November 1 may be remembered for a remarkable and horrifying human achievement: For, in 1952, the U.S. detonated the first hydrogen bomb. They also set off the first underground atom bomb test on November 29, 1951. Alfred Nobel patented Dynamite on November 25, in 1867. Later, of course, he decided to institute the world's largest prize for the cause of peace.
On November 2, 2000, the first residents of the International Space Station entered. November 3 is also associated with a Space first: Laika, a Siberian husky, became the first living creature, when she was launched into orbit in 1957. Many years later, on November 13, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit a planet other than our earth: Mars.
The construction of the Kariba High Dam across the Zambesi River began on November 6, 1956. This dam altered the pulsing (seasonal flooding cycles) caused by the river, with many associated adverse effects on the ecology and estuary downstream. The Suez Canal was opened in Egypt on November 17, 1896.
Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays on November 8, in 1895. Gottlieb Daimler unveiled the first motorcycle on November 10, 1885. Patents awarded include the electrical hearing aid (patented by Miller Reese on November 15, 1901), and the first zoom lens (patented by F. G. Back, on November 23, 1948). France witnessed the first balloon flight, which took place in Paris, on November 21, 1783. The world's first tidal power station also opened in this country, on November 26, 1966. The world's first videotape broadcast was aired on November 30, in 1956.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Afghan missed to save an Innocent
It was clear from the beginning that unlike the kidnappers of three Indian workers in Iraq last year, Maniappan Kutty’s abductors didn’t want to negotiate. Despite Indian opening every channel to talk to them the kidnappers didn’t leave any call-centre number for India to reach them.
The gave a 48-hour deadline to the Border Roads Organization, a Defence ministry organization that builds strategically important roads in border areas, to abandon its work and go home. Even the abduction and the subsequent news of Kutty’s murder were conveyed through a news agency on November 22, three days after he was abducted. They weren’t after ransom money. They just wanted us out and the road work to stop. Taliban-linked violence in Afghanistan has claimed 1,400 lives, including that of Kutty, this year. Kutty, who has been with the BRO for 16 years, was abducted along with three others. The incident raised a big question about the security of India’s overseas strategic interests. The BRO was involved with the construction of the 219-km road linking Delaram in Afghanistan with Zaranj in Iran. The road will provide landlocked Afghanistan an access to the Iranian ports of Chabahar and Bandarabbas. The road is also important for India, as Iran is the only entry point for India into Afghanistan.
It was this road and not Kutty who hails form Alappuzha district in Kerala that the kidnappers were after. Though New Delhi authorized Rakesh Sood, Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, to talk to the kidnappers, no one came forward to negotiate. Since the kidnappers left no number to call, Delhi had no option but to leave it to the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul to trace Kutty or his kidnappers. The kidnappers would have spared Kutty’s life only if India abandoned all its strategic interests in Afghan. However, it also appears that the abductors overplayed their cards. Undeterred by the cowardly and brutal murder of a brave Indian, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Conveyed to President Karzai India’s unshaken resolve to assist Afghan in rebuilding the country.
On the home front, the Central government promised Kutty’s family a Rs10-lakh compensation. His children’s would get free education up to the secondary level. Kutty’s wife would get a liberalized pension for life and a job in a public-sector undertaking. (This money and pension will not give them happy; it’s very hard to live without father). Meanwhile, in Afghan, work on some stretches of the road link has been suspended because of their isolation. But officials say the project will continue. Lt.-Gen. K.S. Rao, director-general of BRO, would soon leave for Afghan to inspect of his men, which is entrusted with the governor of Nimroz.
As many as 290 Indians are working on the road project alone. Many more work in scattered projects such as education, police training, hospital and civil transport. In fact, in some places like Mazar-e-Sharif, Heart, Shebargan and Kandaher, the only decent hospitals are those run by small Indian teams of four to six doctors, nurses and paramedics.
Our Indian went to Afghansitan to help them on the Development works; it’s the duty of Afghan government to give security for them, but they have failed to give security. When the Iraq militants kidnap 3 Indians the Central government take full action for there release, but this time terrorist dint give much time to think, so they have missed to take action.
The gave a 48-hour deadline to the Border Roads Organization, a Defence ministry organization that builds strategically important roads in border areas, to abandon its work and go home. Even the abduction and the subsequent news of Kutty’s murder were conveyed through a news agency on November 22, three days after he was abducted. They weren’t after ransom money. They just wanted us out and the road work to stop. Taliban-linked violence in Afghanistan has claimed 1,400 lives, including that of Kutty, this year. Kutty, who has been with the BRO for 16 years, was abducted along with three others. The incident raised a big question about the security of India’s overseas strategic interests. The BRO was involved with the construction of the 219-km road linking Delaram in Afghanistan with Zaranj in Iran. The road will provide landlocked Afghanistan an access to the Iranian ports of Chabahar and Bandarabbas. The road is also important for India, as Iran is the only entry point for India into Afghanistan.
It was this road and not Kutty who hails form Alappuzha district in Kerala that the kidnappers were after. Though New Delhi authorized Rakesh Sood, Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, to talk to the kidnappers, no one came forward to negotiate. Since the kidnappers left no number to call, Delhi had no option but to leave it to the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul to trace Kutty or his kidnappers. The kidnappers would have spared Kutty’s life only if India abandoned all its strategic interests in Afghan. However, it also appears that the abductors overplayed their cards. Undeterred by the cowardly and brutal murder of a brave Indian, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Conveyed to President Karzai India’s unshaken resolve to assist Afghan in rebuilding the country.
On the home front, the Central government promised Kutty’s family a Rs10-lakh compensation. His children’s would get free education up to the secondary level. Kutty’s wife would get a liberalized pension for life and a job in a public-sector undertaking. (This money and pension will not give them happy; it’s very hard to live without father). Meanwhile, in Afghan, work on some stretches of the road link has been suspended because of their isolation. But officials say the project will continue. Lt.-Gen. K.S. Rao, director-general of BRO, would soon leave for Afghan to inspect of his men, which is entrusted with the governor of Nimroz.
As many as 290 Indians are working on the road project alone. Many more work in scattered projects such as education, police training, hospital and civil transport. In fact, in some places like Mazar-e-Sharif, Heart, Shebargan and Kandaher, the only decent hospitals are those run by small Indian teams of four to six doctors, nurses and paramedics.
Our Indian went to Afghansitan to help them on the Development works; it’s the duty of Afghan government to give security for them, but they have failed to give security. When the Iraq militants kidnap 3 Indians the Central government take full action for there release, but this time terrorist dint give much time to think, so they have missed to take action.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
10 Tag
Visithra Tag's me
Here is mine
10 Favorites:
Season: Spring (light cool and light hot)
Sports: Tennis
Time: Early Morning
Month: January
Actor: Vijay
Actress: Trisha
Ice cream: Vanilla
Food: Green rice
Drink: Complane
Place: Chennai
9 Currents
Feeling: very happy.
O/S: Window XP.
Windows open: Beautiful Island.
Drink: nothing.
Time: 3.04pm.
Mobile used: I have no mobile.
Show on TV: India vs. South Africa cricket.
Thought: really interesting tag.
Cloth: Shirt and shorts.
8 First
First nick: Jeeva
First kiss: from mom
First crush: **** my class met.
First computer: Win98, Pentium3.
First Vehicle: Cycle.
First Job: Ad Typiest (anna sumbalamma tharala, amathitan.)
First Movie: Anjali, (I think).
First pet: Mani, street dog.
First shave: 1 year back.
7 Lasts:
Chai (tea): I don’t like tea.
Movie: Gajini.
I drove: 7 years back (cycle).
Shaved: last month.
Website visited: Visithra’s (to see the method of tag).
Software installed: Windows media player 10.
Pill I had: for cold.
6 Have you evers:
Broken the law: in my school days, (currently no).
Been drunk: no
Climbed a tree: no memory (nayabakam illai).
Kissed someone you didn’t know: change the question.
Been in the Middle/close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: when burst crackers on Diwali.
Broken anyone’s heart: my mom’s, (for not obeying her words sometime:(, not every time).
5 Things:
You can hear right now: a television sound.
On your computer table: Headphone, Magazine, Tamil-English dictionary and a floppy disk.
On your bed: pillow, Cell phone charger (my brother’s cell), and Kumutham (tamil magazine).
You ate today: sambar rice (lunch).
In mind: If I dint start this blog, will I be happy?
4 places you have been today:
Hall
Balcony
Bedroom
Bathroom
3 people you can tell anything to
Friends.
2 choices
Black or White: Black
Hot or cold: cold
1 thing you want to do before you die.
Want to do some thing for India, to become a Developed Nation.
I like to Tag Jo and Awakeningcoma
Here is mine
10 Favorites:
Season: Spring (light cool and light hot)
Sports: Tennis
Time: Early Morning
Month: January
Actor: Vijay
Actress: Trisha
Ice cream: Vanilla
Food: Green rice
Drink: Complane
Place: Chennai
9 Currents
Feeling: very happy.
O/S: Window XP.
Windows open: Beautiful Island.
Drink: nothing.
Time: 3.04pm.
Mobile used: I have no mobile.
Show on TV: India vs. South Africa cricket.
Thought: really interesting tag.
Cloth: Shirt and shorts.
8 First
First nick: Jeeva
First kiss: from mom
First crush: **** my class met.
First computer: Win98, Pentium3.
First Vehicle: Cycle.
First Job: Ad Typiest (anna sumbalamma tharala, amathitan.)
First Movie: Anjali, (I think).
First pet: Mani, street dog.
First shave: 1 year back.
7 Lasts:
Chai (tea): I don’t like tea.
Movie: Gajini.
I drove: 7 years back (cycle).
Shaved: last month.
Website visited: Visithra’s (to see the method of tag).
Software installed: Windows media player 10.
Pill I had: for cold.
6 Have you evers:
Broken the law: in my school days, (currently no).
Been drunk: no
Climbed a tree: no memory (nayabakam illai).
Kissed someone you didn’t know: change the question.
Been in the Middle/close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: when burst crackers on Diwali.
Broken anyone’s heart: my mom’s, (for not obeying her words sometime:(, not every time).
5 Things:
You can hear right now: a television sound.
On your computer table: Headphone, Magazine, Tamil-English dictionary and a floppy disk.
On your bed: pillow, Cell phone charger (my brother’s cell), and Kumutham (tamil magazine).
You ate today: sambar rice (lunch).
In mind: If I dint start this blog, will I be happy?
4 places you have been today:
Hall
Balcony
Bedroom
Bathroom
3 people you can tell anything to
Friends.
2 choices
Black or White: Black
Hot or cold: cold
1 thing you want to do before you die.
Want to do some thing for India, to become a Developed Nation.
I like to Tag Jo and Awakeningcoma
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Help Please
It has gone a month the Earthquake hit Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, but many people in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and J & K dint get any Relief. In Pakistan alone above 90,000 people have been died, thousands of people are injured and some are now also very series, what is the reason for very series, because they dint get proper medical treatment. They dint get any proper painkiller and medicine for infectious disease. In remote areas, people life was very pity. They have loss all there connection for the Global and live like an Island people. They dint get any food rightly, now there future is question?
The state Jammu and Kashmir is in India? I don’t know. I think, we all forget the People of J&K. And the people in Pakistan also our people, before our independence we all are Indians. Now our people are suffering in the Earthquake, they dint get proper relief. When the Earthquake attack Maharashtra in 1995 and Gujarat in 2000, when the Tsunami affect South India last year, we all give many relief to them, through Money, thinks clothes and food, Now the Quack attacked out J&K and Pakistan. What we people did for them? Nothing. This incident reminds me that we dint give much thing for our people.
When some incidents like Earthquacks, cyclones and Tsunami’s affect. The Satellite Channels and newspaper collect Relief funds and things, but now they also forget our people. Why we for get this incident? I am worried about our people, when they return to there normal life. I request all of you to help our people who are affected by earthquake, in Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan. Please.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
India will Vote on Nuclear deal in IAEA?
It is not just a race against time, but also a race over a hundred hurdles. Both India and the US would like to see the nuclear deal inked when George Bush comes to Delhi early next year, but the going seems to be tougher than anticipated. For once, it is not just the rhetorical left or the atomically small pacifist community who are crying foul, but even hawks in the far right.
The main problem is lack of clarity about the details of the deal. Even senior officials, including those who negotiated the July 18 joint statement, are giving their own spins to the deal, throwing both the strategic and the scientific communities into confusion
The problem started when the non-proliferation hawks in the US Congress pointed out that the US was changing its laws once and for all whereas India was only making an executive decision from which it could backtrack any time. The state department then tried to pacify the Congress, saying India would first separate its military programme from the civilian programme. These are preconditions [before we] actually present this agreement to the Congress, the state department spokesman said. But the Indian Parliament and public had been told that there would be no preconditions. The joint statement had mentioned that the process of identification of civil and military facilities would be in a phased manner. The US was now asking India to first execute the separation, submit the civil installations to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, and then ask the US to change its export control laws.
The Indian strategic community saw this as an act of arm-twisting. The trouble was that India, by filing its civil facilities before IAEA, would be making an international commitment, from which it could never go back. And still there was no guarantee that the US Congress would agree to change its export laws. As the criticism on the deal spread, Ambassador David Mulford did some firefighting. There is some misunderstanding on the eve of his departure for Washington to lobby for the deal with Congressmen. India [only] has to prepare a plan [of separation]. If the US [administration] finds the plan credible, it will take the legislation to the Congress. The actual separation and opening-up to IAEA will be required only after the US amends its laws.
Thus the who-does-what-first has been sorted out for now, but there are a lot more issues threatening to wreck the deal. For one, would India have the freedom to decide which facilities would be civil? A token separation will not be acceptable. "We can’t commit till they show the plan, which will be examined by US nuclear experts. There is total confusion on this. The July 18 joint statement had said that India would place its civilian facilities voluntarily under IAEA safeguards. This was interpreted to mean that India would decide which all facilities to be opened up. But US experts expect all our civilian facilities to be put under safeguards. Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran who, in a lecture at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said complicated the issue, I see no reason why India should not put all its civil nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.
The concern is that the US would not allow India to retain any major facility in the military list. The nuclear powers have placed only 11 centres [six of them in the US] under safeguards, pointed by national security advisers, whereas the Carnegie Endowment has already listed about 60 Indian facilities as civilian. So if the separation plan does not include a good number among the 60, the US is likely to call it a token separation. That would also mean, from the critics’ point of view, that India is not getting the same benefits and advantages as other such states, as promised in the July 18 statement. The five nuclear powers have the freedom to commit only a handful of there hundreds of nuclear facilities to IAEA, whereas, India would be opening the entire civil nuclear spectrum to inspection.
Another hurdle is about reversibility. The US view is that what we put under safeguards are forever, The US is allowed to sign an IAEA safeguards agreement on a list of civilian facilities of their choice, and the US government can withdraw any of these facilities from the list any time they wish. This option, the US has clarified, will not be given to India. Which means that the deal would tie the hands of any future Prime Minister. In case a hostile neighbour builds more bombs, India still would not have the freedom to acquire more plutonium to build more bombs, if all the civil facilities are put under safeguards.
Mulford, who is trying to salvage the deal, did not have much to offer here. The plan has to be shown to the Congress. Once these are put up under safeguards list that is permanent. Critics are also not happy with the commitment on no further testing. After the Pokharan tests of 1998, India declared a unilateral moratorium on testing. But by committing to continue, India’s unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing, India is now making it a multilateral commitment. This is seen as tantamount to restricting future governments from developing the arsenal in case need arises.
However, experts fears, If the moratorium is violated, even the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) can act against us. That means even the civil nuclear programme, which would be dependent on uranium supplies by the NSG, would go for a toss. Given the fact that India wants to develop 30,000 mw of energy from nuclear sources, this would send the economy into a tailspin. There is criticism even from the strategic far right. Defence analysis believes that the US has made India fall into a uranium economy trap. Since imported uranium will enter India’s nuclear fuel cycle at an early stage, all the facilities down the line will have to be put under safeguards. The US has wanted us to get into the uranium economy. If we get into plutonium economy, we are independent. Now with the deal, we are hampering the plutonium economy too. Experts believe that instead of trying to salvage the deal, India should let it collapse. Let the damn thing fail in the US Congress. That is our only hope.
Incidentally, here the left also agrees. Both the CPI (M) and the CPI have warned the government not to vote against Iran at the IAEA governing body meeting on November 24. If Manmohan Singh, to save his government, listens to the warning, an angry US Congress would refuse to legislate nuclear cooperation with India. Happy ending!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A small news : Miss Universe Natalie Gleboua will be in Chennai on November 25th. To participate in AIDS Awareness Program in Le ROYAL MERIDIEN, Chennai.
The main problem is lack of clarity about the details of the deal. Even senior officials, including those who negotiated the July 18 joint statement, are giving their own spins to the deal, throwing both the strategic and the scientific communities into confusion
The problem started when the non-proliferation hawks in the US Congress pointed out that the US was changing its laws once and for all whereas India was only making an executive decision from which it could backtrack any time. The state department then tried to pacify the Congress, saying India would first separate its military programme from the civilian programme. These are preconditions [before we] actually present this agreement to the Congress, the state department spokesman said. But the Indian Parliament and public had been told that there would be no preconditions. The joint statement had mentioned that the process of identification of civil and military facilities would be in a phased manner. The US was now asking India to first execute the separation, submit the civil installations to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, and then ask the US to change its export control laws.
The Indian strategic community saw this as an act of arm-twisting. The trouble was that India, by filing its civil facilities before IAEA, would be making an international commitment, from which it could never go back. And still there was no guarantee that the US Congress would agree to change its export laws. As the criticism on the deal spread, Ambassador David Mulford did some firefighting. There is some misunderstanding on the eve of his departure for Washington to lobby for the deal with Congressmen. India [only] has to prepare a plan [of separation]. If the US [administration] finds the plan credible, it will take the legislation to the Congress. The actual separation and opening-up to IAEA will be required only after the US amends its laws.
Thus the who-does-what-first has been sorted out for now, but there are a lot more issues threatening to wreck the deal. For one, would India have the freedom to decide which facilities would be civil? A token separation will not be acceptable. "We can’t commit till they show the plan, which will be examined by US nuclear experts. There is total confusion on this. The July 18 joint statement had said that India would place its civilian facilities voluntarily under IAEA safeguards. This was interpreted to mean that India would decide which all facilities to be opened up. But US experts expect all our civilian facilities to be put under safeguards. Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran who, in a lecture at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said complicated the issue, I see no reason why India should not put all its civil nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.
The concern is that the US would not allow India to retain any major facility in the military list. The nuclear powers have placed only 11 centres [six of them in the US] under safeguards, pointed by national security advisers, whereas the Carnegie Endowment has already listed about 60 Indian facilities as civilian. So if the separation plan does not include a good number among the 60, the US is likely to call it a token separation. That would also mean, from the critics’ point of view, that India is not getting the same benefits and advantages as other such states, as promised in the July 18 statement. The five nuclear powers have the freedom to commit only a handful of there hundreds of nuclear facilities to IAEA, whereas, India would be opening the entire civil nuclear spectrum to inspection.
Another hurdle is about reversibility. The US view is that what we put under safeguards are forever, The US is allowed to sign an IAEA safeguards agreement on a list of civilian facilities of their choice, and the US government can withdraw any of these facilities from the list any time they wish. This option, the US has clarified, will not be given to India. Which means that the deal would tie the hands of any future Prime Minister. In case a hostile neighbour builds more bombs, India still would not have the freedom to acquire more plutonium to build more bombs, if all the civil facilities are put under safeguards.
Mulford, who is trying to salvage the deal, did not have much to offer here. The plan has to be shown to the Congress. Once these are put up under safeguards list that is permanent. Critics are also not happy with the commitment on no further testing. After the Pokharan tests of 1998, India declared a unilateral moratorium on testing. But by committing to continue, India’s unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing, India is now making it a multilateral commitment. This is seen as tantamount to restricting future governments from developing the arsenal in case need arises.
However, experts fears, If the moratorium is violated, even the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) can act against us. That means even the civil nuclear programme, which would be dependent on uranium supplies by the NSG, would go for a toss. Given the fact that India wants to develop 30,000 mw of energy from nuclear sources, this would send the economy into a tailspin. There is criticism even from the strategic far right. Defence analysis believes that the US has made India fall into a uranium economy trap. Since imported uranium will enter India’s nuclear fuel cycle at an early stage, all the facilities down the line will have to be put under safeguards. The US has wanted us to get into the uranium economy. If we get into plutonium economy, we are independent. Now with the deal, we are hampering the plutonium economy too. Experts believe that instead of trying to salvage the deal, India should let it collapse. Let the damn thing fail in the US Congress. That is our only hope.
Incidentally, here the left also agrees. Both the CPI (M) and the CPI have warned the government not to vote against Iran at the IAEA governing body meeting on November 24. If Manmohan Singh, to save his government, listens to the warning, an angry US Congress would refuse to legislate nuclear cooperation with India. Happy ending!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A small news : Miss Universe Natalie Gleboua will be in Chennai on November 25th. To participate in AIDS Awareness Program in Le ROYAL MERIDIEN, Chennai.
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