Keep the Royalists off our public areas

In my hometown, the small Swedish town of Örebro, the royalists has decided that around 1.6 million Euro of the taxpayers money is best put to use by having a party for citizen CG Bernadotte in the middle of the town. In fact on the greatest plaza. However, the republicans has been retaliating by applying for a permission to demonstrate on the day when the royalists wants to have the party to celebrate that the Count of Pontecorvo became king 200 years ago. It will be interesting to see the development of this. According to my understanding the normal procedure is to give the permission to the first one who applies for it. It will be quite a good test on the principle of equality before the law.

My personal understanding is that it would be more appropriate to give the money to the descendant of the Count of Ponticorvo if he promise to abdicate and take his family with him and move to his buddy and best pal, the Sultan of Brunei. Citizen Bernadotte is well-known for admiring the way in which the Sultanate of Brunei is ruled. He pointed out, as he visited the Sultan, that the subject loved and admired their ruler.

This would be a good investment for the Swedish citizens. Then we would have a modern constitution where we either elect our president, instead of breeding the head of state like cattle, or allow the parliament to appoint him or her. Just look at our former eastern part, they have their president and they seem content with her.

Note: The photo at the top shows CG Bernadotte and his good friend and collegue King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who is particularly well-known for his understanding of the rights and obligations of women. One would assume that CG Bernadotte admires his collegue, as he was against a female heir to the throne.

The Effects of Russo-Mongolian Relations

This Friday 28 August, it was reported that the Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbergdorj and the Russian Federation President Dimitry Medvedev reached an agreement in the negotiations concerning cooperation in general and in nuclear energy in particular, called; Declaration on Developing a Strategic Partnership between Russia and Mongolia. Also signed was four more detailed protocols and memorandums of understanding, including; Intergovernmental Agreement Establishing Dornod Uranium Joint Company.

Note: The map shows Dornod Aimag, Mongolia, and the location of the Dornod Uranium Deposit, presently operated by Khan Resources Inc. Toronto, Canada.

The uranium agreement was signed by the Mongolian Chief of Nuclear Energy Commission, Sodnom Enkhbat and the Head of Rosatom Russian Nuclear Energy State Corporation, Sergey Kiriyenko, in the presence of the two state leaders. Mr. Kiriyenko said:

We understand that Mongolia will cooperate not only with us. Russia will be the first. This is an important political signal.

This seems to be the conclusion of a series of events that started with the election of Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj as Mongolian President in May 2009. The Dornod uranium deposit has been owned as a joint venture called Central Asia Uranium Cooperation Ltd (CAUC), by the Canadian Khan Resources Inc., owning 58 percent, the Mongolian state firm MonAtom, 21 percent, and Rosatom’s mining section, AtomRedMedZoloto, 21 percent.

Note: The Dornod Uranium Deposit site, in Dornod Aimag, Mongolia.

On July 15 Khan Resources Inc. was informed that its mining license 237A had been temporary suspended, by the Mineral Resources Authority of Mongolia (MRAM). The reasons behind the temporary suspension was based in an inspection made by the MRAM in mid April 2009, which claimed to have found contradictions and violations of the agreement on which the joint venture was based. Khan Resources claimed that they were not informed of nature of these complaints.

July 17 2009 the Mongolian Great Khural passed a piece of legislation called Nuclear Energy Law, and Khan Resources Inc. expressed, a couple of days later, concerns about the transparency of the legislation process, based merely on the fact that the company neither was informed of the contents of the law or asked of their opinion. Khan Resources said it had received reports on plans made by the Mongolian authorities intended to change the relation of the shares of the joint venture CAUC, between Khan, MonAtom and Rosatom. Their assumption was that this operation would not be to the advantage of Khan Resources Inc.

These suspicions grew out of statements made by Elbegdorj during his President election campaign. Furthermore, the Nuclear Energy Law stated that the Mongolian state, or its state-owned firm had the right to own 51 percent of any strategic uranium deposit. Strictly implemented this Law would of course totally change the relations within the joint venture and efficiently make MonAtom and Rosatom together owning about 72 percent. Thus, it would mean a loss of 30 percent of its total share in the joint venture. Suddenly Khan Resources Inc. is degraded from majority owner, into a less qualified minority position.

The Russian Federation President Dimitry Medvedev expressed more hapiness as he announced:

… the appearance of some entirely new projects. They relate to developing Mongolia’s transport network and the document we just signed on the mining, exploration, and processing of uranium ore deposits. These are prime examples of new projects, ones that I hope will be effective and beneficial to our nations.

The Mongolian Nuclear Energy Law went into force on August 15 and the signing of the Agreement of the Joint Uranium Company occurred on August 25, 2009. As we can see, it seems as Mongolia’s new President Elbegdorj is operating at great speed these days, and it seems as these operations are in harmony with the opinions occurring in the Great Khural. After all, the Nuclear Energy Law was approved by the MPRP dominated Great Khural, and the President did not veto the Law. A bonus of these developments seems to be improved relations with the Russian Federation. Last, the information I have does not say anything about the Rosatom share in the joint venture, and I have assumed that it has not been changed. But that is just an assumption.

Sources: UB Post August 28, 2009; Khan Resources Inc. July 15 and 22, 2009.

Who cares?

Today's first pic shows the Swedish austronaut Christer Fuglesang in his full space gear. Not long ago Fuglesang expressed his ideas about technologial and political development.

What is the reason behind the existence of technologists and economists? In their models they tend to think about and address the rest of the world as ceteris paribus (everything else equal). This means in reality that the rest of the World (that is for instance us, their fellow beings and the environment) is outside their models and does not have to be taken into account.

Nice! Take economists and their understanding of growth: It can only occur based on two circumstances; either you engage more consumers or you make the existing consumers to consume more. The mere increase in quantity then produce the growth of an economy. Logically speaking that means that in the end we will run out of resources, sooner or later.

In comes a technologist or even worse a technoeconomist, and claims that the resources are endless as we easily can acquire them from space. This is the reason behind why we are supposed to spend billions and billions on space flights and research.

The great problem, however, is that we do not have the technology to reach those resources yet. In fact, that kind of technology seems to be remotely distant in its realization. So the big question is where do we stand today as the Swedish austronaut Christer Fuglesvang claims that Sweden and Europe should increase their efforts and investment into space. In reality the technologists and their political proponents might have tricked us so far into believing on space exploration as some kind of religion.

So why should it be interpretaded as a religion? The answer to that is simple: We need to believe in the future. That means that we have to expand the horizon of the possible future. With endless resources and an economy and supporting technology there are in fact no limits of growth.

This kind of future image has already been presented: It was called Star Treak and it had a wonderful technological invention; the replicator, which allowed you to wish for whatever you wanted and immediately it was produced. This effectiviely eliminated the scarcity of resources and the need of a monetary economy: in fact a kind of paradise.

The problem we face, however, is that we are far from achieving that kind of technology, interstellar spaceflights and so on, while the functioning of the neoliberal economy are driving us towards what Thomas Malthus named as overpopulation and lack of possibility to feed that population. The dilemma is as easy to grasp as it was in Malthus' days. Later economists has claimed that Malthus was wrong simply because he underestimated the possibilities of techological development and the following increase agricultural production.

In the 1960s an often ridiculed book was published; "Limits to Growth" was its name. Maybe the authors only were wrong because they got the timing wrong. A Japanese scientist did an interesting experiment in the beginning of the 1990s. He made a computer-simulation of the combined effect of ozone depletion and climate change on the 200 most important plants for food production. He estimated the World was risking to loose about one fifth of its agricultural areas and that we were facing decreasing amounts of agricultural produce. The eefects would materialize around the 2025, according to the simulation model.

So the really big question becomes; where do we put our money at the best possible use; i) in space exploration, for religious (economic) reasons; or ii) into dealing with the possibilities to handle crisis triggered by a life-style that is threatening life, as we know it, on this planet. Some scientists claim that the problem today is that we live as if we had around four or five planets, while in fact we are stuck with this one...

So why do economists and technologists exists? Why do we need them?

Today's second pic shows Star Fleet Captain Janeway looking into the replicator while some liquid in a glass is produced. I would guess it is some kind of tea...

Invasion av gråsparvar

Dagens besök på det alltid välförsedda COOP Forum i Jönköping ledde till nya kunskaper. Plötsligt korsades min väg av några gråsparvar som rätt oblygt försåg sig med vad det rika varuhuset erbjuder. En av dem verkade mest intresserad av risutbudet, trots att det ska vara farligt för småfåglar. Gråsparvsamhällets Sverker kanske inte är så framåt och informativ som vår.

Trevligt såg det ut i alla fall. Fågelguiden lär oss gråsparven ofta och gärna häckar i människans närhet och att vi därför, felaktigt, uppfattar den som den vanligaste fågeln. Gråsparven är lokaltrogen och ger sig inte i väg till utlandet. Den är en social fågel som gillar att vara i grupp även under häckningen (vad nu det kan betyda). Utmärkande är att den sitter med hukad hållning, med indragna ben när den sitter och så att den är arbetsam och ovig (hmmm?). Den är ljudlig allt från enkla tjirpanden till rent tjatter, allt efter humör. Till dessa kännetecken kan vi nu lägga att den tycks föredra COOP Forums varuutbud. De fåglar jag observerade såg nöjda ut. Låt vara att en av dem verkade irriterad över att bli fotograferad.

På det hela taget verkade gråsparvarna på COOP Forum ganska skärpta. I en helt annan division än CG Bernadotte då han dristade sig till att föra stekta sparvar på tal.

För övrigt anser jag att monarkin ska avskaffas omedelbart.

Back on the Chain Gang

Så var man tillbaka på arbetet efter den stundtals långa och sköna semestern. På dagens bild är jag fortfarande på semester och njuter av vädret på vår balkong i Vällingby. Gyllene glänser den goda ölen i solgasset och som sig bör är den tillverkad i Belgien.

Så till den brutala vardagen och dess omilda överraskningar. I min Jönköpingslägenhet har vattnet och avloppen stängts av. Plötsligt inser man hur beroende man är av att allting fungerar. I måndags hann jag duscha och sköta allting innan hantverkarna kom och stängde av vatten och avlopp. Sedan är det ju en annan femma att resten av dagen blev en rent teknologisk katastrof där i stort sett inget fungerade.

Tisdagen förlöpte utan större missöden och jag började tänka att det här går nog rätt så smärtfritt. Jag hade funderat ut att på onsdagen skulle jag springa på morgonen och sedan åka upp till det närliggande Rosenlundsbadet och simma och duscha. Löpningen gick väldigt bra och direkt därefter kastade jag mig på cykeln och trampade mot badet. I min föreställningsvärld öppnar alla sådana här bad antingen 6.00, 6.30 eller 7.00. Så icke Rosenlundsbadet. Vid min ankomst möts jag av en brutalt formulerad papperlapp som omtalar att under juni-augusti öppnar badet kl. 11.00.

Katastrof! tänker jag. Men utarbetar en reservplan och riktar in cykeln mot min kompuis Peters lägenhet. Peter har dock hunnit smita iväg till jobbet eftersom klockan hunnit bli 7.38.

Nu sker utarbetning av reservplan C. Reservplan C innebär att uppsöka arbetsplatsens toalett och försöka få bort det mesta av svettlukten, raka sig och borsta tänderna...

Bedrövad, tänker jag: Varför måste alltid Murphys första lag var tillämplig på mig?

"- If anything can go wrong, it will!"

Ständigt denne Murphy! Vem var han och varför fanns han? Var han bror med Jante?

Sådana frågor stör min sinnesjämvikt och jag ser fram mot nästa vecka och hoppas att inte Murphy formar oxå den åt mig...