With a Puff of Smoke

By RS

Student Opinion

 

     Day to day, anyone who frequents the campus at Northern Oklahoma College, can see the many clouds of smoke rising about twenty-five feet from any given entrance.

     These are the smokers of today, though their numbers are dwindling, they are there none-the-less.

     Gone are the days of “social smoking”. We now live in a health-conscious era, a time when McDonald’s serves salads and yogurt, a time of diet sodas and light beer, also a time of restriction.

     Smokers have unwillingly been restricted and blacklisted from public areas. When I look around the campus at NOC I see my fellow smokers complying with the restrictions and laws, and now I believe it is time for a commendation!

     As I said, day-to-day you can see any number of people enjoying a much awaited cigarette before or after class, but what happens when it rains or snows? Smokers have accepted that all smoking must be done outdoors, but are we honestly expected to be drenched or frozen while doing so?

     The days that we experience rain or snow, these poor people can be seen huddled in the masses under any awning available. This usually means an awning right next to a door, and sadly it warrants disgusted glares or exaggerated coughs as people pass going to or from class. Why should this be necessary?       

     This campus provides salt for icy sidewalks to prevent injury, and yet there have been no awnings or lean-tos installed over benches to provide shelter for those who wish to enjoy a cigarette?

     I find it unfathomable to think that Northern Oklahoma College could not afford something so incredibly simple for its students, staff and faculty.

     Some of you, particularly the non-smoking party may be saying to yourselves, “Go, smoke in your car.”, but I now want you to ask yourselves if you have time between every class to run, not walk, to whichever parking lot you happened to find a spot in and sit for ten minutes? It’s just not always possible now is it?

     The smokers of this campus pay fees and tuition like everyone else and forgive me if I am wrong, non-smokers do not particularly enjoy walking through a cloud of smoke.

     I believe that it would be better for everyone if some sort of lean-tos were installed in a few locations on campus.

     We do live in a time of health, but we also do, and always will live in a time of rights and choices. With a puff of smoke I say, smoke on NOC and hopefully this wrong will be righted!

 

New Bill Aims to Ease Students’ Financial Woes

August 13, 2008

Source: The Northeastern News, Northeastern U.

For students who choose to pursue post-secondary education, a college degree is invaluable. While two or four years (or in Northeastern’s case, five) spent at an institution does not guarantee future professional success, it does increase your chances for a better career with a higher salary.

But as tuitions continue to rise, many students know a college education doesn’t come cheap. “The most trustworthy indicator that an American college education is something worthwhile is that parents nationwide – and even worldwide – are eager to pay up to $180,000 to get one for their children,” wrote Christopher Caldwell in the New York Times column in February 2007.

When Congress passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act July 31, this was the first step in loosening the proverbial financial noose. Though it should be noted that the president still needs to sign the bill into law. While the provisions aren’t necessarily groundbreaking, the legislation signals a movement toward making a college education less of a luxury and more of a rite.

Under the bill, the top five percent of colleges who increase their tuition will be required to provide a legitimate reason to the Department of Education. In addition, the colleges must specify how they’re limiting the increases. With greater cost transparency comes greater fiscal responsibility and accountability.

In another important portion of the bill, colleges and their respective professors will be obligated to “unbundle” textbooks, which means students will have the option to choose whether they need a book and its supplemental materials like a CD. Furthermore, college professors will have to announce textbook requirements earlier so students are aware of the costs. This will give students the ability to price-hunt through online resources like Amazon.com before buying the books directly from university bookstores. With textbook prices increasing as fast as tuitions, this is a welcome change.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aide (FAFSA) is often criticized as being too complicated and bureaucratic. Every year, many students and their parents dread filing the FAFSA forms, even though it’s a resource that helps chip away at staggering college costs.

However, with the new legislation, there’s the creation of the EZ- FAFSA, which is a simpler form for low-income families. In the near future, the general FAFSA application itself will be shortened from seven to two pages.

Yet the most sweeping legislative reform in the bill is the focus on increasing the ethical policy of lenders and financial aid officers. It will require a code of conduct to be applied to student loans in an effort to undermine some questionable practices like colleges accepting gifts from a lender in exchange for a positive recommendation to students.

After years of Congressional squabbling, the Legislature has finally enacted a suitable college education reform. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s been worth the wait.

Let’s hope for an even brighter future for college degree-holders, and one not racked with debt.

We Must Stop Policing the World and Pay More Attention to Our Own Problems?

August 20, 2008

By: JENNY DAVIDSON

Editor

Once again the United States seems to be policing the world, namely the Russia and Georgia conflict. I personally do not agree with what Russia has been doing in Georgia, but that is not our conflict – yet! Our economy is tanking, and our military is already stretched thin due to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have got to stop and get a grip before things get even more out of control. We need our military back home securing our country…namely our unsecured borders.

Who are we, the United States, to say or do anything to Russia for invading another country when we did that same thing in Iraq? We have lost so many allies due to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, it’s not like we have too many left that would be supportive if we go up against Russia, not to mention Iran. This administration is always bickering back and forth with Iran.

The US needs to remember that the U.S. does not always have the answers, and we are not the world police. We have to let other countries work out their own conflicts.

We need to bring our soldiers back from Iraq and let the Iraqi people take responsibility for their own country. I do agree that we should help rebuild what we destroyed when we “invaded” their country, but I do not want to see the U.S. set up any kind of long term base there.

We keep sending money and commodities to foreign countries when we have homeless, starving Americans who cannot get any real help from our own government. And believe me… it is going to get much worse. The poor, sick, and the elderly in America are barely surviving at this point. The price of everything has skyrocketed in the past few months and there is no end in sight. The rich seem to keep getting richer, (at least so far), and the poor are on their own, as usual.

I am constantly hearing public officials and politicians commenting that people should “save” their money… for their future. Someone please tell me how an elderly person, living on Social Security payments of less than $600 a month, can “save” anything? Constantly rising costs of basic necessities, food, medicines and utilities, has made it impossible for the poor, sick or elderly senior citizen’s to make it from month to month. They are forced to choose between food and medications while they sit in homes where they cannot even afford to heat or cool due to the high costs of utilities.

It is time for the U.S. to wake up! We have to start taking care of our own and stop policing the world. At the rate we are going, we will soon be the “third-world country” needing serious help just to survive from our almost non-existing allies. Think about it…

Editorial: U.S. Drinking Age Limit Should be Lowered

August 20, 2008

Source: The Daily Athenaeum, West Virginia U.

The national drinking age should drop back down to 18.

According to an AP article, presidents of 100 well-known colleges and universities are rallying together to ask lawmakers to reconsider the drinking age.

John McCardell is the brave president emeritus from Middlebury College in Vermont who started the Amethyst Initiative – the group which recruits these presidents to sign a statement for reconsideration of the drinking age.

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act that raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 came about because of a federal highway law threatening to cut states’ highway dollars if the drinking age wasn’t changed.

So for 24 years, a number of college students have been drinking illegally. And despite our University’s wishes, it happens on this campus.

As Princeton Review’s “No. 1 Party School” last year, West Virginia University’s students of legal age certainly weren’t the only ones who garnered that type of attention.

The oldest argument in the book still holds true today – if you can fight for your country at 18, why shouldn’t you be able to have a drink?

“I believe that 18-year-old adults in our culture are capable of voting, signing contracts, marrying, paying taxes, serving in the military and assuming other adult endeavors including the right to drink responsibly,” wrote Donald R. Eastman III, Eckerd College president, on the Amethyst Initiative Web site.

But, not everyone is a fan of their initiative. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, is speaking out against it.

They think the institution presidents’ action will actually lead to more fatal car crashes. The AP article also states the group “accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem.”

What is most important to realize about these presidents’ decision is it’s not done to encourage drinking at a younger age. It’s promoting responsible drinking.

With the drinking age as high as it is, many disregard the fact that it’s a privilege and a responsibility, and do it in a careless manner.

According to the AP article, 500,000 college students suffer injuries from drinking-related incidents each year. About 1,700 die in these accidents.

And, it was also found in a recent AP analysis that 157 people – aged 18 to 23 – “drank themselves to death” in a six-year period.

If the drinking age is lowered, soon-to-be college students need to be educated on the repercussions. With those three years, students could become more comfortable and develop a more responsible attitude towards alcohol.

Column: Oklahoma State U.’s Orange Might be the New Green

By ASHER GRIFFIN

August 20, 2008

Source: Daily O’Collegian, Oklahoma State U.

The debate about using less, more, or alternative energy is not something new, but it seems to resurface every time gas jumps up a bit or whenever a national election is on the horizon.

This summer, corporations and political parties weren’t the only ones taking sides on the issue; non-fossil, renewable energy has become the personal crusade of oil and natural gas tycoon and Oklahoma State University alum T. Boone Pickens. You’ve probably seen his face with wind turbines in the background on your TV, YouTube hit list, or even Facebook. He has started a discussion among all ages and interests in hopes that they will back his plan – the “Pickens Plan.”

Whatever your personal opinions of Pickens are or what you think of his economic motives, think for a second: What could this do for his beloved alma mater?

The times, they are a-changin’. People are actually buying less gasoline, screwing in fluorescent bulbs, and trading in their SUVs for road bikes. The plains that were once dotted with oil derricks are already sprouting wind farms. And while wind energy may not be the solution for all of our energy shortcomings, wind turbines will become an important industry in this country if Mr. Pickens has his
way.

And make no mistake about it, the Democratically controlled Congress will have no choice but to jump on the Pickens train. Also, the survival in the duel for the Oval Office will be eager to do something significant to resolve our “energy crisis.”

But what role can OSU play in all of this? Where can the University fit in? OSU used to have a petroleum engineering major and option decades ago, and courses are currently offered for more traditional energy exploration and business practices.

But what if we took it upon ourselves to be the first academic institution devoted to not only providing students with the specific skills necessary to lead the development of wind energy?

What if OSU wasn’t satisfied with just sponsoring forums and conferences featuring speakers from big oil and energy investors, but developed its own resources to produce the leaders of this new and growing industry?

Why not invest in a wind farm that would empower not only students and researchers, but also the lights of our campus?

OSU is uniquely situated to lead the nation in the development of clean, renewable natural energy resources: we have the location, alumni leadership and too much wind.

Is OSU in the position of working with one of our most famous graduates in creating a Wind Energy Management major (or Wind Energy Sciences, Alternative Energy Engineering, etc.) in exchange for a low bid on a couple of power turbines? Could OSU be the first major university to say, “We’re setting the pace in alternative energy”?

With an emphasis on wind energy on the horizon and the guilty pleasure of “going green” already a part our landscape, OSU needs to use what we have on the board the make our next move our best move. We’ve got the energy players in front of us, we’ve got the resources all around us, and we have a legislature and administration eager to elevate the name of our great institution. Will we make OSU’s orange the world’s new green?

Rowling Charges Grads to Accept Failure, Cultivate Imagination

By ESTHER I. YI

Crimson Staff Writer

 

Published On 6/6/2008

One could forgive J.K. Rowling for mistaking yesterday’s afternoon exercises for a Gryffindor reunion.

Despite a persistent drizzle, a lively audience—including more than its typical share of youngsters—gathered under an assortment of University shields in Tercentenary Theater to hear the author of the acclaimed “Harry Potter” series deliver the Commencement address.

A group of young girls scribbled effusive, adulatory letters to Rowling on their laps. Others peered through binoculars to catch get a closer view of the author on stage. At least one graduating senior eschewed her mortarboard for a wizard’s hat.

Even University President Drew G. Faust, proclaiming herself “muggle-in-chief” for the day, announced in her introductory remarks that Harvard “would be hard pressed to measure up to the magic of Hogwarts.”

But despite the warm welcome, Rowling, by her own account, did not feel entirely in her element.

“The weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight,” said Rowling to sympathetic laughter and applause.

In a speech that touched only tangentially on the stories she has woven in her books, Rowling called on members of the Class of 2008 to use their capacity to empathize and their experiences of failure to conquer apathy.

Rowling, who has a degree in French and the classics from the University of Exeter, said her greatest fear as a recent graduate was failure, adding that she “failed on an epic scale” in her early adult years as an unemployed single mother who was “as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless.”

But upon reaching her lowest point, Rowling said, she stripped away the “inessential” in her life and ceased to pretend to be anything other than what she was.

“I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive,” she said. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation upon which I rebuilt my life.”

Since the first “Harry Potter” book was released in 1997, the seven-part series has sold more than 375 million copies, making Rowling, by some calculations, wealthier than Queen Elizabeth II.

Rowling also said she believes imagination is a crucial skill, enabling people to empathize with others whose experiences they have never shared.

Rowling recalled her experiences working in the African research department at Amnesty International, where she met torture victims and read letters documenting rapes, kidnappings, and summary executions.

Through such exposure, Rowling said, she came to recognize the power of human empathy to mobilize those who have never been oppressed to act on behalf of those who have.

A stubborn refusal to be empathetic not only represents a collusion with evil, but can have negative personal effects as well, Rowling said.

“The unwillingly unimaginative often see more monsters,” she said.

As graduates of a world-renowned university and residents of the world’s last superpower, Rowling said, Harvard’s newest crop of alumni can touch the lives of others “simply by existing.”

“That is you privilege and your burden,” she said.

“We do not need magic to transform our world,” Rowling said. “We carry all the power we need inside of ourselves. Already, we have the power to imagine better.”

Rowling is the fifth woman since 1950 to speak at Commencement. Previous writers to address graduates include Ralph Ellison, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Lionel Trilling.

Who Am I?

GRAEME LAWSON

June 9, 2008

 

Am I really just the intermixing of the teachings of my parents and the intertwined genes that makes me unique? Sure, we want to be unique in our own right in some way, but is it really being unique and individual if you are the culmination of upbringing and genetics? There is no certain formula that will show us the true character that we possess, and perhaps that is why the college environment can be so hard for some.

 

We spend our lives being taught how to be by our parents and then we come to this place. All of our upbringing and principles that we think are our own are questioned and picked apart ruthlessly by our professors and peers. This is a good thing. If not for this picking away at us, we would not learn what it is that we truly do and do not believe. The only way to test out something new is to use it, and the same applies to the morals and beliefs of a person.

 

The in-depth and ruthless studies that your peers put into you teach you about yourself. After all, the only way to learn about yourself is to have to explain yourself and your motives to a large group of people who will judge you for the rest of your life based on your answers.

 

How on earth does one live in his environment? Simply put, all you have to do is come to college with an open mind and the idea that you may or may not be right. Once you can admit that you have shortcomings in your beliefs, you can go about changing yourself to better fit the morals and ideals that you hold true. After all, everyone hates a hypocrite.

Gentle Persuasion

GRAEME LAWSON

June 9, 2008

 

Since the dawn of human society, the art of persuasion has been just that, a subtle and careful art, used by every man for the better of, somewhat selfishly, himself. The art of persuasion is perfected over age until eventually we become better at it. I have always been gifted in this field, but why is a total mystery. Still, it is a great thing to be gifted in.

 

My most memorable moment in the world of persuasive argument involved my high school principal and the introduction of paintball as a club at the school. I sat down with her on a Wednesday morning to talk about the ramifications of such an organization. We sat in this woman’s office for about two hours while she shot arguments opposing mine across the table, which I countered, in my view, admirably.

           

This leads me to my most important point on the topic of persuasion. People often think that persuasion has no boundaries, so “twisting the truth” so to speak is okay. For me, any conversation in which I have to persuade someone takes on its own challenge for me. I see it as an opportunity to test my intellect and perfect my delivery. Simply put, the art of persuasion is not about lying or about twisting facts to suit your argument. It is about anticipating every single rebuttal and every single counter argument that your opponent is going to make. Persuasion happens when you can appeal to a man’s sense of logic behind his sense of conviction. Persuasion is the art of taking a person’s views, and subtly altering them to make him or her question their belief, once you have that questioning, then you must carefully reiterate your argument to the point at which your opposition begins to fully understand and believe what you have to say. This is how persuasion should work.

Wasting Away Again in Tar Creek

February 07, 2008

 

 

By JERRY WOFFORD

Source: Freelance Contributor,

 

PICHER — When Whitney Diveley was a kid in this town, the 200-foot-tall piles of lead-tainted mine waste were a fun Saturday afternoon.

 

“When we were kids, we’d go climb on chat piles,” said Diveley, a former OU student who lives in Commerce, a town about five miles southwest of Picher, near the Kansas border. “We knew there was lead, but we didn’t think about it.”

 

These piles, called chat, which look like mountains of cream-colored gravel, and the area around them are also referred to as the Tar Creek Superfund Site on the National Priorities List of Superfund Sites, an Environmental Protection Agency list of some of the most polluted places in the nation.

It earned this distinction in 1983, when the EPA placed Tar Creek on the list, which was designed to fund cleanups of environmental disasters in the United States .

 

Since then, OU and other state and federal agencies have joined the fight to reclaim the land for safe use.

 

OU is finding ways to safely use the EPA estimated 50 million cubic yards of chat and is constructing water treatment facilities in the area, to be completed this spring.

 

There are currently 1,305 Superfund Sites in the U.S. and 11 in Oklahoma. Tar Creek is the worst in Oklahoma and in the nation’s top 50.

 

“People need to understand it’s the biggest environmental cleanup project in the state of Oklahoma, and it’s a big one in the nation, too,” said Kelly Dixon, environmental programs manager with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

 

OU researchers on the job

In 2003, OU researchers along with state officials decided they wanted to show residents that there are practical, long-term solutions to Tar Creek.

“The idea was to demonstrate some of these technologies,” said Robert Nairn, principal investigator on two of the projects in the Oklahoma Plan for Tar Creek and associate professor in the school of civil engineering and environmental science. “We can do some things now to show some environmental improvement.”

 

Dixon said people in the area were tired of studies and wanted to see things change.

 

“It was sort of a way to bypass the federal process and the enforcement with the [mining] companies,” she said. “It was a parallel approach to the site that was going to get results quicker.”

 

The Oklahoma Plan for Tar Creek was introduced in January 2004 and OU researchers began their work during fall of that year.

 

Dixon said the Oklahoma Plan focuses on the perimeter of Picher, addressing environmental concerns around Picher.

 

“If we could attack the perimeter and shrink the size, we’d be that much better off,” Dixon said.

 

Nairn said OU’s work is focused on three aspects: building a passive water treatment facility to clean the metals out of the streams and groundwater, an affective way to use the chat as a clean aggregate for asphalt and monitoring the water and ecological conditions.

 

Cleaning what couldn’t be cleaned

Nairn is the principal investigator on the passive water treatment facility and the stream monitoring.

 

In January, the OU Board of Regents approved $700,000 in new funding for Phase II of the construction of the passive treatment system. The total amount approved by the regents since the beginning of the project is $1.2 million.

 

A passive water treatment system is a way to clean water without using much energy or large building complexes, Nairn said.

 

“Passive idea is just what it sounds like,” Nairn said. “You’re going to build a system that doesn’t require that sort of regular intensive operation and maintenance.”

 

The alternative is an active water treatment center, much like municipal water treatment facilities that require “24/7 operation and maintenance,” Nairn said.

 

Contaminated water enters the passive water treatment facility and passes through several ponds. Each pond has a specific function, such as removing the iron, Nairn said.

 

“By the time that water gets out of the system at the tail end, the metal concentrations have decreased and will discharge much cleaner water to the stream,” Nairn said. “Once they’re built, they look like a pond.”

 

The EPA’s final decision on the first specific cleanup project in the 1980s, called Operable Unit 1, stated the streams could not be cleaned, but Nairn said he didn’t believe it.

 

“It was determined 25 years ago that the streams were irreparably damaged,” Nairn said. “That’s one of the reasons we got involved up there because that’s not true.”

 

Shrinking the piles

The chat piles present a large set of problems for everyone in the area, Dixon said.

 

“[The EPA was] trying to attack the worst first,” Dixon said. “I think the volume of the chat piles is so daunting and intimidating, that wasn’t the initial focus.”

 

Nairn said even if the groundwater was clean, the runoff from the chat piles still contaminates the water.

 

To help that problem, OU research has shown that all of the chat can be used as an aggregate, which helps hold the asphalt together.

 

“The highest concentrations [of metals] are in the finest material,” Nairn said. “What we did was take all of it and incorporate even the [smallest] into the asphalt.”

 

When the chat is in the asphalt, it holds the metals, keeping them from seeping into the ground, Nairn said.

 

“When we do that, all the asphalt meets the regulatory criteria,” Nairn said. “It doesn’t leech the metals.”

 

Dixon said that, because of the volume of chat in the site, however, cleanup will take decades.

 

“There’s so much material there, it could take up to 20 years for the material to be used in roads,” Dixon said.

 

Though the piles still loom, Diveley said they are shrinking.

 

“Piles are shrinking because people are removing the chat,” she said.

After 25 years on the Superfund list, the Tar Creek situation is still a problem that won’t disappear overnight, Nairn said.

 

“It took a long time to make the problems. We’re not going to solve them tomorrow,” Nairn said. “But this is the first step. Let’s demonstrate what we can do now, and hopefully down the road here, we’re going to see big changes.”

 

What is 50 million cubic yards of chat?

 

The EPA estimates that 50 million cubic yards of chat exist in the Tar Creek Superfund Site.

 

• 1,562,500 dump trucks

• 107,735,401,860 cans of beer

• If piled on Owen Field, the chat would climb 5.36 miles

Column: Politics needs to get back to the basics

May 07, 2008

 

 

By PATRICK MOLNAR

 

Source: Mustang Daily, Cal Poly

 

For the past few weeks, the national dialogue in this country has been a delusion. People have been talking about pastors, patriotism and elitism while ignoring the critical issues facing this country, such as the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the deteriorating U.S. economy.

 

To be fair, I understand why certain groups (namely Republicans and the 24-hour news businesses) would prefer to divert attention toward Rev. Jeremiah Wright rather than focusing on the catastrophes they helped create.

 

Nevertheless, when I read that April was the deadliest month in Iraq in more than seven months, I am reminded of Sagan’s quote and the need to break this delusional debate. Ultimately, if we are to thrive as a nation, we cannot become immersed in side spectacles while ignoring the realities around us. We need to get back to discussing solutions to our problems, something this column will try to do regarding the Iraq war.

 

May 1 marked the five-year anniversary of the president’s “Mission Accomplished” speech about Iraq; that same day, two suicide bombers attacked an Iraqi wedding ceremony, killing 35 people and wounding 67. The sad truth is, despite heavily investing U.S. blood and treasure, our nebulous mission in Iraq is far from accomplished. But the deaths of 50 U.S. soldiers and more than 1,000 Iraqis in April alone disproves claims of “progress.”

 

Furthermore, Gen. David Petraeus’s testimony last month gave little hope to the notion of “progress” in Iraq when he said, “We haven’t turned any corners. We haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel.” Looking back, it is clear that the “peace” that existed in Iraq recently was not due to political progress or the “surge,” but mainly because of the whims of radical cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, who decided on a temporary ceasefire that has since expired.

In fact, Iraq continues to be governed more and more by ethnic militia groups that roam around the country, wiping out rival factions and innocent civilians. These sectarian groups operate unchecked because Iraq’s central government is weak and corrupt, and U.S. troops are too overextended to play the role of police (the actual Iraqi police force has been infiltrated by militia members). Furthermore, massive unemployment and crumbling infrastructure continue to feed the ranks of these militias and criminal gangs.

 

So what is the solution to all this? First we must accept the reality that there are no good options left (that ship has long since sailed) and that only Iraqis can achieve political reconciliation among themselves (it is their country after all, right?). With those two assumptions, the “least worst option” for Iraq is to adopt Sen. Joseph Biden’s plan, which received tremendous bipartisan support and was passed overwhelmingly in the Senate last September (75-23). Naturally, the Bush administration opposed the idea.

 

Sen. Biden’s plan calls for decentralizing political power in Iraq and allocating it among three self-governing federated regions: Kurd, Shiite and Sunni, which should mitigate the power struggle engulfing the country. The central government would be left in charge of common interests such as border security and the distribution of oil revenues, but the individual regions would be largely autonomous from one another in their day-to-day operations.

 

Although decentralization might seem radical, it really is not, as Iraq’s constitution allows for the creation of federal regions. Furthermore, Biden’s plan brings angry Sunni factions (once the ruling minority of Iraq) into the deal by guaranteeing them a proportional share of oil revenue (several billions of dollars). Each group would have an incentive to maximize oil production, making, as Biden says, “oil the glue that binds the country together.”

 

Some critics argue that this plan is a partition of the country, but the truth is that things are already heading that way because of the current massive ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods. By dividing the land along ethnic lines, it dramatically reduces the bloodshed by literally putting space between each group, allowing them to govern their own people as they see fit, as opposed to following a central government that is constantly in disagreement over regional policy.

 

If this plan sounds familiar, it’s because it has been successfully adopted in other violent sectarian regions, the most recent being Bosnia in 1995.

 

Thirteen years ago, Bosnia was being torn apart by ethnic cleansing and civil war amongst a handful of ethno-religious groups. The U.S. eventually stepped in to keep the country whole by paradoxically dividing it into ethnic federations amongst the Muslims, Croats and Serbs. Now, more than a decade later, a fragile peace still holds.