An interesting outcome of the rising oil cost is the possible curbing of manufacturing globalization.
If at one point in time a company might consider producing parts in one country shipping them to another country and selling in an third - Today’s high oil prices are prohibiting this kind of manufacturing.
Andrew quoted Larry Rohter saying

Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages. Rising concern about global warming, the reaction against lost jobs in rich countries, worries about food safety and security, and the collapse of world trade talks in Geneva last week also signal that political and environmental concerns may make the calculus of globalization far more complex.

Andrew points out that that the breakdown of trade talks implies that countries are thinking local.
This is a good thing, on one hand, but could be problematic when trying to deal with greenhouse gas emissions, that would need attempts at a global level if it was going to go anywhere.
Without the benefits of trade agreements countries might be less likely to partake in the efforts… money talks, after all…

Houda Nonoo is the first woman ambassador of Bahrain to the united states. Not only that , she is also the first Jewish ambassador of Bahrain.

I first read about this here . Nonoo, at only 43 has been a lawmaker in Bahrain for the last 3 years and is also the head of watch the Bahrain human rights organization.

This is so much more important on so many levels than just her personal appointment! This is another break through for women, in a country that if I am not very much mistaken is not very advanced from the feminist point of view.

I know that the separation of the religion from the state is considered an important achievement that allows for liberalism, free choice and freedom, but I want to make a case here for allowing some form of religious discussion in the classroom.

No I’m not talking about teaching all children that they have to believe in god and forcing them to pray and I sure not thinking about forcing the mind of children to fit in the Dogma’s of this or that religion.

On the contrary. I feel that the decision not to teach religion at the schools has led to extreme situations that inhibit the student’s freedom to explore.

Why not allow for programs in the schools that present the children with the diversity of the thought about religion, there are many ways to enable children to get the answers they need and often go out on their own and seek after the schools fail to help them in this enquiry. Eco to the unfulfilled needs of children in the education system can be found in posts like this.

What I suggest is to hold special days when the student would meet representative of many school of thought, religious, secular, scientific, philosophical and others including the more and more popular new age.

Are we doing them a favor by depriving them responsible information for developing their world view? I really don’t think so. Instead of deciding for them what they should think we can help them choose responsibly by giving them the tools and the knowledge to decide what reflect their truth the most.

There are many devoted people out there that actually care enough about the world to try and make it a better place.

This time I want to focus on the people that give up a lot of their time and effort to the issue of war crime trials.

There are those who gradually put an end to the freedom with which each this or that nation treats the lives of whom they perceive to be their enemies at each passing moment and bring rules, regulations and limits to those leaders that feel they can do anything.

There are others such as this group that runs a blog specifically to report war crime trials around the world and brings interesting information that can really open your minds to the happenings in other corners in the world.

I feel it is important for us to take the time and get involved as one step at a time we can turn the world into a better place.

With the recent attention that Asia gets in the news as a result of the recent events in Burma and China, I wanted to introduce you to a very interesting project of the graduate school of journalism of Berkley university.

The project called covering Asia has a unique fresh perspective on journalism that enables us who care for the people and what’s happening to them to really feel what they are going through for example in this paragraph:

On Tuesday morning, Wang Guofei and his younger brother drove to look for their mother in the rugged southwestern county of Beichuan, where at least 5,000 people have died as a result of Monday’s earthquake. But the road had been washed out by a landslide, and Mr. Wang said he would return the next day and search for his mother on foot.

It is an important project that brings the lives of the people of Asia closer to our home.