PAGE 2 I THE MEREDITH HERALD | OCTOBER 14, 2009
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IRAN’S SECRET AND THE 2009 UN
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Anna Turner
SlaffWriter
Details of Iran’s nuclear
.facility have been released and
negotiations are being made. Last
month, U.S., Britain,-and France
announced that they had been
keeping a close eye on Iran after
making the discovery of a nuclear
facility that Iran’s government had
kept secret.
According to CBSnews.com,
U.S. intelligence has “known for
some time” about this facility but
has kept this information under
wraps, it wasn’t until Iranian of
ficials found out their secret had
been discovered that they an
nounced to the International Atom
ic Energy Agency (IAEA) that they
had indeed been constmcting a
facility to generate nuclear power.
This was a severely delayed reac
tion. the IAEA was supposed to be
infomied the moment the idea for
a nuclear facility was conceived.
CBS deemed the action as being
“too little too late.” In addition, the
details that Iran initially released
concerning the facility were far and
few between.
This facility could have enor
mous effects on the world's
nations. Iran’s delayed announce
ment leads officials and citizens to
doubt the Innocence of this project
even though Iraq claimed to only
be interested in harvesting.nuclear
energy, not making v^eapons of.
mass destruction.
A meeting withIran has been
held to discuss the issue of the nu
clear facilities. This meeting was
one of the first tests to show how
well the n^w U.S. administration
would handle internationai-cases
such as this. During this meeting,
Iran made three promises to the .
IAEA. First, Iran will open the facil
ity to IAEA inspectors. Secondly,
Iran assured that it would release
75% of its known enriched uranium
to France and Russia for re-
Inspection. Iran also set a date for
a follow-up meeting with the IAEA.
President Obama stressed the
need for timeliness in this meet
ing, saying that the United States'
patience is not “unlimited.” Within
two weeks, IAEA is expected to
gain access to the facility.
At the UN General Assembly,
President Obama made much
progress concerning this Issue. He
successfully negotiated with Rus
sia for more stringent concessions
for Irah and secured the support
of Moscow and Beijing in efforts to
reduce the threat of nuclear attack. -
However, other aspects of the As
sembly did not go so smoothly.
For sixty four years the UN
General Assembly has met to
peacefully discuss and attempt to
Photo courtesy hltp://farTn3.slatic.flickr.com/2136/240160S536_9f58dea7c5_o.jpg
resolve world issues. This year,
however, Colonel Muammar al-
Gaddafi caused quite a ruckus.
Dressed in a traditional Libyan
robe, he addressed the assembly
in an unusual fashion. It took quite
some time for him to get to the
meat of his speech, but once he
did, it was obvious that he meant
business. He desires strongly for
Africa to hold a seat on the Securi
ty Council, He also suggested that
the General Assembly be moved to
Libya, so world leaders would not
have to be subjected to such in-,
tense jet lag. He made it clear that
he thought New York City was too
heavily secured because of threats
of terrorist attacks. His speech
jumped from suspecting swine
flu as being a military weapon to
demanding that new investigations
be made Into the assassinations
of Martin Luther King and John
F. Kennedy. He also accused the
Council of^pholding a form of
“political feudalism" by not allowing
Africa a seat. A pivotal point in his
speech was when he picked up the
UN charter and appeared to tear
It, swearing that he did not find the
document as having any credit.
Needless to say, the past
month has been filled with political
and world news. World leaders
have an added amount of stress
on them at this time, which leaves
tensions running high. Iran is
going-to have to come to terms
with world leaders and find a way,
hopefully a peaceful one, to ab
solve the controversy surrounding
its nuclear facilities.
Maathai. continued from pg 1
Belt movement, Meredith students
spent the week preceding the
lecture planting more than 350
trees across campus. Accord
ing to a Meredith ENews article
by Melyssa Allen, Dr. Maathai
herself contributed to the Meredith
College Green Belt by planting a,
magnolia tree between Johnson
Hall and Joyner Hall. During her
lecture Maathai applauded the
Meredith community for their first
steps at turning the bus around
by contributing to the Green Belt
movement and the planet She
suggested that Meredith register
the trees with the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP)
Billion Trees Campaign. According
to the UNEP website (http://www.
unep.org/billiontreecampaign),
.this campaign was inspired by
Maathal’s environmental efforts
and has registered approximately
7.5 billion trees planted worldwide
this year. The campaign allows
individuals and organizations to
pledge to plant trees, and the.
objective is to ensure that at least
one billion trees are planted each
year. If Meredith registers the 350
trees planted on the Meredith
Green Belt, the college will bring
the total number of registered trees
planted in the United States up to
56,745,955 (as of October 4th).
During her lecture, Dr. Maathai
was often light and exuberant,
telling jokes and stories and truly
engaging the audience. But she
made many serious points for
which she noted she held respon
sible Meredith College and the
world community. Maathai argued
that It was not enough to blahie
environmental problems on global
warming but that people must
learn to manage resources and
empower communities to bet
ter the environment. She quoted
the well-knpwn slogan “Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle.” calling it a motto
that people should try to live. by.
Laura Fie^elman, sustainability
coordinator at Meredith, believes
that Meredith students can follow
this motto by “thinking critically
about the stuff of our everyday
lives. We must ask, 'Do I really
need this?’ ‘Could I use something
1 already have?’ ‘What will 1 do with
it whenim done?”’ By reflecting on
these questions, Meredith students
could help make a positive impact
on the environment.
Erica Rogers, a freshman at
Meredith, said, “One of my favorite
parts from [Dr. Maathai’s] lecture
was her vision to have a tree
planted for every person on the
planet.” throughout her lecture,
Maathai spoke not only about her
life but also about shared goals for
the future that she hopes will be
an inspiration to the global popula*
tion and spur better environmental
practices. Dr. Maathai finished
her lecture with a story about a
hummingbird that tried to put out
a raging forest fire engulfing his
home. The hummingbird struggled
alone, using ^only tiny beakfulls of
water. When asked by the larger
animals what he was doing and
why he bothered, the hummingbird
replied, “I am doing the best I can.”
As Wangari Maathai so adeptly re
minded us, regardless of how large
the environmental problem may
seem In comparison to the world
population, we must do the best
we can to fix it, because Earth is
the only home we have.