bullying has to stop

Posted on September 20, 2011 by admin

We have all known someone in our lives who has been bullied. Whether it has been our child, our siblings, ourselves, or even our co-workers. Bullying does not stop on the playground that is only where it starts. Children for centuries have found it easy to target one another and elevate themselves by degrading others. It can start with lunch money, a shove on the playground, or a rumor spread through the school. But it can have disastrous effects. Bullying makes a child feel invisible; it makes them feel unloved, unnecessary, and vulnerable. Bullying can make a good child become sullen, sulky, scared, and stand-offish. It can rip apart friendships, families, and lives. Bullying is not just a child being a child. It is mean, spiteful, and malicious. We need to teach our children that bullying does not need to happen.

Bullying is a widespread and serious problem that can happen anywhere. It is not a phase children have to go through, it is not “just messing around”, and it is not something to grow out of. Bullying can cause serious and lasting harm.

Although definitions of bullying vary, most agree that bullying involves:

•Imbalance of Power: people who bully use their power to control or harm and the people being bullied may have a hard time defending themselves
•Intent to Cause Harm: actions done by accident are not bullying; the person bullying has a goal to cause harm
•Repetition: incidents of bullying happen to the same the person over and over by the same person or group

Everyone can help prevent and stop bullying. Adults have the responsibility to protect and be a role model for kids, teens, and young adults.

No matter who you are or who you represent, you can influence lives and maybe even save a life.

Everyone needs to be aware not only about the warning signs and effects of bullying, but also about the ways to intervene and support both the person being bullied and the one bullying others.

Bullying is often a sign of other serious antisocial violent behavior. Bullies are more likely to be underachievers in school, engage in criminal activities as adults, and become abusive spouses. Putting a stop to this early can prevent the potential violence he or she may partake in down the line.

Parents, educators and other adults should take bullying and social aggression seriously. While some degree of teasing is common among children, bullying often gets out of hand and should not be tolerated. Children that experience bullying might develop anxiety and depression and might skip school to avoid bullies. A child that bullies others might think his behavior is acceptable and as he gets older, engage in more serious aggressive behavior.

Teach children appropriate anger management, stress management and communication skills. Education in these areas should begin at a young age. Some children master these skills easily, while others need extra help.

Teach children how to respond if someone bullies them. Children should attempt to ignore the behavior. If that doesn’t work, they can tell the bully to stop. They should not call the bully names or engage in a physical altercation. They should walk away from a confrontation and seek help from an adult.

Intervene if you see a child bullying another child. Tell the bully it is not acceptable to bully other children. Redirect the bully into more a more appropriate activity. Provide comfort as necessary to the children that were victims of bullying.

Encourage children to develop friendships with other children because children that hang out with a group of friends are less likely to be bullied by others. Some children possess better social skills than others. Some children might need training in social skills so they can make friends more easily.

Encourage schools to develop and implement an anti-bullying program. The program should include training for all school staff on how to address bullying and education for students about how to respond to bullying. Schools should provide plenty of supervision for children during times bullying occurs the most, such as lunchtime, recess, in the bathrooms and on the school bus.

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Americans overworked

Posted on September 16, 2011 by admin

We, as Americans, work too many hours. If you don’t believe so, check out the following data points that compare us to our peers around the world.

American Work-Life Balance
■According to the Center for American Progress on the topic of work and family life balance, “in 1960, only 20 percent of mothers worked. Today, 70 percent of American children live in households where all adults are employed.” I don’t care who stays home and who works in terms of gender (work opportunity equality for all – it’s a family choice). Either way, when all adults are working (single or with a partner), that’s a huge hit to the American family and free-time in the American household.

■The U.S. is the ONLY country in the Americas without a national paid parental leave benefit. The average is over 12 weeks of paid leave anywhere other than Europe and over 20 weeks in Europe.

■Zero industrialized nations are without a mandatory option for new parents to take parental leave. That is, except for the United States.

American Average Work Hours:
■At least 134 countries have laws setting the maximum length of the work week; the U.S. does not.

■In the U.S., 85.8 percent of males and 66.5 percent of females work more than 40 hours per week.

■According to the ILO, “Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers.”

■Using data by the U.S. BLS, the average productivity per American worker has increased 400% since 1950. One way to look at that is that it should only take one-quarter the work hours, or 11 hours per week, to afford the same standard of living as a worker in 1950 (or our standard of living should be 4 times higher). Is that the case? Obviously not. Someone is profiting, it’s just not the average American worker.

■There is not a federal law requiring paid sick days in the United States.
■The U.S. remains the only industrialized country in the world that has no legally mandated annual leave.

Not only does less vacation time mean we have less time to develop our most critical and lasting relationships with family members and friends, but our physical health is in jeopardy when we refuse to unchain ourselves from the cubicle. Vacations cut down on stress, which any medical expert will tell you is at the center of so many of America’s most pernicious health crises. Two researchers at the State University of New York at Oswego showed that an annual vacation can cut the risk of death from heart disease in women by 50 percent and in men by 32 percent. Taking time out, exploring new horizons, getting away from your desk and moving around, reconnecting with close friends and family are all safeguards against burnout and depression. But this kind of rejuvenation takes time—two weeks, most studies indicate. The average vacation in the United States is now only a long weekend, which just isn’t long enough.

What we All Need to Remember

What we all need to remind ourselves is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

■It’s OK to ask to move to fewer hours at work.
■It’s OK to take a week-long vacation if we need to.
■It’s OK to ask to work from home.
■It’s OK to take a month of unpaid leave while you raise a child.
■It’s OK… you get the idea.

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Cuban dissidents complain of escalating repression

Posted on September 7, 2011 by admin

The level of police violence against peaceful dissidents was the highest in recent years,” the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said Tuesday in a report focusing on incidents last month.

“In August 2011 we documented at least 243 short-term arrests (some for more than a week) and nine acts of censure organized by the numerous and ubiquitous secret political police,” the commission said in a document released to the foreign press in Havana.

The outlawed but tolerated rights panel said that in the first eight months of this year at least 2,221 arrests were made for political reasons, 1,091 more than in the same period in 2010.

It said that the victims of last month’s repression were mainly women engaged in “non-violent activities,” chiefly in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

The commission added that “it has no doubt that the order for that brutal repression was decreed or approved by the highest ranks of the neo-Stalinist regime that has ruled Cuba for more than half a century.”

The Catholic Church in Cuba said Monday that the government of President Raul Castro told prelates that actions targeting peaceful protesters were not authorized by national officials.

Human rights groups and international organizations believe that these articles subordinate the exercise of freedom of expression to the state. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights assess that: “It is evident that the exercise of the right to freedom of expression under this article of the Constitution is governed by two fundamental determinants: on the one hand, the preservation and strengthening of the communist State; on the other, the need to muzzle any criticism of the group in power.” Human rights group Amnesty International assert that the universal state ownership of the media means that freedom of expression is restricted. Thus the exercise of the right to freedom of expression is restricted by the lack of means of mass communication falling outside state control. Human Rights Watch states: “Refusing to recognize human rights monitoring as a legitimate activity, the government denies legal status to local human rights groups. Individuals who belong to these groups face systematic harassment, with the government putting up obstacles to impede them from documenting human rights conditions. In addition, international human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are barred from sending fact-finding missions to Cuba. It remains one of the few countries in the world to deny the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons.”

A Reporters Without Borders report finds that Internet use is very restricted and under tight surveillance. Access is only possible with government permission and equipment is rationed. E-mail is monitored.

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How to Complain

Posted on August 24, 2011 by admin

Consumers are often faced with several challenges when they wish to complain about a product or service. A good resource to help you complain effectively is the Complaint Courier, which is featured at www.ComplaintCourier.ca. This powerful online tool provides instant access to the resources and expert advice you will need to navigate your way through the complaint process from start to finish, and explains how to make any type of complaint in a clear, organized and effective way. The following guidelines will also help you to complain more effectively.

First Things First

•Give the merchant the first chance to solve the problem. Contact the salesperson, retailer or business when you have a complaint about any goods or services you bought. When there is a complaints department, use it. When there isn’t, talk to someone in authority, such as a manager. A face-to-face discussion is best. Be firm and businesslike, but polite. Calmly and accurately describe the problem and what you want the company to do to resolve it.

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If the problem is not resolved that way, ask for the telephone number of the company headquarters and contact the customer service department. Request specifics about how and when something will be done, and get the company representative’s name in case you have to refer to the conversation later. Write down any details of your complaint and keep them in a file. Make sure to date your notes.

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If your call doesn’t produce satisfactory results, write a letter to someone higher up, such as the general manager or owner (see sample letter). Provide all the details of the problem and explain your efforts to resolve it. Ask for action. In the case of products, send a copy of your letter to the manufacturer, and be sure to keep a copy of it yourself.

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If none of these steps work to your satisfaction, consult the key consumer contacts of this Handbook for government offices and consumer organizations that apply to your situation. If you don’t know where to start, call the federal-provincial-territorial government consumer affairs office where you live. Someone there will direct you to the right organization. Or, use the Complaint Courier to file your complaint online.

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Taking legal action should be your last choice. If you decide to sue, remember that there are often time limitations on filing lawsuits. You may wish to check with a lawyer about the legal process and any limitations that may apply to your case in your province or territory.

Strategies for Success

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Do not be afraid to complain. Good businesses will be pleased to correct any mistake on their part. They know that customer goodwill is the best form of advertising.

•Always keep a file of important information related to your purchase, include the sales receipts, repair orders, warranties, cancelled cheques, contracts and any letters you have written to or received from the company concerned.
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Do not procrastinate. When a product is defective or unsatisfactory, it is important that you return it quickly so that you do not lose the right to get your money back or to collect damages in some cases. Always check the return policy before you buy.

What to Do When You Have Complained Without Any Results?

If you feel you have given the company enough time and that your problem has not been resolved, send a copy of your complaint letter and copies of supporting documents (not originals) to, or file a consumer complaint with, your provincial or territorial consumer affairs office or Better Business Bureau. If you use the Complaint Courier it will give you the option to automatically forward your complaint to the appropriate government office.

Small Claims Court

Small claims court can be an informal and relatively inexpensive way to resolve disputes when the amount involved is less than $3,000 or, in some provinces, up to $25,000. However, you will have to pay a fee to file a claim. Once the suit is launched, you may have costs for such things as serving orders, payments to witnesses and travel expenses.

You do not need a lawyer to go to small claims court, although in most provinces and territories the help of a lawyer is allowed. The court staff is experienced in helping consumers prepare the necessary forms, and the judges have the power to settle disputes. This court allows each side to explain its story and does not expect consumers to know legal technicalities.

For information on how to proceed, contact the small claims or provincial or territorial court nearest you (look in the government listings in your phone book). The websites of these courts also often list the procedures to follow and have copies of the forms you will need to complete.

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Blame for usa recession

Posted on July 18, 2011 by admin

It’s no secret that the U.S. economy is in bad shape. The housing bubble burst. The stock market crashed. People lost a lot of their retirement savings. The federal government has been bailing out big industries like banks and auto makers. State governments are feuding over state budgets. People are losing their jobs with some of the highest unemployment rates young professionals have seen in their lifetime.

Who’s to blame for the recession we’re in? It’s a hotly debated topic, and there really is no single right answer. The economic recession didn’t stem from a single group or a lone action. But to help you understand how the current economic situation came about, let’s look at three groups that had a hand in it:

The Federal Reserve – For years, the Fed kept interest rates low. Low interest rates help to grow the economy–they make borrowing (and therefore spending based on that borrowing) more attractive to consumers. Low interest rates also benefit banks making loans, because it’s easier for them to attract new customers as they advertise that low interest. The problem is that low interest leading to growth is good when the economy needs a boost; not so much when it’s already booming. That can lead to rapid inflation like we saw for years with the skyrocketing housing prices around the country.

Banks - You would probably be hard-pressed to find any American who didn’t hold banks at least partly to blame for the credit crunch-turned-recession. The fact that their tax dollars then went to bail out the banks with little oversight certainly didn’t help matters. And they would be right. Banks played a major role in the current crisis–a role stemming from greed.

To explain it as simply as possible, banks knowingly loaned money (through mortgages for over-inflated housing prices) to people who couldn’t afford it. They did it for the sole purpose of earning more money–they can charge much higher interest on sub-prime loans to people at the most risk of not paying them back.

Consumers – Yes, even consumers just like you played a role in the current economic recession. Let’s be honest about it. If people lived within their means without a sense of entitlement to more, they wouldn’t have racked up debt they couldn’t afford.

In their defense, the average consumer is somewhat easily sucked in by promises of low interest and great deals (if the marketing messages and sales pitches didn’t work on many, people wouldn’t use them across most sales-oriented industries). Banks basically promised high-risk consumers something they never thought they’d have–a house of their own. People who otherwise would have stayed in their smaller homes or continued to rent strove for something better, but something they ultimately knew they couldn’t afford.

No single person, or even a single industry, led to the collapse of the housing market or our overall economic recession. While it may be easy to place blame on whoever the media or government is targeting on any given day, when you really think about the situation critically you see that there’s plenty of blame to go around. While you can’t say any one person caused the recession, you can be sure of one thing–the economy will rebound. It may not happen as quickly as we’d like, but it always does. Following every boom there comes a bust. And after every bust we rebuild.

According to a 2010 Bigresearch.com study, home owners are throwing their home improvements plans out the window like burnt toast. Over 20% of those surveyed said they were putting-off all forms of home improvement indefinitely. Interestingly, this percentage ranked second highest among all survey questions, with only “vacation travel” showing a higher figure (25%).

With cash reserves at a premium, many home owners have simply decided to wait on making improvements, and understandably so. Faced with record unemployment, higher costs of living, rising taxes and a dim view of any short term changes for the better, who could blame them?

Worse yet, home improvements have historically yielded very low returns when compared to their actual cost. In fact, Remodeling Magazine’s 2009-10 “cost vs. value” report reveals that home owners, on average, recoup less than of 65% of the money they invest in their home improvement projects.

But before you conclude that your home improvement plans should be scraped, let’s take a step back.

There are very few home owners who wouldn’t admit to needing some measure of improvement to their home. Whether it’s as simple as repairing the leaky faucet gasket that drives you crazy with its relentless dripping, or an unreliable front porch light fixture that leaves you fumbling around in the dark when you return home from a long day at work. Every house has its deficiencies.

But with a recession in full bloom, and statistics showing little to no hope of ever getting your money back, why would anyone bother with a home improvement project?

Though at first it may seem like a lost cause or verging on lunacy, there are simple solutions that many consumers are using to solve this problem.

First, let’s address the big one. The statistics from Remodeling Magazine and other similar resources, assume that a building contractor is being paid to perform all the labor and to supply all the materials. And if you assume, on average, approximately 50% of the total costs of most home improvement projects will be attributable to labor and fees, you can literally transform the investment returns by performing the majority of the work yourself. What was once a 35% loss becomes a 30% gain by simply providing your own labor force. Not a bad return in any economy.

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Casey Anthony case spotlights role of media

Posted on July 7, 2011 by admin

Geraldo Rivera’s television life has been full of strange moments, from on-the-air sex-change surgeries to fistfights with Nazis. But even Rivera was dumbstruck for a moment when, during man-on-the-street interviews about the Casey Anthony verdict, a woman excitedly chirped to his cameras: “This is better than Jersey Shore!”

“How bizarre is that?” the Fox News correspondent exclaimed Wednesday. “Confusing reality with a reality show? But you can’t make it into something cosmic. To inflate it to the decline and fall of the Roman empire, I don’t buy that.”

But the boundaries between illusion and reality, journalism and advocacy, fair trial and free press, all seemed elusive Wednesday as they were battered by conflicting waves of rage in the wake of Anthony’s acquittal on the charge of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

As talk shows, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages erupted with rants against a verdict that many Americans considered shockingly wrong — Twitter comments denouncing the jury outnumbered those praising it by 64 to 1, according to the digital bean-counting company NM Incite — a countervailing wave of complaints that media coverage distorted the trial also took hold.

Anthony is scheduled for sentencing Thursday on four misdemeanor convictions for lying to police, which likely will only feed the growing storm of media criticism.

It came most intensely, and least surprisingly, from Anthony’s defense team.

A Florida Bar complaint has been filed against one of Casey Anthony’s attorneys for making an obscene gesture at reporters and spectators after Anthony’s acquittal on murder charges.

While celebrating the jury’s verdict Tuesday at an Orlando restaurant, attorney Cheney Mason gestured with his middle finger toward people gathered outside. An Associated Press photographer snapped a picture of the gesture.

But Mason’s critique was echoed, in only slightly less pungent terms, through the legal and journalistic communities. Many there complained that some television news shows built their ratings up by taking an openly prosecutorial stance against Anthony, leading to public expectations that a conviction was a slam-dunk certainty

“The way TV has handled this is an embarrassment,” said Howard Kurtz, host of CNN’s media-criticism show Reliable Sources. “The sheer volume of coverage for stories that are basically local tragedies is impossible to defend. Toss in a tone of sensationalism, legal pundits who want to be the next Judge Judy, and a rush to judgment that belies the inevitable nuances of a criminal case, and you have the Casey Anthony story. She was convicted on the air long before the courtroom jury took a vote.”

The most pointed criticism was aimed at HLN’s Nancy Grace, a former prosecutor whose nightly attacks on the woman she scornfully referred to as Tot Mom almost single-handedly inflated the Anthony case from a routine local murder into a national obsession. Grace made no attempt to hide her rage at Anthony’s acquittal. “Tot Mom’s lies seem to have worked,” she exclaimed moments after the jury announced its verdict. “The devil is dancing tonight.”

Toobin believes that television should cover trials more, not less, as a sort of running civics lesson. So does lead CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin, a New York defense attorney who has also worked as a federal prosecutor. She believes the anger over the Anthony verdict resulted not because TV hosts misinformed viewers but because they got to see the evidence for themselves.

“There were cameras in the courtroom, and they showed a very competent prosecution team, a very competent defense team, and a very competent judge,” she argued. “You can say people were fooled, but I give them more credit than that. I think people watched — we know they watched, because of the ratings — and they made their own decisions.”

In any event, cautioned former Miami federal prosecutor Kendall Coffey, it’s nothing new for Americans to treat murder trials as entertainment.

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How To File Credit Card Complaints Under New Regulations

Posted on May 25, 2011 by admin

When you have a problem with your credit card issuer, it is hard to find someone who can help, or sometimes, even listen. It is frustrating at best, and unresolved issues can magnify your personal financial crisis.

On July 21, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will begin accepting complaints about deceptive or abusive financial products and services.

This includes credit cards, check-cashing services, and “pay day loans.” The bureau is already receiving complaints but is directing them to other government agencies.

How the CFPB handles complaints will be closely scrutinized. Every step the bureau takes is likely to be controversial and will probably be disputed by banks and politicians since it will be public information.

The Dodd-Frank regulations require the CFPB to create a way for banking customers to report their problems with financial products and services, and send them to the appropriate state or federal agency.

It can accept complaints by phone, letter, email or on its website. The bureau must also make sure the financial firms respond to consumers.

Banks are protesting what happens to the information after it is filed. They want to keep the complaints as quiet as possible to protectthemselves from trivial or malicious complaints. Nonprofit groups want full disclosure so that anyone can read the complaints.

File a Complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Complaints are processed by the local BBB, usually the BBB where the company is located. Complaints are sent to the company within two business days and the company is asked to respond within 14 days. The consumer will be notified of the company’s response.

Contact Your State Attorney General’s Office

Each state has a state Attorney General’s Office. It is authorized to bring legal action only in the name of the state. It does not serve as an attorney for individual consumers. It does not give advice or conduct research on behalf of individuals or businesses. Always contact the Attorney General’s Office in writing so your file may be kept up to date.

It is generally better to try to resolve the dispute with the company or individual before filing a complaint with your state’s Attorney General’s Office. This Office can’t force a company to respond or make an adjustment. However, there are times when filing a complaint can bring resolution. Patterns of complaints involving the same company or a new issue often help the Attorney General’s Office to allocate law enforcement resources. The AG Office will also help refer to the government agencies that can best address the problem.

File a Complaint with Federal Government Regulators

You can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Credit Practices ( https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ ).

However, the FTC does not resolve individual complaints. Complaints made to the FTC help the agency detect patterns of wrong-doing, and lead to investigations and prosecutions. The FTC enters complaints into a secure online database that is used by thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement authorities worldwide.

You can file a credit card complaint with the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ( http://www.helpwithmybank.gov/complaints/ ), a government agency responsible for regulating credit cards issued by national banks in the United States. The agency encourages consumers to first attempt to resolve the complaint with your financial institution.

The bank must also be a National Bank in order for consumers to receive help from the OCC.

You can also file a complaint with the Federal Reserve if your bank has been unfair or misleading, discriminated against you in lending, or violated a federal consumer protection law or regulation (http://www.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov/).

LowCards.com simplifies the confusion ofshopping for credit cards. It is a free, independent website that helps consumers easily compare credit cards in a variety of categories such as lowest rates, rewards, rebates, balance transfers and lowest introductory rates. It also gives an unbiased ranking and review for each card. The LowCards.com Complete Credit Card Index is the most objective and comprehensive resource on the Internet which allows consumers to compare rates for over 1000 credit cards offered in this country. Created by Hampton & Associates, the company has been analyzing the credit card industry and supplying objective websites on various consumer expenses for eleven years.

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Why gasoline prices are so high

Posted on May 11, 2011 by admin

Why are gasoline prices so high and expected to go even higher? We’ve all experienced the shock, frustration and anger that “gas-price grief” has given us. After all, our country is dependent on the “Black Gold”, crude oil. Without it, our economy would crumble. Let’s explore the insides of gas pricing and how you can get an edge in the marketplace.

Unstable conditions throughout the world create uncertainty within the global marketplace. Wholesalers may not know if they’ll receive the much needed oil. Consequently, wholesalers are willing to pay more to secure their share in the marketplace.
Today, the demand for gasoline has increased, creating the need for gas stations on every major street corner. In the early 70′s the demand was not as high. The gasoline supply was high relative to the demand. However, in the late 70′s we entered into the era of the ‘oil shortage’ causing the gasoline price to escalate. (In hindsight we now know there was no real oil shortage, it was based on cutting the supply thus the affect was increased gasoline prices.) Gradually, as our demands for gasoline increased, more gas stations came into the marketplace. Unfortunately, most of the gas stations were owned by the same corporations taking away the competition and allowing for the reason why are gasoline prices so high. Simply, large demand with little competition.

China, only one country within the global marketplace, has increased their oil supply by 30% in 2003. Other economically growing countries increased their demand too. Over all, the demand for oil worldwide has increased, thus, increasing the gasoline price on a world market level.

With some profit, it costs Saudi Arabia $3.50 to produce each barrel of oil, in the most expensive areas of the Gulf of Mexico, it costs around $10.00. At those oil prices the cost of a gallon of gas should be around $1.10.

In the US, the oil companies are making 100′s of times more profit, than normal, because they sell our own oil to us at the speculative market price. Even if we produce more of our own oil, the oil companies will sell it to us at speculative prices. They need to cap the price of the oil we produce in our country so that we don’t pay speculative prices. If we produce more oil, the OPEC will reduce supply to keep the prices of oil high, the same way that they have been doing it fore years.

The OPEC is a group of countries that are dedicated to cut the production/supply of oil to force it to increase it’s price. It has to force countries to not sell more oil, and it has become better at controlling countries to cut their production over the last couple of years.

The Oil companies have created their own mini-OPEC with the refining of gasoline. They practically have not built any refineries in decades, so that they can increase the gasoline price by putting the supply in the critical area. They just need to put one refinery on maintance mode and they will cause the price of gas to rise. If one refinery has an accident, and the price of the gasoline will sky rocket..

In addition to that, Oil and gasoline traders have learn to manipulate the buy/sell/delivery/storage process and they can cause further spikes in the price of the oil and gasoline. All in the name of greed.

Oil companies are making 100′s of billions of dollars, per year, for a reason, which is we are getting shaft by OPEC, the oil companies, the traders, and the corrupt politicians that let this happen to our country since it affects directly our economy, our own pockets, and raises the price of everything we need.

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life destruction and climate change

Posted on April 27, 2011 by admin

Personally, from what I have observed of history of the past century, people in the U.S. have gotten to be very comfortable with their seat at the top of the world. It seems that after Europe had willing handed over the torch of global influence to America after so many devastating world wars, it was happy to maintain a more secondary role. However, I wonder whether Americans will do the same.

As has been evidenced by actions in the past, e.g. the Vietnam War and now the Iraq war, America tends to go leaps and bounds beyond what may be immediately necessary. Even though this is generally done with good intentions, it can be seen in the state of Iraq today that adequate planning doesn’t really happen when it needs to. Lack of planning, understanding, and overall apathy towards a situation is also evident in the state of the U.S.’ environmental policy and the opinion on this issue of the general public.

Many American citizens neither really have an idea of how to fix the world’s environmental issues, nor do they understand the gravity of the situation. Of course almost everyone knows that global warming is an issue (for which the credit goes to Al Gore), but not everyone is willing to make a change to solve it. This fact can be seen in the general American consensus on nuclear power as a solution to CO2 emissions, even in the short term. Many simply do not see it as a viable option because of accidents in the past. So many cite Chernoybl and Three Mile Island as their reasons for not supporting nuclear power, although almost no one seems to know that Chernobyl occured because of a flaw in the basic design of the reactor (a design that is no longer in use anywhere outside of Lithuania), and that only one person is thought to have died from the Three Mile Island incident, without conclusive evidence to support that the accident was the cause of death. This overeagerness to help change things and the lack of knowledge or unwillingness to accept alternatives when affecting a change is a failure common to both much of the American public and the American government.

Many see China as the logical successor to America as a global superpower. In terms of effects on the environment, China has already surpassed the U.S. in its CO2 production, even though peak energy production has likely not yet been reached. However, pressure on China to clean up its act, so to speak, is ever-increasing as China becomes the new center of attention. China realizes this, and so, many nuclear power plants are already in construction, as well as other alternative energy sources. In terms of foreign relations, China is being a bit careless, but at least it hasn’t so far invaded another country without any solid grounds to do so.

In short, I believe that whether it is left to the Western world to lead the rest of the world is a potential change that the West must allow to happen if it does. The way in which this possible evolution is handled will likely be a reflection upon whether the West will allow the world to continue to advance, or whether it is too stubborn to relinquish its control, and is willing to bring the whole world down with it in order to maintain that control.

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Nuclear Power life ending

Posted on March 22, 2011 by admin

For decades we have been told that with the lessons learned from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, nuclear energy is safe. As the still unfolding mayhem at the Dai-Ichi plant in Fukushima, Japan, proves, nothing could be further from the truth.

The fuel rods in at least three reactors are partly molten. All six reactors are in trouble, although most were not on-line during the earthquake! In spite of all downplaying by officials, the nuclear industry, and science apologists, a complete meltdown of some reactors and a nuclear chain reaction of molten fuel are still possible.
The Fukushima plant is 40 years old and was supposed to be dismantled, but is kept alive just like many frail reactors all over the world. Already during an earthquake in 2008 did water leak out of a fuel rod storage facility at the Fukushima plant.

Friday, March 11, 2011

An earthquake with a subsequently to be expected tsunami wave triggered the far reaching problems in the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. It needs to be stressed: This was the trigger, not the reason for why the mostly off-line reactors are in trouble. As we will discuss, the reason is the same as it was in Chernobyl in 1986, the same as for the 1979 Three Mile Island incident before that: nuclear power is inherently unsafe and too complicated to be safely handled by humans under the pressures of human society, which includes economical and political pressures.

Merely three of the reactors in Fukushima were running at the time. The widely praised automatic emergency shut-off did therefore little to prevent the catastrophe. A boiling water reactor needs active cooling even when “switched off” – that means, you cannot actually switch it off! It keeps going at a steady rate of at least 3% normal for over 30 years. Remember, we are talking 3% of the power output of a nuclear reactor, which is huge and the reason for why such reactors have been build in the first place.

After the diesel generators failed to keep the cooling water pumps running, batteries only lasted one hour. The water necessary to cool the fuel rods started to boil away. External diesel generators were brought to the plant, but could not be connected because the batteries’ sockets were under the waterline that one would expect in the basement suffering flooding. None of this involves nuclear physics. These are failures that humans always encounter with long and well known technologies. No future advance in nuclear technology is expected to improve the usual error rate when humans meet conventional technology.

Chernobyl is often conveniently blamed on “the stupid Ukrainians messing up”. Keep in mind: The present failures occurred in the technologically most advanced human society, which arguably is Japan!
The Japanese survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki lived the rest of their lives with the stigma of having been exposed to radiation, a stain that years never erased. Known as Hibakushas, they are formally recognized by the government if they lived within proximity of the blasts, and receive a special medical allowance.

But the designation also led to them being ostracized by other Japanese, who feared wrongly that the contamination was contagious or could be hereditary. The result was that many survivors of the bombings, and even their children, lived ghettoized lives because of their exposure to radiation.

The prospect of a similar stigma now worries some of those in and around the Fukushima plant.

the question is how much time we need to think about the human life?

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