Effect of the Weather on Agriculture

Effect of the Weather on Agriculture Executive Summary Agricultural activities are often affected by the weather. Weather is unpredictable as it changes from time to time. As the agricultural activities affected, the crops or the outcome of the agricultural activities would be affected as well and this caused the income of the farmers to be affected or causing the investors to lose money. Therefore, weather derivative is needed to protect the farmers and investors. So, this research is all about modelling and pricing of weather derivatives where the weather is based on the daily average temperature in Malaysia. In this research, there are two main objectives which include the modelling of temperature and pricing of weather derivatives. To complete this research project, there are 10 stages to be gone through. The details about the stages would be discussed in the methodology of this research. The model used to model the movement of daily average temperature in this research would be the stochastic fractional Brownian motion. This model is chosen because based on the past researches, this model fits the data well and successfully modelled the dynamics of daily average temperature. From this research, the daily temperature is expected to be modelled and described by the stated model well. Besides that, the pricing of weather derivatives will be encountered as well. Through this research, it provides a lot of advantages. For example, it provides a better idea in the process of modelling the temperature and the pricing method of weather derivatives. The outcome from this research can be used as a reference for future researchers that do research in this field. Details of Research Project (a) Research Background 1. Problem statement Agricultural activities are one of the main activities carried out by people around the world. It is one of the main sources of income for some of the countries like Africa, India and China. Even in this modern technological era, many of the agricultural activities still depending on the weather. Weather is the daily conditions of a particular place. For example, humidity, precipitation, the daily average temperature and visibility are all under the weather. Since weather is a thing thats beyond human control and agricultural activities are highly depending on weather, therefore, agricultural businesses are often referred to as a high risk business. In recent years, the weather insurance and weather derivatives are becoming more renowned as it reduces or hedge the risks faced by all farmers and investors that caused by weather. Jewson (2005) presented a few reasons why is the weather derivatives important and in Jewson (2005) and Cao and Wei (2004), a few weather hedging techniques were shown. The traditional agricultural insurance is the crop insurance. There are a lot of disadvantages of the traditional crop insurance. Some of the disadvantages include inefficiency due to poor contract structured, lack of information and high transaction costs involved. This caused those farmers could not afford for the insurance and hence the weather derivatives are highly needed as weather derivatives normally had a lower price than the weather insurance. Thus, weather derivatives play a very important role in helping the farmers and investors. The first weather related derivative deal was done by Aquila Energy in 1997 for Consolidated Ediso n Company, where a dual-commodity hedge was structured. Since the agricultural derivatives are getting more important, more financial researchers are doing their research on the pricing of weather based derivatives. Norton (2010) stated that the weather derivative is a way to share the risk for farmers in developing countries. Malaysia is lucky enough to be located in the equatorial region. Hence, the weather in Malaysia is hot and humid throughout the year. Therefore, in Malaysia, the crops are only affected by the daily average temperature and the amount of rainfall. Of course, there are catastrophes that happen in Malaysia too, like flash flooding, acid rain or drought. These catastrophes in Malaysia caused the damage to all the crops. But, the main problem that could affect the crops in Malaysia would be the amount of rainfall, the daily temperature or humidity. Hence, in Malaysia, to structure a weather derivative, it is easier as compared to other four season countries because the weather factors that taken into account are lesser. Moreover, there are lack of people doing research in this field, thus, this research is quite important as to solve the agricultural problems. 2. Research questions One of the problems faced by researchers in doing research about the pricing of weather derivatives is often the pricing model or the pricing technique that is used. Besides pricing technique, the model that used to describe the dynamic or the movement of the weather factors like amount of rainfall or daily average temperature in the research of weather derivatives is one of the problems faced by researchers as well. Hence, in this research, the focus would be on the modelling of the daily average temperature in Malaysia and the pricing of the weather derivatives. So, the questions to be answered in this research will be how well the model is, in describing the movement of daily average temperature and how to price the weather derivatives. 3. Literature review There are actually a lot of researchers had done their research about the weather insurance or derivatives. Some of the models used by past researchers include temperature modelling, Black-Scholes model, Time Series models, Brownian model, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model, Esscher transformation and more. Taib and Benth (2012) had done a research on the pricing of the weather insurance by using three different approaches which include burn analysis approach, index modelling and temperature modelling. The weather index is first calculated and then the price of the insurance contract is calculated based on the weather index. The weather index, which is based on the Cooling-Degree Day (CDD) is calculated by using the formulae of After calculating the , the price of the insurance contract can then be now determined by using the formulae P(t, ) = exp(−r( − t))E[)|Ft ] where the expected value of the claim size is found. The exp(−r( − t) is used to find the present value by discounting at time as Indicates the end of the period where insurance starts paying. The formulae of P(t, ) is a standard method to price the weather related insurance or derivatives. For burning analysis approach, it is firstly introduced by Jewson and Brix (2005) as a classic method in pricing weather derivatives. The payoff of the burning analysis approach is based on the empirical distribution of the sample data collected. While the mean value of observations of the sample data is used to calculate the price of the contract. The next method introduced by Jewson and Brix (2005) is the index modelling approach, and Taib and Benth(2012) modify a little bit of the model where the past claims are fitted into a distribution and the expected value of the distribution is used in pricing the contracts. Lastly, Taib and Benth (2012) proposed a new model where the changes of the daily average temperature are modelled using the autoregressive, a time series model. Besides Taib and Benth (2012), Campbell and Diebold (2003) also uses time series model to model and forecast the daily average temperature in certain cities of America for the purpose of weather derivatives. While Chang, Lin Shen (2009) constructed a theoretical model to price the weather derivatives and this is the extended version of the model of Cao and Wei (2004). In the research paper of Chang, Lin Shen (2009), the estimation value of future Heating-Degree Day(HDD) and Cooling-Degree Day (CDD) is predicted by using Mote-Carlo simulation and they successfully utilize the time series temperature model in Campbell and Diabold (2003). Mills (2009) also uses time series model to model the current temperature trend of Central England. In the research of Mills (2009), it is suggested that three other alternative ways could be used to model the temperature trend, which is the parametric stochastic trend model, the non-parametric local trend fit, and a low-pass filter. These 3 alternat ive techniques had been discussed in Mills (2003) and Pollock (2007). Other than time series models, other models were used by other researchers in pricing of weather derivatives. For example, Lee and Oren (2009) suggested a model of equilibrium pricing of the weather derivatives for various commodities. This model is built where the risk averse utility function is optimized by the agents, including the weather derivatives that have been issued. There are two types of agent. The first type is the farmers where they obtain the profit with the exposure to weather risks while the second type of agent is those financial investors where they hope to diversify the financial portfolio. Therefore, later in 2010 and 2011, Lee and Oren with Hà ¤rdle and Osipenko simulate the realistic market conditions to get the equilibrium price for weather derivatives. This equilibrium pricing method of Lee and Oren is actually based on the research of Cao and Wei (1999) where Cao and Wei generalize the model of Lucas (1978) and include the daily temperature as a fundamental variable. Since Black-Scholes Model is a popular method to price the European options, BotoÃ…Å ¸ and CiumaÃ…Å ¸ (2012) uses the Black-Scholes model to apply in weather derivatives. The aim of their research is to see how the Black-Scholes model can be applied in weather type derivative and to analyze whether it is a suitable model to price for weather derivatives. However, based on their findings of the research, they concluded that the Black-Scholes model is not a suitable model to price for the weather derivatives as the weather market developed very quickly and it is inconsistent. Due to the inconsistencies, the model is not preferable to be used for pricing of weather derivatives contract unless it is a part of the portfolio. Benth and Ã…  altytÄ-à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Benth (2005) uses a stochastic model to model the variations of temperature in their research paper. They used the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck with the driven by Levy process and having seasonal mean and volatility. They find that this model is quite a success to fit the Norwegian temperature data. Besides that, Svec and Stevenson (2006) also use a stochastic model to model and forecast the temperature. Svec and Stevenson (2006) uses Fourier transformation and stochastic Brownian motion (SBM).They proposed a more generalized stochastic Brownian motion to model the temperature, that is, the stochastic fractional Brownian motion (FBM). The model proposed take account the low-frequency variability of weather where the SBM does not. The difference of the SBM and FBM is that the FBM included a continuous-time Gaussian process depending on the Hurst parameter. This research paper concluded that the Monte-Carlo simulation overly forecast while the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) time-series model under forecast the monthly accumulated Heating-degree Day (HDD) and Cooling-degree Day (CDD). They also concluded that the models they use in the research have better estimates than that of the Campbell and Diebold (2003) model. (b) Objective of Research There are two main objectives in this research, that is:- (i) To model the daily temperature based on the analysis of daily average temperature in Malaysia by using stochastic fractional Brownian Motion. (ii) Pricing of the weather derivative. (c) Methodology 1. Flow Chart of Research Activities 2. Gantt Chart of Research Activities 3. Milestones and Dates The flow chart, Gantt chart and milestones and date clearly show that the research activities of this research project. To complete this research project, there are 10 stages. The first stage is looking for a research supervisor so that this research is under supervision. Then, setting up of research title will be the next stage. After setting up the research title, studying and reading related journals needed as to get a rough idea of what is the research needed to be done and what actually the research is all about. The fourth stage will be fixing the model to be used in the research. After reading and studying of relevant journals, the model to be used could be determined. In this research, the model to be used in modelling the daily average temperature is the FBM. The FBM that will be used is as follows: This model was chosen because out of a few models studied in the past research papers, it is one of the best model that fits the movement of temperature. In this FBM, it consists of several components. That is, the mean reversion process, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process and the fractional Brownian process which is a continuous-time Gaussian process. Besides that, the model used also included some seasonal and trend factors. With the combination of this few process and factors, it makes the stochastic FBM more efficient in describing the movement of temperature. As the fixing of the model is done, preparation of research proposal would be the next stage and it is now pending for approval by supervisor. After the proposal of research is done and it is approved, collection of data begun and then analysis works will be started. Analyses of data enable the temperature to be modelled by the model fixed in the earlier stage. In this research, the model to be used is the Stochastic Brownian Motion. Hence, the eighth stage is the modelling of daily average temperature using Stochastic Brownian Motion. After the modelling, pricing of weather derivatives can be start doing and finally, after the pricing is done, the research project is finished up and completed. (d) Expected results 1. New Knowledge Throughout this research, there are actually a lot of new knowledge could be obtained. As this research is all about modelling of temperature and pricing of weather derivatives hence, by doing this research, it provides a better idea on which model is better in fitting or describing the movements of daily temperature as a lot of other models are studied. Besides that, the steps to model the movements of daily temperatures also a new knowledge. It improves the knowledge about stochastic. Since this research is using stochastic fractional Brownian Motion to model the changes of daily temperature, through this research, the suitability of the stochastic model to describe the changes of daily temperature will be reviewed. Besides that, through this research, the application and the usage of the stochastic fractional Brownian Motion is known. Moreover, it will provide a better understanding of the method to calculate the price of the weather derivatives. 2. Research publications This research will be published as a thesis in semester II of 2014/2015. 3. Impact on Society, Economy and Nation Since in Malaysia, it is lack of researchers doing the research about the pricing weather derivatives, so, this research of modelling and pricing of weather derivatives gives some small impact on the economy. One of the impact is that it improves a little bit of the economic conditions of the agricultural field. As mentioned previously in this research, agricultural activities are affected a lot by the weather and agriculture activities are one of the largest activities in Malaysia. Hence, by doing this research, the forecasting of temperature can be done based on the modelling of temperature. With the forecasting of temperature, it can help the farmers to be aware of their crops and come out with a better strategy to handle and prepare for the worst. Of course, the forecast results might not be accurate, but, with the guides provided from the modelling and forecasting, it helps to reduce the risk of losing the money, be it the farmers or the investors. This helps to prevent the farm ers from stop doing agriculture activities. So, by doing this research, it indirectly affected a little bit on the economic condition of the agricultural field. References Benth, F., Ã…  altytÄ-à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Benth, J. (2005). Stochastic Modelling of Temperature Variations with a View Towards Weather Derivatives. Applied Mathematical Finance, 53-85. BotoÃ…Å ¸, H., CiumaÃ…Å ¸, C. (2012). The use of the Black-Scholes Model in the Field of Weather Derivatives.Procedia Economics and Finance,611-616. Cao, M. and Wei, J. (1999). Pricing weather derivative: an equilibrium approach. Working paper. Cao, M., Li, A. and Wei, J., (2004). Precipitation modeling and contract valuation: a frontier in weather derivatives. The Journal of Alternative Investments 7: 93- 99. Campbell, S.D. and Diebold, F.X., (2003). Weather forecasting for weather derivatives. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 100: 6-16. Chang, C., Lin, J., Shen, W. (2009). Pricing Weather Derivatives using a Predicting Power Time Series Process*.Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies,863- 890. Hà ¤rdle, W. K. and Osipenko, M. (2011). Pricing Chinese Rain: A Multisite Multi-period Equilibrium Pricing Model for Rainfall Derivatives. SFB 649 Discussion Paper 2011-055. Jewson, S. and Brix, A. 2005. Weather Derivative Valuation: The Meteorological, Statistical, Financial and Mathematical Foundations. Cambridge University Press. Lee, Y. and Oren, S., (2009). An equilibrium pricing model for weather derivatives in a multi-commodity setting. Energy Economics, 31 (5): 702-713. Lee, Y. and Oren, S., (2010). A multi-period equilibrium pricing model of weather derivatives. Energy Systems 1: 3-30. Lucas, R. E. (1978). Asset prices in an exchange economy, Econometrica 46, pp. 1429-1445. Mills, T. C. (2003). Modelling Trends and Cycles in Economic Time Series. Palgrave Macmillan. Mills, T. C. (2009). Modelling Current Temperature Trends. Journal of Data Science 7, 89-97. Norton, M., Osgood, D., Turvey, C. (2010). Weather Index Insurance and the Pricing of Spatial Basis Risk. Retrieved from: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu /bitstream/61734/2/Norton%20Osgood%20Turvey.Weather%20Index%20Ins urance%20and%20the%20Pricing%20of%20Spatial%20Basis%20Risk%20_ AAEA2010_.pdf Pollock, D. S. G. (2007). Statistical signal extraction and filtering: A partial survey. In Handbook on Computational Econometrics (Forthcoming)2. Elsevier. Svec, J., Stevenson, M. (2006). Modelling and forecasting temperature based weather derivatives.Global Finance Journal,185-204. Taib, C.M.I.C. and Benth, F.E. (2012). Pricing of temperature index insurance. Review of Development Finance 2, pp.22-31.

Australian company Law

Due to the nature of the transitory issues that have been faced by the workers from their shift from Casino Limited to caterers Limited, a solution regarding their salary and remuneration can only be solved through the application of the company law.Australian corporate and company constitute a divergent legislation due to the nature of the commercial activities in Australia.   Perhaps, the amendment of the commonwealth workplace Act in Australia has led to diversified laws regarding the employer and his employee.   Due to these amendments, employees are therefore faced with different legal requirement in regard to their work.The company law is responsible for the regulation of the corporate governance and the general administration of the company.   Within the corporation are different stakeholders who are responsible in performing different duties.This groups work together cordially and in harmony with another to ensure the smooth running of the corporation.   In the corpor ation, different parties should perform different duties.   In their performance of the duties, these parties are guided by different rights which ensure no conflict within the company. (Ferran, 1999)Among the parties to the company are the employees.   Like other employees in a company the employees of the Casino Limited whom have been divided with some becoming subordinate employees of the caterers limited, are entitled to specific rights in their recognition of them as been workers in the company.   To them they are entitled to good working environment and a remuneration which best improves their lives as workers.To the case between these employees and the Casino Limited, the employees had entered in to a contractual relationship with the management of the company in regard to their ruminations.   In this contract, they were to be paid wages and salaries that were to be in excess of other workers in similar resorts in Australia.This comes only to an agreement after a long dispute in relation to it with its employees.   However, the same contract is breached by the management after it expands to form another subsidiary company which is however wholly owned by the Casino Ltd. (Ferran, 1999)By statutes of the company law, any subsidiary company wholly owned by the mother company with all its profits diverted to the mother company is in itself regulated in the same manner as the other subsidiary.  Ã‚   Since caterers Ltd falls under this category, it has no other authority except to undertake its business in regard to the business law regulating the Casino ltd.In the company law, there are some basic concepts that denote whether two or more subsidiary companies should be operated under the same business law.   Firstly, the nature of directorship, where a subsidiary company with directions appointed from the broader company.   Company law states that, such a company is in a close regard to its mother company.Secondly, the nature of profit shares, in which, if subsidiary company pulls all its profit turnovers to the mother company, it implies equality in management and therefore should be guided by the same company laws as its mother company.   Equality in operations; where the subsidiary company operates the same business undertaking as the other.   Either, the nature of management, where two or more companies are under the same management, they are subject to same company law.Implied here is that, Casino and Caterers limited implied one and the same organization whose operations were to be as per the regulations of the same company law.   The structure of the corporate governance in these two companies’ was the same. (Cheffins, 1997)

Nuclear Iran Essay

IRAN HAS THE RIGHT TO ENRICH URANIUM The Iranian nuclear program was initiated decades ago but for some years it has been attracting controversy and debate on international forums. This research essay will be touching both sides of the controversy and explain how the whole affair has evolved over time. Nations critical of any nuclear development in Iran regard it as a threat to peace and stability in the world. However Iran maintains a different but principled stance on this issue. On the basis of the United Nations Charter of 1945, Iran considers it as its right as a sovereign state to pursue its desire of enriching uranium and certainly does not consider itself liable to seek authorization of its actions from any other state or organization. With these words to support the claim of this essay, the Islamic Republic of Iran is fully sovereign in its decision to enrich uranium and obtain nuclear technology. History of Iranian efforts for achieving uranium-enrichment and nuclear technology goes back five decades, when the Shah of Iran Raza Shah Pahlavi came into power during the 1950s. The King of Iran thought that as oil reserves were eventually going to run out so the need for an alternative source of fuel was imperative for the future. A civil nuclear cooperation deal was signed with the United States of America (USA) under the name of Atoms for Peace program. This led to the establishment of the Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TNRC) in 1967, run by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. The following few years saw the golden period of international relations of Iran with the western world. Trade agreements were signed and many European countries showed a lot of interest in the development of its nuclear technology. The US response to the whole situation was over-whelming and other developed countries followed suit. The first nuclear reactor was set up at Bushehr and nuclear fuel was provided along with the necessary equipment to help Iran start its nuclear research. Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968 and was thus subject to verifications from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Political scene changed abruptly and Iran went through the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The government of Raza Shah was overthrown and Ayatollah Khomeini became the spiritual leader of newly found Islamic Republic. The favourite of the western world, Raza Shah was no more in power and that left the western world with no interest in Iran. The anti-US sentiment in Iran grew to an immeasurable extent that US-Iran ties were severed at all levels. US backed out of the nuclear cooperation deal with Iran and many countries including France and Germany followed the US. All deals and ties with other European countries also came to a halt. All agreements remained unfulfilled as many countries, including the US, that had received payments in exchange for nuclear fuel and technology cooperation refused to pay back. Iran felt that it was being cheated as it had to virtually hold all its efforts for enriching uranium. The unreliability in international agreements with the western powers got exposed and Iranian government decided to continue the country’s nuclear development program with help from countries other than the West and co ntinued to do so till date despite imposition of sanctions and embargoes by the West. The first and foremost claim in support of the Iranian pursuit of nuclear development is the right of every sovereign nation to rule itself and undertake any developmental programs it considers best for itself, under its own jurisdiction, as said in the UN Charter. â€Å"The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.† [Charter of the United Nations Art. 2(1)] The above clearly underlines the absolute right of every sovereign state under the capacity of international law, to manage its affairs the way it seems appropriate. And further stressing on it, the UN Charter clearly mentions in Article 2 (7) that no other state or international agency will be authorized to intervene in matters of domestic jurisdiction of any other state and goes on to say that no state will be allowed to submit such matters to the UN under the present Charter. Thus it clearly shows that Iran is doing nothing wrong or for the fact, nothing objectionable. What Ira n is trying to achieve is nothing less of what the â€Å"club† of developed nations has already achieved and today stand proud of their achievements on the world stage. The main objective of Iran for enriching uranium is to generate electricity and depend less on its oil reserves. Iran started the project of developing  nuclear technology to meet its growing demands of energy through reliance on cleaner, more efficient sources of energy. Iran has maintained this position on all international forums. United States of America argue that Iran has vast reserves of oil and gas and does not need nuclear technology for power generation. An interesting thing to note is that Russia and Britain, both exporters of oil and gas, are generating power from nuclear technology. States like Bulgaria can have a nuclear power plant but Iran’s nuclear plant harbours so much controversy. Israel refuses to disclose how many nuclear weapons it has but one thing is confirmed that Israel became a nuclear state with the help of the United States and continues to avoid the signing of NPT. Pakistan, India, North Korea, Israel, United Kingdom, Russia and the United Stat es all possess nuclear weapons and use nuclear technology for power production. If they being sovereign states can develop nuclear technology why does Iran have to be an exception? As seen in the above paragraphs, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology is its right and as per law the question of allowing Iran to enrich uranium or not does not stand credible. However politics follow a different pattern. The country to initiate the nuclear program and development of research in Iran took a three-sixty degree turn after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. United States of America, after its singular use of nuclear bombs, has had a great influence over the world community after the Second World War that completely changed the world dynamics. This also influenced the Iran-Iraq war that started in 1980 and lasted 8 years. Iran was attacked by Iraqi military aircraft and missiles, initiating the war, which destroyed Iran’s nuclear reactors in Bushehr. Iranian military was not that well equipped and Iran’s pleas for a diplomatic solution to this war fell on deaf ears of the western world and the United Nations. The West openly supported the Iraqi regime throughout the war and supplied it with the latest weapons. Iran fought for eight long years and learned that the West could not be relied upon. And in recent years there exists a threat from Israel and so does from the US, both of which continue to apply pressure, directly or indirectly, on Iran to forego its pursuit of nuclear technology. The US invasion of Iraq on the pretext of finding and destroying weapons of mass destruction was baseless. This made Iran feel exposed to the world community and it remains  committed to go ahead with enriching uranium and acquiring nuclear technology. If it achieves this, a nuclear Iran will be enough to deter any foreign attack. An interesting example is that of India. India became a nuclear state in 1974 and since then has declined to become a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT prohibits its signatory states from making a deal on nuclear technology with any other state that refuses to comply with the terms of the NPT. However the world saw a controversial resolution passed by the US Congress when it approved US-India Civilian Nuclear deal. The deal was signed by both the governments and any objections voiced by the world community were unheeded. Iran fulfilling all international obligations in compliance with the IAEA and the NPT has yet to face all kinds of hurdles in the form of sanctions and trade embargoes as it continues to proceed with its nuclear program and uranium enrichment. The example of North Korea shows the two-faced attitude of the developed countries of the world. North Korea claims to have nuclear weapons and maintains a hostile attitude towards South Korea. It is a signatory of the NPT and thus under inspections of the IAEA, however it has developed nuclear technology to the extent that it can produce nuclear weapons as well. US and other world powers have dealt with the whole situation diplomatically and even come up with a deal for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. Contradictory to this, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously against Iran that it should immediately suspend all its nuclear programs. If it does that then the world powers agree to hold talks with the Iranian government. This raises the question that on what grounds exactly the western world wants Iran to leave its nuclear program of enriching uranium. Iran might have many reasons to go ahead with its nuclear program however there is another side to the Iranian Nuclear Program. Critics of Iran’s nuclear program defend the stance of the United Nations Security Council that Iran should curb its nuclear program and immediately stop the enrichment of uranium. They vehemently oppose the prospect of a nuclear Iran in the future and consider such a development as a serious threat to world  peace and instability in the gulf region. They base their arguments on three main issues that include risks of nuclear proliferation, the start of an arms race in the region and lastly the increase in hostilities in the Gulf region eventually leading to global tensions. It is true that if Iran goes ahead with its nuclear program and is able to enrich uranium for its nuclear purposes there will be a risk of nuclear proliferation. However such risks are inherent in case of all nuclear states and that is one of the reasons that the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty was accorded and signed to curb such leaks. Iran is already a signatory of the NPT and has been under the inspection of IAEA for several years. The inspections undertaken by the IAEA clearly show that Iran has been complying with the terms of the NPT and IAEA. It has enriched uranium up to the permissible levels and has not yet been found of proliferation of any nuclear technology to any other state. The Iranian government has stressed time and again on its peaceful intentions regarding uranium enrichment and nuclear prospects. As per international laws the measures adopted by Iran suffice and it should be allowed to enrich uranium and keep going with its nuclear program. Those critical of Iran’s nuclear program feel there is a threat of an impending arms race in the region if Iran gets nuclear technology. What they claim is probably right and this might be one of the initial responses if Iran continues its nuclear program. As more and more resources will be spent on military budgets and on the development of nuclear weapons, this will have a negative effect on the growth of those nations. This will also cause a decrease in expenditures for the public welfare, insufficient spending on development of infrastructure and even an increase in environmental degradation. However it should also be noted that Iran is not the first country to have or close to having nuclear technology in the region. Israel already has nuclear technology and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear technology is not a recent phenomenon. It has been there for years now and so has been the arms race in the region. Iran wants to develop this technology for peaceful uses as its leade rship has said on numerous occasions. The Iranian government cannot afford to allow letting billions of dollars of investment  into this program over five decades go waste just because other nations think that Iran should discontinue its program. On another dimension Iran’s aim of enriching uranium seems the best step forward as it will shift some military power from the hands of just one player in the region that is Israel. Another argument, in addition to proliferation, going against Iran’s nuclear program is the escalation of hostilities in the region. The antagonistic relationship of Iran and Israel will get even worse if Iran continues with its nuclear program and this will put the whole region at risk as both countries will be nuclear powers. The official stance taken by both these nations with respect to the other speaks for itself. Iranian government refuses to acknowledge Israel as a legitimate state and has intent in eliminating Israel from the world map. Israel on the other hand talks of using force against Iran if it does not discontinue its nuclear program. Such tensions will require only an excuse to start war and if that is a nuclear war the consequences will be destructive. However it should also be noted that with advanced nuclear technology Iran would be at the same level as others and the looming threats of attack from the US and Israel will diffuse. Both will be well aware of t he consequences of any such attack and will try to avoid it all costs. The world has seen the effects of two nuclear bombs and no nation will dare to take such a step in haste. The example of Pakistan and India can be considered in this regard. The two countries have fought three wars and many incidents have taken place when war had become imminent. However, after they became nuclear powers, both states have been responsible in this regard and the respective nuclear weapons have acted as a deterrent. Similar is the case with Iran; the possession of nuclear technology will bring it at an equal footing with Israel and that will compel both to treat each other responsibly, something not observed nowadays in world politics. Considering all the arguments given in this essay one thing is certain that Iran has the right to go ahead with its nuclear program and that choice remains with the Iranian government or the people of Iran only. The risks involved in developing nuclear technology can be minimized but not  eliminated. Iran being a responsible state has complied and continues to abide by the terms and conditions of the NPT and the rules of the IAEA. A country like Iran that has faced so many sanctions and embargoes through the years and, however, still continues to go ahead with the plan of enriching uranium should be taken seriously. No amount of pressure is going to affect it. This is something that other countries might not be willing to accept but the fact remains that Iran is pushing itself through this. Considering the regional and the global situation Iran should be allowed to enrich uranium for the purpose of fulfilling the nation’s needs, be it energy requirements or national security compulsions. LIST OF WORKS CITED â€Å"BBC News – Q&A: Iran Nuclear Issue.† BBC – Homepage. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. . â€Å"Charter of the United Nations: Chapter I: Purposes and Principles.† Welcome to the United Nations: It’s Your World. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. . Wright, By Robert. â€Å"Listen to the Iranian People – NYTimes.com.† Opinion – Opinionator Blog – NYTimes.com. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. . â€Å"Iran’s Nuclear Program – The New York Times.† The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 30 Nov. 2010. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. . Bruno, By Greg. â€Å"Iran’s Nuclear Program.† Council on Foreign Relations. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. . â€Å"Nuclear Weapons – Iran.† GlobalSecurity.org – Reliable Security Information. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. . â€Å"The Iran Nuclear Issue.† Intelligent Essays. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. . â€Å"Perceived Nuclear Threat from Iran Essay | Papers Unlimited.† Web. 1 Dec. 2010. . Web. 1 Dec. 2010. .

About Semiramis Also Known as Sammu-Ramat

Shamshi-Adad V ruled in the 9th century BCE, and his wife was named Shammuramat (in Akkadian). She was a regent after her husbands death for their son Adad-nirari III for several years.  At the time, the Assyrian Empire was considerably smaller than it was when later historians wrote of her. The legends of Semiramis (Sammu-Ramat or Shammuramat) are likely embellishments on that history. Semiramis at a Glance When: 9th century BCE Occupation:  legendary queen, warrior (neither she nor her husband, King Ninus, is on the Assyrian King List, a list on cuneiform tablets from ancient times) Also known as: Shammuramat Historical records Sources include Herodotus in his 5th century BCE. Ctesias, a Greek historian and physician, wrote about Assyria and Persia, opposing Herodotus history, publishing in the 5th century BCE. Diodorus of Sicily, a Greek historian, wrote Bibliotheca historia  between 60 and 30 BCE.  Justin, a Latin historian, wrote Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV, including some earlier material; he probably wrote in the 3rd century CE. Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus reports that she invented the idea of eunuchs, castrating males in their youth to be servants as adults. Her name appears in the names of many places in Mesopotamia and Assyria. Semiramis also appears in Armenian legends. The Legends Some legends have Semiramis raised by doves in the desert, born the daughter of the fish-goddess Atargatis. Her first husband was said to have been the governor of Nineveh, Menones or Omnes. King Ninus of Babylon became captivated by the beauty of Semiramis, and after her first husband conveniently committed suicide, he married her. That may have been the first of his two biggest mistakes in judgment. The second came when Semiramis, now Queen of Babylon, convinced Ninus to make her Regent for a Day. He did so - and on that day, she had him executed, and she took the throne. Semiramis is said to have had a long string of one-night-stands with handsome soldiers. So that her power would not be threatened by a man who presumed on their relationship, she had each lover killed after a night of passion. Theres even one story that the army of Semiramis attacked and killed the sun itself (in the person of the god Er), for the crime of not returning her love. Echoing a similar myth about the goddess Ishtar, she implored the other gods to restore the sun to life. Semiramis is also credited with a renaissance of building in Babylon and with the conquest of neighboring states, including the defeat of the Indian army at the Indus River. When Semiramis returned from that battle, the legend has her turning over her power to her son, Ninyas, who then had her killed. She was 62 years old and had ruled alone for almost 25 years (or was it 42?). Another legend has her marrying her son Ninyas and living with him before he had her killed. Armenian Legend According to Armenian legend, Semiramis fell in lust with the Armenian king, Ara, and when he refused to marry her, led her troops against the Armenians, killing him. When her prayers to raise him from the dead failed, she disguised another man as Ara and convinced the Armenians that Ara had been resurrected to life. History The truth? Records show that after the reign of Shamshi-Adad V, 823-811 B.C.E., his widow Shammuramat served as regent from 811 - 808 B.C.E. The rest of the real history is lost, and all that remains are stories, most certainly exaggerated, from Greek historians. Legacy of the Legend The legend of Semiramis attracted not only the attention of Greek historians but the attention of novelists, historians and other storytellers through the centuries since. Great warrior queens in history have been called the Semiramis of their times. Rossinis opera, Semiramide, premiered in 1823. In 1897, the Semiramis Hotel was opened in Egypt, built on the banks of the Nile. It remains a luxury destination today, near the Museum of Egyptology in Cairo. Many novels have featured this intriguing, shadowy queen. Dantes  Divine Comedy  describes her as being in the Second Circle of Hell, a place for those condemned to hell for lust:  She is Semiramis, of whom we read /  That she succeeded Ninus, and was his spouse; /  She held the land which now the Sultan rules.