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It Begins: Indian Camel Demand Soars On Spiralling Petrol Costs
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10:32 am
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Camel demand soars in India
By Jo Johnson in New Delhi
Published: May 2 2008 19:05 | Last updated: May 2 2008 19:05
Farmers in the Indian state of Rajasthan are rediscovering the humble camel.
As the cost of running gas-guzzling tractors soars, even-toed ungulates are making a comeback, raising hopes that a fall in the population of the desert state’s signature animal can be reversed.
“It’s excellent for the camel population if the price of oil continues to go up because demand for camels will also go up,” says Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development. “Two years ago, a camel cost little more than a goat, which is nothing. The price has since trebled.”
The shift comes not a moment too soon for a national camel population that has fallen more than 50 per cent over the past decade, to about 450,000, according to government figures.
Market prices for these “ships of the desert”, which crashed with the growing affordability of motorised transport, are rising again as oil prices soar.
A sturdy male with a life expectancy of 60-80 years now fetches up to Rs40,000 ($973), compared to Rs5,000-Rs10,000 three years ago, according to Hanuwant Singh of the Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan, a non-profit welfare organisation for livestock keepers. Entry-level tractors cost around $4,000.
“It’s very good news,” says Mr Singh, whose organisation aims to dispel the image of backwardness associated with camel ownership and tries to promote higher economic returns for breeders. “We had started to see camels, even female ones, being slaughtered for their meat. Now they are replacing the tractor again.”
It is too soon to say that the future for camels is bright. Shrinking grazing areas and a lack of investment in fodder trees may thwart a sustainable revival. Inadequate nutrition undermines the resilience of camel herds, making them vulnerable to disease and lowering birth rates.
The LPPS is encouraging the Raika community – traditional guardians of the camel population since the days when Maharajahs rode them into battle – to diversify into products such as camel milk, optimistically dubbed “the white gold of the desert”, camel leather handbags and camel bone jewellery.
Animal-lovers hope that the surge in oil prices will enhance the status of camel-breeders, who resent the lack of respect society has accorded their traditional knowledge, and give the Raika a strong incentive to stop selling female camels for slaughter. |
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Saudis Mask Declining Production With Rhetoric, Iran To Halt Oil Contracts Denominated In Dollars
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11:43 am
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Saudis put off longer-term oil capacity rise
By Carola Hoyos in Rome
Published: April 20 2008 18:54 | Last updated: April 20 2008 18:54
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, has put on hold plans to increase long-term production capacity from its vast oil fields beyond existing proposals, its most powerful policymakers have said.
In a series of statements, including one by the king himself, the kingdom has warned consumers it does not reckon there is a need for further expansion beyond 12.5m barrels a day, an assumption disputed by the world’s biggest developed countries.
The realisation Saudi Arabia will not increase production to 15m barrels a day as quickly as important consumers and the markets had assumed could put further pressure on oil prices, which touched fresh records last week.
Mr Naimi has floated the figure of 15m barrels a day several times as representing the next phase of Saudi expansion although the number has never been adopted officially as a target. International organisations such as the International Energy Agency have taken the statements as signalling that Saudi Arabia will continue with its expansion plans.
New York benchmark futures reached a record of slightly less than $117 a barrel last week in response to fear that Russia, the world’s second largest producer, was unable to increase production in the next years.
Abdullah Jum’ah, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s oil company, said in a closed door meeting with oil ministers and executives in Rome on Sunday that market signals were ’imperfect’ and that there were uncertainties created by the move away from oil, the world’s worsening economic outlook and the recent turbulance in the financial markets, according to one person who took notes at the discussions. This has impacted Saudi Arabia’s view on the profitability of investing billions of additional dollars into its industry at this point, Gulf sources said.
In a recent interview with Argus, an industry newsletter, Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, made clear Saudi Arabia had “no plans” to embark on its next phase of expansion. “We are idling at around 9m bpd and we will reach capacity of 12.5m bpd by 2009.”
He added: “That is substantial spare capacity. As far as I know, all the latest projections, at least up to 2020, do not require anything higher than that.”
Forecasts by the International Energy Agency, the watchdog of the main consuming countries and an important participant in the forum, reach a different conclusion.
Most recently the group calculated that, even if all the policies to increase renewable fuels and to use oil more efficiently were to be enacted on Tuesday, the world would still need Opec’s daily production to increase by 11.5m barrels by 2030, the bulk of which would have to come from its biggest members, such as Saudi Arabia.
That is a tall order. It is more than 50 per cent more than Opec has managed to increase output during 1980 to 2006.
Recent announcements will harden the view of those sceptics who argue the kingdom is unable to boost production because of the high decline rates at its fields – a view that is still in the minority among those in the industry and one Riyadh emphatically rejects.
King Abdullah, reported by the official news agency this month, said: “I keep no secret from you that when there were some new finds, I told them: ‘No, leave it in the ground, with grace from God, our children need it’.”
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Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, has reportedly shifted from the US dollar to euro and yen as currencies in which it will trade its crude produce. This is seen as a major blow to the US dollar as a reserve currency.
Iran’s move may be determined partly because of its ongoing political stand-off with the US. However, that need not be the only consideration to have prompted Iran to shift to the euro and yen. Many oil exporting nations, as indeed other emerging economies accumulating dollar reserves, have been worrying about the structural weaknesses in the US economy and the prospect of the dollar’s long-term decline.
Economists in the US too have voiced such concerns. So a gradual shift away from the dollar assets held by the rest of the world should not come as a surprise. A survey by the US treasury department measured foreign holdings of US securities as of June 30, 2007, to be $9,772 billion. This should easily cross $10 trillion this year, which is about 75% of the US GDP. Of this, $3,130 billion is held in US equities, $6,007 billion in US long-term debt securities, and $635 billion in US short-term debt securities. Mind you, the outstanding foreign holdings in US securities are growing on an average at over 25% in recent years.
Emerging economies are beginning to feel uncomfortable about putting so much in US dollar-denominated assets year after year. Oil exporting countries themselves have about half a trillion dollars worth of US securities today. By designating future oil trading in euro and yen, Iran is clearly trying to diversify its assets by denominating them in currencies other than the dollar.
If other West Asian oil exporters were to do the same, the US or any other net oil importer, will be forced to buy euro and yen to purchase oil from the international market. The power of the US dollar as a reserve currency will certainly fall, to that extent. Indeed, nations holding US dollar assets will have to evolve new strategies to protect the value of their forex reserves as the axis of global economic power shifts rapidly. No one, including America’s arch rivals in the geo-strategic play, would want the dollar to suffer a precipitous decline as it would erode everyone’s asset value. But they must all prepare for a gradual decline, for sure. |
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US Preparing "Limited" Attack On Iranian Targets
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12:38 pm
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May 4, 2008
United States is drawing up plans to strike on Iranian insurgency camp
Michael Smith
The US military is drawing up plans for a “surgical strike” against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilise Iraq, western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the Guards’ special-operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shi’ite militias and smuggling weapons into the country.
Despite a belligerent stance by Vice-President Dick Cheney, the administration has put plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on the back burner since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary in 2006, the sources said.
However, US commanders are increasingly concerned by Iranian interference in Iraq and are determined that recent successes by joint Iraqi and US forces in the southern port city of Basra should not be reversed by the Quds Force.
“If the situation in Basra goes back to what it was like before, America is likely to blame Iran and carry out a surgical strike on a militant training camp across the border in Khuzestan,” said one source, referring to a frontier province.
They acknowledged Iran was unlikely to cease involvement in Iraq and that, however limited a US attack might be, the fighting could escalate.
Although American defence chiefs are firmly opposed to any attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, they believe a raid on one of the camps training Shi’ite militiamen would deliver a powerful message to Tehran.
British officials believe the US military tends to overestimate the effect of the Iranian involvement in Iraq.
But they say there is little doubt that the Revolutionary Guard exercises significant influence over splinter groups of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, who were the main targets of recent operations in Basra.
The CBS television network reported last week that plans were being drawn up for an attack on Iran, citing an officer who blamed the “increasingly hostile role” Iran was playing in Iraq.
The American news reports were unclear about the precise target of such an action and referred to Iran’s nuclear facilities as the likely objective.
According to the intelligence sources there will not be an attack on Iran’s nuclear capacity. “The Pentagon is not keen on that at all. If an attack happens it will be on a training camp to send a clear message to Iran not to interfere.”
President George W Bush is known to be determined that he should not hand over what he sees as “the Iran problem” to his successor. A limited attack on a training camp may give an impression of tough action, while at the same time being something that both Gates and the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, could accept. |
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Russia Threatens Georgia Over South Ossetia and Abkhazia While Toothless America Lodges "Protest"
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01:43 pm
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Russia Says Georgia `Fueling Tensions' in Abkhazia (Update3)
By Helena Bedwell
May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Russia accused Georgia of ``intentionally fueling tensions'' in Abkhazia after the separatist region's air-defense forces ``appropriately'' shot down two unmanned Georgian spy planes.
``By resorting to reckless schemes with unmanned spy planes and pushing ahead with a military buildup near the conflict zones, the authorities in Tbilisi are intentionally fueling tensions in the region,'' the Foreign Ministry said today on its Web site. ``The Georgian side bears full responsibility for the consequences of this course.''
Georgia, a former Soviet republic of 4.6 million people, has massed more than 1,500 soldiers and police officers in the Kodori Gorge area of Abkhazia, the ministry said on April 29.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accuses Russia of backing separatist regimes in Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia, which have pro-Russian leaderships and where Russian peacekeepers are stationed. Saakashvili pledges to bring the regions, which broke away from Georgia during wars in the 1990s, back under central-government control. Most of their citizens hold Russian passports.
`Disinformation Campaign'
Georgia's acting Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze denied Russian media reports that Abkhaz forces had shot down two Georgian aircraft over Abkhazia today, saying by telephone that they are part of a ``disinformation campaign'' aimed at ``covering up'' Russia's military buildup in the region.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on April 30 that it had increased its peacekeeping force in Abkhazia and added 15 observation posts on the Abkhaz border with the rest of Georgia in response to ``provocative actions'' by Georgian forces. Russian peacekeepers are stationed in Abkhazia under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate.
Saakashvili's special envoy Davit Bakradze said on May 1 that Russia has as many as 3,000 peacekeepers in Abkhazia, up from the previous level of about 2,000.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on May 2 that she was ``very concerned'' by Russia's troop buildup in Abkhazia and planned to raise the matter with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, citing reports from Abkhazia, said two Georgian planes were shot down today while making ``unsanctioned flights.'' If true, the reports would bring the total of Georgian planes destroyed since mid-March to four.
Saakashvili said on April 21 that he had ``clear video footage'' showing that a Russian military jet from the Gudauta military base in Abkhazia shot down a Georgian spy plane the day before. Russia has said that Abkhaz forces brought down the plane.
The Abkhaz government also said it shot down a Georgian plane on March 18.
Gee, where are the invincible armies of America, the World's Sole Superpower (tm)? Where are the legions ready to democratize the world and enforce Bush's thousand year Reich? Oh right -- worn out and pissed away on the sands of Iraqi, useless for conventional warfare.
The only thing that's sadder than the poor grasp of logistics and the realities of warfare that the average Republican lickspittle has... is the number of people who will be forced into slavery under autocratic regimes due to the egotistical onanism of this self-congratulatory stupidity. Where are all of you advocates for the Iraq war now? Why don't you tell me how brilliant it is now, when a critical ally in the containment of Russia is abandoned for the sake of your failed attempt at manipulating American domestic politics by staging a war you thought you couldn't lose?
Aren't you glad you second-rate failures in the robes of patriots only manged to invade two countries in your half-assed scheme to overthrow the Republic? Imagine if you had invaded Syria and Iran the way Condi and the gang threatened to right after Iraq wrapped up, wouldn't we just be fucked now? Gonna take a lot of rewriting history to lie to your kids about how you actually won the Iraq war. |
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Concentration Camp: Texas Drops Arrest Warrant Against Mormon Man Named In Fraudulent "Abuse" Report
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01:59 pm
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ELDORADO, Texas (AP) - An arrest warrant has been dropped for a man thought to be the husband of a teenage girl whose report of abuse triggered a raid on a polygamous sect's Texas compound, authorities said Friday.
A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman would not say why the warrant was dropped for Dale E. Barlow, 50, who lives in Colorado City, Ariz. Barlow has denied knowing the 16-year-old girl who called a crisis center.
The girl reported that she was a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that she was beaten and raped at the sect's Eldorado ranch.
An investigation led to the April 3 raid, in which state welfare workers took 463 children living at the Yearning For Zion Ranch. A boy was born to one of the sect's mothers Tuesday; he and the other children remain in state custody.
Authorities have not located the 16-year-old girl and are investigating the source of the call.
Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger would not say when the warrant for Barlow was dropped, only that "it is no longer active."
Rob Parker, an FLDS spokesman, said the dropped warrant shows the weakness of the state's case against residents of the ranch.
"I think that's just one more piece of evidence that the whole basis on which this raid was premised was unfounded and was inadequately checked out, to the formulation of what basically amounted to an army that went in there and took their children," Parker said.
The phone number used to call the crisis center is the same one once used by a Colorado woman, identified as 33-year-old Rozita Swinton of Colorado Springs, accused of making previous false reports of abuse.
Investigators have not said whether Swinton made the call to Texas authorities, though Vinger said she is "still considered a person of interest."
"There is an investigation centering on that," Vinger said. "We have quite a bit of evidence that still needs to be analyzed."
A judge has ruled that children removed from the ranch should stay in state custody until all can have a hearing.
Child welfare officials told the judge the children were living in an authoritarian environment that left girls at risk of sexual abuse and raised boys to become sexual perpetrators.
The FLDS is a group that splintered from the Mormon Church, which does not recognize the sect and disavows polygamy.
In Utah, members of the polygamous church have asked the state's governor to intervene in its fight with Texas authorities over the custody the children.
A letter written by FLDS elder Willie Jessop says Texas officials are rejecting Utah-issued birth certificates and other documents as "fake."
The letter asks Gov. Jon Huntsman to exercise his executive authority to assist in protecting the civil rights of native Utahns and FLDS members. FLDS parents claim they have been denied their due process by the Texas courts.
"Without your leadership and personal intervention in this matter, the parental rights of every Utah family is at risk," Jessop wrote.
Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelly said the governor has been in contact with Jessop and was reviewing his request.
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So we reject your documentation as fake, keep it confiscated so you can't contest it, and then claim you "look" under 18.
Meanwhile, the American eloi eat it up with a spoon in each hand, because, I mean, you pushed the "child molestor" button on their backs.
Gotta freak out and attack, or maybe you're a child molestor yourself! Or a domestic terrorist! Can't trust anyone that's not marching in the lynch mob!
Yay, sectarian violence disguised as public safety! Don't believe me, check out this 2005 story about the community, special thanks to the Ninja:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4629743 |
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Clinton: I Don't Want To Throw In With "Elite" Economists
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07:37 pm
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday dismissed the "elite opinion" of economists who criticized her gas tax proposal, using a term that has dogged rival Barack Obama in recent weeks.
Obama, meanwhile, accused the New York senator of pandering on gas taxes and saber rattling toward Iran as both candidates gave television interviews before primary contests in North Carolina and Indiana. The two are battling to be their party's nominee to face Republican John McCain in November's election.
Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Clinton said it was time to move beyond the controversy surrounding Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
"We should definitely move on," the New York senator said in response to a question from the audience. "We should move on because there's so many important issues facing our country that we have to attend to."
Clinton raised questions about Obama's ability to connect with working-class Americans while dismissing economists who have said her plan to suspend gas taxes over the summer would do little good.
"I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," Clinton said when asked to name an economist who backed her proposal.
"We've got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans," said Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman president.
Critics have painted Obama as elitist for a comment he made about job losses causing some small-town Americans to become bitter and to cling to guns and religion.
That perception hurt the Illinois senator in the big blue-collar state of Pennsylvania, where Clinton won a crucial victory last month in the protracted Democratic contest. |
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