US Presidential election ... be careful what you wish for ...

How important to the rest of the world is this US Presidential election?

As I read this NZ Herald story online, the TV is on downstairs and we here in Australia have blanket live coverage of the US Presidential election results on four of the five free to air channels.

Tracey Barnett : Obama's dream will seal the deal - 05 Nov 2008 - NZ Herald: Opinion

I have been waiting for eight long, dark years to be able to write a column that can talk about what's right with America instead of what's wrong with America.

I need to wake up tomorrow morning and hear that the United States has chosen to create a better history.

Under the disastrous administration of George W. Bush, America has become a nation I can hardly recognise.  ...

The truth is, I am afraid. I am afraid to put so much hope in just one man. Since the day Barack Obama won the primary in Iowa, my secret threefold prayer has been: let him get the nomination, don't let him get shot and don't let him become Jimmy Carter once he's in office.

If an Obama presidency is smothered by the mess he will inherit (and the presidency could well be for whomever takes office next) at least he will have given us something America desperately craves today - the possibility of renewal. I believe they call that hope.

Well Tracey, I think that's how many of us outside the US are feeling too, and ... it's sounding like a landslide, with unprecedented turnouts at the polls, and punishment of the incumbent Republican administration; Republican state governors are losing en masse, the US House of Reps and Senate are both already shaping up as overwhelmingly Democrat dominated houses.

And therein lies the rub. So much hope, so much promise. Now they're going to have no-one to shift blame to.

Hit the ground running people, and fasten your seat belts folks - it's going to be an exciting ride!

$1 a day to save the planet!

Kevin Rudd's emissions trading scheme: $1 a day to save planet

theaustralian.com.au. Lenore Taylor, National correspondent | October 31, 2008

THE Rudd Government has moved to ease fears about the impact of its emissions trading scheme, releasing Treasury modelling showing the scheme is affordable, with households paying up to $7 a week more for electricity and gas, and no industries forced offshore.

>> Full story

Rudd Government launches Australia's Low Pollution Future - The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation >>Press Release  (links to PDF documents only.)

Apparently, we're not going to reduce greenhouse gases, we're going to reduce carbon emissions.  The methane and nitrous oxide* emissions can look after themselves.

(*No wonder we're all acting as silly as drunk ducks ready for the Christmas dinner chop.)

And you'd think with all the talk of emission trading schemes and the imperative to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, that a story about an electric car network for Australia - well, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, would get a bit more traction.

Plan for electric car network

theage.com.au, Mex Cooper, October 23, 2008

Australia will become the third country in the world to have an electric car network in a bid to run the country's 15 million cars on batteries powered by green energy under a plan announced today.

Thanks to Kwoff for the heads up on the electric car.

AIM Emissions Trading Scheme Survey  1st July 2008

The Australian business sector is largely unprepared for the introduction of the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme according to the findings of a new survey of top level executives conducted by the Australian Institute of Management.

Only 36 per cent of those surveyed were aware the Australian Government’s emissions trading scheme, the centrepiece of the nation’s greenhouse reduction efforts is to commence in 2010.

Dalai Lama losing faith on talks with China.

It's a sad day when the Dalai Lama has doubts that his approach can work.

Australia Tibet Council - Dalai Lama Signals Strategy Shift With China

In an unusually strong statement, the Dalai Lama made clear he has doubts that his existing conciliatory approach towards the Chinese government can work. The Tibetan leader, however, added that his “middle-way” approach has received support from increasing numbers of Chinese scholars and said he still holds faith in the Chinese people and has not given up on efforts to convince them. Several international media outlets misquoted the Dalai Lama as having said he’d “given up” on pressing the Chinese government on Tibet’s future.

Full story - Australia Tibet Council - Dalai Lama Signals Strategy Shift With China

Congratulations India!

October 21, 2008 will go down in the history books as a Red letter Day for India.

1. Indian Moon Launch

India Launches Unmanned Orbiter to Moon - NYTimes.com

By SOMINI SENGUPTA, Published: October 21, 2008

NEW DELHI — India launched its first unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon early Wednesday, part of an effort to assert its power in space and claim some of the business opportunities there.

The Indian mission is scheduled to last two years, prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for nuclear power plants, according to the Indian Space Research Organization.

>> Full Story

2. Beats Australia at Cricket!

Zaheer inspires India to inflict heavy defeat on Australia

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday October 21 2008 09.46 BST

India (469 and 314-3) beat Australia (268 and 195) by 320 runs!

"I've never seen anything like that," said India's stand-in skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni when asked about Australia's performance. "Especially at one time in the first innings, they were 22 from 13 overs. I said to Rahul Dravid, 'look at the board, we won't see that again.'

>> Full Story

3. Reopens Kashmir border crossing with Pakistan closed since 1947!

India, Pakistan open trade route across Kashmir

San Jose Mercury News, USA.

The Associated Press: Article Launched: 10/21/2008 05:54:29 AM PDT


SALAMABAD, India—Trucks laden with fruit, honey, garments and spices crossed the heavily armed frontier in the Himalayan region of Kashmir on Tuesday as India and Pakistan opened a trade route between the two sides of the divided region for the first time in six decades. "I was 12 years old when I last saw baskets of fruits being packed to be sent to Rawalpindi," said Haji Abdul Ahad Bhat, a 74-year-old apple farmer from the Indian side, referring to a Pakistani city near the capital, Islamabad.

>> Full Story


DW-World: Asia News 21 October 2008 15.30 UTC >> Cite

India and Pakistan have started bilateral trade in the divided region of Kashmir for the first time in six decades.

A convoy of 13 trucks carrying mostly fruit left for Pakistani-administered Kashmir from the Indian-zone on Tuesday, while 14 trucks packed with Pakistani fruit made the journey in the opposite direction.

Calling it a historic event, the governor of Indian–administered Kashmir, N.N. Vohra said the move would help boost the economy in both parts of Kashmir. For his part, Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, the premier of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said that he hoped the event would assist in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

The two South Asian rivals, which both claim Kashmir in full, have fought two wars over the territory since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

You See? Sometimes the news is good, we just have to be paying attention.