Tajikistan has many health problems including HIV/AIDS. Less that 100 people live with AIDS, less than 100 died from HIV/AIDS. Not many people have HIV/AIDS because they live in small villages and don't have a big population. At birth there are 1.05 males per female total which, there 1.02 males per females that are under 15 years old, there are .99 males are born per females are in the 15-64 yr old group, and .75 males per female are over 65 yrs which mean that there are more males at birth than females then the males start to die more as they get older. Males are dying because Tajikistan has low medical care and doesn't have many resources.

The life of a child in Tajikistan is very hard. 38.5% of the people in Tajikistan are 0-14 years old. 56.7% of the people are 15-64 years old and 4.8 % of the people are 65 years and older. 99.6% males and 99.1% female know how to read and write. Many of the females have a hard life because 99.11 females die per 1000 people as infants. The life of a male is even harder because 124.47 males die as infants per 1000 people. The death rates are 8.39 deaths per 1000 people and the total birth rates are 32.58 births per 1000 people. The total population in Tajikistan is 7,163,506 people which is a lot of people for a small country. The population growth is 2.15% which is not at all good because the net migration rate is -2.86%, which means people .15% of the people are leaving Tajikistan because the country is poor and doesn't have many resources.

There are many cultures and religions in Tajikistan. For example, 80% of the population are Sunni Muslims, 5% are Shi'a Muslims, 15% are different or no religions. The major ethnic group Tajikistan is the Tajiks which is 65% of the ethnic groups. 25% of the ethnic groups are Uzbeks, 3.5% of the ethnic groups are Russian, and 6.6% are the unimportant and small ethnic groups in Tajikistan. The language in Tajikistan is Tajik and Russian which is mostly used for business. The nationality in Tajikistan is Tajikistani.

First the Resources.  We aren't stopping at anything to provide power, no matter what it fuels.  Britain got what it needed no matter what, they didn't even stop when they saw that still buying resources from Colonists was fueling a rebelion.  Same with America, if we could just stop buying oil from the middle east we could cut off a big flow of money to terrorists but our oil is far to precious to do that.  Also not as much a problem for the British but we are destroying our planet with our consumption of resources and we continue, just to power our precious nation, giving not a thought to the rest of the world.

Although it is understandable and has been done thorugh history, we continue to wage war on threats.  It is not that big of a deal because it needed to be done but as soon as we see a threat and they dont cooperate we send out troops.  Britain did the same thing like in America and India and Africa, that was too keep territory.  America does it for self protection, which although it is a good reason, is a indication to bigger similarity.  Everybody hates us.  With a few exceptions, Britain and Ameica are widely hated because of how we are handling things.  This wouldn't be as big of a deal if Britain had been a democracy, but it was an empire, so we are obviously doing something the same.

The Last and biggest reason is that America has troops spread over the world protecting out interests.  In the middle east is the largest concentration of troops, and this is all about oil.  If we let terrorist go freely, they will either attack our supplies of oil or somehow shut it off and if that happens it's the end of the world, at least thats what are actions say we think.  Britain had troops in Africa, India and America all to protect their interests like territory, saltpeter and more territory.

If you look at the similarities it's pretty ahrd to deny that America isn't an Empire.  Even if you can deny it you can't say we're not headed in that direction.

In the year since the Germans had arrived in his land things had changed so much and life was becoming more difficult by the day. Everything was regulated so much more for the jews than it had been before. The universal joke was that soon you would need a permit to visit the toilet! Now the building of this wall was making things impossible. Men were being cut off from even going to their places of employment. They could no longer go out and sell their goods or for that matter bring in the goods that were needed to live a normal life. Slowly and surely in the months that followed, the life was being sucked out of the community.

Simon and his young friends became adept at finding ways in and out of the ghetto. It was essential to smuggle goods in as the daily allowances were nowhere near enough for the inhabitants to survive. More and more people were being rounded up from around Poland and shipped into the ghetto. Even with the smuggling there was widespread hunger and children were starving to death. Medicines were almost non existent.

Months turned into years and the daily struggle for survival became constant. Even in this strange and terrible environment where people were being crammed more than seven to a room they learned how to adapt and to a certain extent, cope with the atrocities that were being inflicted on a daily basis.

And then came the deportations and disappearances. Soldiers would come in the night and take people away. There was no rhyme or reason to it. Both young and old, men and women, anyone could disappear at the hands of the nazi occupiers. As the rumours spread about the terrible fate awaiting those who were taken, Simon began to realize what his grandfather had meant when he spoke those words to him. "they are preparing to finish the job".

As news filtered back into the ghetto it soon became clear that the rumours were indeed true. The jews were being taken from Warsaw to Treblinka.But Treblinka was no ordinary concentration camp, it was purely an extermination camp. It was literally a highly efficiant killing machine. The remaining inhabitants of the ghetto had no choice. They would have to fight to the very last for their own survival. At the young age of 13 Simon shot a man for the first time in his life as he defended the barriers with his fellow Jews. For three long months they held out against the nazi murderers. But eventually the last pockets of resistance were overcome and the Ghetto was razed to the ground along with most of its inhabitants.

Simon was one of the lucky ones. Although gravely wounded, the knowledge of the alleys, tunnels and sewers that he had attained during his three years of smuggling enabled him to escape from the ghetto in the last days of the terrible onslaught. He was taken in and hidden by a friendly polish family with whom he remained until he was well enough to join the resistance once again in the struggle against the Germans. He survived to witness the utter destruction of the German Reich and the execution of its evil leaders. He had lost his entire family in Warsaw but in 1950 at the age of 20 he eventually arrived to start a new life in Israel.

Simon Karski was 73 years old as he stood with his 10 year old grandson watching the construction engineers under the protection of armed guards begin to unload their equipment from the trucks. It was the summer of 2003 and Simon now lived in the village of Zufin near the Palestinian city of Qalqiliya. A city that was gradually being turned into a ghetto by the building of this barrier. "What are they doing Grandpa?" asked Simon's grandson. "They are preparing to finish the job." Simon replied in a weary voice. A great feeling of sadness washed over Simon as his thoughts turned to the last barrier he had watched being built, and he knew that this time would be no different.

It came as no surprise to Simon when over the next few months life became more and more difficult for the inhabitants of Qalqiliya. Everything was regulated so much more for the Palestinians than it had been before. The universal joke was that soon you would need a permit to visit the toilet! Now the building of this wall was making things impossible. Men were being cut off from even going to their own fields. They could no longer go out and sell their goods or the produce they did manage to grow in the markets of Tel-Aviv nor for that matter could they bring in the goods that were needed to live a normal life. Slowly and surely in the months that followed, the life was being sucked out of the community.

And then came the disappearances. Soldiers would come in the night and take away husbands and fathers, brothers and sons. there was no rhyme or reason to it and usually no charges. It was all done in the name of "State Security" or for "the safety of the state". Women in labour would be denied access to hospital because the ambulance would be turned back at the checkpoint. Heaven forbid that a newborn was given the chance to be the next suicide bomber, Better be safe and turn the ambulance back. The elderly, young and weak were left to suffer and die through lack of medicine Because nothing was allowed through the barrier without permission and usually the essentials for daily living including medicines were turned back.

Gradually things were becoming more and more like a concentration camp. Not a concentration camp like the Nazis of old had built but like the ultra efficient concentration camp that the Israelis had produced from what was the Gaza Strip. Simon had heard of the deprivation that was prevalent there, even though Israeli citizens were forbidden to enter. He knew also from experience what men did when they were pushed to extremes and it became a question of survival. They would fight, and they would fight till the last man drew his last breath. Just as so many of his friends had done those long years ago in Warsaw.

The Israelis had learned well from their Nazi teachers. They had learned how to build walls to keep people where they wanted them. They had learned how to control whole populations through fear. They had learned how to use laws to rob and confiscate land and property and they had learned how to subjugate an entire people, dehumanise and crush them underfoot. In the space of one man's lifetime, the most abused race on the face of the earth had gone full circle and become the abuser. Just as the abused child often grows up to abuse others, so the abused Jewish people grew up to be the abusing Jewish state of Israel. Israel was indeed a star pupil who learned and implemented these lessons of the nazis well. Unfortunately they did not learn the most important lesson of all. It was all to obvious to Simon who had only been a humble plumber, but it was lost on his grand and lofty leaders as they sat in the Knesset and passed their draconian laws.

Of course the character of Simon does not really exist. But sadly, the events woven around his life are all too real.The lessons of history are there for all to see. In the terrible events of 1943 the Jews of Warsaw were wiped out as they fought for survival in what was once their home but had become their prison. Although the Warsaw Jews were destroyed, the final result was the utter devastation wreaked on the nazi nation by the allies as they stopped the evil regime in its tracks. Sooner or later The Palestinian people will reach a point of no return. If the events and injustices are allowed to continue to develop as they are at present then they will have no alternative but to take up arms and fight for their very survival. No doubt they will suffer the same fate as the warsaw Jews. But their allies and neighbours will surely avenge them and destroy the regime that sought to annihilate an entire population.

The Swastica and the Star of David. Two diametricaly opposed symbols of statehood. Who would ever consider that the two states represented by these symbols would have anything in common? Surely the idea is ridiculous, But there is indeed a commonality between these states. In the nineteen thirties Nazi Germany sought to justify its actions and expansionist policies by using the phrase "Lebensraum" or "living space". Hitler saw the expansion of his borders as providing both increased security to the state of Germany's borders and also a way of providing that "living space". Now in the early twenty first century Israel seeks to do the same. It may not be called Lebensraum any more but the methods employed and the rethoric of the politicians is remarkably similar. The continued occupation of the west bank is justified by the need for living space for the Jewish people and the building of the barrier is justified in the name of state security. But the reality is the ongoing and increasing suffering of the Palestinian people whose only crime is to have been unfortunate enough to have been born Palestinian.

There is a famous quote by George Santayana that says "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it". That quote has been used by many other wise and great men throughout the ages including Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill. Let us hope and pray that the leaders of Israel will learn that lesson before it is to late. The result of not learning this important lesson of history could spell utter catastrophy for the whole Middle East Region not to mention the state of Israel itself that so many brave and honorable people laid down their lifes to create. The inevitable consequences this would have on the western nations incuding the US does not bear thinking about. Suffice to say it would make today's war on terror look like a minor disturbance.

When WWII was raging the automotive industry was given an ultimatum- convert all of your production to tanks or be closed down, most of them chose the 1st.  If we can do that again except with wind turbines instead of tanks we can  have a big part of our energy converted to wind instead of oil, that would be a tremendous leap. 

Once that is done we can give another ultimatum, again to the automative industry.  this time it would be change your production to ethanol or get shut down.  of course we would need ethanol to fuel these cars so we could instead of importing our spare corn we can put the spare corn to ethanol companies and let them go crazy.   Of course many gas cars will still be in circulation so we can use the gas we saved from the windmills to ween the country of oil in cars. 

The last major use of oil is in making plastics and synthetic fibers.  This will be hard to get rid of since this industry is gaining momentum.  To combat regular plastics we can use alternatives you already see on the market to make smaller items like cups, and we can just inflate that industry.  Many alternatives to synthetic fibers are already avalable so we can also give money and advertisment to that industry.

Of course there are many uses for oil that aren't mentioned here so to provide for those we can either drill for oild in Alaska or just continue to buy that bit from the middle east.  All in all, if we follow this plan more or less, our country's dependance on oil will be much reduced, putting us in a much better situation all around. 

In 1980 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein attacked Iran and Syrian President Hafez Assad provided artillery, antiaircraft weapons, and the means for Iranian fighter jets to refuel inside Syria. Assad sealed Syria’s border with Iraq in 1982, and prohibited Iraqi oil to enter Syrian territory. In return, Iran offered economic incentives on oil imports to Syria and granted tax breaks to Syrian trading companies.

The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon brought Syria and Iran even closer together. Assad viewed Lebanon as an integral part of Syria and felt justified to intervene for the greater good of Arabism. Iran viewed Lebanon as a weak and divided Arab state which under Syrian control, could fall under a sphere of Iranian influence. Iran sought to extend its influence in Lebanon by creating the Lebanese militia Hezbollah “party of God.” Hezbollah received orders from Tehran and attempted to turn Lebanon from a heterogeneous democracy into a fundamentalist Shia state. Assad worked with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to bring stability in Lebanon and bring Lebanon under Syria’s authority.  

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Syrian and Iranian officials collaborated to arm and train Palestinian organizations opposed to reaching a peace accord between the PLO and Israel. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) were supported by Syrian and Iranian intelligence agents in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley to undermine the PLO and derail the peace process.

Assad’s death in June 2000 did not alter the course of Syria’s strategic relationship with Iran. Some analysts believed that Assad’s Western educated, young, and technological savvy son Bashar would liberalize Syria’s economy, recognize Lebanon’s sovereignty and mend relations with the Arab League. Instead, Bashar has silenced pro-democracy and pro-reform Syrians, exerted great efforts at destabilizing Lebanon, encouraged proxies to kill Israelis and Americans in Iraq, and has reaffirmed Syria strategic relationship with Iran.

In November 2005, Syria and Iran signed a joint defense pact, known as the strategic signals intelligence (SIGNIT). Syrian and Iranian intelligence set up two locations, one in the Golan Heights, and the other in the al-Jazirah district in northern Syria. Two additional bases will be built in Bab al-Hawa, near Turkey and Abu Kamal, in northeast Syria. The bases are used for the purpose of collecting data and information to monitor Israel.  

In May 2006 Ali Nourizadeh, a correspondent for the pan-Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, asserted that a military cooperation pact was signed between Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani and his Iranian counterpart, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar. This agreement called for major Syrian purchases of Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian military equipment. Syria promised to open its border to allow Iranian supplies to reach Hezbollah fighters. In December 2006 Nourizadeh also confirmed that Syria allowed the Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen to train Syrian and Hezbollah fighters in Damascus. 

During Bashar’s visit to Iran in February 2007, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameni reaffirmed the strong relationship between the two countries. Bashar met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the following month to discuss military cooperation. In July 2007, Syria and Iran signed a weapons deal in which Iran pledged to donate $1 billion in sophisticated military equipment including Russian T-72 tanks, Mig-31 jets, Sukhoi-24 bombers, and Mi-8 helicopters. This military defense pact arose from a mutual fear that a confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah could erupt again, and extend beyond the borders of Lebanon into Syria.  

Saddam’s deposal and the US occupation of Iraq removed the threat that Iraq once posed against Syria. These realities could influence Bashar to distance Syria from Iran in exchange for improved relations with the Arab League, closer relations with the US, and a peace treaty with Israel. Bashar must choose if Syria will remain part of the isolationist and rejectionist camp, or if it wishes to restore normal relations with the West. To do so, however, requires distancing Damascus’s close relationship with Tehran and renouncing support for Hamas and Hezbollah.  

According to French sources from Asharq Al-Awsat, Syria would be “willing” to distance itself from Iran in favor of an Israeli-Syrian peace coupled with full normalization and diplomatic relations with the United States. However, it is impossible to know Bashar’s true intentions. He has previously stated in English to Western audiences that Syria wants peace with Israel and stronger Syrian-US cooperation while saying in Arabic to an Arab audience that Syria will not distance itself from Iran nor will it cease supporting Hezbollah and Hamas against their war with Israel.

The city is estimated at 3.7 square mile and cost around $5.0 Billion worth of development. It is spearheaded by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company. If this project will push through this year (and hopefully completed by 2009), this will be the first ever “green-city” in the world. Masdar will house world-class laboratories, light manufacturing factories and a selected pool of international tenants who are willing to invest, develop and commercialize advanced energy technology.

This project once completed will inspire other countries to go “green” and eventually change how we power our industries and our economy.

Another inconsistency is that if the Republican leader is pro-electric, how is it that he blames Obama for not wanting offshore oil drilling, and is also for allowing tax cuts for the large oil firms? It seems to me that if he were really pro-electric, there would be less emphasis on the search for the older means of fuel and more mention on how he intends to promote alternative travel in the states.

In the meantime, McCain is hitting Obama for behaving like a Britney Spears, which is an analogy that voters are not going to get. How does a black male who has charisma compare to a maturing singer who cannot seem to keep away from being the paparazzi's focus of attention? Obama in the meantime has accused McCain of being an unwanted reminder of old politics, and by that he suggests that politics of the need to be militarily present in the Middle East and Afghanistan, without regarding the effect it is having on soldiers who have to do repeat duty or the damage on the American economy.

In response to the newspaper statement, Obama senior advisor Robert Gibbs released a statement that “During his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Sen. Obama visited the combat hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and a number of other visits with the troops. For the second part of his trip, the senator wanted to visit the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a US military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign”. The McCain camp hit back, saying that it's never “inappropriate” for a head of state to visit troops. If Obama says it's inappropriate to visit troops on a funded trip, then, when is it appropriate?

But don't ask him if McCain was right about the surge, because he'll tell you his idea was better even though all of congress voted for it. No matter how you look at it, Obama is enjoying acting as our president. Shooting some baskets while the wife sits among selected soldiers does not make one the leader of the greatest free country in the world. I can tell you from experience that the Army only selected Obama supporters and desk jockeys to attend any get together. That's Army protocol.

He was against the surge in Iraq even though he is enjoying the results of it now by putting on his little sideshow. Since he was so much against it, why does he want to use it in Afghanistan? The real fighters in the military are afraid of this clown with the big ears. He wanted to pull them out of the war and admit defeat six months ago! And all of you hippie Obama types that have fallen for his great dream speeches should realize that he's going to copy McCain's ideas for Afghanistan if you elect him. So do you vote for the copier or the person that's the real innovator and leader?

The American people are blaming one person for its struggling economy: George W. Bush. I do not really think that it is right to place the blame on only one person, so I am going to place it on a group of people: the Democrats.

Ever since the Democrats have had control of the Senate, America has struggled. We have a never ending war, the rising price of oil, a slumping housing market, and struggling banks. I want everyone to know that the President is not to blame, it's the Democrats.

The solution is to let the Democrats do what they want for a while. Give them a little power. Then America will eventually permit every gay and lesbian couple to get married, and let everyone that wants an abortion get one. And as time goes by, there won't be any more democrats.