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Coal's Open Wounds/ Las Heridas Abiertas del Carbón
Coal mining in La Guajira, Colombia, has caused widespread devastation—physical, environmental, and cultural—for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. It is time for it to end.
Hilda Lloréns and Ruth Santiago
Read a Spanish verion of this article here.
We spotted the deep, wide gashes cut into the earth of Colombia's coast from 20,000 feet in the air. The extraordinary birds-eye view of the massive pits was our first encounter with La Guajira's open-pit coal mine, Cerrejón, and our first clue that coal is not just "big business"— it is colossal business. From our point of view, Cerrejón's visual impact also made us—two Puerto Rican anti-coal activists on a mission to understand the environmental, social, and cultural impacts of coal extraction—contemplate our own smallness.
The word used in La Guajira to refer to the open coal pits is "tajo," Spanish for cut or gash, because the pits look like wounds carved into the surface of the landscape. A deep tajo is also called a herida (wound), a testament to the profound physical and emotional suffering the communities in La Guajira endure. Cerrejón, the world's largest open-pit coal mine, is owned by multinational mining giants Anglo American, BHP, and Glencore. Its arrival to the region nearly four decades ago has caused irreparable harm to the environment, landscape, and the people who live there, including upending their farming livelihoods, causing widespread air and water contamination, diverting streams, and cutting the community off from its water sources.
Richard Solly from the London Mining Network aptly described the scale of Cerrejón's operation as "massive open holes, where coal is gouged out using enormous mechanical shovels. Whatever is on the surface—woods, farmland, villages—has to be erased in order to open up the pit and get at the coal."
Despite being resource-rich, most of the inhabitants of La Guajira, who are primarily Indigenous Wayúu and Afro-descendants, are poverty stricken. In the first three months of 2018 alone, 16 Wayúu children died from malnutrition and dehydration. A resident we spoke with referred to the area as a "pueblo de minas, pueblo en ruinas" (town with mines, town in ruins), to refer to La Guajira's staggering levels of poverty, high rates of malnutrition, and infant mortality.
The adverse health effects impact not only residents in communities close to the mine, but also the mine workers themselves, including respiratory illnesses, cancers, bone atrophy, and frequent injuries.
The burning of coal to generate electricity has dire consequences on the environmental and individual health of communities located close to these plants. Finally, the disposal of toxic-coal ash causes birth defects, miscarriage, and cancers. This creates a sort of "death cycle" in communities and environments wherever coal is extracted, burned, and disposed.
We traveled to La Guajira with two Colombian social organizations, Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu (Strength of Wayúu Women) and Indepaz. We were fortunate to join Aviva Chomsky, along with delegates from Witness for Peace. Over the course of four days, we visited five communities and heard testimony from six more. We also met with members of Sintracarbon, the mineworkers' union, and attended a meeting at the Cerrejón mine with the management team, community leaders, and union representatives. What we witnessed and heard reaffirmed to us that coal is anything but clean energy—a dirty business that must be ceased.
Loss of Land, Loss of Culture
"We refer to the earth as Mother Earth because she has nourished us through the generations, " Rogelio Ustate Arrogoces, who comes from the displaced community of Tabaco, tells us one sweltering August afternoon during our visit. "We ethnic communities, Afro-descendant and Wayúu, have always lived off of agriculture, fishing, hunting, and from herding our animals. We have a spiritual anchor to our land," he explains.
Tabaco is a community comprised of about 700 Afro-Colombian residents who were forcefully evicted from their land by Cerrejón in 2001. Despite promises to resettle the community, for 17 years Cerrejón has left them displaced. Stripped of their homes, many have been forced to migrate to cities or out of the region altogether. "Because we have been displaced, we have lost our sacred places, our meeting places, we have lost our ancestral medicine," Rogelio says.
Ustate Arrogoces' words reflect the importance of traditional and local ecological knowledge for the well-being of communities and the impacts of displacement on people intimately connected to their lands. "In losing our ancestral medicine we have lost part of our lives ," Rogelio explains. "In being forcefully displaced we have fallen into extreme poverty."
His comments speak to a loss of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), or local knowledge about a natural environment that forms an intrinsic element of a social group's culture that endures, even as it changes and evolves, through generations. Such ecological knowledge is often held by peoples considered to be indigenous to a place, usually in resistance to colonialism and expansionism. These cultural traditions are grounded in a specific territory, landscape, and natural resources. This knowledge is preserved and passed down through oral and written traditions and in spiritual and cultural practices, such as in art and crafts, song, dance, ceremonies, planting, fishing, foraging, and in the preparation of traditional medicine and foods. Essential to the vitality of ancestral and traditional ecological knowledge is the maintenance of language, access to the environment and natural resources, intergenerational continuity, and the ability to practice and pass down cultural traditions without restriction.
Ustate Arrogoces stressed that land is fundamental for Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities, who cannot live out their worldview of collective wellbeing in harmony with nature without a connection to the land. "When we don't have our land, we don't have buen vivir (good living)," he says.
In the case of the Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities of La Guajira, the coal mine's extractive forces have caused irreversible damage to the social fabric of the communities affected, as well as to the natural environment. For Rogelio, the connection between loss of land and loss of culture is clear. "Any negative impacts that exists on our land also impacts our culture and the possibility for the sociocultural development of our community," he explains. "Territory is a source of legitimacy, confidence, and strength across generations, and the loss of territory also means the loss of possibilities to develop ourselves, and to live."
The impacts of the mine on this cultural knowledge and spiritual well-being are pervasive. Aura Robles, the authority of the Wayúu community Paradero, explains that the more than 90-mile (150-km) train that runs adjacent to Paradero, and transports coal 24 hours a day from the mine to Puerto Bolivar on the coast disrupts dreams and disturbs residents on a spiritual level. "My mother is a dreamer and the train interrupts her dreams and she is unable to continue dreaming once she is awake," she says. "And this is upsetting because her dreams are a source of important information for us."
Contamination of Communities
Water quality and contamination is a major concern for affected communities. La Guajira is a semi-desert region, where water is a precious but increasingly scarce resource. Cerrejón guzzles up nearly nine million gallons (34 million liters) of water every day. After nearly four decades of mining, water sources are contaminated, and unless treated, unfit for human consumption.
Indepaz, a Colombian social justice NGO, has found that the nearby Rachería River's water contains heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, zinc, magnesium, iron, and barium, which endanger the health of flora, fauna, and people. Similarly, they have found that mining has had adverse impacts on the region's air quality. Coal extraction ejects particulate matter (PM-10) and emits sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the air. These contaminants put the region's population at greater risks of suffering respiratory illnesses and certain forms of cancers.
But mining officials have brushed off the problem, blaming local residents for polluting their own water sources. "The mine says that the contamination of our water results from our animals defecating in the water," explains a Wayúu community authority in Charito, another community wedged beside the train tracks near Cerrejón, who wished to remain anonymous. "That feels as if they are mocking us, insulting us. How can they say such a thing when we know our animals are not causing the widespread contamination of our water, when our ancestors had animals and the water was not contaminated?"
Wayúu and Afro-descendant community members raised these issues at a recent meeting with Cerrejón itself. They voiced concerns about the lack of access to and availability of clean water for communities while the mine continues to use astronomical amounts of water every day, and accused the company of destroying clean water sources.
Cerrejón representative Gabriel Bustos denied that the mine is to blame for water contamination and scarcity and demanded proof of poor water quality. Bustos refuted the findings of Indepaz's report on widespread water and air contamination in the region, claiming the mining company has conducted its own study confirming its operations have not caused contamination. He instead accused communities of discarding untreated wastewater into the river and suggested that agricultural runoff could compromise water quality. Community members maintain that the potential pollution of their small-scale farming activities pales in comparison to the toxic impact of the world's largest coal mine.
During the meeting at the mine, we witnessed the outright disregard for the community's members' knowledge and the placing of blame on the community for their problems. Time and again, the mine representatives contested the community member's ecological observations with "scientific" data. This alienated community members and made them feel as if their knowledge was useless.
This is a common practice for multinational corporations, states, and even the scientific community. These sectors often construe traditional and Indigenous knowledge as "backwards," "harmful," "superstitious," and "uneducated," as scholars such as Henry P. Huntington, Robert Johannes, and Carlos G. Garcia-Quijano have reported.
Bad Neighbors
During the meeting, several Indigenous and Afro-descendant community members referred to the idea of being a good neighbor, which requires mutual respect, as a reminder to the mining company that has not acted in good faith towards the communities. In turn, the mine executives reminded the communities that the multinational company is not the state and therefore unable to fulfill all the demands made by the communities. An Afro-descendant community member from Tabaco denounced the company's denial of responsibility.
"You are the ones who removed the communities from their territories, as such you are responsible for providing water to the communities. We had water in our communities and now you have created pits in our territories," he says. "You cannot tell us we have to fend for ourselves now, we were living peacefully in our territories and you are the ones who came here and removed us from our land."
Hilda Lloréns is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Rhode Island. She is the author of Imaging the Great Puerto Rican Family: Framing Nation, Race, and Gender during the American Century (Lexington Books, 2014).
Ruth Santiago is an environmental and community lawyer who lives and works in Salinas, PR. In 2013, she was an Earthjustice fresh air ambassador. She is a recipient of Sierra Club's 2018 Robert Bullard Environmental Justice Award.
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NABET-CWA Local 26
Digital Media Employees at National Public Radio Request Voluntary Recognition of NABET-CWA
Approximately sixty-three (63) rank and file employees working in National Public Radio's Digital Media Division (Content Operations, Design, Engineering, Online Support and Product management) announced today that they have designated the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians – Communications Workers of America ("NABET-CWA") as their exclusive bargaining representative with respect to wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment.
These employees chose NABET-CWA as their exclusive bargaining representative, because they want to have a seat at the table with respect to the issues that are important in their workplace. These issues include equal pay for equal work, staffing levels commensurate with the needs of NPR's growing audience, and hiring processes that ensure the consideration of a diverse pool of applicants. NABET-CWA and Local 31 have a long history of promoting technical excellence, along with ensuring diversity and equality, both within National Public Radio ("NPR") and throughout the broadcast industry.
"This announcement represents a major step for these workers toward finding their collective voice with respect to what matters the most to them," said Local 31's President, Robert Williams. President Williams added, "Local 31, along with each and every one of its more than 1,400 members, stand in solidarity with NPR's digital media employees, and we fully support their decision to join NABET-CWA. We also call upon NPR to do the right thing and recognize NABET-CWA as these employees' exclusive bargaining representative."
NABET-CWA is already the exclusive bargaining representative of broadcast employees who work for National Public Radio. NABET-CWA Local 31 handles the day-to-day representation of these broadcast employees and the administration of their collective bargaining agreement with NPR.
For more information, you can visit the Digital Media United website, which is located at https://www.digitalmediaunited.org, or you can contact Robert Williams, President, NABET-CWA Local 31 at (301) 459-4999.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There was something different about that particular morning. When I awoke, I could not put my finger on it, but something was different, something was missing. As I got ready to face another day, I dismissed the wonderings and went about my day, soon forgetting about the empty feeling of the morning.
That evening, I sat on the back porch and again felt something was missing. Then it came to me. The call of the cardinals nesting in the gardenia bush seemed silent. I got up and eased my way over the edge of the porch and peered through the screen, being ever so careful not to disturb the mother cardinal who was so diligently keeping watch over her tiny eggs. Boy, was I in for a surprise!
The nest was empty. No, I don't mean mom was just taking a break from sitting on the nest, but the nest was empty. She was gone and so were her eggs. The small nest, made of twisted brown and grey twigs, lined with feathers, looked like an abandoned apartment in the midst of the many shades of green of the gardenia bush. In the midst of spring, surrounded by the smell of blooming gardenias and jasmine, with the flower bed covered in a rainbow of petunias, and caladiums just opening their leaves to provide a bang of color, the little, brown, empty nest, having been shaken loose by the wind, now lies on the ground like a cast-off from last year. In the midst of all the signals of the new life of spring, emptiness looms. It was the song of the mom and dad cardinals I missed that morning. A tug of emotion ran through my heart. I so looked forward to seeing a family raised in the bush right outside my back porch. I hoped to see the miracle of life right before my eyes.
We embark on the Easter holiday season, where we celebrate new life and hope eternal. We hear the story again of the disciples who followed Jesus with such inspiration and hope, gathered in a small upper room following his arrest, trial and execution, licked their wounds and wondered what the future would hold now that all their hopes had been dashed. You see, even then, there was an emptiness in the midst of a new life. All they hoped for, dreamed of and believed in, was now cast off and buried in a borrowed tomb. Hope was gone. Fear and uncertainty had replaced the dreams.
Then they heard the news. The grave was empty! He had conquered as he said he would, but in a different way than they had understood! Hope was renewed. Dreams were rekindled. Belief bloomed once again. The promise of new life was kept.
Our lives are full of empty nests that once held our hopes, dreams, expectations and beliefs. But, the risen Lord of Easter can fill those empty nests of hopes, dreams, beliefs and expectations with new ones and set us on a new journey that will bring us closer to the Father.
Last night as we ate dinner on the back porch, in the distance, somewhere in the forest behind our home, the call of a cardinal rang true and clear. It was answered by another one calling in the distance. I glanced over at the empty nest lying on the ground. Again, in the distance, the cardinal called and was answered.
Called, then answered, much like our Heavenly Father. I think I'll leave the empty nest there for a while to remind me that God will fill my emptiness and restore my hope and belief.


For the past fifty years, immigration law has resisted integration of Gideon v. Wainwright's legacy of appointed counsel for the poor. Today, however, this resistance has given way to Gideon's migration. At the level of everyday practice, criminal defense attorneys appointed pursuant to Gideon now advise clients on the immigration consequences of convictions, negotiate "immigration safe" plea bargains, defend clients charged with immigration crimes, and, in some model programs, even represent criminal defendants in immigration court. A formal right to appointed counsel in immigration proceedings has yet to be established, but proposals grounded in the constitution, statutes, and expanded government funding are gaining momentum.
From the perspective of criminal defense, the changing role of Gideon-appointed counsel raises questions about the breadth and depth of immigration assistance that should develop under the defense umbrella. From the perspective of immigration legal services, the potential importation of a Gideon-inspired right to counsel requires consideration of the appropriate scope and design for an immigration defender system. This Essay does not attempt to resolve these challenging questions, but rather provides a framework for further reflection grounded in lessons learned from the criminal system's implementation of Gideon.


The Joe and Mary Mottino Family YMCA will host the 7th Annual Kids Need Heroes Gala at the Joe and Mary Mottino Family YMCA on Saturday, September 22 from 6:00 - 10:00 pm. Join us for an entertaining and exciting evening that will benefit youth and families in our community.
By supporting the Kids Need Heroes Gala, you join a community committed to providing quality character-building programs for all people regardless of their ability to pay.
We rely on local companies and supporters to make our silent and live auctions successful. Together with sponsorships, these auctions help us raise thousands for children, families and seniors in our community.
Consider making a tax-deductible donation today!


Payday Loans in Charlton City (Worcester County) MA - How to Get a Payday Loan in Charlton City?
By the way, if you have a bad credit history, but need a payday loan in Charlton City? Do not be nervous, we can approve borrowers with bad credit history.


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The $1 Billion Tezos Blockchain Is Officially Launching Monday
The "experimental" phase of the Tezos blockchain is soon to conclude.
Announced today, the Tezos Foundation will officially launch the protocol on Monday, at which point the platform, whose token supply is today valued at more than $1 billion, will no longer be in beta, meaning it will be fully operational and run by its community.
Still, the designation is admittedly a semantic one. Tezos launched a mainnet, or live blockchain version of its software at the end of June, and since then its XTZ tokens have been tradeable.
While the blockchain was being used as intended throughout that time – with the number of network participants and staked tokens on the rise – technically the blockchain could have been paused for maintenance at any time.
Ryan Jesperson of the Tezos Foundation, which maintains the code and pays developers, told CoinDesk:
"We have been happy to see the network operating smoothly and efficiently over these last few months. The community has been actively engaged, with more than 400 validators ('bakers') scheduled for an upcoming cycle and the community has been developing an array of exciting technologies."
According to knowledgeable sources, the only outage that occurred on the network happened in mid-July when blocks weren't properly validating for approximately an hour. The problem was addressed, and the blockchain has been running smoothly since.
When it first launched, only the Tezos Foundation validated transactions on the network, but on July 20 the foundation opened up to third-party validators.
Jesperson recently published a large update on the Foundation blog, detailing business updates such as auditing and grant-making, as well as speaking to some of the turmoil that preceded his tenure.
He wrote, "The turnaround was complex, occurred at high velocity and had us all intensely focused on success. To its credit, the entire team worked through the turmoil and produced exceptional work."
The previous president of the foundation, Johann Gevers, stepped down in February, after a tenure in which many viewed him as stifling the launch of a protocol that set a record for the largest initial coin offering (ICO) of all time up that point – $232 million in July 2017.
Since Jesperson took over, along with a completely new board, the foundation has partnered with major auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers; actively funded academics, community members and entrepreneurs with interest in contributing to the ecosystem and set up the first set of validation nodes on which to launch the network.
Most recently, it announced funding for TezTech, a Tezos focused software shop with several projects underway, including a trustless scaling and custody solution, as well as APIs and software libraries.
The market capitalization for xtz currently hovers around $882 million, according to CoinMarketCap, with roughly $3 million in trading over the last 24 hours.
Greek columns photo via Shutterstock
Tags: Crypto TechDigital Currency GroupJohann Geversmedia outletRyan Jespersonsoftware shop
DAG Platforms Advancing as Experts Debate Potential
FOAM Is Live: Decentralized World Map Launches on Ethereum
Axie Infinity: What Are the Minimum Android Phone Requirements to Play on Mobile


Irwin Mitchell is one of a few large law firms to provide a diverse range of legal services to both businesses and private individuals. The firm is divided into two divisions: personal legal services and business legal services with particular strength in litigation.
Irwin Mitchell's 'quality vacation scheme' prompted many aspiring solicitors to apply for a training contract at the firm. IM is a 'leader in personal injury law' and has an 'excellent reputation for claimant clinical negligence', but its additional focus on business legal services offers a fantastic opportunity to gain grounding in this area of law. The level of training varies from department to department, but overall it's of a 'very high quality'. 'Work/life balance compares favourably against similar firms but remuneration does not'. As for seats, 'choices are limited' and it can feel as though you are 'cornered into one area of the firm's business' as a result of the training contract structure (recruits undertake three four-month seats and one year-long seat if they opt for the private legal services route). Nevertheless, supervisors are great; 'the amount of time, effort and resources they put into your development' is 'incredibly good'. The 'working environment is inclusive' and there are 'great social opportunities'. 'Uncertainty about whether we'll be kept on' worried new recruits and 'the office facilities and IT systems need an update'. Trainees rated 'getting a written recommendation from counsel following a final hearing', and 'attending a joint settlement meeting where we secured a multi-million-pound settlement for a boy injured during his birth' as their best moments. 'Being told that I was leaving too early each day (i.e. around 5pm)' and 'not enjoying a whole seat' were some of the more difficult experiences. If a 'positive and effective learning environment' is on your wish list, Irwin Mitchell is for you.
The trainee intake in the Manchester office is relatively small so I have taken on a lot of responsibility during my first two seats. In real estate I have managed my own transactions from start to finish, for example selling three commercial and two residential properties at auction, managing the assignment of a portfolio of leases, and the negotiation of new leases. As a trainee you have to be prepared for the unexpected – within six weeks of starting my training contract I was asked to appear before a District Judge in the County Court to make an urgent application, which was daunting at the time but an excellent experience.
I chose to apply to Irwin Mitchell over other firms as I thought it would be the right fit for me, particularly a role within the firm's Personal Legal Services (PLS) stream. The thought of a career in a law firm focusing exclusively on commercial work did not appeal to me as I was keen to work with people, not just businesses. Having worked at Irwin Mitchell both as a paralegal and now as a trainee solicitor, I have relished the opportunity to help clients with a variety of problems, obtaining a huge sense of satisfaction by knowing that I was making a positive difference to their lives. I have attended meetings with clients both at our offices and at their homes, and now feel that I have developed a positive manner with clients that will benefit me throughout my career.
There are a fantastic variety of diversity networks you can choose to be part of while working at Irwin Mitchell. Throughout my time as a trainee, I have been part of the IMAspiring network, which is focused upon the importance of social mobility. The group organises the PRIME initiative, which provides local students from disadvantaged backgrounds with the opportunity to visit one of our offices for a week of work experience. During their time with us, the students not only undertake departmental work, but also take part in a variety of workshops to develop other skills.
It has been really rewarding to be part of this initiative, which undoubtedly helps students to develop more confidence in their abilities and career aspirations. A particular highlight for me was delivering a presentation to a large group of students from local schools, to provide them with an insight into my journey to a career in law, life at Irwin Mitchell and the PRIME initiative.
Other offices: Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Chichester, Gatwick, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Middlesbrough (consulting office), Newbury, Newcastle, Sheffield, Southampton.
Who we are: Irwin Mitchell is a national firm, and one of a few law firms to provide a diverse range of legal services to business and private clients.
What we do: We offer a broad range of personal and business legal services to businesses and private individuals.
What we are looking for: Those who have the ability to be creatively minded, demonstrate resilience, use their initiative, display empathy and have strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
What you'll do:Trainees will have three training seats and a qualification seat, giving them the chance to gain practical experience in diverse areas of law, in their selected stream.
Perks: 25 days' holiday, health plan, recognition scheme, two CSR days a year, sports team sponsorship, season ticket loan, contributory pension scheme, death in service cover, critical illness cover.
Sponsorship:If your application is successful, we will meet all the fees associated with your LPC and, if applicable, your GDL if you have not started or completed your studies when offered a training contract. We also provide a maintenance grant to help you through your studies.
What's involved:Online application, video interview and assessment centre.
When to apply: By 30 June 2019.


Now you can purchase your Gas Spring from the same reliable source that has supplied your stock mechanical springs SPEC. Our stock gas springs use the latest in sealing technology for longer service life. The stock selection consists of various pressure, stroke, and end fitting lengths. This flexibility allows the application of a stock gas spring to almost any application. Typical functions that use gas springs include counterbalancing, lifting, lowering, extending and retracting.
Blade ends are generally mounted over a shoulder bolt or a similar fixed shaft. Clevis ends are designed to slide over a bracket. Align blade and clevis end mountings parallel to each other. Proper alignment throughout the operating range is essential to obtain maximum cycle life. Ball ends are specifically designed to allow for a slight misalignment (12 Deg.) over the operating range of the spring. The preferred mounting orientation is rod down.
To order a gas spring the end suffix must be added to the part number. Example: To order cylinder number G0819-100-100, with a -1 blade end on the rod end and a -3 clevis end on the cylinder end, specify G0819-100-100-1-3.
The force listed is for fully extended spring. THe force will increase as the spring is compressed. Part number prefixes of G0819 and G1022 will have fully compressed loads approximately equal to 1.3 and 1.4 times the forces listed, respectively. Forces at intermediate deflections can be computed by proportion. Example: A G0819-100-100 base spring will have a fully compressed load of 1.3 x 22.5 lbs or 29.3 lbs. The force at 50% available compression is 1.15 x 22.5 lbs or 25.9 lbs.
Springs dampen on extension only.
Durable rod construction with anti-corrosive surface.
Exclusive seal construction allows for mounting in various positions.
Self contained lubrication for long life and smooth operation.
Selection of end fittings for universal applications.
The preferred mounting orientation is rod down. Location of attachment points will alter the load carrying characteristics of the gas spring. For counter balancing applications the center of gravity and its respective load or force is essential to proper gas spring selection. In all cases, geometry plays a critical role in the application and life of the gas spring.
SPEC Stock Gas Springs have threaded ends which allow for the installation of blade, clevis, or ball ends. To determine the approximate overall length of the spring with attached ends, add the E dimension to the body length (BL).


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Q: Permission to access another remote server Linux, Ubuntu How can I allow a remote server to run a command without asking for password and any confirmation.
I use this command but it asks for password,
ssh root@0.0.0.0 /var/workingproject/notify

is there a way I can whitelist a remote server to access my server and execute a command without asking for password?

A: You can add your public key, generally found on your local box at ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to your remote server's authorized keys file.  To do it automatically, you could use something like this:
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@0.0.0.0

Or alternatively, you can open the remote authorized keys file (~/.ssh/authorized_keys) and add your public key directly.
If you do not have a public key configured on your local instance, you can run:
ssh-keygen

to create one.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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+251-911-53 69 54
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Rock-Hewn churches of Tigray
Tigray is recognized as the cradle of the ancient Ethiopian civilization. The Yeha temple and the Axumite monolithic steleas testify to this.
Temple of Yeha
It is an important pre-Axumite archaeological site mainly known by the large square temple and dated to 500B.C.
Rock-hewn churches of Lalibela
The beginning of rock-cut churches in Ethiopia is dated to the 6th century by the Nine Saints. This rock-church tradition is associated with the birth and burial places of Jesus Christ,
Axum and its ancient civilizations
For a large number of years in ancient time, Axum had been served as a political and religious center of Ethiopia.
Gondar and its medieval period
The historic Gonderine town is very popular mainly because of the marvelous castles in the royal enclosure.
Harar was established by Sultan Abu Beker Mohammed in 1520. Harar, the Holy City of Ethiopia's Muslim community, is believed to be the forth-holiest city after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
Debre Libanos Monastery
Ethiopia's most holy sites of Debre Libanos monastery (110km ADD) founded in the 13th century by priest Tekla Haimanot ,today one of Ethiopia's most renowned saints.
Lake Tana and its medieval period island monasteries
Lake Tana has thirty-seven islands, twenty of which are home to churches and monasteries. Some of them dated back to the 13th century and many others are dated from the 14th century to the Gonderine period of the 17th and 18th centuries. Many of the original churches of Lake Tana are said to be renovated and reconstructed during the Gonderine period.
Debre Damo monastery is situated on an isolated mountain in northern part of Tigray. It is unique compared with most Ethiopian monasteries.
Why Ethiopia
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About Ethiopia
Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa, is a rugged, landlocked country split by the Great Rift Valley. With archaeological finds dating back more than 3 million years, it's a place of ancient culture. Among its important sites are Lalibela with its rock-cut Christian churches from the 12th–13th centuries.
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Tag Archives: soldiers
America now solves problems with troops, not diplomats
Posted on October 9, 2019 by particularkev
Monica Duffy Toft, Tufts University
Is America a bully?
As a scholar, under the auspices of the Military Intervention Project, I have been studying every episode of U.S. military intervention from 1776 to 2017.
Historically, the U.S. advanced from a position of isolationism to one of reluctant intervenor, to global policeman. Based on my research since 2001, I believe that the U.S. has transformed itself into what many others view as a global bully.
I do not use the word lightly. But if, by definition, a bully is someone who seeks to intimidate or harm those it perceives as vulnerable, then that is an apt descriptor of contemporary U.S. foreign policy.
The decline of traditional diplomacy
Venezuela is indicative of a larger problem facing U.S. foreign policy, which currently favors troops over diplomats.
During a January press conference addressing the crisis in Venezuela, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton's legal pad notes indicated that he felt that sending 5,000 American troops to Colombia was the preferred method to solving the presidential crisis in Venezuela.
What began as social, economic and political crisis under former president Hugo Chávez has continued into the presidency of Nicolás Maduro; who is now being pressured to step down through mass civic protests and constitutional challenges. The U.S. has struggled to respond effectively. Part of the difficulty is that the U.S. has not had an ambassador in Venezuela since July 2010.
Historically, as a reward for those with deep donor pockets, political appointees made up only 30% of U.S. ambassadorial appointments, leaving 70% of the posts to career diplomats. Under the current administration, that proportion is nearly reversed.
The professional corps of foreign affairs bureaucrats has also diminished. According to the Office of Personnel Management, under the Trump administration, the State Department lost some 12% of employees in the foreign affairs division. Its remaining diplomats are increasingly isolated from the formation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy, with foreign policy being established much more often by the executive branch, and then implemented by the Department of Defense.
From the perspective of conservative U.S. political elites, U.S. diplomacy has not suffered. Rather, its quality has shifted from often hard-headed and hard-won negotiations among career diplomats in possession of in-depth local knowledge – what we political scientists think of as traditional diplomacy – to what I have elsewhere referred to as "kinetic diplomacy": "diplomacy" by armed force unsupported by local knowledge.
Examples from recent history
Looking at the overall use of U.S. armed force abroad, it's clear that the U.S. has escalated over time as compared to both small and great powers.
In our database, we note every hostile incident. We rate each country's response on a scale from 1 to 5, from the lowest level of no militarized action (1), to threat to use force, display of force, use of force and, finally, war (5). In some cases, states respond; in others, they don't.
Over time, the U.S. has taken to responding more and more at level 4, the use of armed force. Since 2000 alone, the U.S. has engaged in 92 interventions at level 4 or 5.
Consider Mexico. Data from the Military Intervention Project reveal that the U.S. has been far more likely to attempt to resolve conflicts with Mexico by the use of armed force than has Mexico in its disputes with the U.S.
Granted, the U.S. has become dramatically more powerful in military terms than Mexico, but power in the more traditional sense is not as critical in interstate relations as it once was. Increasingly, smaller states have been able to frustrate the objectives of larger ones.
Nevertheless, our data make clear why so many Mexicans had come to think of America as a belligerent bully.
With Mexico, for instance, the U.S. frequently resorted to the use of force. Often, Mexico didn't even offer a response to armed U.S. action. From 1806 to 1923, Mexico engaged in 20 interactions with U.S. with varying levels of hostility, while the U.S. engaged in 25, and with higher levels.
Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. levels of hostility have continued to increase. In fact, during the Cold War, the U.S. was relatively less hostile. But once the Soviet Union and its bloc went bust, the U.S. began to engage its armed forces more intensely and more frequently.
Just as with Mexico, U.S. resort to force against Iran is consistently higher than Iran's use against the U.S. While our database records 11 hostile engagements from Iran directed at the U.S. from 1953 to 2009, the U.S. intervened in Iran 14 times.
Of course, Mexico and Iran are relatively small powers compared to the U.S. But what of China?
As with Mexico and Iran, the U.S. resort to force is much more consistent and at higher levels toward China than vice versa. From 1854 to 2009, the U.S. intervened nearly twice as much in China as China did in the U.S. Our database records 17 incidents for China and 37 for the U.S.
Tanking US global reputation
Is kinetic diplomacy – bullying – an effective way to advance U.S. national interests?
In terms of the country's global reputation, being a bully is not paying off. A February survey revealed 45% of global respondents viewed U.S. power and influence as a major threat to global security, with the largest shares originating in South Korea, Japan and Mexico – notably all U.S. allies.
The U.S. is now seen globally as a bigger threat to global prosperity and peace than China and Russia.
The U.S. is seen as a threat not simply because it has expanded its use of armed force abroad over time, but because at the same time it has abrogated a number of its own core principles of legitimacy.
Among the principles that have been abandoned: The U.S. maintains it has a right to treat "enemy combatants" outside the rules of the laws of armed conflict, while insisting its own armed forces not be subject to international investigations.
It has detained people without trial, sometimes indefinitely and without legal representation.
It has even allowed its chief executive – in this case President Barack Obama – to order the execution of an American citizen abroad without trial.
It has separated young children from their asylum-seeking parents in order to deter other families from seeking asylum, regardless of the validity of their asylum claims.
In short, the U.S. has surrendered its moral high ground. That makes any U.S. use of armed force increasingly appear illegitimate to the residents of other countries, and increasingly our own.
Monica Duffy Toft, Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Posted in Defence, news, Politics, USA	| Tagged article, diplomacy, military, news, Politics, problems, soldiers, solves, troops, USA | Leave a comment
They shall not die in vain: how the Islamic State honours its fallen soldiers – and how Australians do the same
Posted on August 21, 2018 by particularkev
The obituary of Jihadi John in Dabiq magazine.
Clarion Project
Mark Alfano, Delft University of Technology
The belief that we must not let our soldiers "die in vain" dates back to ancient Athens. During the Peloponnesian War, Pericles delivered a funeral oration in which he urged his compatriots to see themselves in the heroism of recently deceased fighters. Honouring these heroes, he argued, required continuing the struggle with Sparta. The living could prove themselves worthy of the sacrifice of the dead only by fighting for what they fought for and embodying the virtues (such as courage) they embodied.
In modern times, political scientists have argued that it is "important to say of those who died in war that they did not die in vain". This notion was echoed by US President George W. Bush when he suggested that the people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks "did not die in vain".
And, just like Pericles, Bush suggested the best way to prove that deaths in the so-called war on terror were not in vain was to continue the conflict. In this way, war becomes an end in itself. The fighting may never cease because there is always one more soldier to honour, one more civilian casualty to avenge.
The way people talk about the dead and the traits they hope to manifest by way of honouring them tell us what counts as a virtue in their community. In my previous research, I've show that different communities celebrate their dead in different ways. Most of my work has focused on civilians, but I recently began to investigate what is said about combatants killed in action.
One interesting and troubling comparison is between the obituaries of Western soldiers who have been killed in the Middle East and those of Islamic State fighters.
Must love jokes: why we look for a partner who laughs (and makes us laugh)
Here's a little quiz: which of the following traits are associated with IS "martyrs" and which with Australians recently killed in action in Afghanistan, Iraq and nearby countries?
a leader
The truth is that most of these traits are associated with both populations. To establish this, I coded every obituary published by the Islamic State in its two online magazines, Dabiq and Rumiyah, along with a matching sample of obituaries published in Vale by the Australian Department of Defence.
I then mapped out the patterns of co-occurrence among traits to see which virtues are associated with combatants in each community. Here's what the Australian Department of Defence and IS have to say about their war dead:
Australia conflict obituaries.
ISIS conflict obituaries.
Both the IS and the Australian data are available for examination. What these texts tell us is that ISIS and the Australian government speak of their dead in similar ways. And both use the occasion of martial grief to motivate the continuation of conflict. In so doing, they place death in the context of an ongoing narrative or trajectory that points to further violence as the only acceptable option.
There are, of course, some differences. Australian soldiers are more likely to be remembered as professional, easygoing and larrikin. IS fighters are more likely to be remembered as ascetic, deceitful and harsh (towards enemies – not in general). Their obituaries tend to refer to religious concepts such as aqidah (adherence to correct creed), manhaj (theological insight), and taqwah (pious humility).
These terms refer to values of the local community just as much as "larrikin" does for Australians. And IS fighters are praised not just for their religious or theological virtues but also for traits we find more familiar and congenial. Even someone as the bloody-minded as "Jihadi John" (Mohammed Emwazi) was praised in his obituary for his sense of humour.
Moreover, just as the obituaries published in Dabiq and Rumiyah tend to call others to continue the struggle, so the obituaries published in Vale often include and even conclude with calls to action. In one, the deceased soldier's commanding officer declares:
We will honour his sacrifice by finishing what he helped us to start.
In another, the decedent's family concludes that he "would want his colleagues to keep fighting the cause".
From monuments to memorials
The philosopher Arthur Danto has suggested we "erect monuments so that we shall always remember, and build memorials so that we shall never forget". Monuments express a community's pride and commitment to victory; memorials express a community's remorse and commitment to redress.
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Monuments to those who die in battle also encourage and sometimes demand the interminable renewal of conflict. Even if it makes us queasy to recognise our shared humanity with killers as deeply evil as Jihadi John, perhaps a shift from monumentalising our war dead to memorialising them is necessary. Otherwise, we stand the risk of becoming what we rightly despise.
Mark Alfano, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Delft University of Technology
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Posted in Australia, ISIL - Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Islam, news, War, War on Terror	| Tagged article, Australia, fallen, Is, ISIL, Isis, Islam, Islamic State, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Muslim, muslims, news, soldiers, terrorists | Leave a comment
Why Australia should face civil lawsuits over soldier misdeeds in Afghanistan
Posted on August 7, 2018 by particularkev
Tim Matthews, University of Sydney and John Eldridge, University of Sydney
For the past two years, Paul Brereton, a New South Wales Supreme Court judge and Army Reserve major general, has been conducting an investigation into the conduct of members of the SAS in Afghanistan. While the findings are not yet known, leaks from within the Australian Defence Force (ADF) have suggested that as many as five cases involving unlawful killings have been uncovered.
Much of the media commentary surrounding the allegations has centred on the potential criminal prosecution of these alleged offences. But a further legal issue can arise from investigations of this kind – the alleged victims (or their families) might bring civil claims against Australia's armed forces, seeking compensation for their suffering.
Explainer: how Australia's military justice system works
Cases of this kind have occurred in other countries. In the United States, a number of high-profile habeas corpus petitions have been filed against the government by people who claim they were unlawfully detained by US armed forces on suspicion of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Claims for damages have also been successfully brought by former Iraqi detainees against private military contractors over their alleged torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
British courts are also currently considering a number of civil suits arising out of British involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One of those claimants, Yunus Rahmatullah, was arrested by British forces in Iraq in 2004 on suspicion of being a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organisation with links to al-Qaeda. He was "rendered" by British forces to the custody of the US army in Afghanistan, where he was detained for over ten years without charge or trial and, he alleges, tortured.
Rahmatullah denies ever being a member of a terrorist organisation. He has made a well-publicised claim for compensation from the UK government, under the country's Human Rights Act.
Why are civil claims against soldiers controversial?
We are all exposed to potential civil liability in our day-to-day lives. If we drive negligently and cause an accident, for instance, we may find ourselves liable to pay compensation to those we have harmed. The same is true of public institutions and authorities, such as hospitals and the police. Few would suggest this is unfair or unreasonable.
Inconsistency bedevils Australia's prosecution of war criminals
However, the extension of civil liability to the armed forces is controversial. Former Army officer Bill O'Chee, for instance, recently argued forcefully against such liability:
Service personnel who commit crimes are already subject to military criminal proceedings, and this is rightly so. However, exposing them to claims for personal injury claims would be perverse and entirely unjust.
The very idea that highly paid lawyers in comfortable courts in Australia can understand, let alone litigate these cases, is fanciful at best.
How absurd it would be for our servicemen and women to be subjected to damages claims in these circumstances, let alone be asked to find the money for legal costs and a possible damages order against them.
Should these civil claims be permitted?
Such civil liability claims have never been brought against individual ADF personnel in Australia before. This would be new legal territory. And nobody is seriously suggesting these soldiers should personally bear the burden of defending civil claims arising from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Rather, any potential claims are likely to be defended by the Commonwealth.
This is the way civil claims against police officers in Australia are typically resolved. In such cases, individual officers will often be required to give evidence as to their version of events. Yet the costs of defending the case, and the compensation (if any) paid to the plaintiff, are borne not by the individual officers, but by the relevant public authority.
Despite the controversy surrounding them, there are still good reasons to allow civil claims of this kind to proceed.
Friday essay: war crimes and the many threats to cultural heritage
First, criminal and civil claims serve different purposes. A successful criminal prosecution may leave a victim with a feeling of vindication, but it typically does not result in monetary compensation. As a result, it may matter little to victims or their families if the soldiers responsible are professionally disciplined, since they may receive no compensation for their loss.
Secondly, the notion that civilian courts are not competent to adjudicate on military matters is seriously problematic.
Nobody could deny that military personnel are forced to carry out their duties in extremely difficult conditions. It is also true that many lawyers and judges have difficulty appreciating the fraught circumstances in which military decision-making occurs.
But the answer to these difficulties is not the abandonment of such claims altogether. Judges are often faced with the task of making difficult decisions about matters on which they are not experts. Civil justice would simply not work if courts threw up their hands whenever they were faced with such challenges.
Greater accountability for the military
Finally, if the Commonwealth were somehow able to avoid liability for potential civil damages in these types of cases, the ADF may have less incentive to conduct military operations in ways that safeguard the rights of civilians caught in conflict zones.
Given the limited accountability for military decision-making in the public sphere, the possibility of accountability in a civil court would promote stricter adherence to international conventions on war.
Many of the victims who may bring claims of this kind are unlikely to excite public sympathy. For example, one of the claimants in the UK cases, Serdar Mohammed, was arrested while leaving a ten-hour firefight with British troops, discarding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and ammunition on his way.
But we shouldn't allow our moral judgement of claimants like Mohammed to erode our commitment to the rule of law. Public authorities, and especially our armed forces, should be held accountable for their actions to the limits imposed by law.
Tim Matthews, Sessional Academic, Law School, University of Sydney and John Eldridge, Lecturer, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney
Posted in Afghanistan, Australia, crime, Defence, news, War	| Tagged Afghanistan, article, Australia, civil, crime, defence, lawsuits, military, misdeeds, news, soldiers, War, war crimes | Leave a comment
Clarrie Combo, Mrs Brown and Aboriginal soldiers in WW2
Yorta Yorta women and girls at the Cummeragunja Reserve in NSW with their knitting for soldiers serving in the second world war.
Australian War Memorial: P01562.001
Kristyn Harman, University of Tasmania
During the second world war, a young Aboriginal soldier, Private Clarrie Combo from New South Wales, exchanged mail with Mrs F. C. Brown from Loxton, South Australia — a white woman whom he had never met.
Very few letters penned by Aboriginal soldiers who served in either of the two world wars survive, yet one of Clarrie's letters has endured in what might seem a surprising context. Mrs Brown contacted the young soldier after seeing an advertisement calling for volunteers to "adopt" Aboriginal soldiers. His reply was printed in her local newspaper, and its survival provides us with a rare opportunity to learn about military service from an Aboriginal soldier's perspective.
Private Clarence Combo.
NAA: B883, NX30580
Clarence Combo was born in Wardell, New South Wales, on 14 September 1919. Young Clarrie grew up in a harsh environment — Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home near Kempsey. Consistent with government plans to assimilate Aboriginal people into white Australian society, children like Clarrie were forcibly removed from their families. At Kinchela, boys were called by their allocated numbers rather than names. Identities and cultures were stripped away.
In a country where discriminatory legislation and practices precluded Aboriginal people from earning a fair wage, voting, marrying non-Aboriginal partners, buying property or entering a public bar, it is not too difficult to imagine why some young Aboriginal men signed up for the military when war broke out. An estimated 1,000 Aboriginal soldiers served in the Australian Imperial Force as black diggers during the first world war. By the mid-20th century it was easier for Aboriginal men to sign up, so around 3,000 served Australia during WWII.
Comfort funds
Shortly after WWII began, the Melbourne-based Aborigines Uplift Society, founded by non-Aboriginal activist Arthur Burdeu, created a comforts auxiliary for Aboriginal soldiers. The idea was that women could "adopt" an Aboriginal soldier. They would correspond with him and arrange comfort parcels to be sent to him at the front.
In the Society's August 1940 Uplift newsletter, Burdeu explained how "native women have not the resources to do as their white sisters, though they are already at work". In Queensland, for example, children at the Purga Aboriginal Mission sewed underpants, toilet tidies, calico bags and hussifs (sewing kits), and knitted socks, mittens and balaclavas. Yorta Yorta women and children at the Cummeragunja Reserve (located in New South Wales) were also involved in knitting for the war effort.
Newspaper advertisements ran across Australia inviting women to contact Burdeu about "adopting" an Aboriginal soldier. With at least one son-in-law serving Australia, Mrs Brown may have felt compassion for those men whose families could not afford to send them parcels.
Corresponding with Mrs Brown
On September 25, 1941 the Murray Pioneer and Australian River Record published one of Clarrie's letters to Mrs Brown under the headline "Aboriginal's Appreciative Letter". Clarrie opened his correspondence with Mrs Brown by thanking her for writing to him. He wrote: "it is very nice of you to write to someone you do not know". At a practical level, Clarrie advised Mrs Brown that he wore size seven boots, as she had offered to knit socks for him.
Aboriginal's Appreciative Letter extract.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/109261185
The young private's letter provides a unique perspective on his experiences serving abroad. "I was in action for the first time in Greece," he told his correspondent. He described Greece as "the nicest country that I have been in since leaving Australia", then marvelled at having seen snow for the first time.
However the horrors of war included being "attacked practically every day by the German planes". He told Mrs Brown how "a few of my pals were killed over there … There were German planes in the sky all day long and they were always bombing".
What's left out of correspondence can also be telling. In War Dance: A Story of the 2/3 Aust. Inf. Battalion A.I.F., Ken Clift provides an insight into racial attitudes amongst some of the men, telling of an altercation between two Australian soldiers, an Aboriginal one named Clarrie and an Indian or Afghan soldier, Tom. As the men argued heatedly, Tom allegedly called Clarrie: "You black bastard". Clarrie was said to have retorted, "Well Tom, you're no bloody glass of milk yourself." Clarrie's correspondence with Mrs Brown omits any mention of such tensions.
Over five years' service, Clarrie's tours of duty included Egypt, Libya, Greece, Crete, Syria, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and New Guinea. He suffered illness and injuries. In 1941 he caught sandfly fever, an ailment commonly suffered by soldiers fighting in North Africa. His "Proceedings for Discharge" notes that Clarrie received two war injuries, one to his right forearm and the other, a gunshot wound inflicted in New Guinea in June 1945, to his left forearm.
Clarrie's war experiences included seeing some of his mates injured or killed. He would also have been expected to fire on enemy combatants. However, his correspondence with Mrs Brown, replete with anecdotes about foreign lands and peoples, highlights how being part of Australia's war effort in the mid-20th century also gave him insights into other places and cultures.
Fortunately, Clarrie survived the war. He was one of five Aboriginal soldiers welcomed home to Wardell by the Cabbage Tree Island Women's Guild just before Christmas 1945. By the mid-1960s Clarrie was chairing the Aboriginal Cooperative at Cabbage Tree Island and participating in national conferences advocating equal rights for Aboriginal people.
Kristyn Harman, Senior Lecturer in History; Graduate Research Coordinator, School of Humanities; Course Coordinator, Diploma of History, University of Tasmania
Posted in Aborigines, Australia, news, Special Days, War, World War 2	| Tagged Aborigine, Aborigines, ANZAC Day, article, Clarrie Combo, F. C. Brown, letters, Mrs Brown, news, soldiers, War, World War II, WWII | Leave a comment
Islamic State schooled children as soldiers – how can their 'education' be undone?
Posted on April 1, 2018 by particularkev
There is a fundamental difference between Islamic State's use of child soldiers and the practice elsewhere.
Al Arabiya/YouTube
James S. Morris, The University of Queensland and Tristan Dunning, The University of Queensland
Over the last few years, the Islamic State (IS) terror group has shocked the world with its gruesome public spectacles. Especially abhorrent to our moral sensibilities is its overt use of children as frontline fighters, suicide bombers and propaganda tools.
From macabre hide-and-seek exercises, in which children hunt and kill enemy prisoners in specially constructed mazes, to the mass execution and decapitation of adult soldiers, young people living under IS have been indoctrinated and encouraged to engage in violence.
Meanwhile, IS's quasi-government instituted an education system explicitly aimed at indoctrinating and weaponising the children living under it.
Mathematics was practised by determining how many more fighters IS has than an opposing force. Chemistry was taught by discussion of methods of gas inhalation. And physical education focused on the correct body positions for firing various weapons.
Their education has been compounded by the retaliatory and sometimes excessive violence of the vast array of forces committed to destroying IS. Through this, children have been exposed to horrific violence on a daily basis – thus generating trauma and, undoubtedly, genuine long-term grievances.
How IS's use of child soldiers differs
There is a fundamental difference between IS's use of child soldiers and the practice elsewhere.
IS hasn't just recruited child soldiers. It systematically militarised the education systems of captured Iraqi and Syrian territory to turn the region's children into ideological timebombs.
These children, saturated in IS's particular brand of violent and uncompromising "religious" instruction from about the age of five, were trained in the use of small arms before their teenage years. They constitute a new challenge for the international community.
IS's state-building efforts appear to have been thwarted for now. But saving the children exposed and potentially indoctrinated in its ideology is key to avoiding further terror attacks in the West, tackling the root causes of regional upheaval, and working toward a future where children play instead of fight, and schools teach instead of drill.
What children have been taught
Military activity, superiority based on IS's interpretation of Islam, and the need to defeat unbelievers are embedded in its school textbooks.
Various videos, produced both through journalistic investigation and by IS itself, show the more practical side of education under the group's rule. Children are taught how to fire small arms and use hand grenades.
Although IS extensively forced children into its ranks, many joined voluntarily – with or without their families' blessing. But, in the long term, it doesn't matter whether a child is forcibly recruited or not. And this is the matter of gravest concern.
IS's primary concern is building and maintaining the children's loyalty. The phrase "cubs of the caliphate" is a microcosm of how it views them. Cubs are unruly, ill-disciplined and dependent on strong (sometimes violent) guidance from their elders.
However, with time, resources and patience they can turn into a generation of fighters and idealists who will foster IS's ideology even if its current military setbacks prove terminal.
Programs need to take a new approach
Disarmament, demobilisation and rehabilitation programs designed to reintegrate child soldiers into post-conflict society have significantly progressed in recent years. This represents the continued evolution of military-civil partnerships in the quest for a conflict-free world.
But IS's systematic and meticulous radicalisation of an entire region's children presents new challenges.
It's understandable to interpret IS's rapid retreat as its death knell, and thereby view traditional rehabilitation techniques as an appropriate remedy for yet another region recovering from violence at the hands of a radical armed insurgency. However, this conflict has been highly unusual in its pace, tactics and impacts – both now and potentially in the future.
So, we must revisit the fundamental assumptions of what it means to inspire peace within a society. This starts with the children subjected to the ideological extremism of IS and other armed groups.
If there is to be sustainable peace in the areas liberated from IS control, rehabilitation programs must be viewed as a community-wide process. Even if children did not directly participate in IS activities, the group has moulded their worldview and underpinning life philosophies.
Such philosophies may be especially productive in a region where resentment of perceived foreign – Western – interference and exploitation is long-lasting and multifaceted.
What can be done
The regular processes of identifying child combatants, disarming and reintegrating them into their communities through rehabilitation (such as by ensuring they are physically and mentally capable of rejoining their communities) and reconciliation (developing peace, trust and justice among children and their communities) are all necessary. But they are vastly insufficient in this instance.
Rarely has there been such systematic youth radicalisation and militarisation. So, the international response must be equally far-reaching and methodical.
Rapid reimplementation and revisiting of pre-IS school curricula is of the highest priority. National and local governments should ensure children are shielded from further recruitment by instituting a curriculum drawn from principles of tolerance and inclusion.
It's essential to develop locally run initiatives to measure the level of radicalisation among a community's children and to construct child-friendly spaces for young people to socialise, reconnect with their wider community and "unlearn" what they adopted under IS.
Such practices will help to heal the wounds of IS occupation and ensure the potential for cyclical violence is removed. Done right, it will hinder IS's ability to rise anew.
James S. Morris, PhD Student in International Security and Child Rights, The University of Queensland and Tristan Dunning, Lecturer in Modern Middle East History, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland
Posted in ISIL - Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Islam, news, War on Terror	| Tagged article, children, educated, education, Is, ISIL, Isis, Islam, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Muslim, muslims, news, school, schooled, soldiers | Leave a comment
Myanmar: Persecution News Update
Posted on January 25, 2015 by particularkev
The links below are to articles reporting on persecution news from Myanmar/Burma.
For more visit:
– http://www.persecution.org/2015/01/22/burmese-army-rapes-tortures-and-kills-two-christian-kachin-teachers/
– https://www.mnnonline.org/news/tragedy-strikes-kachin-community/
Posted in Christianity, Myanmar	| Tagged army, article, Burma, Christian, Christianity, Christians, Myanmar, news, Persecution, soldiers | Leave a comment
Child Soldiers
Posted in Child Labour, Children, news, video, War	| Tagged child, children, news, soldiers, video, War | Leave a comment
Mali: Latest Conflict News
The link below is to an article reporting on the latest news from Mali where 13 soldiers from Chad have died in a battle that has killed many Islamists.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/13-chad-soldiers-die-in-mountain-fight-with-islamists-20130224-2ezn3.html
Posted in Al Qaeda, Chad, Islam, Mali, news, War, War on Terror	| Tagged article, battle, Chad, conflict, died, Islam, Islamists, killed, Mali, Muslim, muslims, news, soldiers, War | Leave a comment
Mali: Islamists on the March with Child Soldiers
The link below is to an article reporting on the use of child soldiers by Islamists in northern Mali.
http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Islamists-in-Mali-recruit-pay-for-child-soldiers-3917360.php
Posted in Islam, Mali, news	| Tagged article, child, Islam, Islamists, Mali, march, Muslim, muslims, northern, soldiers | Leave a comment
Article: Warzone – Congo Conflict Escalating
Posted on July 15, 2012 by particularkev
BREAKING NEWS: UN and Congolese troops shell rebels near Goma
beast6615
Sat, Jul 14 2012 19:14:02
'UN fired to halt Goma advance' – Africa | IOL News | IOL.co.za
UN helicopter gunships in the Democratic Republic of Congo fired on positions held by mutinous soldiers in order to protect the main east…
Arrest warrants for DRC warlords
The Hague – The International Criminal Court on Friday issued arrest warrants for two militia leaders accused of widespread atrocities in…
Rebels rise again in Congo
At peace … refugee children displaced by the fighting play at a transit camp in Uganda. Photo: Reuters THE Democratic Republic of Congo…
BREAKING NEWS : Fighting sends DR Congo families fleeing
Peter Greste reports on DR Congo's conflict
onlineworldnews
Fri, Jul 13 2012 18:27:46
Posted in Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, news, Rwanda, United Nations, War	| Tagged Africa, conflict, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, escalating, news, rebels, Rwanda, soldiers, troops, UN, United Nations, War, warzone | Leave a comment


Coventry City's development coach Jason Farndon is tasked with developing the club's Under-23s and preparing them for the first team.
But the member of Mark Robins 's backroom staff is on his own pathway of progression after stepping up from the Under-18s to becoming a regular on matchdays, travelling with the team and helping with pre-match coaching drills.
And Farndon is clearly enjoying learning from the manager and his right-hand man Adi Viveash, who is one of the most highly decorated development coaches in the business after almost a decade of success at Premier League Chelsea.
"The gaffer has asked me to go on matchdays with the first team," said Farndon, who led the Sky Blues Under-18s to league success last season before stepping up to the 23s when Nicky Eaden moved to become No.2 at Chesterfield earlier in the season.
"What his plans are long term I don't know. I took training on Saturday morning and then drove to Notts County.
"It's a good learning experience for me. I can listen to what the manager is saying to the first team and I can go to the 23s and try to bridge that gap.
"It's good for my personal development to be involved in first team football.
"I'm involved at Ryton day to day as well. It varies. Sometimes we train separately but there are a lot of times when we train together.
"There are obviously a lot of young players involved and sometimes the development players go and play if their characteristics are like the opposition etc.
As for working with Viveash – who cut his own coaching teeth at Stamford Bridge, starting under Felipe Scolari in 2008 and going on to work under Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte – Farndon said: "It's great for me because Adi has worked with 23s and some of the best players in the country at Cheslea.
"He's won everything in development football and he talks to me about those experiences and the similarities with our players, saying so and so is like x, y or z, which is really good.
"And it's good to know where our players are at, and some players are not that far away.
"Obviously you can see Tom Bayliss is playing in the first team and that's good by any club's standards.
"There can't be many others better than Adi for what I want to do and want to be. I also get to work with the gaffer and the first team.
"The gaffer plays young players so I am in a lucky position where I get to see the end product as well.
So what are Viveash's strengths?
"His detail and tactical knowledge are second to none," he said.
"And obviously he's been Under-23s coach to some of the best managers in the world. I can imagine that's quite intimidating when Jose Mourinho etc are watching your session, so you have got to know your stuff.
"So he's brought a really good tactical awareness and looking at the game a different way.