Day: August 7, 2006

"Girl Blog from Iraq" by an anonymous young Iraqi woman whose weblog has now been adapted into a theatrical documentary at the Edinburgh Fringe arts festival.The blog was praised by the New York Times as "articulate,
even poetic prose packs an emotional punch while exhibiting a
journalist’s eye for detail".
I happened to check her blog and it brought me a deep grief reading the realities of war. Now her blog entries were nominated for a major literary prize in Britain.
And this what the world knows about her. As she says,

A little bit about myself: I’m female, Iraqi and 24. I survived the
war. That’s all you need to know. It’s all that matters these days
anyway.

Read this article, India’s non-paper proposed more autonomy for Kashmir: Report
Kashmir issue is more complex then what we can imagine, neither sides tells the whole truth to its citizens and there is none left in the original kashmir valley to speak out the truth. In the midst of all the terrorists activities going on, trying to find a permanent solution is a nightmare. I strongly believe neither sides would like to have a solution as both the countries political parties have wooed the voters shouting on their kashmir policies and unless they get a bigger issue then kashmir, they wouldn’t like to solve it out. And as this article says, if India grants more autonomy to Kashmir then won’t all other states of India asks the same? I hope the policy makers, think twice before granting autonomy as a permanent solution for kashmir.

Oil field shutdown likely to hike state’s gas prices – Sunday’s shut-down of a major Alaskan oil field will likely push California’s gasoline prices higher. I remember, last week I filled my tank with a price of 2.99$ per gallon of regular. That’s the best rate I received in the last couple of weeks.
(1 Gallon is equal to 3.785 Litres roughly and Gasoline in US is called as Petrol in India).
Now this news on Gasoline price hike is coming up again. But why do Gasoline prices fluctuate?

As the picture indicates, the cost to produce and deliver gasoline to consumers includes the cost of crude oil to refiners, refinery processing costs, marketing and distribution costs, and finally the retail station costs and taxes. Understandable with Mid-East tensions, and with the supply and demand, the crude oil prices worldwide has been climbing up. But can’t the government cuts the taxes it levies? (roughly 23% of gasoline price we pay in the form of tax).

Californians typically pay more than the residents of neighboring states, the result of high California taxes and the relatively small number of refineries that make the state’s gasoline. Now adding up the local county taxes makes it makes it even more difficult. Am afraid further increase in Gasoline prices, will change the way people live their lives.