Kumat - Kamit

Prison is supposed to be the place where the inmates get their punishment to pay for the bad thing they've done, but not here at Warren Hill Jail at Hollesley, Suffolk in England. According to Ex-substance misuse worker Helen Stanmore, prisoners at Warren Hill Jail which holds some of the country's most dangerous young criminals enjoyed a millionaire lifestyle.

Inmates in Warren Hiil Jail can watch 50in plasma screen TV, play the latest computer games including Nintendo Wii consoles before they were even available on the street, cozy bed, and they can even choose their own toilet seat covers for their en-suite bathrooms. Not only that, these criminals are also can regularly order items from Argos Catalog. So, they got the most hi-tech stufff and expense is spared.

moreover, these dangerous young murderers are also have chance to get compensation paid by the taxpayers. A Freedom of Information request showed that one young offender at Warren Hill Jail has just been paid £10,000 compensation by the taxpayer after an assault by a member of staff.the East Anglian Daily Times, revealed that almost £100,000 compensation was paid out by the taxpayer to Suffolk's prisoners in the past four years. The staffs are always worried about being accused of assault with these prisoners because they will try anything to get a claim, and they have smart lawyers too. So the staffs are not allowed to touch them, but if those criminals attack them it's bad luck said one senior officer there.

Still not enough with those privileges ? well, there are more shocking facts in this prison. At night, there are only two guards looking after a unit of 80 prisoners.The Ministry of Justice said 39 prisoners had absconded from the jail between January 2007 and March this year. Still according to Ms Stanmore, drugs - especially cannabis and cellphone were often thrown to inmates over the perimeter fence when she was there. a prison officer there said "if they got cannabis it keeps my night shift quiet".The Suffolk Coastal Tory MP said "We have the worst re-offending rates in Europe and most people who go to prison in Britain go back to prison". Warren Hill Jail is indeed an inmate's holiday camp, These criminals get the better facilities than they can get outside, it's like staying in a hotel in their holiday, of course they'd like to comeback over and over again. Read more!

This is a real threat, do you know which countries have nuclear power plants ? The list might be surprising, Argentina, Armenia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States. There are more than 441 operable reactors in these countries according to the Uranium Information Centre. Some of those countries use their nuclear capabilities to make nuclear weapons and some of them haven't done it yet, but one thing for sure they all have Uranium and plutonium stockpiles. According to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation there are up to 2,000,000 kg of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) in global stockpiles, while it just takes 15-24 kg to make a nuclear weapon and there are 500,000 kg of plutonium in global stockpiles while it just takes 5 kg to make a nuclear weapon, looking at these facts there are at least 28 countries with at least one bomb's worth, and the sad thing is this one bomb could be enough to trigger a nuclear war someday.

The Countries that are known to have stockpiles of nuclear weapons are Russia, the United States, France, China, Great Britain, Pakistan, India, North Korea and Israel. Among these countries only Israel that neither confirm nor deny that they have nuclear weapons, but we all know that USA as their closest ally is the number one country in nuclear race, so even though they don't have nuclear reactors they can still have nuclear weapons in order to secure the US interests in the Middle East of course. There are approximately 31,000 nuclear warheads in the stockpiles of these countries, but more than 95% of these weapons are in the arsenals of the US and Russia. According to Nuclear Age Peace Foundation about 13,000 from those 31,000 nuclear warheads are deployed, and 4,600 of them are ready to launched within minutes notice. The combined explosive power of these weapons are approximately 5,000 megatons which is 200,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

It all started during the cold war when two superpower countries The Soviet Union and The USA Threaten each other with their new weapon technologies, and it's pretty reasonable to think that the country possessing nuclear warheads would have attacked or invaded the one that did not, and so the nuclear race began. Both countries keep increasing their Uranium and nuclear warheads stockpiles, renewing their technology to find the most efficient ways to create their nuclear weapons while spreading their ideologies and influences around the world.

The situation is not getting better after the cold war, when the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 in order to pursue missile defences and space weaponization, this has caused both Russia and China to improve their offensive nuclear capabilities.

A small hope occurs recently as The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) between the US and Russia requires the two countries to reduce their deployed strategic warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 by December 31, 2012. But still on the following day the treaty terminates, each side can redeploy as many nuclear warheads as it chooses. What’s being the concern of many observers is many of the nuclear warheads taken off deployed status are not being dismantled, but rather placed in storage, where they might be stolen by criminal or terrorist groups, even this is just a theory but still it could happen and you can imagine the danger if it falls into the wrong hand.

As I said before it could only takes one missile with nuclear warhead to start a nuclear war and looking at the facts on the number of the - ready to launch warheads and the stockpiles, if the war really happen, human race might have to fight against extinction. Read more!

Today July 22, 2009 there is a very interesting astronomical event happening. A total solar eclipse which according to UNESCO.ORG is the longest total solar eclipse in the 21st century, 6 minutes and 39 seconds. this natural phenomenon can be seen from mainland Asia, Ryukyu Islands in Japan, and the Pacific Ocean. No doubt it would be an incredible scene for those who can see it.

Path of the moon's umbral shadow started in India and Nepal, then continued to Bhutan, Myanmar and china. After passing Ryukyu Islands in Japan then it turned to the Pacific Ocean with total duration of 6 minutes and 39 seconds.

A solar eclipse happens when the moon comes between the Earth and the Sun in a direct line, the Moon's shadow only blocks out the the sunlight for some parts of the Earth where the eclipse can be seen.

(Based on the report from UNESCO.ORG) Read more!

Nowadays global warming has become a global issue, how we slowly destruct our only home in this universe the mother Earth by choking it up with carbons, methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide and other dangerous materials. In the other hand we also threatened by fosil energy crisis. This irrecoverable energy is running out and the price is also getting higher and higher every time. We need to find alternative renewable energies to replace fosil energy as well as to safe the earth from the use of energy which produce too much polution.

But the question is can we or have we found an alternative energy that suits all the goals ? because the challenge is the new energy source must be cheaper than the one we used before and also it must be environmental and ecological friendly. The scientists and experts all over the world have thought about this for many years and came up with some ideas, but none of them are perfectly applicable or in other words they all still have weaknesses. But still their efforts to make this earth a better place to live deserve our highest appreciation and we hope that not in a long time in the future these people will find the perfect alternative energies for us.

Here are 10 of the most popular and already obtained alternative energies :

* Wind Power (Using A Wind Turbines)
USA is probably the number one country in the world in using this alternative energy, a US government study found that energy from the wind would supply 20 percent of the electricity by 2030.The wind capacity in this country increased every year as they continously installing new turbines, and in order to reach their 20 percent goal they will have to install 75,000 additional new turbines. the weakness of this project is the turbines which are big and so many, very disturbing the view and also they could be deadly for migrating birds so they're not ecological friendly.

* Ebb and Tide Flow Turbine
This turbine has the same operation principal with the wind turbine, only it uses water / tidal flow power, and since water is denser than the wind it will take fewer turbines to produce the same power as the wind turbines. But since it's operated under the water it could impact the living environment there and it could also alter tidal flows.

* Nuclear Power
Many countries in the world have developed this kind of energy as a solution for their energy problems, in many ways it's an effective way to solve the problems but there are always many concerns about the use of this energy. We still remember the accidents happened at Pennsylvania and of course the chernobyl accident in 1986. There are also concerns about the nuclear waste which is extremely dangerous for every living thing, and beside all that it's very expensive to build a nuclear reactor.

* Geothermal Power
This is a way to produce electricity using heat from Earth's depths. to get this energy we have to dig miles beneath the earth's surface and then connect them with water to produce steam that spins electricity turbines. it seems like a good solution, but the critics say the construction to costs are very high, there are also some seismic risks and consume too much valuable water.

* Solar Energy
This could be the most popular alternative energy because nowadays many people have used it in their homes especially in developed countries. however, solar energy accounts for less than 1 percent of the nation's electricity mix. the weakness include the high cost and low efficiency of the silicon chips that convert sunlight to electricity and unreliability of clear skies at any one location.

* Hydroelectric Dam
Hydroelectric dams are seen as an important source of cheap and abundant electricity without carbon.the level of water behind the concrete wall flows through a turbine to generate electricity. large dams however, could drown landscapes, rivers, and damage the life of fish. But it also helps the farmers to supply irrigation water, so it has lots of plus and minus points.

* Coal
It's cheap and very much applicable but the problem is it still produces carbon dioxide emission. Many experts say that it just need to be "clean" in order to limit the contribution to global warming. several Technologies are being developed in order to capture and store coal's carbon dioxide emissions underground.

* Bio Ethanol
This one seems very promising, it's actually biofuels distilled from crops such as corn and soybeans. But since it's helping drive up food prices and, according to some studies, doing little if anything to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, researchers are trying to find more acceptable feedstock and they come up with algal fuel.The scraps can be transformed into ethanol and animal feed. The problem is the cost : A gallon of algal fuel today is about $20, which is expensive compared to $4 gasoline.

* Gas / Electric hybrid vehicle
It could extremely decrease the polution and it's powered by a cheap energy source. The only problem is the price of this kind of vehicle is unbelievebly expensive, which means the financial payback comes several years down the road. this probably because no car industries have decided to produce this kind of vehicles massively.

* Hydrogen and Air Powered Car
This car uses fuel cell stacks as an alternative energy to create electricity by combining hydrogen and air, so there would be no gases or fumes linked with global warming or pollution. And nowadays there are already few roadside hydrogen filling stations. The problem is the same as No. 9, the price is still too high in a cause of no mass production yet.
Read more!

Manny Pacquiao, a world’s boxing champion in 4 weight divisions from Philippines is stated as One of The Most Influential Person in the World in 2009 according to TIME magazine.

In a review written by Lennox Lewis, he said that Manny Pacquiao is the best boxer in the world, Manny has everything that every boxer needs to be a champion, powerful punch, nice move, great techniques and emotional stability.

Furthermore in that article it’s said that Manny Pacquiao has connected with the people of his home country, the Philippines, to the point where he's almost like a god. The people have rallied behind him and feel like they're a part of him, because they can see his talent, his dedication, his grace and his class. The grip he holds over the Philippines is similar to Nelson Mandela's influence in South Africa. So he’s not just a boxer, he is also a national hero for the Philippines, the people’s hope, the nation’s pride, and a message to the world saying “this small forgotten country in South East Asia is taking over the crown off your head.. you Kings of the world !”

Beside Manny Pacquiao, in TIME’s 100 world’s most influential person there are also political leaders, celebrities, scientists and activists. Some of them are Edward Kennedy (Member of the American Senate), Hillary Clinton (US Foreign Minister), Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (The President Of The Republic Of Indonesia), Barack Obama (The President Of The USA), Ted Turner (Owner Of A Global Media Organization), John Legend (Musician), Tom Hanks (Actor), Oprah Winfrey (Celebrity, Medias owner, Social Icon), Steven Chu (Scientist, Nobel Price Winner), Suraya Pakzad (Women Activist), Nicolas Sarkozy (French President), Somaly Mam ( Cambodia’s Women Activist) Read more!

I was just wake up this morning when I saw this terrible news on TV, two bombs had just exploded inside two luxurious hotels in my hometown Jakarta, JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotel. The first bomb exploded in JW Marriott Hotel at 7.40 am and within 5 minutes the second bomb exploded in Ritz Carlton Hotel. These two bombs killed at least 9 people and injured about 52 people. The authority are still looking for evidence and clues in order to reveal the person / organization that responsible for this bombing, but one thing for sure that this is a terrorism act.

For JW Marriott Hotel this is the second bombing they experience, the first bombing happened in 2003. It was a suicide bombing using a car which killed 12 people and injured 150 people.

What's so hard to understand is those terrorists, they are always talking about fighting against USA, United Kingdom, Australia and global liberalization / capitalism and they try to convince people that all of their actions are meant for those reasons. But what I see all this time is they only slaughter innocent people and most of the victims are Indonesian citizens. If they really intend to fight against USA why should they bomb a hotel with many civilians in it ? why won't they attack their military base or any of the American government buildings in America ? not that I say that's the right thing to do but at least it clears up their purposes, or if they really have the guts just go to Iraq or Afghanistan or maybe to some flared up central American Nations to fight the US soldier face to face. It becomes so blur whether they're fighting against those capitalistic governments or they are just enjoying killing innocent people.

But the saddest thing for me in this matter is, Manchester United FC which already has a schedule to play in Jakarta against our national soccer team in July 20 canceled their tour to Indonesia because of this bombing and decided to go back to England after playing in Malaysia, this is indeed a tragedy. Read more!