Nulcear Weapons 1 - Leo Szilard

           Radioactive elements were first isolated and studied around 1900. In 1933, Leo Szilard, a Hungarian physicist, was the first to suggest that the chain reaction of radioactive elements could be used to construct a bomb. He left Hungary for Berlin in 1919 and studied at the Institute of Technology under people like Albert Einstein. He got his doctorate in physics in 1923 from Humboldt University of Berlin. He worked as a physicist and inventor in Berlin for the next decade.

Indigenous Peoples 4 - African Tuareg and Uranium Mining

             The Tuareg are a nomadic people who inhabit the Sahara desert in Northern Africa. Most Tuareg live in Niger or Mali but they do move their herds across national borders in that area. They resisted the French invasion of their territory but lost and signed a treaty in 1917. Fighting continued until 1922 when the Niger became a French Colony. The northern part of Niger is traditional Tuareg territory while the southern part consists of Hausa tribal lands.

Indigenous Peoples 2 - Navajo Nation and Uranium Mining

             When explorers and settlers arrived in North America, their diseases and wars reduced the Native American population by an estimated ninety percent over a few generations. This left vast areas of the country unpopulated and ripe for exploitation. Numerous treaties were struck with Indian Tribes giving them rights to their ancestral lands. Unfortunately, the U.S. government repeatedly broke those treaties.

Indigenous Peoples 1 - Australian Aboriginals and Uranium Mining

          Previous posts have dealt with uranium mining in Australia. In this post, I want to delve more deeply into the impact on and reaction of the Australian Aboriginals to the mining of uranium on Aboriginal land. All indigenous people in the world have a strong identification with their traditional lands. However, the relationship of the Australian Aboriginals to their ancestral lands goes far beyond the usual strong feelings of indigenous peoples.

Corruption 4 - Regulatory Capture

          A major problem with government oversight of the commercial sector is something called regulatory capture. The idea is that a government agency that is supposed to be an independent watchdog for the public interest becomes a lapdog for the industry that it is supposed to regulate. This has probably been a problem for as long as there have been governments and businesses.

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