New Silk Road has Mighty River of Oil

What is old becomes new again just by changing the players, not the game. World domination in trade was the province of a superpower like the USA. America cemented its standing by helping to found a little organization called NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization, complete wih a standing Army - always under the command of an American. Europe got their collection of smaller countries together to up their trading, political and potentially military clout to form something called the EU - European union. There are Asian versions that meet; APEC, ASEAN with Climate Change dominating the agenda.

Long suspicious and resentful of NATO, Russia and China - former bitter enemies, are creating a strategic alliance that is fraught with peril and possibility. SCO is the Shanghai Co-operation Organization. To get into that exclusive nation club next to presidents Putin and Jintao, requires one or more of the following: massive energy provider, hungry energy consumer with spare megabucks/rubles/yuan with nothing to do but sit there collecting compound interest or a teeny tiny poor country bordering the biggies for a pipeline or ahem, an oil road - the new Silk Road is a mighty flowing river of oil.

To celebrate an engagement and show a bit of the Central Asia
dowry, China and Russia just started the biggest joint military war game, together. Two, million "man" armies practicing together with the USA only able to watch from a pay per view spy satellite. Top it off with a terribly unpopular incompetent US president and an ineffective US Secretary of State - a supposed Russian expert with a PhD, and America is feeling a bit jilted. Iran, Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan are bringing flowers and candy to gain entrance into the SCO. Two or more of that group have nuclear bombs or technology and three of that group are still dating America for the foreign policy goodies. Besides it takes an awful lot of oil to make armies that big work effectively.

Pretty sure the American media will catch on sometime during the SCO's energetic honeymoon phase as the balance of power rocks American professional navel gazing. Russia is reverting back to a Cold War stance by resuming their own patrolling of the global skies. Its been sixteen years since Russia last did it and you can bet your last penny, pound or paisa, they "pimped their rides" with amazing new technology.

Russia and China invited Iran's bombastic president to dinner for a quickie tête - à - tête at an Anti-US summit. The message to America is way past subliminal.

The ancient Silk Road is famous for opening trade to new partners in Europe. Tourists traveled to Afghanistan and China to partake of the scenic beauty and the dangerous trek. Venetian Marco Polo (1254 - 1324 CE) is credited with founding it.

History has a way of repeating itself. Books illuminate past mistakes while providing illumination for those so inclined. An elegant, illustrated version of The Silk Road by Frances Woods is a keeper. Two thousand years of history in this review. Russian and Chinese history, especially since Stalin and Mao are excellent maps for current events under the new leaders.

Al Jazeera Forges Ahead Gaining Fans

Al Jazeera's English home/front page is quietly captivating with a variety of coverage missing in other news sites. Its interesting with a real international flavor. News stories are covered in depth and with reporters who might shock some in the western world. Usually younger or hip viewers catch Al Jazeera on YouTube because its a high quality broadcast.

US cable services are skittish in offering the programming, based in large part on propaganda espoused from the administration when Al Jazeera questioned American leadership. But Al Jazeera is front and center in the Pentagon, providing valuable sources of information about the entire globe from many viewpoints, including but not singularly an Arab perspective.

Outstanding in-depth coverage of the plight of Asian laborers working in the Gulf highlight's Al Jazeera's investigative journalism. The program called "Blood, Sweat & Tears" is devastating in its scope and profiling individuals choosing suicide because of financial obligations owed to their recruiters. The amount of exclusive access afforded the journalist is stunning. Check your local listings for the program - the links lists viewing times in August.

Nigel Parsons, Managing Director of Al Jazeera, is making the business case for inclusion in programming offerings. Al Jazeera's chief makes a special point to reassure cable officials in Singapore about their positive journalistic ethics.

A former American Marine is now a reporter for Al Jazeera. Josh has written an excellent riveting insider's book, Mission Al Jazeera: Build A Bridge Seek the Truth, Change the World; detailing his time as soldier and the amazing freedom he now has a reporter for Al Jazeera. People all over the world are noticing:

Josh Rushing was a member of the US marine corps who acted for 14 years as a media liaison officer who crossed over to the other side. His "conversion" began when he was assigned, at the outbreak of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, to the Doha command centre. His first surprise was to discover that Al Jazeera "was a real news organisation and not a front company for anti-American propaganda,."

Josh was the truth teller in Control Room - a rare movie about the media's failures in covering the Iraq War.

Hurricane Dean Headed to Texas? Maybe...

Erin is a rainmaking storm at this point filling up the now flooding state of Texas. Hurricane Dean is gaining strength in the Atlantic headed towards the islands of the Caribbean with the warm sultry waters of the Gulf beckoning. Expectations are Dean may reach category 4 status with room and downpours to spare. An absence of prior hurricane activity churning the waters in the Caribbean, especially the Lesser Antilles leaves conditions ripe for Hurricane Dean.

Trying to predict a major hurricane's path is akin to a tiny toddler driving a Hummer - it is not going to be pristine in its execution. Its all guesswork with really cool flashing meteorological maps and warning flags showing the directional cone of possibilities. One little thing happens; wind speed, shearing, current shifts, water temperature changes, landfall and its back to revise the maps. As landfall approaches the maps are updated quickly. Now is the time to make plans to exit the area - but so many wait because Dean, or any hurricane, just might make a turn at the very last possible moment.

Out in the Gulf are an abundance of oil derricks. The energy market in its logic - never emotion, has reacted to Dean's presence with a decline in oil prices, after fears of the storm's trajectory were semi-retired.

August is the month that has had some of the worst Hurricanes in American History. Hurricane Andrew devastated Florida in 1992. Watching the pictures from Italy was very different in those days. In horror, we all watched the incompetence and death toll skyrocket in the killer wake of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast almost two years ago. Both Andrew & Katrina are now retired names for hurricanes.

Stormtracker.com offers a wide variety of reading material on hurricanes. Hmmm, this has really been a bad week for natural disasters.

BREAKING NEWS: Peru Suffers Major Earthquakes

Magnitude 7's and above are often killer quakes. These 7.7, 7.5 have hit the capital of Peru. The epicenter is 11 miles (18km) away in Chincha Alta. Lima has sections of buildings especially built to withstand major quakes. Poorer sections of the city do not have the same protections. Damage reports are still coming in, and power is out in sections of the city. A resident's observations:

"But in other parts of Lima, where the buildings are often of very poor quality, there will have been considerable damage, I would imagine."

CNN reports Tsunami warnings have been issued. The Tsunami warning is for Chile, Ecuador and Columbia. While dodging the wrath of Flossie, Hawaii now has a Tsunami Watch in effect until further updates from the Tsunami center.

Updates: TBD 7:32PDT Casualties are starting to be reported. 7:49PDT One Quake at a massive 7.9. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the citizens of Peru.

Dale Grant, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, said 17 deaths were reported in Arequipa, Peru, and 14 deaths in Minocqua. The U.S. National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru; a tsunami watch for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama; and a tsunami advisory for Hawaii.

``An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours,'' the weather service said in a statement on its Web site.

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake carries roughly as much energy as 199,000 tons of TNT, according to the USGS. That energy is spread out in waves and not in one particular spot.