WorldLife
Saudi Oil Production and Reserves - Reasons Behind Wikileaks Concerns The UK Guardian published an article yesterday titled WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices, talking about the possibility that as soon as 2012, world oil production may begin to decline because of "peak oil". Saudi Arabia may not be able to raise production as much as claimed, and its reserves may be overstated by 40%. Leanan has put together a post with more about the cables. The Wikileak cables can be found here or here. In this post, we provide a few graphs, plus some links to (and excerpts from) prior posts by Oil Drum staff members about Saudi Arabia's true situation. Saudi Arabia tells us that they have lots of oil, but if we look at graphs of their historical production, there is nothing that looks like an upward trend. In fact, recent production is lower than it was in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This is a graph of Saudi oil production, consumption, and amount of net exports, from Energy Exports Databrowser. Exports, in green, are down because Saudi Arabia is consuming more and more of its own oil, so there is less available for others. This graph doesn't fit well with what we have been told.
The Fix is Off Protest is sweeping through the Arab world. One corrupt and repressive regime, in Tunisia, has already been toppled, and now Hosni Mubarak Washington's man in Egypt, has been forced to deploy the army in an attempt to quell violent protests that have set the ruling party headquarters ablaze. Egypt, which is home to half of the world's Arabs, is the fulcrum on which the Arab world turns. What happens now in Egypt is bound to resonate throughout the Middle East and beyond. Are we about to see something similar to the heady days of 1989, when Eastern Europe cast off Moscow's yoke? Is the Middle East going to turn out to be Washington's Eastern Europe? Will Wikileaks turn out to be Washington's equivalent of Gorbachev's Glasnost, cutting right through all the empty rhetoric about freedom and democracy, and showing the imperial regime to be repressive, craven, corrupt, foolish, weak and, ultimately, self-defeating? American leaders appear to be following the Soviet playbook for the imperial end-game quite faithfully: cringing behind high walls and locked doors, looting the treasury like there's no tomorrow, and, of course, lying their heads off. There are a few moments each century when status quo suddenly becomes status quo ante. We may be living through just such a moment now.
Bank of England chief Mervyn King: standard of living to plunge at fastest rate since 1920s Households face the most dramatic squeeze in living standards since the 1920s, the Governor of the Bank of England warned, as he reacted to the shock disclosure that the economy was shrinking again. Families will see their disposable income eaten up as they “pay the inevitable price” for the financial crisis, Mervyn King warned. With wages failing to keep pace with rising inflation, workers’ take- home pay will end the year worth the same as in 2005 — the most prolonged fall in living standards for more than 80 years, he claimed. Mr King issued the warning in a speech in Newcastle upon Tyne after official figures showed that gross domestic product fell by 0.5 per cent during the final three months last year. The Government blamed the unexpected reduction — the first since the third quarter of 2009 — on the freezing weather that paralysed much of the country last month. But there were fears that the country was poised to slip back into recession, defined as two successive quarters of negative growth. Economists said the situation was “an absolute disaster”. The economic gloom deepened this morning as figures showed that mortgage lending by the major banks dived to an 11-and-a-half-year low during December. Net lending, which strips out redemptions and repayments, fell to ?880 million during the month, the lowest level since June 1999, according to the British Bankers' Association. Labour has accused ministers of jeopardising recovery by pushing ahead with public spending cuts too quickly. Mr King said he was unable to offer any imminent hope of a rise in interest rates in coming months because of the poor economic outlook. Savers and “those who behaved prudently” would be among the…
Egypt shuts down the internet on eve of protest as the world community gathers Issandr El-Amrani reports that the internet has been shut down in Egypt as of 1 in the morning before the big demo. And not long after a horrifying AP video went up of a man being shot (above), and of shotgun shells in the streets. Where is Obama? Mohammed El-Baradei in that video: "The right of peaceful demonstration is an absolute right of every human being. I wish that we didn't have to go to the streets to impress on the regime that it has to change." Just caught Joe Biden on PBS News Hour squirming about Egypt, rejecting the analogy to eastern Europe, and urging "dialogue." As if Mubarak will give up power that way. How can you help the Egyptian people?? Go to this campaign by Access to preserve internet access for the brave and inspiring voices in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez. There you can donate bandwidth on your site and donate a few dollars (why not 10 each?) "to help keep the protest movement alive by contributing funds for the urgent setup of servers that will help people reach blocked sites like Twitter. 100% of your donation will go to supporting those behind the firewall. Help us by clicking here." There's also a petition at the site. More Egypt: Here's an organizing guide to "How to Rise Up," apparently for the big demo that will start after prayers Friday. Note the recommended outfit, page 10, hoodie, sneakers, potlid for shield, aerosol can for self-defense (think what the Israelis would do if you whipped out an aerosol can?) and flowers for a silent vigil the organizers seem to be planning. Also from El-Amrani: an account from a college professor of being stomped and…
Opinion: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell The city was strange and the society unnerving, but what disturbed me the most about my experience in Dubai was my job as a business consultant. By Keith Yost STAFF COLUMNIST April 9, 2010 The city was strange and the society was unnerving, but what disturbed me most about my Dubai experience was my job as a business consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. I really had no idea what to expect, going in. In my mind, consulting was about answering business questions through analysis. It was supposed to be Excel sheets and models, sifting through data to discover profit and loss, and helping clients make decisions that would add the most value for themselves, and by extension, society. It was worrisome to enter a new job without any guarantee that I would be qualified. I assumed BCG would train me, and that as it had been with MIT, intelligence and hard work would prove sufficient. Still, I wondered what I would do if for some reason it turned out that I couldn’t get my head around the analysis? In hindsight, analytical skills should have been the least of my worries. Stretching reality The first clue that my mental picture of consulting was off came with “training” in Munich. I expected instruction in Excel programming, data analysis, and business theory. Instead, Munich turned out to be little more than a week long social outing with other recently matriculated consultants and analysts within the BCG’s European branches. We donned name tags, shook hands, and drank often. Classes were fluffy, and mostly consisted of discussion of high-level, almost philosophical topics. I got along well — as both an American and a member of the Dubai office, I was doubly foreign and therefore…
McDonald's Germany Accused of 'Harassment and Pure Manipulation' By John Goetz, Andreas Wassermann and Peter Wensierski DDP An informant to the former East German secret police held a management position at McDonald's for years. The man with Stasi ties is believed to have spied on a restaurant operator. Were managers at the fast-food chain looking for ways to terminate contracts with franchisees without having to pay them? There's a hint of the smell of deep-frying fat in front of the McDonald's restaurants, even though such odors are not supposed to be detectable. "It's the filters," says Ulrich Enzinger, "it's time to change them again." The odor isn't very strong, but 49-year-old Enzinger has a keen sense of smell, honed by 18 years of experience at McDonald's. // // One of his restaurants was in Lindau, a town on Lake Constance in southwestern Germany, in a prime location adjacent to the on-ramp for the autobahn to Munich. Unnerved, he gave up the business a year ago. The restaurant is busy on this Monday morning, as Enzinger parks his car in one of the few empty spaces, locks the door and walks toward the entrance. Suddenly a dark sedan pulls up next to him, the passenger window opens and a voice says: "You are barred from the premises. Please leave." The incident is reported to McDonald's German headquarters in Munich on the same day. More trouble with the franchisees -- a common problem for executives at McDonald's Germany these days. Many of the company's franchise operators are at odds with management. They feel that they are being spied on and put under pressure or, as Munich attorney Horst Becker puts it, "systematically forced out." In the last few years, Becker alone has represented two dozen McDonald's franchisees. A Market Shakeout The list…
Hat in hand, U.S. turns to India to create jobs Officials put aside anger over outsourcing to woo any company that’s hiring Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is quick to admit that he doesn't "particularly enjoy heights." So why would he climb into a cherry picker to be lifted 40 feet in the air? To show off a 196,000-square-foot office park in the Cincinnati suburb of Milford to executives from Tata Consultancy Services, India's biggest tech company and a thriving part of the Tata Group conglomerate. To sweeten the deal, Strickland threw in $19 million in tax credits and invited the TCS crew to a state dinner at the governor's mansion. "The economy is difficult," Strickland says. "I will go wherever I can to find jobs." TCS said yes, and in November Strickland showed up at the sprawling wooded campus for a ceremony to mark the hiring of the 300th employee at what has become the cornerstone for TCS's North American efforts. Tata has hired some 250 graduates of Ohio State University, the University of Cincinnati, and other nearby schools. Soon the facility may employ as many as 1,000 Americans doing back-office and technology outsourcing for U.S. health-care companies and local governments. With the economy growing again — but unemployment stuck at double-digit levels — states and municipalities across the U.S. are scrambling to woo anyone with hiring plans — even if that means going, hat in hand, to the same bunch that have been responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs going overseas. Local talent offers advantagesDallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Tallahassee have all been actively courting Indian tech outfits. Wipro Technologies in March inaugurated a center in Atlanta, which now has 350 employees — nearly 300 of them Americans, including senior managers recruited from U.S. tech rivals. Infosys Technologies, meanwhile,…
Therapists Report Increase in Green Disputes Gordon Fleming is, by his own account, an environmentally sensitive guy. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Ann Johansson for The New York Times Gordon Fleming says his girlfriend, Shelly Cobb, is in a “high-priestess phase” of environmentalism, which includes raising chickens at their home in Santa Barbara, Calif. Enlarge This Image Ann Johansson for The New York Times Shelly Cobb is working to follow the permaculture approach in her garden. He bikes 12 1/2 miles to and from his job at a software company outside Santa Barbara, Calif. He recycles as much as possible and takes reusable bags to the grocery store. Still, his girlfriend, Shelly Cobb, feels he has not gone far enough. Ms. Cobb chides him for running the water too long while he shaves or showers. And she finds it “depressing,” she tells him, that he continues to buy a steady stream of items online when her aim is for them to lead a less materialistic life. Mr. Fleming, who says he became committed to Ms. Cobb “before her high-priestess phase,” describes their conflicts as good-natured — mostly. But he refuses to go out to eat sushi with her anymore, he said, because he cannot stand to hear her quiz the waiters. “None of it is sustainable or local,” he said, “and I am not eating cod or rockfish.” As awareness of environmental concerns has grown, therapists say they are seeing a rise in bickering between couples and family members over the extent to which they should change their lives to save the planet. In households across the country, green lines are being drawn between those who insist on wild salmon and those who buy farmed, those who calculate their carbon footprint and those who remain indifferent to greenhouse…
Moscow’s stray dogs By Susanne Sternthal Published: January 16 2010 00:04 | Last updated: January 16 2010 00:04 // 0){if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length>= paraNum){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[paraNum]);}else {if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length == 3){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[2]);}else {nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[0]);}}}}]]> Russians can go nutty when it comes to dogs. Consider the incident a few years ago that involved Yulia Romanova, a 22-year-old model. On a winter evening, Romanova was returning with her beloved Staffordshire terrier from a visit to a designer who specialises in kitting out canine Muscovites in the latest fashions. The terrier was sporting a new green camouflage jacket as he walked with his owner through the crowded Mendeleyevskaya metro station. There they encountered Malchik, a black stray who had made the station his home, guarding it against drunks and other dogs. Malchik barked at the pair, defending his territory. But instead of walking away, Romanova reached into her pink rucksack, pulled out a kitchen knife and, in front of rush-hour commuters, stabbed Malchik to death. The statue of Malchik erected by well-wishers after his death Romanova was arrested, tried and underwent a year of psychiatric treatment. Typically for Russia, this horror story was countered by a wellspring of sympathy for Moscow’s strays. A bronze statue of Malchik, paid for by donations, now stands at the entrance of Mendeleyevskaya station. It has become a symbol for the 35,000 stray dogs that roam Russia’s capital – about 84 dogs per square mile. You see them everywhere. They lie around in the courtyards of apartment complexes, wander near markets and kiosks, and sleep inside metro stations and pedestrian passageways. You can hear them barking and howling at night. And the strays on Moscow’s streets do not look anything like the purebreds preferred by status-conscious Muscovites. They look like a breed apart. I moved to Moscow with my family last year and was startled…
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