The BP oil leak incident which is still ongoing has opened up to a lot more issues that have been previously ignored by the government and the oil companies. Of course, the people has usual are left out of the loop. There are more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico which has been ignored. For how long has this wells been ignored? Well the oldest one is abandoned since the late 1940s. The problem is that the seals made for the wells will also deteriorate. Water can easily corrode the pipes and weaken the cementing for seal. The wells can become pressurized again possible leading to an explosion. The seals that are made for land based oil wells even leak. So what can you expect of the seals deep in the sea?

The government does have regulations for such things. The problem is that they do not abide by it. Oil companies have to either reuse or permanently plug up the wells they want to abandon within a year. As expected many of the oil wells have not been completely sealed and were given a confirmation on reusing them. This incomplete work has lasted for more than a year without any government intervention. We are talking from the late 1940s till now. Imagine what could happen or what will happen.

So far some of the oil companies have claimed that the seal on a properly plugged offshore will last forever. Is that the truth? We will never know but there is something we have to consider. That so far oil companies have been lying and have been taking unethical methods for cost cutting. For all we know many of these could have leaks on minute level. To be honest, there are so many numbers and information based on these oil wells but there is no point as such information could have been altered. Considering the timeline, the number of oil wells and the way oil companies behave there is a high chance for many more leaks to occur.

Why such things occur and how oil companies exploit? The major part is the responsible agencies for ensuring that the abandon wells are properly sealed depend on the paperwork provided by the oil companies. The agencies doesn`t typically inspect the job. What it means is that the oil companies could have done the seal but it might not be up to expectations. All in all everything is done on assumption. Despite the studies showing that leaks can occur the government has not taken steps to assess the problem and look for solutions. Hopefully, there will be pressure from the public and organizations that will force the government regulators to take action.

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Well BP is trying to make a comeback. It is looking for investments amounting to US$9.1 billion. Oil companies and various other corporations are expected to bid. At the same time, there is an expectation of many bidders from countries like Dubai and Kuwait. These countries have helped the U.S. market previously from plunging even further by buying shares. So now BP is also hoping for that to happen.

Recently, the government also allowed restrictions on filming about BP activities in certain areas. In other words the mistakes and problems that might be created by BP might go unseen or not heard. There have been numerous documentaries and interviews done by freelance production groups about this disaster. It made only matters worse for BP and the government. So they do what they know best, restrict and make up stories for the public. BP will gain from this as they can now create stories to entice the investors. What`s even worse is that a “BP boycott” facebook account was temporarily taken down. Facebook claim that it was an automated system fault and has nothing to do with BP. I doubt this as BP paid a lot of money to advertising agencies to put out ads to convince people that they are doing a good job.

Apparently, there were procedures that are needed to be carried out on the oil rigs and oil wells. These procedures were created after the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion in 1988 in Britain. Get this BP did not use any of the procedures. Why? There was no legal requirement in the U.S. for it. The information was released by BP`s spokesperson. Previously many reporters had questions concerning the event to BP, no response or they did not get a clear answer. This time they openly said it. This is just shows you how BP has exploited the loop hole to save money.

This is a scary situation. BP is not the only company that is doing this. Is the government going to lay down the law? Some people might think that the Obama administration is creating a win-win situation. Well you are right but it is a win-win situation for the Government and BP. What about the people? Even if BP gets the investment, do you think they will actually pay the people who are suffering or for the cleanup. I doubt it. Maybe after some pressure they might pay off a minute amount and keep quiet about it.

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It seems that the so called war on terrorism has given away its very first payout. Many of you all should know by now that the U.S. geologist in Afghanistan have found vast amount of untapped mineral deposits. It is estimated to be worth more than US$1 trillion. The deposits discovered so far has iron, gold, niobium, cobalt and lithium. There are speculations that the lithium deposits could be equivalent to Bolivia`s deposit.

Here comes the part that is very contradicting. What are U.S. geologists doing in Afghanistan in the first place looking for mineral deposits? It seems that the Soviets have been on the lookout for such deposits during their occupation in the 1980s. It was their logs and charts that lead the U.S. geologist and the Pentagon to look for the minerals. The question comes down to whether the Soviets will interfere in this matter or not.

Fact is the Afghans are in no position to mine or make better use of the deposits. They have an ethic war among different religions as well as terrorism going on there. The news about the discovery has already spread. It is quite safe to assume that Taliban or even Al Qaeda might want to be in control of the deposits. Worse part is that they could spread propaganda to the Afghans and turn them against the U.S. troops. Looting and pillaging is another thing they seriously have to consider.

Even thought the government in Afghanistan claimed this will be their economy backbone. Seriously, will it? We have to look at Africa here. It has so many mines and mineral deposits. Why is it still a continent that still has poor financial status? Simple because there are external factors that are controlling the mines and the African government is letting they do so. So even if the Afghan government claims that this will boost their economy, I can tell you that it will be in the hands of the U.S. politicians. They will play the key role in deciding the future of Afghan.

The mineral deposits can`t be harvested by the Afghans now. They do not have the means, finances, the right people and security. The U.S. government knows that such a discovery will lead to corruption and civil war in Afghanistan. They will quickly press forward to mine. I also bet that majority of the materials will just go into the U.S. and be used to produce products. The good thing here is that the U.S. economy can improve a lot as this will put in more jobs for people. Secondly, the cost of goods might reduce signigificantly allowing people to buy more U.S. made products. If this is the way things are going to be than Afghanistan is not going to really improve at all.

The other issue here is that countries like Dubai might want a piece of the pie. They might bring religion and ethnic rights into play here. So this could possibly lead to a religious war. Simply put they will use religion as a catalyst to stir up controversies to get the mineral deposits. There are also rumors claiming that the government is stirring up such stories to continue the war. Since we are not there we have to take the government`s word for it. I know I may sound unethical but at the moment I think it is wise that the U.S. government quickly advances on the mining operations and also send more troops to increase security within that region.

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If you are living in the states you would have earn it by now. The US debt has reached US$13 trillion dollars (officially 13,050,826,460,886.97 dollars on June 1). The Treasury Department stated that it was due to government overspending. As usual the democrats and the republicans will start to push the blame rather than looking for a viable solution. On a serious note, both sides have not done anything for last 10 years other than mocking and spending unnecessarily. The damned debt has literally doubled and it`s standing at the 90% of the annual gross domestic product.

The worse is not over yet. The U.S. government is roughly accumulating about US$5 billion dollars a day. Furthermore, there was a huge healthcare reform. Ever since President Obama took office the deficit increased to US$2.4 trillion. This figure does not mean that its President Obama`s fault. He did inherit a mess from the infamous “ape-man” George Bush. The man problem now is that too many things are going down. The major issues like the oil leak in Louisiana, the possibility of North and South Korea going to war and many more problems are going to be become even a bigger burden.

The obvious solutions that they would consider is to cut spending and the increasing taxes. Obama has also launched a debt commission to find ways to resolve this issue. Remember this people who doing the research are only going to give options and recommendations. They could simple create suggestions that they think is plausible and the deadline for them is by the end of the year. So what has happened to reaching out to people? Let`s assume that they come up with something. Will the new idea require more funding? We have to think again about the timeline. Remember its US$5 billion a day going up in smokes. Just count up the days to the end of year and think about the increase in debt. So who will suffer for this? The government talks about cutting cost, but sadly I think they should look deeper. They have lost a lot of money in investing businesses and have had cases of being cheated for millions of dollars. Whose money is it that they spend? George Bush is getting for giving speeches. REALLY?!!! They want to spend that kind of money on him.

Why will this situation get worse? Recently, the unemployment rate was announced. There was only a slight drop in the rate, from 9.9% to 9.7%. However, it was more than enough to for investors to pull out and make the stock markets to take a dive. The major problem is majority of the people who got employed are working the government under temporary contracts, which summed to about 431,000 new jobs created. In the private sector, jobs rose only by 41,000. Why businesses are not employing more people? Simply put they do not need to. Many businesses in the U.S. are profiting and making full use of their employees. It is clearly not their fault if they do want to employ more people and the government should not force them as well. The government jobs are temporary; as soon as contracts expire people will try to re-contract. At the same time, there will more people who want a job as well. Where will all these people go?

The government expects more jobs in the coming months but it is just a hope unless they take some serious measures in making sure that if companies employ more people they too will gain a good incentive. Even if President Obama says that the necessary steps are taken, it still seems to be a failure so far. Until we see a major change in the unemployment rates, there is going to be more problems related to debts as well. There is one thing I really hope is that companies in the U.S. would start to do in-sourcing within the U.S. rather than outsourcing. The government should aid such companies and offer incentives to reduce the overhead cost.

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I bet many of you might have heard of the recent event about the Israeli attack on the ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. The ships had estimated amount 600 to 700 passengers transporting about 10,000 tonnes of supplies. You might think why such an event took place? Israel has a Gaza blockade setup since 2007 after Hamas took control of that region. So what happens here is that whatever aid or supplies comes it has to go through the Israel channels, which is of course reasonable. The point is there has not been any incident of Israeli forces taking supplies from the aid supplies before. “Free Gaza Movement” the organizers of the humanitarian program has even stated that their previous voyages had been successful in transporting the supplies to Gaza through Israel. Israeli soldiers boarded the largest ship called “The Marmara”. The organizers claimed that their activists did not resist but the Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. During which videos were released showing the intense fighting going on the decks. Are the “Free Gaza Movement” organizers lying?

The problem here was started by the organizers when they tried to challenge the blockade. Israel has already warned before that if such events occur they will intercept. Why challenge the blockade for? A political stunt? If you are seriously trying to help people and there is a peaceful way to do it, why not just do it. After such an event has occurred, how are the people in Gaza going to get supplies. Surprising to see that people from aid organizations did not use their brains to think and act. When you are a humanitarian aid, one should not allow race, religion, ego or even extremism be in the way. Furthermore, the organizers have said that they will send another 2 ships to challenge the blockade. This is frustrating because the challenge to the blockade is really unnecessary when you are giving aid to people who are suffering.

The activists know well about the consequences. This unlikely situation would have been avoided if only they respected the Gaza blockade. The fact is the Israeli soldiers did intercept and board the vessels. There was a confrontation has the activists did attack the soldiers and the soldiers attacked back. Who drew first blood is unknown has there is no evidence. Concurrently, the attack is being condemned by many nations. There is also speculation that the ships were not given the permission to pass through the Israeli channel. The Israeli government has claimed that some of the activists have “terrorist history” and the organizers where in support of radical Islamic groups that refuse to recognize Israel as an existing country. The Israel Defence minister stated that Israel will not allow any supply ships to reach Gaza directly as it could very well become a threat to Israel.

It looks as if both sides have made poor judgments from the beginning which now has to turn into fear. First of all the Humanitarian aid should have respected the blockade. Secondly, when the Israeli soldiers boarded the ship the activists should have stayed calmed rather than confronting and attacking. The activists already knew about the outcome and yet they did it. Israel has the rights to defend its borders especially when it is being threatened by it surrounding nations to have it obliterated. On the Israeli part they should not have boarded the ship but should have intercepted and disabled the ship from moving forward. Fact is the incident took place in the seas, so there is not proper evidence to know which side is right or wrong. In my opinion both sides are wrong. Religion has been catalyst for many awful events that took place in the Gaza strip.

Whatever it is, we as human beings and also living in the age of reason should allow ourselves to make decisions based on race or religion. We will make better decisions in life when we look at it in an ethical way.

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