Peaceful Burma (ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းျမန္မာ)平和なビルマ

Peaceful Burma (ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းျမန္မာ)平和なビルマ

TO PEOPLE OF JAPAN



JAPAN YOU ARE NOT ALONE



GANBARE JAPAN



WE ARE WITH YOU



ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေျပာတဲ့ညီညြတ္ေရး


“ညီၫြတ္ေရးဆုိတာ ဘာလဲ နားလည္ဖုိ႔လုိတယ္။ ဒီေတာ့ကာ ဒီအပုိဒ္ ဒီ၀ါက်မွာ ညီၫြတ္ေရးဆုိတဲ့အေၾကာင္းကုိ သ႐ုပ္ေဖာ္ျပ ထားတယ္။ တူညီေသာအက်ဳိး၊ တူညီေသာအလုပ္၊ တူညီေသာ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ရွိရမယ္။ က်ေနာ္တုိ႔ ညီၫြတ္ေရးဆုိတာ ဘာအတြက္ ညီၫြတ္ရမွာလဲ။ ဘယ္လုိရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္နဲ႔ ညီၫြတ္ရမွာလဲ။ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ဆုိတာ ရွိရမယ္။

“မတရားမႈတခုမွာ သင္ဟာ ၾကားေနတယ္ဆုိရင္… သင္ဟာ ဖိႏွိပ္သူဘက္က လုိက္ဖုိ႔ ေရြးခ်ယ္လုိက္တာနဲ႔ အတူတူဘဲ”

“If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen to side with the oppressor.”
ေတာင္အာဖရိကက ႏိုဘယ္လ္ဆုရွင္ ဘုန္းေတာ္ၾကီး ဒက္စ္မြန္တူးတူး

THANK YOU MR. SECRETARY GENERAL

Ban’s visit may not have achieved any visible outcome, but the people of Burma will remember what he promised: "I have come to show the unequivocal shared commitment of the United Nations to the people of Myanmar. I am here today to say: Myanmar – you are not alone."

QUOTES BY UN SECRETARY GENERAL

Without participation of Aung San Suu Kyi, without her being able to campaign freely, and without her NLD party [being able] to establish party offices all throughout the provinces, this [2010] election may not be regarded as credible and legitimate. ­
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

Where there's political will, there is a way

政治的な意思がある一方、方法がある
စစ္မွန္တဲ့ခိုင္မာတဲ့နိုင္ငံေရးခံယူခ်က္ရိွရင္ႀကိဳးစားမႈရိွရင္ နိုင္ငံေရးအေျဖ
ထြက္ရပ္လမ္းဟာေသခ်ာေပါက္ရိွတယ္
Burmese Translation-Phone Hlaing-fwubc

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

ICT exhibitions mark Myanmar rapid development in advanced technology

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/16/content_10512270.htm

By Feng Yingqiu

YANGON, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- A current five-day information and communication technology (ICT) week exhibition in Myanmar's northern city of Pyin Oo Lwin has unprecedented drawn a large number of visitors since its inauguration on last Friday.

In the 7th ICT week exhibition 2008 being held at the Yadanabon Teleport from Dec. 12 to 16, modern technology and IT products of IT companies from Yangon and Mandalay are introduced.

Attached with related seminars and workshops, the scale of the exhibition is so grand that it could prove the rapid development of the country in the advanced technology, experts said.

In March and October this year, two other ICT exhibitions respectively took place in Yangon which were co-sponsored by the Myanmar Computer Federation (MCF), Myanmar Computer Professionals Association and the Myanmar Computer Entrepreneurs Association.

In these exhibitions, nearly 100 companies showcased accessories of computers, new technology for networking, software solutions, computer courses and books.



Myanmar has been striving for the development of ICT. In December last year, Myanmar's first largest ICT park, also known as the Yadanabon Cyber City, was introduced in Pyin Oo Lwin. The launching of the cyber city was for the first time attached with such ICT week exhibition activities joined by over 100 local and foreign ICT companies.

As part of the project in the development of the cyber city, Myanmar authorities have allotted 372 acres (150 hectares) of land in the soft-base factory area of the Yadanabon cyber city for 35 more local and foreign IT companies to develop their business undertakings.

To encourage and help employees settle in the cyber city, Myanmar is also implementing new private housing projects there, offering land lease grant for 30 years for the establishment which is not allowed for re-sale or transferred within 10 years.

Under the projects, school, market, fire station, police station, clinic, sports ground and park are to be built.

Private entrepreneurs, who win the land lease grant, are set to start construction within three months and complete in a year after being allotted with the land plot, according to the city development committee which also prescribed that the allotted land plot will be confiscated in case the construction work could not start in a duration period of up to a year.

The cyber city, which covers an overall area of 10,000 acres (4,050 hectares), located in the hilly Pyin Oo Lwin near a highway, 67 km east of the second largest city of Mandalay in the north, and 20 percent of the cyber city area produce software and hardware.

The internet of the cyber city not only links with the whole country but also connect neighboring China, Thailand and India.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is also striving to introduce a wireless internet system of WiFi by early next year. Arranged by the local IT company of Exotic Wing, the system will be in service starting with the coverage of 16 main townships in the former capital city of Yangon, the company sources said.

By then, laptops with the WiFi system can enter the world from any corner of the city, experts said.

Besides, Myanmar has also planned full coverage of public access centers (PAC) in every township in the country by next March to facilitate communication links.

There are so far 240 PAC in Myanmar, according to the Myanmar Info-Tech.

The telecommunications authorities also revealed that the number of Internet users in Myanmar has also reached nearly 300,000, up from merely dozens in four years ago.

Myanmar has been implementing an ICT development master plan under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) and detailed programs to link international networks are also being carried out in accordance with the master plan drafted by the Myanmar Computer Federation.

Being a signatory to the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement initiated at 2000 Singapore summit, Myanmar has formed the e-National Task Force to support the IT development.

Besides, the country has also signed a series of memorandums of understanding since 2003 with such companies as from Malaysia, Thailand, China and South Korea on ICT development.

On the occasion, Myanmar official media called on youths in the country, who take interest in IT, to apply advanced IT technology extensively in their striving for the national economic development.


Editor: Bi Mingxin

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AK-47s—Made in Wa State-IRRAWADDY

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14804

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By LAWI WENG Tuesday, December 16, 2008

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The United Wa State Army (UWSA), an armed ethnic ceasefire group based in Shan State, northern Burma, is manufacturing arms and ammunition for use by their own battalions and to sell to other armed groups in the region, according to sources close to armed groups in Shan State.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the rival Shan State Army-South (SSA) said, “For more than one year now, the UWSA has been manufacturing AK-47 rifles similar to those made in China.”

Another source close to the UWSA said, “They (the UWSA) learned how to make arms from the Chinese.

“The arms and bullets the Wa produce are not only for their own battalions. They sell the arms to their ethnic allies in Shan State,” he added.


There are several armed ethnic groups in the northern region, including the Shan State Army, the Kokang, Mongla and Kachin.

Currently, the munitions factory is situated in Kunma, the hometown of UWSA Chairman Bao You-xiang, in the Wa hills 125 kilometers (78 miles) north of the group’s headquarters at Panghsang on the Chinese border, said the source.

According to a Jane’s security report on December 12, the UWSA has turned to arms production to supplement their income from arms and drugs trafficking. The report said that the UWSA facility marks the first time an insurgent group in the region has succeeded in setting up a small-arms production line.

In May, Jane’s Intelligence Review reported that the UWSA were acting as traffickers and middlemen, buying from Chinese arms manufacturers, then reselling the weapons to Indian insurgent groups and the Kachin Independence Army, which has also signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military government.

The UWSA has an estimated 20,000 soldiers deployed along Burma’s borders with Thailand and China, according to Burmese military analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw, while an estimated 60,000 to 120,000 Wa villagers inhabit areas of lower Shan State.

The UWSA signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military in the early 1990s. Leaders of the group, including its commander Wei Hsueh Kang, are wanted by the US government for their roles in the region’s drug trade.


Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org



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Gwynne Dyer: Democracy fails in Thailand

http://www.straight.com/article-176158/gwynne-dyer-democracy-fails-thailand

By Gwynne Dyer
The political crisis in Thailand is over, and so is the ten-year experiment with democracy. The rich and the comfortably off have risen in outraged revolt against equal treatment for the poor, and it's back to the bad old days of shaky coalitions and bought-and-paid-for politicians. The misleadingly named People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has won.

It was the PAD's yellow-clad protesters and street-fighters who occupied government offices, and eventually both of Bangkok's airports, in a non-stop campaign to oust the People Power Party (PPP) from power. (The yellow was to signify their allegiance to the revered 81-year-old king of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, although it was never clear if he shared their goal.)

The government had to be overthrown by street demonstrations, not by a legitimate vote in parliament, because the People Power Party actually had a majority in parliament. The PPP's crime, in the view of the PAD, the army, the police, the Bangkok middle class, and perhaps even the royal palace, was that the wrong people had voted for it: the rural poor.



The PPP was the descendant of Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais), the creation of Thaksin Shinawatra, the telecommunications billionaire who turned to politics in 1998. It was a new style of party for Thailand, appealing directly to the urban poor and the rural majority of Thai voters over the heads of the political bosses who had traditionally bought up their votes.

Thai Rak Thai won the 2001 election, delivering Thaksin to the prime minister's office, and he actually kept many of his promises. Development funds flowed into the rural areas, his "30-baht" scheme for universal health care brought medical aid to remote villages for the first time, and farmers got cheap loans. It alienated the urban elite who had previously got the biggest share of state spending, but Thaksin's popularity soared even higher in rural areas.

He was the first prime minister ever to complete a four-year term, and in the 2005 election his party won an absolute majority of the seats in parliament—another first. Even more importantly, the political godfathers who used to buy and sell the rural vote flocked to his banner, giving him a virtually impregnable political position.

For a moment there, it looked as though Thaksin had succeeded in transforming Thai politics. He was quite autocratic in power, seeking to punish media outlets that criticised him and authorising an anti-drugs campaign that resulted in many illegal killings, but his popularity was unquestionable. And then it all fell apart.

The counter-attack by the old guard came in the form of street demonstrations against Thaksin's new government that were used as the excuse for a military coup in 2006. The courts, which have not been exactly impartial in this affair, then ordered Thai Rak Thai disbanded because of alleged election irregularities (doubtless true, but equally true for all the other parties).

Thaksin's party was immediately re-founded as the People Power Party, but he was not so easily able to evade a court judgement finding him guilty of conflict of interest over the purchase of land in Bangkok. The amount of money involved was paltry for a man of Thaksin's wealth, and other Thai politicians have gone unpunished for far graver offences, but he ended up fleeing from Thailand in order to avoid a jail sentence.

The military then reckoned that it was safe to hold another election, but Thaksin's renamed PPP won again last year: the poor knew who was on their side. Thaksin stayed in exile, but his close ally Samak Sundaravej became prime minister in his stead—and immediately faced the same legal vendetta. Early this year the courts got him for conflict of interest. The charge? He was moonlighting as the host of a television cooking show. In this struggle, no pretext is too petty.

Samak was replaced as prime minister in late September by Thaksin's brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat. The PAD then launched non-stop demonstrations that gradually paralysed the government. Three weeks ago they seized control of both Bangkok's airports, shutting down the tourist trade that accounts for six percent of Thailand's economy. And last week the courts came through for them again, ordering the disbanding of the PPP and two allied parties for electoral fraud.

That was the final blow. The regional godfathers, recognising that Thaksin is finished, have begun selling their services to the old-line Democratic Party again. It won't even be necessary to carry out the PAD's project to take the vote away from the rural population—they were proposing a parliament that was 70 percent appointed and only 30 percent elected—because the regional bosses will go back to brokering the rural vote in the good old-fashioned way.

It is a sad outcome, but not a surprising one. Relatively few Asian countries are openly run as dictatorships nowadays—China, Vietnam and Burma are the main exceptions—but the urban elites and the big land-owners really still call the tune in most of the so-called democracies. Thaksin had his faults, but he was trying to break Thailand free from that model. Unfortunately, he failed.

Gwynne Dyer's new book, Climate Wars, was published recently in Canada by Random House.



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60 years on, UN rights declaration faces new challenges

http://www.mmorning.com/ArticleC.asp?Article=6439&CategoryID=7

The declaration was adopted in Paris on December 10, 1948, breaking new ground by encoding basic principles that would serve as the template for future rights conventions.
The 30-point document, based on France’s 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, was adopted by 58 countries at a meeting of the UN General Assembly.
The Soviet Union, its East bloc allies, and South Africa abstained after a tortuous debate in which communist countries held up “real” economic and social rights against the “bourgeois” cultural and social principles defended by the West.
With the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust fresh in their minds, the countries adopted the non-binding declaration at the Palais de Chaillot.


“This was the first manifesto adopted by organised humanity”, said René Cassin, a French legal expert who took part in drafting the ground-breaking document.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration proclaims: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”.
On Wednesday, representatives from the United Nations, the European Commission and non-governmental organizations gathered at the Palais de Chaillot to take stock.
The declaration did not prevent a new genocide from occurring, in Rwanda in 1994, and basic human rights continue to be violated on a daily basis around the globe.
Human rights remains an ideology challenged by states which see it as a ploy by the West to impose its ideas on the rest of the world, said French former Justice Minister Robert Badinter.
“There are opposing trends from nationalists who say they are masters in their own house in China, Venezuela, Cuba or Burma, and from Islamists who say human rights stem from religious concepts”.
The rise of Russia and China as economic powers that strongly reject Western criticism of their rights record has reshaped the debate as has Washington’s “war on terror” launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“Who cares about Chechnya these days?” asks Reed Brody, of the US-based Human Rights Watch.
Russia fought two brutal wars in the Caucasus republic of Chechnya that human rights groups say have left more than 100,000 civilians dead. In poor countries, campaigners say development is a top priority and that the biggest threat to basic rights is economic and environmental degradation.
“For billions of people, food and shelter are basic human rights”, said Brody. “Since the September 11 attacks, human rights often take a back seat to security concerns”.
Despite the shortcomings, rights champions tip their hats to the UN declaration as a landmark document that changed international diplomacy.
Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan said the declaration “put human rights on the international agenda.
“Today no government denies that human rights are a valid concern of the international community. They may fail to respect human rights but they can’t deny the validity of these rights”, said Khan.
The world would look to President-elect Barack Obama to restore the United States’ human rights reputation after it was tarnished by the war on terrorism, Khan said.
In an interview to mark the 60th anniversary of the declaration, Irene Khan said that in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Western countries resorted to the tactics they once condemned.
“What the 9/11 attacks did was expose the hypocrisy of Western democracies that until then had been champions of human rights abroad”, Khan said. “Suddenly they were caught with problems in their own territory. And then facing that problem, they chose to take the easy path out of it, eroding human rights rather than standing up for them. “I think that sent a very bad message across the world to others”.
While the “war on terror” was conceived by the US Administration of President George W. Bush, “those who followed it were not just powerless innocents”, Khan said, singling out European governments which cooperated in the renditions of terrorist suspects.
The ‘renditions’ -- transferring terrorist suspects to third countries for interrogation, often passing through European airports or airspace -- became one of the most contentious elements of the war on terrorism.
Photographs of naked and hooded Iraqi prisoners being subjected to humiliation and made to simulate homosexual sex in the notorious US-run Abu Ghraib prison also became potent symbols of abuses by American forces.
But Khan is optimistic that the inauguration of the first black US president in January will see human rights move back to the top of Washington’s agenda. “I hope very much that the US really takes a strong stand on human rights in the future”, Khan said.
The Universal Declaration milestone was marked just days after the attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) and amid fears in the West over the spread of religious extremism, but Khan said the impact of the document remains profound.
“Today no government denies that human rights are a valid concern of the international community”, she said.
She admitted however that the outlook was gloomy as the global economic slowdown posed new challenges for human rights -- and she said governments had a duty to protect their citizens.

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2009: World economy in big trouble

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/16/business/20081216114059&sec=business

Published: Tuesday December 16, 2008 MYT 11:48:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday December 16, 2008 MYT 12:16:46 PM
2009: World economy in big trouble
By VIOREL URMA


NEW YORK: Battling the worst financial crisis in nearly 70 years, the world economy will brake sharply in 2009, with the United States, Western Europe and Japan in recession.

Developing economies in Asia, Africa and the Middle East will experience curtailed growth due to plunging commodity prices and a world trade contraction, but likely will escape the red ink.

Evidence of the global slide is still mounting.

Manufacturers around the world are under severe strain and laying off hundreds of thousands of workers; banks are failing, triggering a severe credit crunch; home foreclosures are skyrocketing; and auto sales are plummeting, which could push some carmakers into bankruptcy.

As a result, consumer confidence and spending have slumped, and business investment is drying up.



"Looking at where we are today, the good news, if any, is that we have probably stepped back from the brink of financial catastrophe,'' said Olivier Blanchard, chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

Conditions have deteriorated so much since the IMF's semiannual World Economic Outlook was released in October that it issued an update last month cutting its 2009 forecast for developed countries' economies to a drop of 0.3 percent, from 0.5 percent growth in the previous estimate.

Such a decline would mark the first contraction in any year since World War II.

Overall, the IMF now expects the world economy to grow at a 2.2 percent pace in 2009, down from its October projection of 3 percent.

Developing economies are projected to see GDP growth rate at 5 percent, despite diving commodity prices that have hit oil exporters especially hard.

Meanwhile, the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects report issued last week predicts that global GDP growth will slip from 2.5 percent in 2008 to 0.9 percent in 2009.

Developing countries' growth is expected to decline from 7.9 percent in 2008 to 4.5 percent in 2009.

It said the global economy is shifting from "a long period of strong growth'' led by developing countries to a time of "great uncertainty.''

"The slowdown in developing countries is very significant because the credit squeeze directly hits investments, which were a key pillar supporting the strong performance of the developing world during the past five years,'' said Hans Timmer, a senior World Bank economist.

The bank now predicts that world trade, an engine of growth for many developing economies, will contract by 2.1 percent in 2009, marking the first time since 1982 that trade will shrink.

The report also said the commodities boom of the past five years, which drove up prices 130 percent, has come to an end. Oil prices are likely to average about $75 a barrel in 2009.

The price of crude has fallen about 70 percent due to the sharp economic downturn since it peaked at $147.27 a barrel in July.

In its latest economic outlook, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said economic output will shrink by 0.3 percent in 2009 for the 30 market democracies that make up its membership, against the 1.4 percent growth prediction for 2008.

The Paris-based organization said the United States was expected to contract by 0.9 percent in 2009 following a 1.4 percent expansion in 2008.

Japanese output is projected to contract by 0.1 percent next year, following 0.5 percent growth this year, while the 15-nation euro-zone will likely shrink by 0.6 percent in 2009, after 1.0 percent growth this year.

"Many OECD economies are in, or are on the verge of, a protracted recession of a magnitude not experienced since the early 1980s,'' OECD Chief Economist Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel warned.

"As a result, the number of unemployed in the OECD area could rise by 8 million over the next two years.''

But few things are definite.

"Uncertainties surrounding the projections are exceptionally large,'' Schmidt-Hebbel said .

"Much will depend on how quickly the financial crisis - the main driver of the downturn - is overcome.''

Among the risks are financial institutions suffering further failures and emerging market economies being hit harder by the downturn in global trade.

Positive developments would include central banks shoring up their finances and governments adopting more substantial fiscal stimulus measures, such as higher spending and lower taxes, economists said.

In the United States, a huge decline in wholesale inventories of durable and nondurable goods and in sales provided further evidence that the economy is in a steep recession.

In November, American shoppers handed retail stores their worst results in at least 39 years.

Many analysts believe the current recession, which has already lasted 12 months, will drag until at least the middle of next year.

If it lasts past April, it will become the longest recession in the post World War II period, surpassing recessions in the mid-1970s and early 1980s that each lasted 16 months.

As the U.S. is sinking deeper into economic despair, analysts predict more grim news in the months ahead.

Employers cut payrolls in November at the fastest pace in 34 years as the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, the highest level since 1993.

The month's 553,000 drop in jobs brought cumulative losses in 2008 to nearly 2 million, the Labor Department said, and the total number of unemployed Americans increased to 10.3 million.

Some analysts predict that 3 million more jobs will be lost before spring 2010 and that the once-humming US economy could stagger backward at a shocking 6 percent rate in 2008's fourth quarter.

"It's a mess,'' said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

"Businesses, battening down the hatches, are concerned about their survival and are cutting workers.''

"The economy is in a free fall,'' said Richard Yamarone of Argus Research.

"It is as if someone flicked off the switch on hiring.''

U.S. automakers have been particularly hard hit, with sales dropping to the lowest level in 26 years.

The top executives of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have appealed to Congress for as much as $34 billion in government assistance, saying the alternative was bankruptcy that could lead to the loss of about 3 million jobs.

The White House is exploring new ways to help Detroit's big three after the Senate last week rejected a $14 billion bailout.

To battle the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, President-elect Barack Obama is working on a fiscal stimulus package of at least $500 billion.

Obama has promised to make the "single largest new investment'' in big public works projects as part of his plan to save or create 2.5 million jobs.

As uncertainties on bank solvency and credit supply persist, the federal government has committed more than $7 trillion in its efforts to contain the deepening financial crisis - although there is widespread agreement it won't really spend anything close to that figure.

In other economic predictions for 2009:

_The Paris-based International Energy Agency said last week that global oil demand will shrink this year for the first time since 1983.

The IEA cut its global demand forecast for 2008 by 350,000 barrels a day to 85.8 million barrels a day, down 0.2 percent from 2007.

The IEA also cut its forecast for global oil demand in 2009, saying it would increase by just 0.5 percent to 86.3 million barrels a day.

The OPEC cartel, which accounts for about 40 percent of global crude supply, has signaled it plans to cut output quotas at a meeting Dec. 17 in Algeria.

_The Middle East and North Africa region appears to have held up well in 2008, growing at 5.8 percent, but the aggregate number hides big swings in trade, current account positions and external financing requirements, according to the World Bank.

With oil exporters facing diminished revenues in 2009, regional growth is expected to be just 3.9 percent in 2009. - AP


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World economy in crisis: Any hope for price swing?

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1906:world-economy-in-crisis-any-hope-for-price-swing-&catid=67:oil&Itemid=193

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 00:15 Anonymous
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Following the sudden drop in the crude oil prices in the international market last month, many countries should now be counting their losses. After reaching a world record of $147per barrel in July, there were high expectations among producing nations that the skyrocketed prices would be sustained till the end of the year. unfortunately, this has not been the case, against the predictions and projections of international analysts.
Rise and fall oil prices
Throughout the first half of 2008, oil regularly reached record high prices. On February 29, 2008 , specifically, oil prices peaked at $103.05/bbl, and reached $110.20/bbl on March 12, 2008 , the sixth record in seven trading days. Prices on June 27, 2008 touched $141.71/bbl for August delivery in the New York Mercantile Exchange (after the recent $140.56/bbl), amid Libya ’s threat to cut output, and OPEC’s predicted prices may reach $170 by the Northern summer. The most recent price per barrel maximum of $147.02 was reached on July 11, 2008 . After falling below $100 in the late summer of 2008, prices rose again in late September.


On September 22, oil rose over $25 to $130/bbl before settling again to $120.92/bbl, marking a record one-day gain of $16.37/bbl. Electronic crude oil trading was temporarily halted by NYMEX when the daily price rise limit of $10 was reached, but the limit was reset seconds later and trading resumed. By October 16, prices had fallen again below $70/bbl. Incidentally, as the cost of producing petroleum did not rise significantly, the price increases have coincided with a period of record profits for the oil industry.
Between 2004 and 2007, the profits of the six super majors – ExsonMobil, Total, Shell, BP, Chevron, and ConcoPhillips, totaled $494.8 billion.
Why rise and fall?
According to the US –based Energy Information Administration, the reasons for the surge ranged from the relentless growth for the economies of China and India to widespread instability in oil-producing regions, including Iraq and Nigeria ’s Delta region. Triple-digit oil prices have redrawn the economic and political map of the world, challenging some old notions of power. Oil-rich nations are now enjoying historic gains and opportunities, while major importers including China and India , home to a third of the world’s population confront rising economic and social costs.
From the mid- 1980s to September 2003, the inflation adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel. In 2004, the price rose above $40, and then $50. a series of events led the price to exceed $60 by August 11, 2005 and then briefly exceed $75 in the middle of 2006. prices then dropped back to $60/barrel by the early part of 2007 before rising steeply again to $92/barrel by October 200, and $99.29/barrel for December futures in New York on November 21, 2007 .
Higher oil production in Saudi Arabia during summer 2008 combined with demand response to extremely high prices and recent credit market problems that point to a lower trajectory for the world economy and oil consumption growth are currently reinforcing the sentiment of a loosening in the global oil balance. As a result, the recent supply disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico have not resulted in the kind of price increases that would have been expected had they occurred earlier in the year.
However, unless the global economy is weaker than anticipated, EIA expects that the call on organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) crude oil will exceed OPEC crude oil production over the next six months. This market balance and the relatively low level of organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) commercial oil inventories suggest some upward pressure on prices. Meanwhile, if non-OPWEC oil production increases as expected during 2009, it is anticipated that oil price pressures would then moderate.
EIA reviews export earnings
As the economic crunch persists, the Energy Information Administration has revised downward its forecast of OPEC oil export revenues by $32 billion this year to $1.084 trillion from the $1.116 trillion forecast in September.
The EIA has also lowered its forecast of OPEC’s 2009 oil export earnings to $1.226 trillion, a downward revision of $142 billion. The EIA bases its earnings estimates on projections from its Short Term Energy Outlook. The October projection, it said, sees the price of US West Texas Intermediate crude averaging $111.57/barrel this year, $34/bbl lower than its September forecast.

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