I normally don't write about these things because instead of promoting discussion they have a tendency to bring out irrational argument. I'll take the chance this time.

The Middle East is at it again. And trying to understand both sides, a novel concept in this day and age, is not an easy thing - especially since there hasn't been a demonstrable presence of anything outside of pro-Israel news out there. A lot of things are taken as gospel when it comes to this situation and much that has to do with Israel in the past. When people stop asking questions, I wonder. And when I wonder, I start researching. It isn't that I'm against Israel. It's that I want the truth, and the truth being presented by most media seems to revolve around a segment of Palestinian society that the media portrays as either 'evil' or crazy. Who would launch feeble rockets against one of the most powerful military forces in the Middle East, if not the most powerful military force in the Middle East?

The tired concept of people strapping bombs to themselves because they hate others so much is incomplete, too. Where does that hatred come from? Some say oppression, and a read of the quality of life in the occupied territories does seem to be a breeding ground for hatred. If I grew up in those circumstances, I don't know that my actions would be much different. People have breaking points. So do societies. I can't imagine growing up with a military force I have to see daily at checkpoints. Or wondering if that bulldozer is coming for the house I am living in. At some point, I might throw a few stones. I'm not saying it is right. I'm just saying that under the circumstances that most Palestinians appear to live, people might feel righteously anger. And righteous anger is a dangerous thing... and it also has the benefit in this context of explaining a lot of things that are portrayed as evil or crazy.

This morning, as I was considering writing something for KnowProSE.com (which I probably will still write), I ran across Trinidad and Tobago's Energy Minister's dispute with local economists:

Energy Minister Conrad Enill disputes statements that this country could encounter hard times in the fallout from the energy policies of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama...

Intuitively, I disagree with the Minister - but in trying to find information to discuss this intelligently, I came to realize that the data is not to be found, or found easily. The idea is simple enough, and is flawed because it would make a broad assumption - but if we were to take historical global oil usage statistics and plot them against the world population, we might have a broad brush with which to paint a picture so as to discuss this intelligently. Alas, alack, that information doesn't seem to be available anywhere - if it is, I'd love to plot that history of oil use against the world's population increases. Why?

If the World population increases at a rate higher than oil usage could potentially decrease per person, it means that the demand for oil could remain constant. And with oil supplies decreasing globally (they have to be, we've run out of dinosaurs), this would mean that oil prices would increase - thereby driving less and less use of oil. Optimistic perspectives see this as a way for a market to balance itself, but in the context of something that the planet will eventually run out of the oil market cannot balance itself in the long term.

So I'm up late - probably as late as usual - but I spent a good portion of the evening running the pump so that it can fill the water tanks. In the richest country of the Caribbean, where I am sitting here writing and doing work with synthetic worlds ('virtual' worlds), where I do web programming and other things... here, I have to wait and see when water is provided on the main and make sure that the tanks are filled because... one never knows with certainty when one will have water on the mainline again.

A country where oil is pumped out of the ground, sold to Europe. A country where men, like those pictured, wander around like lost children to open and close valves on pipes placed under roads in the 1950s. The roads have been paved for every election that I can remember. After every repaving of the roads, the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) comes by and excavates the new road so that they can replace pieces of the water pipes. Whether the water is potable is always a question. But we have water, unlike so many places in the world that do not. The desalination plant in South Trinidad produces 80% of the water for San Fernando, Trinidad - or so I am told.

Oil is pumped out of the ground in pipes.