up." Angry gods can make much mischief. New Player? Iran moves troops into Iraq Financial Times -- Iranian-backed Iraqi opposition forces have crossed into northern Iraq from Iran with the aim of securing the frontier in the event of war, according to senior Iranian officials. The forces, numbering up to 5,000 troops, with some heavy equipment, are nominally under the command of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a prominent Iraqi Shia Muslim opposition leader who has been based in Iran since 1980 and lives in Tehran. ... Iranian officials insist that force's role in the north is defensive but its presence will exacerbate the concerns of the US and especially the Arab world that military intervention in Iraq will lead to a permanent disintegration of the country. Through inserting a proxy force, Iran is underlining that it cannot be ignored in future discussions over Iraq's make-up. (02/20/03) http://www.synearth.net/   3:17:46 AM

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