Real estate: the final frontier
Dennis Hope owns the moon. An entrepreneur living in Nevada, he has created a website, “”Lunar Embassy,”” in which he peddles real estate on the moon for the reasonable price of $19.99 per acre.
Salon.com reports that Hope has had his eye on this particular heavenly body for quite a while; since a “”Moon Treaty”” forbidding private ownership of space property has only been ratified by 13 U.N. member nations, Hope sent letters to the United States and Russian government, as well as the U.N. itself, asserting his ownership. He has taken the ensuing silence from all three governing bodies as tacit approval of his claim. Possible alternative fuel resources on the moon’s surface could potentially turn 1-acre plots into extraterrestrial cash cows, but common sense may end up foiling this Great White Hope before it gets a chance to blast off.
Tempting as it is to be able to charge royalties for enjoying a moonlit stroll, Hope should probably just avoid the legal headache and name a star after himself like everyone else.
Sarah Devlin is a sophomore majoring in English and political science.
Elections are easier in Cuba
On Sunday, voters in Cuba headed to the polls for the annual parliamentary elections. Campaigning is prohibited leading up to the vote, and only 614 candidates ran for 614 seats – but voter turnout was expected to exceed 95 percent. The parliament will have the responsibility of electing the Cuban president.
Based on its historical record, it might be better said that the Cuban National Assembly’s duty is to re-elect the president. Fidel Castro has been the undisputed leader of Cuba for 48 years. His recent ill health and his cession of interim power to his brother Raul indicate that while it may not be Fidel who gets the revolutionary throne, it will almost surely be a Castro.
As much as American political campaigns make me want to lobotomize myself with a rusty claw hammer, Cuban elections remind me of how much I love our more-than-one-party system. It’s tough to support Cuba’s unique brand of “”democracy”” when the average American high school prom committee has more political sway than a Cuban legislator – and it’s a shame that after 48 years of glorious revolution, Cuban elections are still so closed.
