The 1947 Dream

No single Indian family have not felt the economic boom India has experienced for the past 60 years, ever since British Independence in 1947 the world’s largest democracy has taken the path to economic success.

The country faces problems, the size of an elephant but they continue their path to growth. India and Pakistan were both separated from the British in 1947, they go to war over Kashmir just months later with India as the victor. In 1952 they successfully held elections and Jawaharlal Nehru remains as Prime Minister. The country would be devastated by war just a decade later, as China takes advantage of its unprepared military and hauls away a chunk of Kashmir. A mark of shame for the young country.

In 1971, India defeats Pakistan for the third time leading to the creation of Bangladesh. Pakistan would then develop nuclear weapons, “to defend the national domain”.

Now at 60, the picture of India changes from a third world nation into a potential superpower. Like a superpower, India has one of the most expensive military hardwares in the world. Total Indian arms import totaled up to $ 2.5 billion in 2006. The country has also been helping neighboring nations strengthen their military, like the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

India’s many industries has flourished for the past few years, their train service transports as much as 28 million people every two days compared to that of the US which transports only 24 million a year. Indians are also the second largest buyers of local newspapers, only next to China. And of course, India’s film making industry, Bollywood, is the world’s largest producer of films.

India may now be a potential superpower, and experiences booms in its economy but as the saying goes “Life is a like  a wheel, sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down”. Will India’s success continue or will it come to an end?

World War 3?

With China showing a huge threat towards Taiwan and with the US pressing further sanctions against Iran and with Israel’s bitter relationship with its Arab neighbors will the world be at war once again?

Taiwan has yet again placed a bid to re-enter the United Nations, the country had lost its spot to China in 1971. China doesn’t want Taiwan to have international recognition, claiming that the island is still theirs and threats to attack the island if it formally declares independence. Taiwan on the other hand does not show any fear, building its military and spending more for advanced combat hardware. It recently revealed a lethal Hseung-Feng cruise missile capable of hitting major Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Beijing during its recent military day parade. China on the other hand, shows no impression and boasts that it has more than a thousand combat planes that could destroy the island in hours.

The US have condemned Iran’s recent nuclear program, saying that the Islamic state is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran on the other hand denied the allegations and insisted that its only purpose is for nuclear power. The US have imposed sanctions on Iran, and has encouraged other countries to do so as well. It has stated that if current sanctions would be ignored by Iran it could attack the country. Iran expressed no concern and has boasted that it possesses a total of 11,000 missiles that could be fired to enemy positions in the middle east. Iran has the biggest number of total troops in the world with a total of 12,000,000 active soldiers, paramilitary and reservists. The US has about 200,000 soldiers deployed in the Middle East. A collision among the two countries could result to great disaster.

For several years Israel has shared a very bitter relationship with its Arab nations, and whats worse is that it is surrounded by Arab countries. Ever since Israel declared independence in 1948 it had a total of six wars with its Arab neighbors, with Israel being the victor of all six. Despite a peace treaty, the tensions between Israel and the Arabs remained and grew larger after the 2006 Lebanese War. During the past few months the Israeli Defense Force and the Palestinians have shared several skirmishes. The Israeli Air Force blazed Palestine with multiple air strikes killing scores of people. Palestinian soldiers have also fired multiple explosives into Israel, killing also scores.

With these three feuds in place will a third war of the worlds take place and claim millions of lives once again?

Investing in North Korea

I’m an avid reader of Time magazine, last month the main article was about making investments in North Korea. The communist state is finally being nice to foreigners, for years it has made a fortune extracting cash from visiting persons. The article stated some of Nokor’s functioning businesses which includes a surplus-produce market, a South-Korean funded watch factory, casinos and hotels in Pyongyang, farming and a steel production plant.

Chris Devonshire-Ellis, a Beijing-based business consultant, was in North Korea a few years ago. During his stay at Pyongyang’s Koryo Hotel he met another foreigner, a Russian business man named Vlad. Vlad said he was in the country to sell tractors to the North Koreans. What was unusual was there were a number of guys around him, turns out to be his team of bodyguards. The North Koreans paid him US$ 1 million in cash — which is why he needed the bodyguards.

North Korea was once the business engine of the Korean peninsula, but years of disastrous central planning has held back the country from modernization.

The U.S. government estimates the North’s per capita GDP to be about $1,800, roughly the same as Zimbabwe’s. Per capita exports are about $60 a year–less than 1% of South Korea’s. Aside from fishing, mining and cement production, the North has only a hodgepodge of functional industries, including, weirdly enough, its animation studios, which have been used by several European companies. The only export industry to flourish is military hardware –which generates US$ 1 billion a year, or about one-fourth of the country’s export income.

After a historic meeting with South Korean officials and after agreeing to denuclearize itself, the North has proven itself to the rest of the world that it can move along to economic reform. A few other foreign businesses are in the country such as Egyptian conglomerate,Orascom, which recently signed a US$115 million deal to buy a stake in a North Korean cement company. And later this month, a British firm will begin offering subscriptions for the first ever North Korea-focused investment fund.

Philippine Human Rights Record

No harsh dictatorship like North Korea, no military rule like Myanmar or Laos and no civil wars like in Somalia yet 800 people were victims of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines. Ever since Gloria Arroyo assumed power in 2001, hundreds of people (usually activists, journalists, human rights advocates among some) have reportedly disappeared or have been mysteriously killed. On December 7, 2006 Brian Campbell of International Labor Rights Fund tried to re-enter the Philippines to continue investigations on human rights issues, Campbell had previously visited the Philippines to investigate deaths of trade unionists like Diosdado Fortuna. On December 7, Campbell was informed he was on the blacklist by the Filipino Immigration Authority and was banned from entering the country. He immediately left the country.

The Philippines is also a very dangerous place for journalists, with about 52 journalists killed between 1986 and 2005. Legal harassment such as libel suits have also been used to torture journalists in the country. During the 2006 World Press Freedom Index, the country was among the worst ranked standing at 142 out of 169 counties making it the second most dangerous place for journalists in the world after Iraq.

During the Marcos era, he declared martial law and human rights violations were expected but there is no martial law right now in the Philippines, yet there are a lot of human rights violations. With this being said, the government still has the pride to condemn human rights violators like North Korea and Myanmar. Philippines, look first in your own backyard!

Nuclear Energy

The other week our Science class took up the topic Force and as expected had a discussion about Nuclear Energy. One of the activities the book told us to do was to have an oral debate on whether the use of nuclear energy was an advantage or a disadvantage. As what I have expected, about a third of my class voted off nuclear energy as a disadvantage.

People today are afraid of using nuclear energy because they were traumatized with the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine in April 1986, wherein thousands were killed by the actual explosion, radioactive effect or by the diseases caused by radiation. Yes its true, the use of nuclear energy is really a risk to the lives of a lot of people but if placed in an isolated spot an accident would have a very little effect.

Nuclear energy also gives a lot of benefits, a single power plant could produce millions of watts of electricity per second compared to a simple  electric power plant that produces fewer watts. This could decrease our bills in electricity. Nuclear energy is also a source of nuclear weapons, if a country possesses nuclear weapons it would be seen as an  intimidating force and would be feared by other nations, thus maintaining peace around the world.  The greatest example of a nuclear weapon used as an instrument of peace is during World War II, when the Americans dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima forcing the Japs to finally surrender and thus ending the war. Nuclear energy is also helpful in the medical world, it is used in molecular imaging (its like an x-ray only it can see the inside of a human’s body much more clearly than a normal one).

And yes, nuclear energy has several disadvantages, or should I say risks? A poorly-built nuclear reactor could leak and would cause an explosion, killing thousands. But as I said earlier, if we would isolate the reactor maybe it would cause less damage.