The Bahrain declaration of religious tolerance

I shouldn't be surprised, but somehow still am, at how our media completely misses some significant world events, preferring to scream headlines at some topic-de-jour that is being covered by every other media outlet anyway.

The most recent such case is the Bahrain Declaration. Oh, you haven't heard of it? I guess that is the point.

It is almost three months ago now that the son of the King of Bahrain, HH Prince Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, on behalf of his father, signed the Kingdom of Bahrain Declaration, a declaration of religious tolerance, the first such document by an Arab leader.  In an era of widespread religious upheaval, where terrorists are randomly targeting civilians in the name of Islam, where any one not conforming to the strict tenets of Islam is the object of persecution in the Middle East and North Africa. In this era of intolerance, a declaration of religious tolerance by a Muslim leader, should be given wide recognition,. It should be heralded far and wide. Yet I came across it just the other by happenstance when a friend forwarded a link to an article on Simon Wiesenthal Center website . (see Bahraini King’s Declaration of Worldwide Religious Tolerance Unveiled at Historic Simon Wiesenthal Center Interfaith Event)

The Bahrain Declaration is reproduced below. It is certainly worthy of wide circulation, and the King of Bahrain should be lauded for taking this moral stand, especially given the personal risks he takes in doing so.

Yes I can hear the cynics; "What difference does this make?" Alone, isolated , unrecognized, nothing. But it is up to the free press to circulate and reiterate that the vast majority of people in the world are looking for a kinder, more tolerant world. By its focus on the problems of world, its drive to attract ears and eyes by dramatic appeal, our media megaphones discord and sows enmity. Good news rarely makes the headlines and events such as this declaration are relegated to the back pages. Yet I wonder, if it were the other way around. If stories of courage, success, hope were prominent, wouldn't the world be a kinder, more tolerant and happier place?

Google turning to dark side!

Has Google turned to the "dark side"? Has it forsaken its much vaunted motto "Don't be Evil"?

Given recent evidence of its enforced "group think" and its filtering of search results to sustain a political agenda, it is hard to conclude otherwise.

In his article "When Google silences dissent it bodes badly for the rest of us", Haiwatha Bray highlights the collective mindset that ensures conformity of opinion. They recently fired James Damore for an internal memo that argued , contrary to accepted dogma within Gooogle, that the over-representation of males within Google may indeed be because of genetic differences between the sexes. It seems you cannot even voice an opinion contrary to company 'groupthink". So he was let go.

What does this mean for the society that relies on Google to serve up search results without fear or favour.

"After the firing of Damore, how can we trust them to be honest brokers of information when they won’t tolerate dissent in their own ranks?"

We can't. Moreover there is ample evidence that Google is already tampering with search results to improve the profile of organisations they favour and to reduce the profile of those they do not.

Several studies have proven this to be the case. (see "Does Google content degrade Google search results? and "Does Google tamper search results for its own benefit?" )

The ethos of an organisation that sacks a worker for having the wrong opinion, or one that manipulates the results of its search engines in its favor is corrupt. Given the economic and social power that Google wields through it extensive tentacles into the e-world we have a serious problem.

The old saying that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" comes to mind. With regard to its search engine Google operates virtually as a monopoly. It is now exploiting this position enhance its power. What should a free enterprise economy do with a monopoly? Break it up into competing pieces. It has been done before and perhaps it is time to do it again.

Capitalism Rocks - time to say so!

Prager U's latest video, "If You Hate Poverty, You Should love Capitalism" should not be anything new. All those living in any Western society should be well aware of the enormous benefits to the world wrought by the Free enterprise, Innovation, open markets and competition.
Unfortunately this is far from true. Too many are unaware of the simple fact that it is capitalism that has created the modern world; increased the living standards for everyone and is rapidly eliminating poverty worldwide.

You won't hear this from much of the media, nor from academia. They focus on and amplify the problems of capitalism, and pontificate on options that solve this problem or that. However the simple fact is that all the alternatives that have been proposed and tried are abject failures.

We should always remember that Free Enterprise is the foundation of our prosperity and resist any attempts to undermine it.

Thorium nuclear experiments in Europe

Thorium nuclear power has been widely touted as the ultimate solution to our world's energy needs.  ( see my earlier posts What the Heck is Thorium, Thorium nuclear update). Although a very successful small scale Thorium reactor operated for a decade at Oak Ridge in the 60s, there has been virtually no further development on such reactors after the decision by the US to favour the Uranium Light Water reactors. Until now! In a first step to what is potentially the clean energy future Dutch Firm NRG has commenced a series of experiments to test various reactor design options, with the view to re-start industry. For details see "Finally, the World's First TMSR Experiment on over 45 Years has started".

Yes it is a small step, but a step it is. Watch this space...

Energy Frontiers: Meltdown proof nuclear!

China is leading the charge with novel nuclear technology promising unprecedented safety. South China Morning Post article "China pips the US in race to start the first melt-down proof power plant", highlights the significant steps China is taking to boost its clean nuclear power capacity

Firstly with a 1 GW AP1000 reactor being the commissioned in the next few weeks in Sanmen County in Zhejiang province. The Westinghouse designed AP1000 "is a simple , genius solution to reduce the risk of nuclear meltdown" according to Shan Jianqiang , professor and author of several university texts on reactor safety and operation.

"Compared with current technology, the AP1000 reactor is theoretically 100 times safer, requires 80 per cent less piping, 85 per cent fewer control cables, and need a third fewer pumps."

Two further reactors using Europe's Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) design, with similar safety parameters to the AP1000, in Taishan in Guandong province are under construction and due to be commissioned over the next 12 months. (This represents several years delay from their original implementation schedule (see EPR)

With the commissioning of the reactor in Zhejiang China will be the first to implement the AP1000 design. having overtaken the US's two construction projects that commenced construction earlier but experienced significant construction delays. The new AP1000 design has proved very popular with multiple projects in progress throughout the world. It has not been without problems however, Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to heavy cost overruns during its development.

EPR reactors have faced similar cost overruns and development delays. Again there are many projects in progress but none have been commissioned to date.

While solar and wind seem to take top media attention, nuclear is making a quiet resurgence and looks to become the backbone of clean energy supply in many parts of the world. As we have seen with the heavy reliance of South Australia on intermittent renewables, intermittency is a major drawback. Reliable baseload supply is an absolute must for any modern economy.