Peacekeeping in Dharfur
From the New York Times
Peacekeeping in Darfur Hits More Obstacles
By LYDIA POLGREEN
Published: March 24, 2008
ABU SUROUJ, Sudan — As Darfur smolders in the aftermath of a new government offensive, a long-sought peacekeeping force, expected to be the world’s largest, is in danger of failing even as it begins its mission because of bureaucratic delays, stonewalling by Sudan’s government and reluctance from troop-contributing countries to send peacekeeping forces into an active conflict.
The force, a joint mission of the African Union and the United Nations, officially took over from an overstretched and exhausted African Union force in Darfur on Jan. 1. It now has just over 9,000 of an expected 26,000 soldiers and police officers and will not fully deploy until the end of the year, United Nations officials said.
Even the troops that are in place, the old African Union force and two new battalions, lack essential equipment, like sufficient armored personnel carriers and helicopters, to carry out even the most rudimentary of peacekeeping tasks. Some even had to buy their own paint to turn their green helmets United Nations blue, peacekeepers here said.
The peacekeepers’ work is more essential than ever. At least 30,000 people were displaced last month as the government and its allied militias fought to retake territory held by rebel groups fighting in the region, according to United Nations human rights officials.
For weeks after the attacks, many of the displaced were hiding in the bush nearby or living in the open along the volatile border between Sudan and Chad, inaccessible to aid workers. Most wanted to return to their scorched villages and rebuild but did not feel safe from roaming bandits and militias.
A week spent this month with the peacekeeping troops based here at the headquarters of Sector West, a wind-blown outpost at the heart of the recent violence, revealed a force struggling mightily to do better than its much-maligned predecessor, but with little new manpower or equipment.
Despite this, the force is managing to project a greater sense of security for the tens of thousands of vulnerable civilians in the vast territory it covers, mounting night patrols in displaced people’s camps and sending long-range patrols to the areas hardest hit by fighting. But these small gains are fragile, and if more troops do not arrive soon, the force will be written off as being as ineffective and compromised as the one before.
You can read the rest of the article HERE
A Long Way Gone: Ishmael Beah
Back when I wrote an update on Dharfur, my blogging friend Chirp recommended a book, A Long Way Gone; Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. I ordered it that very day, and read it this last week.
It is a truly heartbreaking autobiographical book about a young mischievous boy growing up in Sierra Leone, leading a relatively simple and carefree life in his village with his family. It is very African. He talks about the games he and his friends play, his fascination with rap music and the simple joys of the life he is leading.
Then the rebels come. The invade the villages, hopped up on dope, their dead eyes with no pity, raping, killing, chopping off limbs, stealing all the village food and burning the village behind them, often with people locked inside their huts.
Ishmael escapes once with friends, eventually returning to the village to find his entire family gone. Most of the book has to do with what he has to do to survive. Many villages are very afraid of groups of boys, even boys as young as these are – in their early adolescence – and will hurt them. At the very least, most of the villages hurry them along. At one point Ishmael is hiding out in the jungle forest on his own, hiding from lions, giant feral pigs, sleeping up in trees and looking for the rare fruit or grass that he can eat without getting sick.
Finally, after meeting up with some other boys and continuing to try to find his family, a village takes him in, a village run by the state soldiers. As they are attacked by rebels, the boys are forced to make a choice – go out on their own again (where the rebels will also try to recruit them, and if they refuse, will kill them) or agree to be soldiers. These are kids 12, 13, 14 carrying AK 47’s. As part of their training they are given drugs on a regular basis which keep them hopped up, full of energy, and not sleeping for days. The young boys learn to kill without pity. He becomes the very people he was fleeing.
This is a book about redemption. At the center where the boy soldiers are taken, they are constantly told “none of this was your fault.” It is a very African approach, a very human and loving approach to redemption of lives that might have been totally lost to the horrors they have witnessed and inflicted. The author is now nearly 30, and sounds – unlikely as it might be – happy.
Thank you, Chirp, for recommending this wonderful book.
Easter Monday Sunrise, March 24, 2008
It’s not that I am lazy, it is that with the coming of summer (two weeks of spring just isn’t long enough!) the sunrises don’t differ a lot from one another. It’s just one hot, sunny, hazy day after another.
(Sorry, yes that was cruel to my friends in the US and Europe who are struggling with the cold and snow and ice and wishing for a hot summer day!)
Happy Easter Monday!
Election Fever
I have a very dear friend who will say “I don’t have a dog in that fight” and that is the way I feel about your upcoming elections. You (Kuwait, Kuwait leadership, Kuwait people) are in our prayers for a fair election, and that you elect good leadership. You know what a mess it has been; it would be nice to elect people who can work with the government to get things done.
So I don’t have a clue who those people would be, but I know YOU do.
Here is what tickles me, what I can’t resist commenting on from this morning’s Kuwait Times:
ELECTION FEVER GRIPS STATE
Tribes, groups move to chose candidates • Eligible voters rise to 361,000 including 200,000 women
Holy Smokes! Almost FORTY THOUSAND more women voters than men voters??? Woooo HOOOOOO, Kuwaiti women!
Colorful Answers
Amethyst:
Main Entry:
am·e·thyst
Pronunciation:
\ˈa-mə-thəst, -(ˌ)thist\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English amatiste, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, from Latin amethystus, from Greek amethystos, literally, remedy against drunkenness, from a- + methyein to be drunk, from methy wine — more at mead
Date:
13th century
1 a: a clear purple or bluish-violet variety of crystallized quartz that is often used as a jeweler’s stone b: a deep purple variety of corundum
2: a moderate purple
— am·e·thys·tine \ˌa-mə-ˈthis-tən\ adjective
Argent
argent
Main Entry:
ar·gent
Pronunciation:
\ˈär-jənt\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, from Latin argentum; akin to Greek argyros silver, argos white, Sanskrit rajata whitish, silvery
Date:
15th century
1archaic : the metal silver; also : whiteness
2: the heraldic color silver or white
— argent adjective
Azure
azure
Main Entry:
azure
Pronunciation:
\ˈa-zhər\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English asur, from Anglo-French azeure, probably from Old Spanish, modification of Arabic lāzaward, from Persian lāzhuward
Date:
14th century
1archaic : lapis lazuli
2 a: the blue color of the clear sky b: the heraldic color blue
3: the unclouded sky
— azure adjective
Celadon
celadon
Main Entry:
cel·a·don
Pronunciation:
\ˈse-lə-ˌdän, -lə-dən\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
French céladon
Date:
circa 1768
1: a grayish-yellow green
2: a ceramic glaze originated in China that is greenish in color; also : an article with a celadon glaze
Cerise
cerise
Main Entry:
ce·rise
Pronunciation:
\sə-ˈrēs, -ˈrēz\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
French, literally, cherry, from Late Latin ceresia — more at cherry
Date:
1844
: a moderate red
Chartreuse
Main Entry:
char·treuse
Pronunciation:
\shär-ˈtrüz, -ˈtrüs\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Chartreuse
Date:
1884
: a variable color averaging a brilliant yellow green
Dun
in Entry:
1dun
Pronunciation:
\ˈdən\
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English dunn — more at dusk
Date:
before 12th century
1 a: having the color dun bof a horse : having a grayish-yellow coat with black mane and tail
2: marked by dullness and drabness
— dun·ness \ˈdən-nəs\ noun
Magenta
Main Entry:
ma·gen·ta
Pronunciation:
\mə-ˈjen-tə\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Magenta, Italy
Date:
1860
1 : fuchsin
2 : a deep purplish red
Puce
puce
Main Entry:
puce
Pronunciation:
\ˈpyüs\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
French, literally, flea, from Old French pulce, from Latin pulic-, pulex — more at psylla
Date:
1833
: a dark red
Smalt
smalt
Main Entry:
smalt
Pronunciation:
\ˈsmȯlt\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle French, from Old Italian smalto, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German smelzan to melt — more at smelt
Date:
1558
: a deep blue pigment consisting of a powdered glass that contains oxide of cobalt
Smaragd:
Main Entry:
sma·ragd
Pronunciation:
\smə-ˈragd, ˈsma-ˌragd\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English smaragde, from Latin smaragdus, from Greek smaragdos, of Semitic origin; akin to Akkadian barraqtu gemstone
Date:
13th century
: emerald
— sma·rag·dine \smə-ˈrag-dən, ˈsma-rəg-ˌdīn\ adjective
Terra Cotta
terra-cotta
Main Entry:
ter·ra–cot·ta
Pronunciation:
\ˌter-ə-ˈkä-tə\
Function:
noun
Usage:
often attributive
Etymology:
Italian terra cotta, literally, baked earth
Date:
1722
1: a glazed or unglazed fired clay used especially for statuettes and vases and architectural purposes (as roofing, facing, and relief ornamentation); also : something made of this material
2: a brownish orange
Turmeric
turmeric
Main Entry:
tur·mer·ic
Pronunciation:
\ˈtər-mə-rik also ˈtü-mə- or ˈtyü-\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English turmeryte
Date:
15th century
1 : an Indian perennial herb (Curcuma longa syn. C. domestica) of the ginger family with a large aromatic yellow rhizome
2 : the boiled, dried, and usually ground rhizome of the turmeric plant used as a coloring agent, a flavoring, or a stimulant
3 : a yellow to reddish-brown dyestuff obtained from turmeric
Turnsole
The dyestuff folium or turnsole, prepared from the annual plant Crozophora tinctoria (“dyers’ crook carrier”, from its use and the curved tip of its spike of florets), was a mainstay of medieval manuscript illuminators from the development of the technique for extracting it in the thirteenth century (Thompson and Hamilton 1933:41). It joined the vegetal-based woad and indigo in the illuminator’s repertory, but the queen of blue colorants was always the expensive lapis lazuli or its substitute azurite, ground to the finest powders. According to its method of preparation, turnsole produced a range of translucent colors from blue, through purple to red, according to its reaction to the acidity or alkalinity of its environment, in the chemical reaction, not understood in the Middle Ages, that is most familiar in the Litmus test.
Folium (“leaf”), was actually derived from the three-lobed fruit, not the leaves. in the early fifteenth century, Cennino Cennini, in his Libro dell’ Arte gives a recipe “IXVIII: How you should tint paper turnsole color” and “ILXXVI To paint a purple or turnsole drapery in fresco.” Textiles soaked in the dye vat would be left in a close damp cellar in an atmosphere produced by pans of urine. It was not realized that the oxidizing urine was producing ammonia, but the technique reminds us how foul-smelling was the dyer’s art.
The colorant was downgraded to a shading glaze and fell out of use in the illuminator’s palette by the turn of the seventeenth century, with the easier availability of less fugitive mineral-derived blue pigments.
Turnsole was used as a food colorant, mentioned in Du Fait de Cuisine which suggests steeping it in milk. The French Cook by François Pierre La Varenne (London 653) mentions turnsole grated in water with a little powder of Iris.
Herbals indicated that the plant grows on sunny, well-drained Mediterranean slopes and called it solsequium from its sunflower-habit of turning its flowers to face the sun, or “Greater Verucaria”;[1] early botanical works gave it synonyms of Morella, Heliotropium tricoccum and Croton tinctorium. (from Wikipedia)
Verdigris
Main Entry:
ver·di·gris
Pronunciation:
\ˈvər-də-ˌgrēs, -ˌgris, -grəs also -ˌgrē\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English vertegrese, from Anglo-French verdegrece, vert de Grece, literally, green of Greece
Date:
14th century
1 a: a green or greenish-blue poisonous pigment resulting from the action of acetic acid on copper and consisting of one or more basic copper acetates b: normal copper acetate Cu(C2H3O2)2·H2O
2: a green or bluish deposit especially of copper carbonates formed on copper, brass, or bronze surfaces
Except for turnsole, all the definitions above came from Merriam-Webster.com
I especially loved looking on Wikipedia. They always tell you more than you need to know, and I can get lost learning new things about a word I don’t know.
A Love of Colors
A friend who shares a love of both colors and words sent this quiz to me this morning, challenging me to match them up WITHOUT using a dictionary to see how many I got right. I thought I only missed two, but I missed four. This is challenging even for native English speakers. I know some of you will know at least one, because when I looked it up, it was a Persian word! Have fun, and let us know how you did. And which work do you like best?
Copy Shop
“I’m at the copy shop!” I shouted into the phone over the commotion in the background.
“Who are you with?” AdventureMan shouted back.
“No one! I am by myself!” I holler.
“By yourself? Why?” he asks.
“Why?” he responds, “why are you in the copy shop by yourself?”
“There are a lot of other people here, I meant I am not here with anyone. That’s what all the noise is about. They have a number machine, so I figured out how to get a number, but only me and one other buy took a number, everyone else just comes in and gets waited on, no taking numbers!”
Not only that, but in spite of the fact that there are already people waiting, some people, always men, will walk in and say in a loud voice “Excuse me! Excuse me!” or snap their fingers (I am not joking!) or say “I am ready now!” and expect to be taken right away, and I can see why, they are almost always taken right away. I guess they intimidate the guys behind the counter or something.
I held my number up to catch the eye of one of the copy-shop guys and immediately more noises happen, the numbers that incidate who is being waited on change and my number is up.
“Gotta go!” I say and take care of getting come copies made.
The next morning as we are dressing and catching up on what’s happening in one another’s lives, he says to me “I still don’t understand why you would sit and drink coffee all by yourself.”
I look at him in utter astonishment. From time to time, I do sit by myself in a coffee shop while I am waiting for a friend, or if my internet isn’t working, and I never think twice about it. But I hadn’t been anywhere near a coffee shop recently. What is he talking about?
“You remember yesterday, when I called you,” he continues. And I start laughing.
“Copy shop! Copy shop! Not coffee shop!”
And then we are both laughing.
Anything but Pedestrian
Yesterday on 5th ring, we saw the beginnings of the new pedestrian overpasses, which are anything but pedestrian in their design.
Look at that! Not only do they honor the architectural element of the wind tower tradition in Kuwait, but they will also allow pedestrians to cross safely to the other side. For all the derision we heap on highway planners here, they deserve a big pat on the back for these.
From Wikipedia on Windcatchers: A Wind Tower (Persian: badgir, Arabic: “barjeel” or badghir(from Persian)) is a structure seen on ancient buildings of the Middle East, particularly Iran and Bahrain. This acted like a natural air conditioner creating a soothing effect in the harsh conditions of the desert.
Salt Talk
I am reading through a cook book I found recently, Best of the Best, published in 1998 by Food and Wine, and claiming to be the best receipes from cookbooks published every year. Maybe – I don’t know.
This quote caught my eye:
“The right amount of salt can make or break a dish . . . In general, though, I find home cooks rarely cook with enough salt. Most people would be shocked at the amount of salt used in professional kitchens, where we season every component of a dish carefully, and then combine them.”
AdventureMan and I gave up cooking with salt years ago, adding as we eat, as needed. I always laugh because food tastes SO good when we go out. We always knew it had to do with the fact the food was salted, and had lots of fat in it that we didn’t know about, but this is the first time I have seen it documented so blatantly. It is just one of those boxed comments, so I don’t know who said it.
Reservations
I just had a truly gut-wrenching experience.
I’ve been checking airline prices for my summertime journey back to the USA. I use Mobissimo most often, but I use them all, just to see how prices compare.
The prices have been high. I finally reserved – paying more than what I used to pay for business-class for an economy-class ticket. Seats are disappearing, prices are soaring and I am betting many families will opt just not to travel this summer, or to travel using a Jazeera-type-airline for travel to more local vacation sites.
If you have travel plans, you might want to start looking at your plans now. It’s going to be a rough summer out there.
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