The Mediterreanean is increasingly militarized, and Turkey’s losing out
June 23, 2012 § 2 Comments
Attempting Denouement apologizes for a recent lack of posts – work deadlines and trips to North Dakota have taken over – thankfully @arandomthing was here to save the day and keep the content going.
The great Leviathan of the old testament is a sea monster so powerful it could beat the Kraken up for its lunch money. It is also the name chosen for a massive natural gas field in the eastern Mediterranean with enough gas to supply Israel for 100 years. Though the image of an all powerful sea monster is fitting for such a find, Israelis prefer the less provocative translation of the term which is taken to be “whale”. Such a large find, in such a dangerous and contested neighborhood, is surely provocative enough.
He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had white hair.Nothing on earth is his equal— a creature without fear.He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud.
Job 41:31-34
The Leviathan gas field is part of a large geological formation called the Levant Basin which stretches from Syria’s waters in the north to the edge of Sinai in the south and out eastward towards Cyprus. A USGS assessment of the formation can be found here. « Read the rest of this entry »
Did discourse push Glencore to go public?
June 7, 2012 § Leave a Comment
After contemplating yesterday’s post on discourse and its impact on conflict transformation, I questioned the final line of a Foreign Policy article I read recently, “A Giant Among Giants” about Glencore, the biggest commodity trading firm in the world. Glencore (background info at the bottom of the post) is somewhat notorious for their dubious business practices but recently went public, shedding light on transactions that could turn the public against them – so why go public? The article concludes thusly:
Still, like all good business even Glencore has to keep up with the times. Marc Rich* seems to agree: “Discretion is an important factor of success in the commodity business,” he told an interview when Glencore announced it would go public. “They probably didn’t have a choice. Transparency is requested today. It limits your activity, to be sure, but its just a new strategy to which they have to adapt.”
I want to believe that the public push for better business practice was the central impetus for Glencore going public, but even if the company shed light on their operations, I can’t see any indication of their business practices being impacted by the IPO. « Read the rest of this entry »
Greece is a Failed State
May 25, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Welcome back to @arandomthing, who makes the controversial argument that the international community needs to address Greece both in action and rhetoric as a failed state.
Before the Global Financial Crisis struck in 2008 Greece was unquestionably among the list of developed nations. Now conventional descriptions of where the country stands are hard to come by. “Unprecedented” is a word frequently used to describe Greece. However, this is a euphemism, used to hide severe discomfort calling the country what it has become: a failed state.
The economic indicators pointing to the collapse of the Greek state are apparent. Industry in the country has been utterly eviscerated, with a shocking 47 straight months of declining industrial production. Additional statistics on this front are easy to come by and well summed up in a February article in the New York Times Magazine.
