One last thing!

Child Soldiers in context

kitmartin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:35:10 +0000

In her recent book Child Soldiers in Africa Alcinda Honwana states “Children’s involvement in armed conflict is not a recent phenomenon. In the past, young people have been at the forefront of the political conflict in many parts of the world, even when it has turned violent. Today, however; the problem has grown to such magnitude that it has attracted public notice” [1]. The number of children are not, she argues, the only reason to take notice: “also that children are more deeply involved; in some places, they form a substantial proportion of combatants.” Then she notes “Analysts of war have pointed out that most contemporary civil wars represent a “total societal crisis.” But this is not news.

A quick look at demographics of the African continent makes her observations like pointing to the white elephant in the room. In a conflict zone where more than a third of the population is under the age of 15, there will be a higher number of fighters of a younger age. for example, in Uganda a full half of the population is under the age of 15. That means one in two people drafted for service at random are children. Such a demographic may be “terrible” but the fact that ‘children’ are more deeply involved in warfare when they represent a substantial proportion of the population is not surprising.

And so the outcry against child soldiers represents an application of western sociel roles for prepubescents onto African conflicts. This can be seen in the ambiguous use of the word child. Child could have two meanings in this context: between birth and puberty, or someone not yet of legal age. If the Honawa intends the former then one can expect people of this young age to have a larger role in society than in a western society, because they represent a higher percentage of society. Thus they fill vital roles that there are not ‘adults’ to fill. Aye, Alternatively, if she means the latter meaning of child, then how does she define them as not of ‘legal majority’ when they are filling other roles in society? These ‘children’ are filling social roles as soldiers independent and often far from family. What precisely makes these children? Indeed, her cultural bias against children taking on responsibility comes out all too strongly:

Isolated cases that occur in white, middle-class settings seem more shocking, such as the columbine school shootings or the murder of a Dartmouth college couple by two Vermont teenagers. Even younger children can commit murder: for example, three-year-old James Bulger was killed by two ten-year-olds in the United Kingdom. Incidents of Children killing children are troubling. The systematic, organized use of children to wage war is even more appalling. [2]

This moral position is not the way to end child soldiering, even though the position is right in the fact that heinous killing should never be condoned, for people are worth keeping alive. For to make a moral argument that demands societies involved in “total societal crisis” to not take advantage of soldiers to fight in these crisis is preposterous. Instead, if one believes the use of prepubescents in war is an untenable reality, one should fight to change the demographics of the continent. Such a drive would necessitate better living conditions, and higher mean income, because these would both provide and require better access to staples, and would lessen ‘societal crisis’. Thus decrying use of children in war, without taking note of the demographic sitation, will never have the desired effect of abating the problem. And so we should focus our screaming elsewhere, on societal destroying problems, such as poverty and disease leaving parentless children who will not have the opportunity to experience ‘the innocence of childhood’, and thus are more employable.

Honwana, Alcinda . Child soldiers in Africa

HDR world demographics of children under age 15: http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/indic/indic_44_1_1.html

Mantra of Islamist states “We Didn’t Do It!

kitmartin — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:08:04 +0000

Why do news reports continue to report state’s denials of arms supply to Somalia? In a recent report, October 2006, The Monitoring Group for the Somali arms embargo sent out 52 letters to arms supplies and colaborators. They recieved 26 responses, and of these not a single contributor admitted supplying arms to Somali militants, not even Eritrea, the conduit for most of the supply:

Monitoring Group sources clearly indicate that Eritrea is being used both as a conduit and platform for, and coordinator of, support for the Somali ICU (Islamic Courts Union). States using Eritrea for this purpose include Djibouti, Libya, Egypt and certain middle-east countries.

This evidence withstanding, all news agencies include these states’ denials of involvment in Somala in their reports. If they don’t admit involvement, what does that say? What does it add to the coverage? Of course these actors are not saying they are ‘supplying arms’, such an admission would close off World Bank loans and multinationals investment, among other international consequences. But these denials are demonstatably false. And by including these denials, news organs are contributing to the impresion that these states denials are worth the pixels they take to display. Saying ‘We didn’t do it’, cannot continue to suffice for not doing it.

Monitoring Group Reoprt on Arms Embargo October 2006, http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Somalia.doc, pp 7

Islam, what is Shari’a?

kitmartin — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:22:06 +0000

“Those who say that Sharia is God’s law are completely ignorant of Islamic history. For one there are multiple versions and interpretations of Sharia. Secondly, Sharia was first developed about a hundred years after the founding of Islam and it was not implemented in any society for a few hundred years more. Only a small percentage of the Sharia Laws come from the Koran or the Hadith. Until Muslims truly understand their own faith and history, they will be easily manipulated by extremists who try to use a false version of Islam to gain power and influence. “

Jeff G, USA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3155279.stm

The individual interpretation of law is part of the system of Shar’ia law. Each believer has a duty to make up his own mind as to the law of God. The believer, however, is to make judgment by refering to or submiting to the judgment to of a religious authority. This duty has led to the formation of a few separate idiom’s around which the sytem of Islamic thought turns. Thus the system of thought coalesced into a recognizable form after some time; but the tradition was there, regardless of wehter it had a dictionary definition since at least when Muhamad unified Medina. Thus, your drawing too hard of lines when you say Shari’a-that is a law that formed inside the Islamic idiom-“was not implemented in any society for a few hundred years more.” This is an over statement because the 5 righteous caliphs had already made their epoch making expansion from the Arabian peninsula, and the Islamic idiom was one of the primary factors that gave their expansion a historical cohesion. In other words, Islamic law converted the random tribes of the peninsula into a truly cohesive social movement and society forming group. And thus your conclusion that a ‘true vision of Islam’ would not provide ‘power and influence’ is truly a misunderstanding of ‘their own faith and history’. And the conclusion arises from a misconception that Islamic tenets are monolithic and absolute, rather than individually discerned by starting with the qur’an and then working through different opinions held by authorities to come to accept a norm that you are willing to submit to. This personal struggle with and then submission to God is central to the faith.

So, when you say ‘sharia law’ has only a ‘small percentage’ from the ‘Koran or the Hadith’ the real question is, a small percentage of what? Words? Meanings? Traditions? If all the parts of Islamic law are derived from rulings which were derived from the Qu’ran and the hadith, and this derivational process is commanded in the Qu’ran, how can the derivations not be of the Qur’an? Of course though, there will be multip derivations, leading to any number of interpretations. But this diversity has been part of the faith a long time.

paddle boats

kitmartin — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 23:26:36 +0000

Sports center has a paddle boat. Its five-hundred dollars, of course taking into account the $50-off, end-of-summer sale. I want it. Aye’ Hudson, me, Ani, Kaja, Erica, the cool green water of the Hudson, a nap on the boat in a stinky swamp. Nothing stopping me from the city besides my long legs paddling away. Can you imagine the sense of freedom? oh paddle boat, wont you be mine?

Only problem, $550 dollars. I think I will raise it from the incoming freshmen. Sell them candy and old donuts at high markup, and turn profit, because most of them can’t leave campus. If I can sell every freshman $1 worth of merchandise, I can get my paddle boat!

If I sold them $2 each I could buy a red shed to park it in. Put it down by the hudson, and pull it out for my boating pleasure. Of course Bard will bot mind a little shed in the woods, cause they’re nice like that. All I need is a paddle boat. And the infinite bliss of the Hudson valley will be mine.

Darfur Marsed, issues in futile efforts

kitmartin — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:27:17 +0000

The rebel groups in the desert region of Darfur met today. They sought peace and reconciliation. Additionally, an underground water source was discovered. It was believed that through this cooperation and the additional water, the conflict in the region may subside. Mr. Nur, an important player in the region disagrees. He cynically observed that he wouldn’t negotiate until the killing stopped. How barbaric of him. He doesn’t want to talk to people who fund the death of people he knows. Even given the lock hard prospect of peace that ‘peace and reconciliation provides, I’m not even going to mention how happy people get with lots of water.

For example, NASA launched the phoenix probe today. A rocket will travel for nine months. It will land phoenix on the red planet, at the Martian equivalent latitude of Alaska. After the journey, the lander will reach out its 7.5 foot robot hand, and dig a small hole. This will provide a soil sample that NASA will test for water. Hopefully there will be water on Mars, just like in Darfur. Maybe then Mars can have peace and reconciliation too, and we wont all have to die in a Martian invasion.