Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Living In A Nuclear World

Following talks between the governments of the United States, Russia, China, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom; all the nations sitting on the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's Nuclear Watch Dog) voted that the IAEA should report Iran to the UN security council. Iran warned over such a move saying this action would result in the cease of diplomacy. Being reported to the UN security council means that the time of diplomacy is over. I guess that Iran does not realise that being reported to the security council means that the member nations agree that diplomacy is not working, and the situation has reached the pivotal point where action is needed to intercede. Does this remind anyone else of WWII when there were Japanese diplomats delaying talks in Washington to leave enough time to make the first strike? Iran is clearly delaying the issue as long as possible. There have been proposed plans to enrich uranium on Russian soil, and then transport it to Iran where they could use the enriched uranium as a source of power. The uranium would be traded for the nuclear waste coming out of the powerplants. This would mean that Iran could not get the uranium to the point where it could be weaponised. To get uranium to a weaponised state you need to have the nuclear waste in the equation to make it all possible. However, Russia's plan was not enough for Iran. They want to be able to enrich the uranium themselves. Now why would you need to do it yourselves when you can get it from another country ready to use? Plus you get rid of all your nuclear waste at the same time, and you don't have to worry about putting it all through the process of decontaminating it! Obviously there is something under the surface that Iran does not want to share. The newly elected Iranian president has clearly demonstrated why Iran can not be trusted by the rest of the world. Stating that the holocaust was a myth, and that Israel should be wiped off the map is enough to show anyone that this man can not be trusted in the position he has found himself in. I am glad that the world is showing unity on this issue for once, and I think we will be soon seeing a reaction from the UN security council on the matter. If for any reason, Kofi Annan will push this issue to take the spotlight off of himself and the many investigations into his involvement in the oil for food scandal.

posted by Eric @ 9:34 AM 0 comments

Friday, January 27, 2006

I'm Back!

After taking a slight break from the blog, I feel it is time to make my return! I am currently living back in Virginia. I drove back down two weeks ago. The trip back down went pretty well, aside from being horrified in West Virginia when I stopped at the freakiest little one family town for gas. I arrived back to Virginia and moved onto a couch, for I had no where to live. However, after a week of sleeping on a couch and living out of a small bag of clothes I fianlly got moved into my place. I am living with my roommate from last year in a two floor two bedroom townhouse. Cost of living is quite a bit cheaper here than it is in Michigan. We are living here for roughly $300 dollars each. I have been back in classes now for a week and a half. The majority of my classes shouldn't be too terribly hard to handle. My Comparative Economic and Political Ideology class should be another story all together. I'm not sure that anyone has any kind of idea what we are doing in this class. Our professor is a nice guy, and seems very knowledgeable. Picture a larger than normal Ewok (The bear like creatures from Star Wars) sitting in the front of a room smiling as a result of a joke that no one else understood and that's my professor. He is a very interesting little man, but he is definitely way over our heads. I usually sit there, look around, and then wonder if by some strange chance I have been in the wrong class this whole time. When I found out that there are a few grad students in this class I knew I was definitely getting in over my head. Other than my optomistic outlook on that class, everything is going well. I am finding it hard to find someone who wants to hire me to work for the months of February, March, and April. Apparently a three month employee is not that desired. I had very good day today. I got to see a friend I haven't seen in quite some time, so it was a very refreshing time. I leave you with that for now, but I will definitely be writing again very soon. With all the crazy things going on in the world recently I have no choice but to voice my opinions. I hope this finds anyone reading to be doing well. Happy to be back!

posted by Eric @ 5:30 PM 1 comments