Blog Topic #8

    From my Google Earth calculations, Russia is only 60 miles from the United States. Imagine that; it is almost like a drive from Seward to Omaha (If you can drive on water). I should note that Alaska is not part of mainland USA and the part of Russia that comes close to Alaska is Siberia, the less populated part of Russia. Not only is it close, but it is amazing to view Russia from the above viewpoint. You can see European Russia off to the right; China is also pretty evident on the left. Siberian Russia really needs to open up trade. It would be great if Alaska was more of a trading state, and we could help them out. It never really occurred to me that we are close to a country we used to consider a great enemy.

    The article, The Good and Bad News about Afghan Opium, is written by George Gavrilis and posted on the Council on Foreign Relation's website. Gavrilis discusses what things are being done to improve the opium situation in Afghanistan. The U.S. and Britain are pushing forward to eliminate many poppy fields and turning them to alternative crops. In 2009, twenty provinces no longer had poppy fields that produced opium. The writer also mentions the continuing negatives of poppy production. Twenty of Afghanistan's provinces no longer produce opium, but some of them are still heavily involved in trafficking it. The poppy free provinces do little to stand against the production of opium in the state. The Taliban greatly influences the production of opium. They hold between $3 and $4 billion of Afghanistan's opium production. With millions of dollars of opium income, they Taliban buys weapons and supplies. Although we are pursuing the elimination of poppy fields in Afghanistan, prevalent forces supporting opium still exist.
    This article taught me about  opium in Afghanistan which I really did not know much about. I always that the leading opium suppliers in the world were in the Golden Triangle area. However, it does make sense that Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium. The state is in a very mountainous area. They are not able to farm many crops. What else could they farm that would make as much money as opium? The Taliban would probably be most concerned with making money. They are a landlocked country. They need to produce cash crops if they want to trade for other necessities. They have pulled in large numbers selling opium. Why would they want to give that up? I do not think supplying drugs is right, but I can see why they are doing it. It is very understandable that they are the world leader in opium production.
  

Blog Topic #6

http://www.smh.com.au/world/chinas-security-apparatus-is-as-orwellian-as-ever-20101010-16dzm.html?from=smh_sb

The above link takes you to a news article about Liu Xiaobo, another topic restricted by the Great Firewall of China. Liu Xiaobo is currently serving a prison sentence in China. He is a human rights activist and was arrested for "inciting subversion of state power." On October 8th, 2010, Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Although being awarded the prize, he is still serving his term in prison. China did not want anyone to find out he had won it, so they immediately put blocks on the news on the day he won it.