Suicide Bomber Kills 35 in Moscow

Today, a suicide bomber set off a home made device at one of the busiest airports near Moscow, Russia. The bomb killed 35 people and wounded about 100 people. Although there is not a defenitive identification yet, the president of Russia immediately labeled the attack as terrorist activity and ordered additional security at all transportation facilities.

This event followed a 2004 attack that killed 89 people. The 2004 event was linked to Chechen suicide bombers. Attacks are unfortunately fairly common in Russia because of the many Islamic groups that are fighting to break away from Russia.

Why is this important to us??

This is very important to the United States because Russia is one of our biggest allies in Afaghanistan. Russia is a very important importer of goods, especially in Iraq. Russia is also a very large oil producer and if Russia's instability grows, oil prices may rise significantly which would negatively effect our economy. This is also important to us because of Russia's nuclear power. The United States is an enemy of many Islamic nations and if parts if Islamic power grows in Russia, the US may start worrying about their power. (We really don't want to go to war with Russia)

So what should we do now?

The question is, is the US going to sit by and watch Russia get attacked all the time? Or are we going to help them out with their security problems? Although we are 14 trillion dollars in debt, our debt could get much worse if the problems in Russia grew.

United States scored low on motherhood rankings

The United States recently scored low on a survey conducted by campaign group's list of the best countries in the world to be a mother. Many developing countries, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, placed higher then the United States. Norway came top of the list due to access to contraception, most generous maternity leaves in the world (the U.S.'s is about 6 weeks to 3 months) and the women there are well paid. On the other hand, Afghanistan came bottom of the list because of the high levels of infant deaths, low life expectancy rates of females and worst primary education for women in the world.

Top 10: (Best to worst) Norway, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Bottom 10: Afghanistan, followed by Niger, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Sudan, Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea.

According to Mary Beth Powers, the bottom countries scored low because of lack of skilled birth attendants and difficult to access birth control. These women face the most pregnancies and the most dangerous birth situations which result in newborn and maternal deaths.

The United States got 28th place because of its ungenerous maternity leave policy, maternal morality rate (1/4800- highest of any developed country in the world). It also did not do well on the under-age-five mortality rate which is at 8/1000 per births.

Its funny to me how we are the most wealthy nation in the world but we are too cheap to give mothers the chance to nurture their newborn children. Even Canada has a one year maternity leave!!! I believe too many issues in this country are caused by indifference, ignorance and pure laziness and this study is a perfect example how our country can turn its back to what really matters for the sake of "getting ahead".