Friday, January 22, 2010
Uranium fuels India's 'soft' stand
Uranium may be tempering India's response to the attacks on its citizens in Australia, some in the Congress believe.
Australia has 40 per cent of the world's known uranium reserves and is its top exporter. The uranium is exported as yellow compound (ammonium diuranate), and used to make nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons countries have signed agreements with Australia to buy uranium while India has signed civil nuclear pacts with seven countries - the US, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Argentina and Mongolia so far.
India wants civil nuclear cooperation with Australia under which Canberra may supply uranium for joint venture power plants to New Delhi. Australia doesn't supply uranium to countries that haven't signed the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and there are fears it may not sell to India as New Delhi hasn't signed the NPT.
"The response to the attacks exposed India's inherent weakness to talk tough with nations like Pakistan and China, not to mention Australia," a senior Congress leader said.
IMO: Several facts come to mind. Most Australians are decent enough people but naturally enough, want to retain Australia more or less as it is, or at least as a nice enough place anyway. They would also like to see a nicer, better and more prosperous world. This occasionally makes them go to quite quixotic extremes but these are not normally of a racially intolerant nature. It seems that many Indian NRIs are happier with the Australian Government than with the Indian Government for a variety of practical and solid reasons, but naturally enough, India hears more about those who aren't happy with Australia. But then there are Australian politicians, and in any country, politicians often are not typical people. The Australian Prime Minister is Kevin Michel Rudd, who is not at all like the Australian author Steele Rudd (AKA Arthur Hoey Davis) in my opinion, though the name may well have won him a few votes. Steele Rudd hadn’t intended his characters to be regarded as comic figures, especially in the beginning; he had merely set out to describe the experiences of typical country farmers. And Steele Rudd meant to rub it in to townspeople how hard life on the land was. And things really were tough in Australia in the early 20th century, a country manoo in Maharashtra nowadays not doing very well at all, if magically turned into a 1920s Australian farmhand would probably not have noticed any improvement But the present Australian Prime Minister Kevin Michael Rudd is a very different character. Kevin Michael Rudd studied at the Australian National University in Canberra where he resided at Burgmann College and graduated with First Class Honours in Arts (Asian Studies). He majored in Chinese language and Chinese history, became proficient in Mandarin and acquired a Chinese alias, Lu Kewen. Then he somehow got voted in as Australian Prime Minister. Possibly a very unwise choice for Australia, although there are certainly far worse choices on offer. For example, over Iraq Rudd said "There is no debate or dispute as to whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. He does". A man in Rudd's position should have known better, and possibly did. That could make Kevin Michael Rudd a war criminal. But such people often behave like small puppy dogs, willing to follow any likely master who perhaps can provide some garbage to eat. So India's mature and distinguished leaders have real problems and its hoped that the many lesser babus do not make a difficult situation worse. India certainly needs many new nuclear reactors and a lot of nuclear fuel and suffers every day from the lack of these. Here in Vasai, electric power blackouts occur several hours a day, the local trains are a nightmare, and more nuclear power would certainly improve the lives of the average Indian greatly. I suffer from Australia's intransigence as do all Indians, and I feel the pain of all. This certainly does not mean India should change its policies.
Australia has 40 per cent of the world's known uranium reserves and is its top exporter. The uranium is exported as yellow compound (ammonium diuranate), and used to make nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons countries have signed agreements with Australia to buy uranium while India has signed civil nuclear pacts with seven countries - the US, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Argentina and Mongolia so far.
India wants civil nuclear cooperation with Australia under which Canberra may supply uranium for joint venture power plants to New Delhi. Australia doesn't supply uranium to countries that haven't signed the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and there are fears it may not sell to India as New Delhi hasn't signed the NPT.
"The response to the attacks exposed India's inherent weakness to talk tough with nations like Pakistan and China, not to mention Australia," a senior Congress leader said.
IMO: Several facts come to mind. Most Australians are decent enough people but naturally enough, want to retain Australia more or less as it is, or at least as a nice enough place anyway. They would also like to see a nicer, better and more prosperous world. This occasionally makes them go to quite quixotic extremes but these are not normally of a racially intolerant nature. It seems that many Indian NRIs are happier with the Australian Government than with the Indian Government for a variety of practical and solid reasons, but naturally enough, India hears more about those who aren't happy with Australia. But then there are Australian politicians, and in any country, politicians often are not typical people. The Australian Prime Minister is Kevin Michel Rudd, who is not at all like the Australian author Steele Rudd (AKA Arthur Hoey Davis) in my opinion, though the name may well have won him a few votes. Steele Rudd hadn’t intended his characters to be regarded as comic figures, especially in the beginning; he had merely set out to describe the experiences of typical country farmers. And Steele Rudd meant to rub it in to townspeople how hard life on the land was. And things really were tough in Australia in the early 20th century, a country manoo in Maharashtra nowadays not doing very well at all, if magically turned into a 1920s Australian farmhand would probably not have noticed any improvement But the present Australian Prime Minister Kevin Michael Rudd is a very different character. Kevin Michael Rudd studied at the Australian National University in Canberra where he resided at Burgmann College and graduated with First Class Honours in Arts (Asian Studies). He majored in Chinese language and Chinese history, became proficient in Mandarin and acquired a Chinese alias, Lu Kewen. Then he somehow got voted in as Australian Prime Minister. Possibly a very unwise choice for Australia, although there are certainly far worse choices on offer. For example, over Iraq Rudd said "There is no debate or dispute as to whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. He does". A man in Rudd's position should have known better, and possibly did. That could make Kevin Michael Rudd a war criminal. But such people often behave like small puppy dogs, willing to follow any likely master who perhaps can provide some garbage to eat. So India's mature and distinguished leaders have real problems and its hoped that the many lesser babus do not make a difficult situation worse. India certainly needs many new nuclear reactors and a lot of nuclear fuel and suffers every day from the lack of these. Here in Vasai, electric power blackouts occur several hours a day, the local trains are a nightmare, and more nuclear power would certainly improve the lives of the average Indian greatly. I suffer from Australia's intransigence as do all Indians, and I feel the pain of all. This certainly does not mean India should change its policies.
# posted by uv : 12:18 PM
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