TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 ANALYSIS

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Issues Oil in Arcadia

By John Kemp

he state of New York produced just 1,000 barrels of oil per day in 2013, but consumed almost 620,000 barrels per Tday of refined fuels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Virtually every gallon of gasoline which New York motorists put into their cars, and the fuel oil used to heat their homes and offices through the long, cold winter, was refined from oil produced outside the state. Some of that crude came from states such as North Dakota, Texas and Alaska, and the rest from foreign suppliers like Canada, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria. In common with other metropolitan areas, such as Washington, London or Paris, the lifestyle New Yorkers enjoy depends on oil and gas produced in other places and commu- nities. It is worth remembering that when sitting in a comfort- able office in a big city reading about all the problems associat- E-cigarette boom sparks race for new patents ed with oil and gas production. On Saturday, the New York Times published a carefully researched essay chronicling “The By Martinne Geller and Ben Hirschler inate in China, where over half of men smoke. help limit intake. Other smaller players aim to but also a wider drive by the Chinese govern- Downside of the Boom” about how “North Dakota took on the In second place is the United States, with 14 deliver doses of caffeine and other additives ment to forge a knowledge economy. By oversight of a multi-billion dollar oil industry with a regulatory lectronic cigarette makers are racing to percent, followed by South Korea with 9 per- instead of nicotine. A unit of mCig Inc sells maximising patents it hopes to replace the system built on trust, warnings and second chances”. design and buy variations of a technolo- cent. Some patented suggestions target VitaCigs containing vitamins and supple- ubiquitous “Made in China” label by It discusses in detail the accidents, blow outs and spillages gy that has lit a billion-dollar boom, cre- smokers looking to regulate their nicotine ments such as valerian and collagen, while a “Designed in China”. which have accompanied the state’s oil boom, with interviews, E ated a new vocabulary, and prompted a back- intake and their spending. While offerings company called Energy Shisha sells a caf- Since 2011, China has been the world’s top data analysis and illustrations. The whole article is well worth lash from health officials worried about the already on the market include thousands of feinated vaping stick. Patents filed by others, patent filer for all inventions, according to the reading but it tells only part of the story and ultimately fails to impact of the new smokeless devices. e-liquid flavours from menthol to marshmal- including Fuma International, mention World Intellectual Property Office. Its scien- present a balanced picture of the costs and benefits associated Research by Thomson Reuters shows that low, and even a smartphone app to show tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active tists and companies now lay claim to intellec- with oil production. China - with over 300 million smokers - is the how much you are using, new patents go a chemical in cannabis. tual property rights on everything from tele- front runner in the manufacture and develop- step further. In general, e-cigarette patents relate to coms to medicine. “Patenting globally is rising Rural Poverty ment of so-called e-cigarette technology, Tobacco giant Philip Morris International systems for heating and vaporising liquids, significantly year on year, driven by Chinese Like many other articles published in the great metropolitan while new versions being patented include a describes an e-cigarette that would allow as well as for charging the electronic sys- patenting generally,” said Bob Stembridge, newspapers from New York, Washington and Los Angeles, it “pay as you go” computer-assisted device and users to “pay as you go” by buying a certain tems, whether in a “cigalike” device or a larg- senior patent analyst at Thomson Reuters IP & presents a picture of a rural Arcadia despoiled by careless oil others that can deliver caffeine instead. number of doses via computer application er “tank” system, which doesn’t resemble a Science. “But I would say the e-cigarette field and gas producers. The reality is rather different. For most of the In 2005 just eight e-cigarette inventions connected to their e-cigarette. Customers cigarette but gives a better “vaping” experi- is growing faster than the general trend, and last century, North Dakota has been a poor rural economy were described in published patents. By 2012 could also program the device to shut off ence. China’s domination of the market the bias toward China is greater than in global struggling to make a living from farming. Until the oil boom the figure had jumped to 220 and by last year after a certain number of puffs per use to reflects not only its huge number of smokers patenting.” —Reuters started around 2006, incomes in North Dakota had been far there were over 500 inventions, according to below the national average for most of the last 80 years. an analysis by the IP & Science business of During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, average Thomson Reuters. So far this year the total has Together, apart, afraid: Living in Jerusalem personal income in North Dakota hovered at just 80-85 percent reached 650. (A single invention may be cov- of the national level. By contrast, average incomes in New York ered by several patents.) The original technolo- By Delphine Matthieussent surface, a fragile coexistence exists in public parks, shopping centres and were almost 50 percent higher at 120 percent of the national gy, involving battery-powered heating sys- workplaces, with Palestinians crossing from east to west Jerusalem to work average, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. In tems that vaporise nicotine-laced liquid, is he two young Jerusalem shop assistants wear similar clothes and in often menial jobs. 1995 the average per capita personal income in the United credited to Hon Lik, a Chinese medical makeup. Only their names tell them apart as Israeli and Palestinian. But other than out of professional or economic necessity, Israelis and States stood at $23,500, but was $26,700 in New York and just researcher with a 20-a-day habit, in 2003. TBut they know that talking about events outside might test their Palestinians do not tend to mix, increasingly avoiding each other for fear of $19,400 in North Dakota. His invention has since become so popular friendship. Avital and Iman spend their days chatting at a budget clothes random or revenge attacks. “I’m scared of being assaulted,” said Iman, who In 1995, North Dakota was ranked 42nd out of the 50 states that the market is now estimated to be worth shop in west Jerusalem. They look almost identical, dressed from the did not want to give her family name. Raada, a Palestinian working at a in income per capita. Only Kentucky, Oklahoma, New , $3.5 billion. Both big tobacco firms and small store’s “winter collection” and wearing their dark, straightened hair the Talpiot nursery, said Jewish parents now regard her with increasing suspi- Utah, Montana, Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi were entrepreneurs are falling over themselves to same way. But months of violence in the Holy City, including a spate of cion. “I learned that some parents demanded the Shin Bet (Israel’s domes- worse off. North Dakota’s average per capita personal income in find new ways to “vape” - a verb suddenly so deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis, have ramped up tensions. It is a tic security service) vet me,” she said, also refusing to give her family name. 1995 was only $2,000 per year higher than Mississippi, the mainstream the Oxford English Dictionary subject Avital and Iman avoid discussing. “I’ve looked after Jewish children for years. These people’s kids come in poorest state in the union. The oil boom has changed all that. named it 2014’s Word of the Year. Imperial Last week, two Palestinians armed with a gun and meat cleavers killed each morning and cuddle me. Is that not enough proof for them?” By 2013, North Dakota’s average personal income ranked it 7th Tobacco last year snapped up the patents five people at a synagogue - the culmination of months of tension, and in the country. Only Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, owned by the company Hon co-founded in a after a series of apparent “lone-wolf” attacks, including hit-and-runs in Tension Reaches YMCA New York and Maryland were better off. deal worth $75 million, and is suing rivals for a which Palestinian drivers killed four people. “We’ve been working together The tension has even reached west Jerusalem’s YMCA hotel and leisure range of alleged patent infringements. for a few months, and we’ve been getting along,” said Iman, 21, from the centre opposite the historic King David Hotel. For years it has seen itself as Cost and Benefit Part of the rush to create new devices can Arab east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Safafa. “But we avoid talking a haven of intercommunal coexistence. Israeli, Palestinian and foreign It is worth noting that with the exception of New York’s be explained by the prospect of stiffer regula- about what’s been happening because we both know that conversation swimming coaches teach side by side at the YMCA pool. “Things kicked off 1,000 barrels per day, none of those states produced any oil at tion on existing ones after the World Health could end badly.” Twenty-two-year-old Avital, who lives in the Jewish in the changing rooms this week,” said Rotem Lehman, an Israeli children’s all in 2013, according to the Energy Information Administration, Organization said it wanted to see this, along neighbourhood of Talpiot, agrees that it is best to avoid certain topics. “We swimming instructor. “We heard several heated arguments” between the despite consuming millions of barrels per day between them. with bans on indoor use, advertising and sales don’t talk about the incidents. There’s what happens in the shop and what children. “And after the (synagogue) attack, the pool was empty for two Oil production has played a vital role in pulling North Dakota to minors. While proponents see e-cigarettes happens outside. The two are separate.” days - no one came” because of safety fears, she said. out of relative poverty and revitalising the state’s economy. as important tools for harm reduction, critics Lehman’s colleague Osama Judeh, a Palestinian from east Jerusalem, North Dakota’s shale oil, together with similar production in fear the devices may instead fuel a new wave Burned Alive said the animosity would never break their bond. “Nothing could separate Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado, has brought the of nicotine addiction and cite a lack of long- The violence in Jerusalem began in earnest in July, when Jewish us. We’ve known each other far too long,” he said, affectionately placing his cost of driving and heating down for all American households. term scientific evidence to support their safety. extremists burned alive a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in apparent revenge arm around Lehman’s shoulder. Personnel chief Nuha Tannus hopes the It is North Dakota’s oil that has reduced US dependence on for the killing of three Jewish teenagers in the occupied West Bank. A intercommunal tension will not affect the YMCA. “Employees and visitors overseas supplies and given policymakers the freedom to pur- Pay As You Go bloody July-August war in the Gaza Strip, which killed nearly 2,200 will never sink that low,” she said. “What scares me is that we’ll be the target sue a more confident sanctions policy towards Iran. And it is Of more than 2,000 e-cigarette inventions Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side, exacerbated tensions and resulted of a rightwing nutcase, either Israeli or Palestinian, who attacks us because North Dakota’s oil that has lessened reliance on imports from tracked by Thomson Reuters, 64 percent orig- in near daily clashes between police and east Jerusalem youths. On the we live together.” —AFP countries with poor records on human rights and environmen- tal safeguards. None of this is meant to excuse spillages, blow outs and pollution, or suggest the industry, regulators and politicians should not pursue constant improvements. Hope for ’s abused women But it is important to keep pollution problems in perspec- tive. Every economic activity entails some risks. The point is to manage them. Hazards are not restricted to oil and gas. Few By Anastasia Moloney what many El Salvadorans say was a watershed moment because it women and girls, is sexual violence that takes place in the home,” she commentators like to acknowledge the pollution associated put the problem in the public domain. added. with producing the rare earth elements essential to much mod- osa put an end to a 20-year abusive relationship in the less As part of its response to gender-based violence, the government In one of the buildings in the Women City, rape survivors receive ern clean technology. Nor are the hazards restricted to shale. than two hours it took her to file for divorce, an alimony claim launched Women City, the brainchild of Vanda Pignato, El Salvador’s legal advice, as well as medical and psychological care. Right next Far more pollution has been caused by conventional onshore Rand a restraining order against her husband. Such procedures former first lady and Funes’ estranged wife. “Before that speech door to a forensic lab where semen and blood samples are collected, and offshore production over the decades. usually take weeks in El Salvador. But at one of the country’s “Women women didn’t exist in government policies,” Pignato, now the presi- policewomen and public prosecutors are on hand to receive the evi- North Dakota’s track record on pollution control and safety City” centres set up to help women break cycles of violence by mak- dential secretary for social inclusion, told the Thomson Reuters dence and handle criminal cases. “In the past it was the same govern- is considerably better than alternative sources of US fuels such ing it easier for them to report abuse and get help, Rosa is already Foundation as she walked along the corridors of the Women City in ment institutions that promoted the idea that violence against as Nigeria or Venezuela. The Times article implies North moving on with her life. At each of El Salvador’s five Women City cen- Santa Ana. “They were invisible. At Women City, women are now visi- women wasn’t worth investigating,” said Pignato. “The government Dakota’s politicians and regulators were not up to the job and tres, 15 government agencies offer a range of services from reproduc- ble, in a place that’s just for them. When women come here they get had turned their back on women. That’s changing. Women City has should have pursued a more aggressive and confrontational tive and natal healthcare and breast cancer prevention to business a hug from a female official who doesn’t judge or ignore them.” helped regain the credibility of government institutions and recover approach with oil producers. However, that is both unfair and advice, job training and bank loans - all under one roof. In a region known for its high levels of , trust lost in the system.” unrealistic. Adopting the sort of zero-risk, zero-tolerance “I’m grateful to get free legal advice and be treated nicely by a Women City is seen as a model other Latin American countries could Still, there is a long way to go. El Salvador’s judicial system is noto- approach which the Times advocates would have ensured the female police officer who’s taking me seriously,” Rosa said as she wait- adopt. , and Mexico have all expressed interest riously corrupt, overstretched and underfunded, critics say. Rights shale boom never happened. —Reuters ed to see a psychologist at the Women City centre in Santa Ana, an in the UN Women-backed initiative. Yet getting the first Women City group say around 80 percent of crimes against women go unpun- hour’s drive from the capital . “I don’t have to live with centre off the ground was met with resistance from the political elite, ished, while a culture of blaming women for the sexual abuse they the beatings anymore,” Rosa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, as well as the Catholic Church and evangelical groups. “In El Salvador, have suffered still exists. declining to give her full name. everything is dominated by men,” said Brazilian-born Pignato. All articles appearing on these Since the first Women City opened in 2011 to promote women’s “Powerful and empowered women are seen as a dangerous thing for Economic Empowerment pages are the personal opinion of rights, their economic empowerment and access to health services, the political classes.” Recognising the importance of economic independence, Women some 603,000 women have used the centres, built in and around City also helps women to earn a living by teaching them a new trade the writers. Kuwait Times takes no cities with high rates of violence against women. “Before coming to Breaking Cycle of Violence or skill, such as shoe making, repairing boat engines and computer responsibility for views expressed Women City, I didn’t even know I had all these rights as a woman and Like other Latin American countries, violence against women in skills, so they depend less on men to provide for them. At an onsite therein. Kuwait Times invites read- that free help is available. It’s been so easy doing everything all in the El Salvador stems from a deeply macho culture, which results in a vegetable farm they are also taught organic farming techniques. “It’s ers to voice their opinions. Please same place. And I can leave my son at the crËche here,” Rosa said. lack of economic independence and women being seen primarily as difficult to convince a woman to report a crime especially when the child bearers. El Salvadoran women have lower levels of education, aggressor is a family member and the sole provider for the family,” send submissions via email to: opin- Spotlight on Violence Against Women higher school dropout rates and almost twice the rate of illiteracy Pignato said. At another block, a class on making traditional birthday [email protected] or via snail Until recently, violence against women in the conservative compared to men. Around 40 percent of El Salvadorans are poor. “It’s games and decorations is in full swing. For Ana Cecilia Alas, the $20 mail to PO Box 1301 Safat, Kuwait. nation was seen as a private matter to be dealt with a problem to do with education. Women have been raised to serve she earns a month from selling what she produces at the workshop The editor reserves the right to edit behind closed doors. But a landmark speech by former president men and for men to provide. So men see women as an object, just makes all the difference. “I use the money to ensure my sons have in 2012 started to slowly change perceptions. someone who serves,” Pignato said. “While there’s sexual violence by the textbooks and clothes they need for school,” she said, putting the any submission as necessary. “Violence against women is violence against society,” said Funes, in gang members, the main enemy for women, especially young final touches on a papier-mache pinata. —Reuters