Uganda has held a presidential election amid accusations of vote rigging and intimidation. Two main candidates in the race are sitting president Yoweri Museveni and Kizza Besigye. Museveni has held power for 30 years and it looks as if he will continue to do so. He is currently 71 years old. Besigye has challenged the president before, unsuccessfully. During the past week he has been arrested three times. The latest arrest occurred during the voting procedure when he and members of his party were about to announce some preliminary election results. Police denied that they had arrested Besigye, but that they had only taken him home. However the news service, All Africa, is reporting that not only Besigye but three other ranking party officials have been taken to an unknown location by police. They dispersed his supporters outside the party headquarters by firing stun grenades and tear gas. Access to the area has been cut off. The third candidate, Amama Mbabazi, was not expected to garner more that 2% of the votes was also under house arrest. Organization for the elections seemed lacking as voters were forced to queue for hours to mark their ballots. Others had to wait until the next day as ballots were in short supply. The delays helped fuel conspiracy theories. The capital city Kampala was one of the areas where voting was delayed. It is also the centre of support for Besigye and his party. The ruling party’s zeal to control the elections backfired when they shut down the social media system temporarily for “security reasons”. The US ambassador to Uganda expressed her disapproval of the shut down on her twitter account. The US and Uganda maintain friendly relations. They are united in their stance against terrorism, but since 2014 have differed on Uganda’s harsh pronouncements against homosexuality. The US president declined to fund and participate in a joint military exercise. President Museveni called the action “blackmail”. Sources: Reuters All Africa Wikipedia
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If you needed another reason to get the kids off the couch and outside, this is it. The rates of near sightedness are reaching epidemic proportions and poised to get worse. About 90% of youngsters in East Asia have blurry distance vision. S. Korea has even higher rates. While glasses can help most youngsters, some children will suffer serious vision problems – cataracts, glaucoma, retinal detachment and blindness. Blindness is expected to hit about 10% of those with myopia. The US and Europe rates are better but still worrisome. The rates are getting worse and getting worse quickly. Evidence is starting to accrue that the modern life style is accelerating these changes. Children spend increasingly long periods inside buildings. Evidence is mounting that points to the sunshine that children are exposed to affects the growth of the eyeball, keeping it closer to the ideal shape. Bright indoor lighting just isn’t strong enough to accomplish this. Researchers in Singapore have run some promising experiments with atropine eye drops. Low doses of the medication seem to help slow the development of myopia. Currently about 1.45 billion have myopia. By 2050 over 4 billion are expected to have the condition. Aside from the human suffering, the loss of productivity and cost of looking after failing eyesight is expected to continue to increase. According to WHO figures for 2007, the cost of lost production world-wide was $US 268.8 billion. There is no convincing evidence that close work damages the eyesight. It is the lack of bright sunshine that seems to cause the problem. Sources: Nature Sidney Morning Herald WHO In what looks like a deliberate provocation shortly after the elections in Taiwan which saw the PRC’s pushing for reunification robustly rebuffed, China has placed numerous surface to air missiles on the beaches of Woody Island. The island is a disputed piece of territory claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan. Currently the island is occupied by China. It is part of a chain of disputed islands in the South China Sea. Depending on which country is referring to the area, the chain is called the Paracel Islands, Xisha by China or Hoang Sa by Vietnam. Satellite photos showing the deployment are just the latest issue to ramp up tensions in the region. China claims complete ownership of the shallow sea but that claim is disputed by six of its neighbours. The US is reviving its military presence in the Philippines, one of the claimants. Today Vietnam has requested help in its claim. In addition to the revelation about the missiles, new photos show an expansion of island building by the Chinese. Massive dredging operations have created islands where reefs once existed and satellite images show military installations. The latest information shows two more island building projects. Currently an estimated 1 200 ha(3 000 acres) have been added. China is pushing its claim to the area by attempting to restrict air and sea transportation through the area. The US has flown over the disputed area. In the last six months the US has also sailed two naval ships through the disputed area. The S. China is believed to have large supplies of untapped petroleum products. It supports an important fishery. It is one of the busiest trade routes, accounting for approximately 30% of the world’s shipping. The cargoes are worth over US$5 trillion each year. Sources: CNN Strait Times It’s starting to look as if heading the Russian anti-doping agency, Rusada, is a very dangerous job. The man who headed the agency until his resignation in December 2015 is now dead of an apparent heart attack. Nikita Kamayev is reported to have been out cross-country skiing, returned home and complained of pain. He died. The spokesperson for Rusada said in a statement to the press that Kamayev had not been ill and had not complained about heart troubles. Kamayev resigned from his post late last year as scandal broke out around doping issues. The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) alleged that widespread doping of Russian athletes was occurring. The IAAF subsequently suspended Russian athletes from international competition. Kamayev’s death follows closely upon that of Vyaacheslav Sinev who headed the Russian anti-doping agency prior to Kamayev. Sinev died on February 3, 2016. No cause of death has been reported. The damning WADA report accused Russian state sponsored and promoted the use of performance enhancing substances. They allege that bribes were paid and that a former head of the IAAF conspired with President Putin to improperly resolve doping issues. The IAAF has now published the names of Russian athletes who are banned from international competition. The list includes over 4000 names. Some medals won by fellow athletes as far back as 2001 are now tainted. This has put the participation of Russia’s athletes in the 2010 Olympics in jeopardy. Aside from the humiliation of accusations of state sponsored cheating, President Putin is likely to be reliving his disappointment in 1984 when he was set to compete in the Olympics in judo. It’s not just track and field athletes that are getting caught at cheating. The professional cycling world is constantly catching cheats. Tiny assist motors are one of the ways cheating may be happening. Doping of athletes is more commonplace. Russian cycling team Katusha has had a rider suspended for failing his drug test. Cheating is not limited to Russian athletes. Kenyan athletes are currently on a watch list. There are 18 suspended athletes at this time. Winners of international sports competitions can count on lucrative spin offs from their victories. Sources: The Guardian Tass Velo News An aging nuclear power station in New York State is leaking radioactivity. Currently there is a leak of radioactive “heavy water”. Tritium is leaking into nearby ground water. Health authorities are monitoring nearby wells and have pronounced that the levels of radioactivity are safe and unlikely to be harmful. The Indian Point facility is located 40 km(25 miles) from New York City. It is an aging plant that is currently operating on special permits as it has passed its “best before” dates. Entergy Corporation which operates the two reactors has called for an extension of twenty years operating time. If granted Indian Point would have a lifetime of 60 years. Governor Cuomo called for the plant to be shut down. Last year he stated in the NY Times that it was too dangerous to have a nuclear power station so close to densely populated areas. In May 2015 a transformer fire leaked oil into the ground water and into the Hudson River. No reported radioactivity was released at that time. No source of energy is absolutely safe. Interest in nuclear power is being revived as a way to curb carbon dioxide emissions, yet many of the caveats are still valid. If the power plant is too dangerous to be near the people who use the electricity, then where should it be located? Shouldn’t those who benefit the most accept most of the risk? There are currently six nuclear power facilities operating in NY State. Many people lost their faith in the safety of nuclear power in 1979 when a plant in Pennsylvania suffered a partial core meltdown. The Three Mile Island incident was the worst nuclear accident in US history. The cascade of events began with a simple stuck valve and some human errors. Chernobyl started with human errors. Fukushima started with damage from earthquake action and was made worse by human errors. We know that there is no place outside of the environment. Sources: New York Times RT Indian Point Energy Center Wikipedia |
Barbara McPherson
Blogger, gardener, farmer. Working toward food security and a 30 foot
diet. Addicted to reading. Love this planet, especially my little corner
on Vancouver Island, Canada Archives
October 2016
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