 |
| Dr Opoku Prempeh, Minister of Education |
Professor
Kaku Sagary Nokoe, the former Acting Vice Chancellor of the University
Development Studies (UDS), has called on Government not to split the
institution into an autonomous university.
He
asked the government to consider the financial implications and rationale
behind its establishment.
Prof
Nokoe stated: “The rationale and the beauty of the unique community-based
residency third trimester programme must not be tempered with. It is a model
that is envied and being replicated elsewhere.
“The
beauty of composing teams from various campuses to work together, share
relevance of various disciplines towards solving community-specific problems
should be sustained. This will be difficult doing so across autonomous
institutions.”
He
said the news that the former President John Dramani Mahama’s Administration
was almost at the point of splitting UDS into four autonomous universities was
worrying and sad indeed whilst it was equally difficult to fathom rumour that
the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had resolved to pursue the agenda.
“An
obvious solution might be for the Academic Board and University Council to take
advantage of provisions (or loopholes) in the Act to have the campuses assume
semi-autonomous status with Rectors or Principals, with the main campus of
Tamale having a Vice-Chancellor (for UDS) and Principal (Tamale Campus) - but
with only one Academic Board and one Council.
“Let
UDS remain a state (national) institution, not regional, not ethnic run
institutions. Let us add value, not take away from it,” he said.
He
said the discussion towards the tail end of NDC Administration and which seemed
to have made grounds during the NPP campaign indicated a considerable shift in
thinking from that of the founder of UDS, ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, and
from those outside the regions who admired the initiative.
He
said the present structure where Navrongo (Upper East) is for Natural and
Mathematical Sciences; Nyankpala (Northern) for Agriculture, Natural Resources
and Consumer Studies; Tamale (Main Administration, Northern) for Medical and
Health Sciences (in addition to coordination of graduate plus education) and Wa
(Upper West) for Social and Development Studies were good examples to be
replicated.
“These
campuses may then be upgraded by introducing and/or strengthening programmes in
line with the core disciplines, example Agricultural Engineering at the
Nyankpala campus among others.
“At
present there is more inter-institutional (campus) collaboration (and
student/staff mobility) than one would expect among fully autonomous institutions.
“President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo needs not pursue this task of destruction even if
his party manifesto said so. There is nothing wrong to revive the notes. The
University of the West Indies is an example.
“What
is wrong with the University expanding vertically through the creation of more
programmes, schools or faculties within existing campuses?
 |
| Front view of the University of Development Studies |
“What
prevents the government from creating other universities if it has the
resources or empowering the Polytechnics, which are now or in the process of
assuming technical universities status rather than destroy the beauty of UDS.
“One
would expect individual interests in this fight for separate (regional)
universities - precisely the fight for control of the institutions by the
larger ethnic groupings and obviously influencing the choices of
Vice-Chancellors and Rectors, contractors and the like.
“There
will surely be support from within and outside but the financial cost from
splitting will be enormous, Consider, for instance, obvious increases in
overhead costs and so on.
“Should
we not care about costs? Is it increasing number of institutions, that cannot
reasonably stand on their own (as there are limited state funds) that will
spread development? Is it numbers that make for efficiency?
“I
have seen the University grow over difficult periods, and had on some occasions
advised against establishing ethic-based and ethnic-run institutions.
He
therefore urged the government to strengthen the institution with
infrastructure, staff development funds and government supported initiatives,
such as provision of specialist staff from 'sister' countries as President
Kufuor and his NPP administration had done in the past.
Editorial
USELESS WAR
The
world has been gripped by fear of the possibility of war on the Korean
peninsula.
All
right thinking and knowledgeable people know that such a war could destroy
civilisation as we know it today in Japan, South Korea and North Korea.
The
consequences of such a war will spread to the United States of America and
China and perhaps all parts of the world would not be spared the economic,
social and political effects.
What
is very clear to “The Insight” is that this war is preventable.
If
the US and the Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) will sign a peace
treaty and commit to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsular the threat
of war can be removed.
Unfortunately
the US has for over sixty years committed itself to regime change in the DPRK
and deliberately been stocking up the ambers of war.
We
believe that it is time for the US to redraw its troops from South Korea, sign
a peace treaty with the DPRK and support the re-unification of North and South Korea.
War
with the DPRK will be a most wasteful and useless enterprise.
Local
News:
Health Minister Advices
Pregnant Women
 |
| Kwaku Agyemang Manu, Minister of Health |
By
Robert Tachie Menson
Health
Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, on Wednesday encouraged expectant mothers to
heed the counsel of medical practitioners in issues relating to newborns to
help reduce the rate of infant and maternal mortality.
He
said that although several clinics and hospitals abound with qualified medical
professionals, many mothers still failed to take the advice of these
professionals which often resulted in dire consequences in child health
delivery.
Mr
Agyemang Manu was speaking at the National Launch of Newborn Care Campaign held
at the Dormaa Presbyterian Hospital as part of activities to celebrate 'Dormaa
Easter Homecoming' festivity.
He
said despite the significant gains made in reducing infant and maternal
mortality by successive governments in line with acceptable United Nations (UN)
standards and approval, a lot still needed to be done.
The
Health Minister cautioned against stereotyping of health professionals,
stressing such behaviour could derail efforts made in the campaign.
"Many
newborn lives could have been saved but for the total negligence and disregard
to the advice offered by health professionals to mothers. Some take these
advices on the basis of how young, big or small a health professional is,"
he noted.
Mr
Agyemang Manu added that the sector Ministry as part of its core mandate would
undertake and focus mainly on advocacy campaigns as a way of sensitising and
educating Ghanaians on prioritised health related issues.
He
said government was in the process of formulating a policy that will encourage
the posting of junior doctors permanently to deprived and less endowed
communities.
This,
he noted, would help check the situation where people struggled to come from
long distances in the rural areas to the urban centres to seek medical
treatment.
"The
government would achieve this by providing CHPS compound in each of these
communities where they would be sent," he added.
The
Health Minister appealed to expectant mothers to share information given to
them by the health professionals with other mothers in similar condition to
help in the attainment and achievement of national goals on new born child
care.
GNA
Freedom Is
Maintained Under the Law
The
recent happenings about corruption in Parliament should be seized as an
opportunity to educate or remind the public on utterances on the floor of the
House.
By
K. B. Asante
We
maintain our right if we know the law and ignorance of the law is no plea for
our transgressions.
But
how can this be when only the few learned men and women know the law? The truth
is that for most wrong-doings, we have an inkling that what we do is not
right. On these doubts and more intricate matters, it is sensible to
consult especially, a lawyer.
Society
is, therefore, right to hold that responsible citizens should have reasonable
knowledge of the law. And as the world grows smaller and complex and
society more intimate, this knowledge becomes more complex. State
institutions should, therefore, help the public to know the law. In this
regard, the press has a major role to play. Free speech should not be
allowed to pollute the minds of the reading public with wrong notions about the
law.
The
recent happenings about corruption in Parliament should be seized as an
opportunity to educate or remind the public on utterances on the floor of the
House. Can a member of parliament be taken to court for what he says in
Parliament? And can corrupt practices within Parliament be questioned in the
courts? In my time as a civil servant, we asked the Attorney-General’s office
for advice on such matters. Perhaps, such and other questions are trivial
but they help the government from embarrassing postures and assist to educate
the public.
In
colonial days, administrative officers who later became principal secretaries
and chief directors took courses in the and legal processes. It was
suggested to President Kwame Nkrumah that principal secretaries should be
qualified lawyers. It was argued that it was the practice in Canada and
other countries. I opposed the proposal and argued that officials in the
administrative service should in a similar vein take courses in Education,
health, agriculture, economics, finance and so on. I argued that
administrative officers should have knowledge of the subject matter and
policies of the ministries where they were posted. If they have not, they
should endeavour to acquire the knowledge as they assume the position.
Even
the chief director of the Ministry of Trade should have knowledge of the law on
trade matters. To show how important this is, I will recall an incident
in the Acheampong regime when our little foreign exchange had to be carefully
managed; Mr Akwasi Kuma of the GNTC warned me that sugar stocks were
dangerously low. I, therefore, asked Trade Commissioner Larkai in London to
order some sugar. Later, Akwasi Sarpong informed me that he had taken the
initiative to order some sugar. I found that Mr Larkai had not made his
order in writing and I asked him to cancel his verbal request. I was,
however, later informed that a verbal order on the floor of the London Market
was binding.
We
therefore, had two orders for sugar and no money to pay for both.
Fortunately, we had a competent Foreign Service Officer, Mr Gbeho as Deputy
High Commissioner in London and I asked him to try to persuade the Firm EDF and
Mann not to insist on their pound of flesh. Mr Gbeho, the good diplomat,
succeeded in arranging a meeting in London which I attended when a mission in
Bulgaria. It was agreed that EDF and Mann would not demand payment for
our order by word of mouth.
 |
| K.B Asante |
Ghana
would, however, agree to buy sugar from the Firm for two years. EDF and
Mann would, however, agree to sell sugar to Ghana at the lowest price we
obtained on the market. I agreed to the proposal but some in Accra
believed that we had agreed on the arrangement for personal gain. The
ministry, therefore, consulted the Attorney-General’s office and it was agreed
that Ghana should plead sovereign immunity. I argued that the Bank of
Nigeria had taken a similar case to court as had been reported in the London
Times. It was then ruled that when the sovereign power descends to the
market place it automatically submits to the rules of the market. Ghana
however went to court and was found guilty. We lost a few thousand Pounds
Sterling!
General
knowledge of the law is therefore a must for those who conduct the affairs of
the state. Such knowledge indicates when to consult the
Attorney-General’s office. These days, there are attorneys in most
Ministries and institutions and the interests of the state and the freedom of
the individual should be enhanced.
The
high official should however have enough feel for the legal structure of the
state so that the law promotes the freedom of the individual. These
sensitivity and knowledge should permeate other disciplines to promote the
wellbeing of the individual and the state.
We
live in difficult times and wrong information can spread to the discomfiture
and interest of the individual and even the state. As already suggested,
the media has a duty to assist citizens to understand what is happening.
And at a time when the integrity of those who make the law is in question, the
media and relevant institutions should promote that true and disinterested
knowledge of the law which upholds freedom.
Hepatitis Epidemic Breaks Out In Europe,
Cholera On The Way
The hepatitis A epidemic has broken out in Europe. The
outbreak has been already registered in 13 countries. The majority of those
infected are homosexuals. It has been reported by the Russian Federal Service
for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing.
Numbers of infected have started growing in early
February. Total amount of them has made up 330 people so far.
Such countries as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Sweden,
France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Great
Britain are at risk.
The Russian Department has asked citizens to take this
data into account while planning a trip abroad.
Larisa Popovich, Director of the Institute of Healthcare
Economy at the Higher School of Economics, has told Pravda.Ru what this
epidemic is connected with.
Hepatitis A is a disease of dirty hands. That is a
disease of migrants, because they do not maintain strict personal hygiene, do
not wash hands. It should have been expected.
This disease is infectious. If somebody does not
maintain sanitary standards, he will get ill and infect all the others. It was
evident when such a huge flow of migrants was
coming to Europe.
Even more serious diseases should be expected. Cholera may
also break out. It is a common story given poor sanitary control, which cannot
be arranged in such terms. Plus absence of vaccination.
It has been reported that major cases have been
registered among homosexuals...
Hepatitis A is transmitted the other way. While
hepatitis C and AIDS are transmitted via sexual contacts. AIDS can be
transmitted via blood, biological liquid. I have no doubts that it also
thrives. There may also appear other infections, there are a lot of dangerous
infections in Africa, which Europe is not ready to face at all.
How can one defend oneself from hepatitis A?
Quarantine is obligatory, very strict control on the
border, and sanitary enlightenment.
Was your hands and do not drink from surface water. Do not bath where it is
prohibited, maintain norms of sanitary safety. These are standard things.
It is quite strange, but in XXI century people have lost
culture of sanitary-epidemic well-being. Such outbreaks used to be in the
Central Asia, but today the scale in Europe is astonishing.
Hepatitis A is a severe disease, because it makes people
disabled, it hurts liver very much. People remain ill for the rest of their
life.
We should reinforce control in medical institutions as
well. Because one can catch it via non-sterile tools as
well. That is awful what happens in the nearby Europe.
Pravda.Ru
Asia:
NORTH KOREA
North Korea Prepares for war
 |
| Kim Jong Un with Generals of the North Korean Armies |
By
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
North
Korea leader Kim Jong-un ordered 25 percent of Pyongyang residents to leave the city
immediately.
In
accordance with the order, 600,000 people should be urgently evacuated. Experts
note that the evacuation will most likely be conducted due to extremely
strained tensions in relations with the United States of America.
Reportedly,
Pyongyang's bomb shelters will not be able to accommodate the entire population
of the North Korean capital. Therefore, 600,000 people - mostly individuals
with criminal records - will have to leave Pyongyang to let others use bomb
shelters.
It was
also said that one modified Ohio type rocket carrier carrying 154 Tomahawk type
missiles on board joined the US Navy deployed near the coast of the Korean
Peninsula. The missile carrier is expected to arrive at the port of
registration on April 18.
Meanwhile,
according to South Korean media, residents of the
DPRK say
goodbye to each other, to their homes, to their places of work, to forests and
fields, to the sky, rivers, etc as if the nation prepares for a large-scale
war. At the same time, it is forbidden to say goodbye to officers of law
enforcement agencies. It is also strictly forbidden to mention the names of
national leaders in words of farewell.
Chinese
social media said a couple of days ago that auxiliary troops and doctors were
heading to the border of North Korea. One of the photos showed a chain of
military trains moving around Shenyang - a city about 200 miles from the North
Korean border.
About
150,000 Chinese soldiers were mobilised in an anticipation of North Korean
refugees who
may flee the country in the event of an American air strike.
Lieutenant-General
H. R. McMaster, in turn, said that his commander-in-chief ordered to deploy an
aircraft carrier strike group of the United States in the region. McMaster
believes that the decision to deploy US Navy ships in the Sea of Japan was
"reasonable," taking into consideration the North Korean "model
of provocative behaviour."
North
Korea condemned Trump's attack on Syria, calling the cruise missile attack of
the United States an act of "intolerable aggression."
Noteworthy,
China refuted the news about the deployment of 150,000 troops to the border of
the DPRK.
Experts
believe that tensions may aggravate further after April 15, when the DPRK may
conduct another test of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
At the
same time, Russia's well-known Orientalist, Professor Andrei Lankov, who has
been living and working in Seoul for many years, said that if the United States
attacked North Korea, Pyongyang's retaliatory strike would pose an immediate
threat to the lives of 25 million residents of Seoul as the city sits very
close to the border between the Northand the South. Another Korean war would be
inevitable, the expert believes.
It has
been reported that Japan prepares to evacuate its citizens from South Korea as
well in connection with growing tensions around North Korea, NHK reports with
reference to Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
Pravda.Ru
Dirty Word
By
Matthew Culbert
There
are lots of things in our lives that we don't find it easy to
talk about. Some of them are even 'taboo'. But there's one
thing which we talk about, all of us, all the time, and never give
its proper name because that name is, for most of us, a rather
dirty word.
That
thing is Politics.
It's
such a dirty word that you could well be ready to stop reading right
now.
But
before you do, think back for a minute on the conversations you've
had this week. What were they really about?
Did
you complain about the pricing of something which has gone up again?
Did
you talk about problems with the Council, or with your mortgage,
or with your wages?
If
you work, did your boss get you down again this week, or was it the
fighting in the office?
If
you're unemployed, were you depressed because you walked past
shops and people who all seem to live on a separate planet?
Or
was it a row with a loved one over money, or with the kids, or
just because you're so tired and full of stress that anything
sets you off?
If
your week sounded anything like that, you're not alone.
What
happens in our lives is not entirely up to us, and when we talk about
life we are also making political statements about how we
would like things to be.
Politics
is only a dirty word because the politicians have made it into a game
that you play in parliaments to score off the opposition.
Their
games are none of our concern, but our own lives matter, and the
politics of our lives must matter to us as well. The things that
worry you, that may be mentioned above, are the sort of politics
we want to talk about. Not party politics, but real life.
Bad
attitude
The
problems that we have in our lives don't get talked about by the
papers or politicians or on Question Time. That is left to us, on
our own, in pubs or among friends.
Why
do we have to work for bosses?
What
is the point of saving when inflation eats it all up?
Why
do people starve when supermarkets throw food away?
Here
are some examples of 'Common Sense', and underneath,
the feelings, or as they are more usually called, the 'Bad Attitudes'
that a lot of people have about them.
Common
Sense: This is a prosperous country.
Bad Attitude: Where is
all this prosperity when you're on the dole or three months behind
with the mortgage?
Common Sense: If you
want to 'make it', work hard and be thrifty.
Bad Attitude: Like
my parents did, and look at them. Besides, what's the point when
some yuppie can make my life's earnings in twenty minutes on the
Stock Exchange?
Common
Sense: Other people are worse off than you. If you've got an
ounce of decency you should be grateful, and give to charities.
Bad
Attitude: Alright, I can't walk past a collecting box
without feeling guilty, but however much I pay, the problems don’t
seem to go away. If anything they get worse. Why won't
the government pay?
Common Sense: Politics is
for politicians. I wouldn't fancy trying to run the country.
Bad
Attitude: Mind you, for ￡140 thousand a year plus expenses
I couldn't do any worse than them, could I? All they care about is
their own power.
If
you have something like this 'bad attitude' problem', don't despair.
There are others like you, not in hundreds or
thousands, but in millions
Military Adventurism: The Problem is Washington, Not
North Korea
By Mike Whitney
Washington has
never made any effort to conceal its contempt for North Korea. In the
64 years since the war ended, the US has done everything in its power to
punish, humiliate and inflict pain on the Communist country. Washington
has subjected the DPRK to starvation, prevented its government
from accessing foreign capital and markets, strangled its economy
with crippling economic sanctions, and installed lethal missile
systems and military bases on their doorstep.
Negotiations
aren’t possible because Washington refuses to sit down with a country which it
sees as its inferior. Instead, the US has strong-armed China to
do its bidding by using their diplomats as
interlocutors who are expected to convey Washington’s ultimatums
as threateningly as possible. The hope, of course, is that Pyongyang will
cave in to Uncle Sam’s bullying and do what they are told.
But
the North has never succumbed to US intimidation and there’s no sign that it
will. Instead, they have developed a small arsenal of nuclear weapons to defend
themselves in the event that the US tries to assert its dominance by
launching another war.
There’s
no country in the world that needs nuclear weapons more than North Korea.
Brainwashed Americans, who get their news from FOX or CNN, may differ on this
point, but if a hostile nation deployed carrier
strike-groups off the coast of California while conducting massive
war games on the Mexican border (with the express intention of scaring the shit
of people) then they might see things differently. They might see the
value of having a few nuclear weapons to deter that hostile
nation from doing something really stupid.
And
let’s be honest, the only reason Kim Jong Un hasn’t joined Saddam and
Gadhafi in the great hereafter, is because (a)– The North does not sit on an
ocean of oil, and (b)– The North has the capacity to reduce Seoul, Okinawa and
Tokyo into smoldering debris-fields. Absent Kim’s WMDs,
Pyongyang would have faced a preemptive attack long ago and Kim
would have faced a fate similar to Gadhafi’s. Nuclear weapons are the only
known antidote to US adventurism.
 |
| Nuclear suicide bombers ready for war |
The
American people –whose grasp of history does not extend beyond the events of
9-11 — have no idea of the way the US fights its wars or the horrific carnage
and destruction it unleashed on the North. Here’s a short
refresher that helps clarify why the North is still wary of the
US more than 60 years after the armistice was signed. The excerpt is
from an article titled “Americans have forgotten what we did to North Korea”, at
Vox World:
“In
the early 1950s, during the Korean War, the US dropped more bombs on North
Korea than it had dropped in the entire Pacific theater during World War II.
This carpet bombing, which included 32,000 tons of napalm, often deliberately
targeted civilian as well as military targets, devastating the country far
beyond what was necessary to fight the war. Whole cities were destroyed, with
many thousands of innocent civilians killed and many more left homeless and
hungry….
According
to US journalist Blaine Harden: “Over a period of three years or so, we
killed off — what — 20 percent of the population,” Air Force Gen. Curtis
LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office
of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later
secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in
North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on
urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the
later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops……
“On
January 3 at 10:30 AM an armada of 82 flying fortresses loosed their
death-dealing load on the city of Pyongyang …Hundreds of tons of bombs and
incendiary compound were simultaneously dropped throughout the city, causing
annihilating fires, the transatlantic barbarians bombed the city with
delayed-action high-explosive bombs which exploded at intervals for a whole day
making it impossible for the people to come out onto the streets. The entire
city has now been burning, enveloped in flames, for two days. By the second
day, 7,812 civilians houses had been burnt down. The Americans were well aware
that there were no military targets left in Pyongyang…
The
number of inhabitants of Pyongyang killed by bomb splinters, burnt alive and
suffocated by smoke is incalculable…Some 50,000 inhabitants remain in the city
which before the war had a population of 500,000.” (“Americans have
forgotten what we did to North Korea“, Vox World)
 |
| North Korea ready to drop nuclear bombs in self defense against American hostilities |
The
United States killed over 2 million people in a country that posed no
threat to US national security. Like Vietnam, the Korean War was just
another muscle-flexing exercise the US periodically engages in
whenever it gets bored or needs some far-flung location to try out its new weapons
systems. The US had nothing to gain in its aggression on the Korean peninsula,
it was mix of imperial overreach and pure unalloyed viciousness the
likes of which we’ve seen many times in the past. According to
the Asia-Pacific Journal:
“By
the fall of 1952, there were no effective targets left for US planes to hit.
Every significant town, city and industrial area in North Korea had already
been bombed. In the spring of 1953, the Air Force targeted irrigation dams on
the Yalu River, both to destroy the North Korean rice crop and to pressure the
Chinese, who would have to supply more food aid to the North. Five reservoirs
were hit, flooding thousands of acres of farmland, inundating whole towns and
laying waste to the essential food source for millions of North
Koreans.10 Only emergency assistance from China, the USSR, and other
socialist countries prevented widespread famine.” (“The Destruction and
Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950 – 1960”, The Asia-Pacific
Journal, Japan Focus)
Repeat:
“Reservoirs, irrigation dams, rice crops, hydroelectric dams, population
centers” all napalmed, all carpet bombed, all razed to the ground.
Nothing was spared. If it moved it was shot, if it didn’t move, it was bombed.
The US couldn’t win, so they turned the country into an
uninhabitable wastelands. “Let them starve. Let them freeze.. Let
them eat weeds and roots and rodents to survive. Let them sleep in the ditches
and find shelter in the rubble. What do we care? We’re the greatest country on
earth. God bless America.”
This
is how Washington does business, and it hasn’t changed since the Seventh
Cavalry wiped out 150 men, women and children at Wounded
Knee more than century ago. The Lakota Sioux at Pine Ridge got the same
basic treatment as the North Koreans, or the Vietnamese, or the
Nicaraguans, or the Iraqis and on and on and on and on. Anyone else who gets in
Uncle Sam’s way, winds up in a world of hurt. End of story.
The
savagery of America’s war against the North left an indelible
mark on the psyche of the people. Whatever the cost, the North cannot
allow a similar scenario to take place in the future. Whatever the cost, they
must be prepared to defend themselves. If that means nukes, then so be
it. Self preservation is the top priority.
Is
there a way to end this pointless standoff between Pyongyang and Washington, a
way to mend fences and build trust?
Of
course there is. The US just needs to start treating the DPRK with respect and
follow through on their promises. What promises?
 |
| Women soldiers ready to join the war |
The
promise to built the North two light-water reactors to provide heat and light
to their people in exchange for an end to its nuclear weapons program. You
won’t read about this deal in the media because the media is just the
propaganda wing of the Pentagon. They have no interest in promoting peaceful
solutions. Their stock-in-trade is war, war and more war.
The
North wants the US to honor its obligations under the 1994 Agreed Framework.
That’s it. Just keep up your end of the goddamn deal. How hard can that
be? Here’s how Jimmy Carter summed it up in a Washington Post op-ed
(November 24, 2010):
“…in
September 2005, an agreement … reaffirmed the basic premises of the 1994
accord. (The Agreed Framework) Its text included denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula, a pledge of non-aggression by the United States and steps to
evolve a permanent peace agreement to replace the U.S.-North Korean-Chinese
cease-fire that has been in effect since July 1953. Unfortunately, no
substantive progress has been made since 2005…
“This
past July I was invited to return to Pyongyang to secure the release of an
American, Aijalon Gomes, with the proviso that my visit would last long enough
for substantive talks with top North Korean officials. They spelled out in
detail their desire to develop a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and a permanent
cease-fire, based on the 1994 agreements and the terms adopted by the six
powers in September 2005….
“North
Korean officials have given the same message to other recent American visitors
and have permitted access by nuclear experts to an advanced facility for
purifying uranium. The same officials had made it clear to me that this
array of centrifuges would be ‘on the table’ for discussions with the United
States, although uranium purification – a very slow process – was not
covered in the 1994 agreements.
“Pyongyang
has sent a consistent message that during direct talks with the United States,
it is ready to conclude an agreement to end its nuclear programs, put them all
under IAEA inspection and conclude a permanent peace treaty to replace the
‘temporary’ cease-fire of 1953. We should consider responding to this
offer. The unfortunate alternative is for North Koreans to take whatever
actions they consider necessary to defend themselves from what they claim to
fear most: a military attack supported by the United States, along with efforts
to change the political regime.”
(“North
Korea’s consistent message to the U.S.”, President Jimmy Carter, Washington
Post)
Most
people think the problem lies with North Korea, but it doesn’t. The problem
lies with the United States; it’s unwillingness to negotiate an end to the
war, its unwillingness to provide basic security guarantees to the
North, its unwillingness to even sit down with the people who
–through Washington’s own stubborn ignorance– are now developing
long-range ballistic missiles that will be capable of hitting American cities.
How
dumb is that?
The
Trump team is sticking with a policy that has failed for 63 years and
which clearly undermines US national security by
putting American citizens directly at risk. AND FOR WHAT?
To
preserve the image of “tough guy”, to convince people that the US doesn’t
negotiate with weaker countries, to prove to the world that “whatever the US
says, goes”? Is that it? Is image more important than a potential nuclear
disaster?
Relations
with the North can be normalized, economic ties can be strengthened,
trust can be restored, and the nuclear threat can be defused.
The situation with the North does not have to be a crisis, it can be
fixed. It just takes a change in policy, a bit of give-and-take, and leaders
that genuinely want peace more than war.
Mike
Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the
Politics of Illusion (AK
Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be
reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.
Technology:
Nanotechnology breakthrough means almost any
surface can become a touchscreen
 |
| Young boy interacting with holographic augmented reality display |
Nanotechnology
has occupied the pages of sci-fi novels for decades, but now a major new
breakthrough could bring the super advanced tech into the average household.
Researchers at Trinity
College Dublin, Ireland, have created two-dimensional nanomaterials, only a few
billionths of a meter thick, making it possible to turn almost any surface into
a screen or a computer.
Using
standard printing techniques, scientists combined graphene nanosheets, an
ultra-thin form of carbon just one atom thick, with two other nanomaterials
named tungsten diselenide and boron nitride.
The
research published in the journal Science could have
wide-ranging implications from the mundane to the extraordinary.
Futuristic
uses could include a touchscreen pad superimposed onto your skin, reading an
electronic newspaper that could be rolled up or folded to be placed neatly
inside a jacket pocket or even receiving an alert message saying the milk in
the fridge is about to go sour.
The
technology could also enhance security capabilities of valuable items, allowing
for the encoding of biometric data on passports and the marking of banknotes to
make them virtually impossible to forge.
This
technology could also have advantages for solar power, one day making it
possible to turn a variety of materials into solar cells, making it cheaper to
harness energy from the sun, theoretically reducing our collective dependence
on oil and gas.
“In the future, printed devices will be
incorporated into even the most mundane objects such as labels, posters and
packaging,” senior author of the paper Jonathan Coleman, professor of
chemical physics at Trinity College said in a
statement.
“Printed
electronic circuitry (constructed from the devices we have created) will allow
consumer products to gather, process, display and transmit information: for
example, milk cartons could send messages to your phone warning that the milk
is about to go out-of-date.”
“We
believe that 2D nanomaterials can compete with the materials currently used for
printed electronics. Compared to other materials employed in this field, our 2D
nanomaterials have the capability to yield more cost effective and higher
performance printed devices,” he added.
When
Will Russia Run Out Of Oil?
By Viktor Katona
On a global level, 2015 and 2016 marked the
lowest level of new conventional oil discoveries since 1952. In 2016,
only 3.7 billion barrels of
conventional oil were discovered, roughly 45 days of global crude consumption
or 0.2 percent of global proved reserves. Globally, exploratory drilling fell
by almost 20 percent in 2015 and fell even further in 2016.
Russia’s exploration activities, which were
hit not only by plummeting oil prices but also by a targeted sanctions regime,
suffered a double blow during this period. In 2015, only seven new hydrocarbon
discoveries were made in Russia, three of them in the Baltic Sea. In 2016, oil
and gas companies in Russia discovered 40 prospective fields, however, the 3P reserves of the largest
among them, Rosneft’s Nertsetinskoye, amounted to 17.4 million tons. This
stands in stark contrast with pre-sanction period achievements, for instance,
2014’s largest find, Pobeda, is believed to contain 130 million tons of oil and
0.5TCm of gas.
It is only logical that against such depressive trends, that people start to question the sustainability of Russia’s current oil-producing renaissance (Graph 1). When will Russia run out of oil? Were Sheikh Yaki Zamani’s “Stone age” simile to materialize, would Russia still be among the top producers when oil started its descent towards obsolescence?
The Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environmental Protection of Russia states that not accounting for new
discoveries, current oil reserves in Russia stand at 29 billion tons and under
current consumption rates would be depleted by 2044 (its 2P gas
reserves’ depletion would come about in more than 160 years). To this end, it
would like to implement business-easing measures, e.g.: facilitate the issuance
of licenses and to increase the size of the allotted subsoil block to a maximum
of 500 km2 (which would mean a fivefold increase compared to existing
regulations). The Ministry’s stimulating measures, however, should not
obfuscate the fact that Russia still has vast amounts of untapped reserves
waiting to be discovered. But where?
Frontiers
The future of Russian crude lies in oil that
is more expensive, more geologically complex and further away from traditional
regions of production. Just as West Siberia replaced the Volga-Urals Region in
the 1970s as the Soviet Union’s main producing region, East-Siberia and
offshore regions will overtake West-Siberia (which saw its share in the
national output diminish from 71 percent in 2004-2005 to 57 percent currently).
This change of “leaders” is long overdue as West-Siberia oil output was already
expected to plummet in the 1990s, yet thanks to extended oil recovery methods
and slower-than-expected development of other oil-rich regions it has managed
to keep stable output numbers. Russia’s oil sector has been consistently
hoodwinked by analysts, who, beginning from the early 1980s predicted an
imminent production slump. The production fall did happen, reaching a low-point
between 1996 and 1999 when production foundered to 301-305 million tons per
year. The cause was to be sought in Russia’s overall economic depression, not
in its dearth of resources.
Today, Russian companies are similarly
constrained in tackling Russia’s three new oil frontiers – shale, Arctic and
deep-water. It is no coincidence that U.S. and EU sanctions targeted the sales
of technologies related to these sectors and not conventional – whilst Russian
companies are well-equipped to deal with conventional fields, they relied
heavily on Western know-how. Yet it is very unlikely that even a tightening of
sanctions could stall Russia’s Arctic exploration activities for a longer
period of time. Russia’s continental shelf contains most of the Arctic’s oil
formations and approximately 60 percent of its undiscovered reserves. So far,
the 3P reserves of Russia’s Arctic stand at 585 million tons and 10.4 TCm, yet
most of its Arctic Seas were only superficially appraised. The Kara Sea, whose
fields are almost exclusively gaseous, has been in the spotlight since the 1983
of the Murmanskoye gas field (120 BCm), yet the northern parts of the adjacent
Barents Sea, which Russia’s Federal Agency on Subsoil Usage deems the most likely to yield top
hydrocarbon discoveries in the next few years, are relative newcomers in
prospective surveys.
Western oil & gas companies should be
aware that the Russian government treats Arctic formations as resources of
“federal significance” and it is unlikely to provide them a role other than
that of a minority shareholder. There is more maneuvering room for oil
formations in the riskier part of the Arctic – the as of yet
impossible-to-assess Laptev and Chukchi Seas, where no large-scale surveying
has been done. Moreover, after the UN Commission on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf acknowledged the Okhotsk Sea as a Russian
enclave, the least-researched Russian sea can now be prospected and appraised.
Still, the Russian Arctic, along with frontier zones like the Timano-Pechora
Basin and the Yenisey-Khatanga Basin, will play an important role in keeping
Russia among world’s top 3 oil producers in the next 40-50 years. Yet there is
more, Russia’s oil future is not only more Arctic, but also more shale-related.
Russia has been sitting on vast shale/tight
oil reserves, which according to present data are second only to the United
States. Yet it might easily surpass all its rivals, as the development of
gigantic tight-oil formations, such as Bazhenov Suite, the largest shale
deposit in the world covering a territory of more than 1 million km2 and
assumed to contain at least 20 billion tons of oil, is still in its infant
phase. The potential of the Abalak Suite underlying the Bazhenov, the Domanik
Suite, stretching asymmetrically across the Volga-Urals Region from Perm to
Orenburg, as well as many others, is still difficult to assess, yet virtually
all of them are located in traditional oil-producing regions with a
fully-established oil infrastructure. Although the first Bazhenov oil gush dates back to 1969, several factors
have hindered the development of Russian tight oil, yet the principal among
them was the availability of other, less-costly variants of production. The
preference for easier-to-access, less costly formations is aptly reflected in
Russia’s curbing of deep-hole exploration drilling (Graph 1).
As Russia’s tight oil needs at least an oil
price level of 55-60 USD per barrel, bringing the first fields on-stream is
still some way off as conventionals’ breakeven levels are in the 20-30 USD per
barrel range. Despite a significant lag compared to the U.S. shale revolution,
this might not be that unfavorable for Russia. It is expected that under the
aegis of “import substitution”, Russian service companies might be fully up to the
task to exploit Russia’s shale bounty by the 2020s, moreover, they are likely
to work in an environment with significantly lower drilling costs, time and
efficiency rates than their American counterparts in late 2000s (thus yielding
more oil). By that time, perhaps, anti-Russian sanctions will be a yesteryear
affair.
Lastly, one should not underestimate the
tenacity of Russia’s conventional oil reserves, which thanks to enhanced oil
recovery techniques and supplementary exploration will remain a force to be
reckoned with. As demonstrated by the discovery of the Velikoye field in the
Astrakhan Oblast (reserves estimated at 330 million tons of oil), Russia’s
pre-salt layers, even in regions previously thought to be on the verge of
depletion, might kickstart a new development vector in its energy matrix. As
Russia’s Natural Resource Ministry cannot account for events that are still yet
to happen, its 2044 depletion assumption reflects merely its inherent
conservatism, not the country’s realistic capabilities. By all accounts, Russia
will remain a major oil-producing nation throughout the entire XXIst century,
with oil production moving to places that are further (north and east), deeper
(both deepwater and pre-salt) and generally more costly.
Source: Oilprice.com
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