Negotiating with people who use child suicide bombers

Do you think anyone should be negotiating with people who use children suicide bombers? Recently, President Obama opened dialogue with the Taliban who in the past have used child suicide bombers. Only recently in Afghanistan, an eight year old girl was drugged and kidnapped in a car and strapped with an explosive belt with the intention of making her a suicide bomber. But the girl had a lucky escape when the she was dropped off. She started screaming on the streets and was arrested by the police. This is the Taliban at its most monstrous. So, should anyone be negotiating with them? The Taliban is at war with the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban has got the international community in a deadlock over the issue of peace in Afghanistan. The American government is pulling out its troops from the streets of Afghanistan at a time that the Taliban forces are regrouping. It cost America billions of dollars to keep the peace in Afghanistan, and with the continuous loss of military life due to suicide bombers, the American government has decided to bring its troops home.

Firstly, there is the issue of ethical responsibility. It is ethically wrong and unbelievable that children as young as eight are being used to fight American soldiers. It is impossible to communicate and carry out diplomatic talks with people of this nature.  Dialogue in Afghanistan should have been carried out as early as 2001, if it were ever to be done.  But how would dialogue work if there are children who are being strapped with explosives and being sent to police check points. The solutions obviously lie with the government of Afghanistan. The government has to step in to stop the practice of using children to blow up police stations. The Taliban targets children and young boys from impoverished homes by making promises of money, education, jobs and food, if they become recruits in the insurgence against the international community. In Pakistan, there are training camps where young boys and recruits from Afghanistan are trained to become suicide bombers. In a recent event, a young child in Afghanistan, a boy, of about 6 years old was strapped with explosives and given instructions on what to do when he got to the American Army camp. The boy walked all the way to the camp and on his way forgot what the instructions were. When the American army got to him, they asked him what he was doing at the camp. The boy couldn’t explain himself and then lifted up his shirt to reveal the explosives. He said he had forgotten what he was supposed to do with the explosives. Many children are lured to camps in Pakistan by the Taliban with promises of money. When they get to the camps they are then brain washed and forced into becoming suicide bombers. These children, some of which have no parents, are being deprived of an education and a home. (http://www.stripes.com/news/taliban-recruiting-afghan-children-for-suicide-bombings-1.65854)

The Taliban has denied allegations that it recruits and uses children in suicide attacks. However, there is substantial evidence that this is not the case.

Africas Drought: Severe drought is facing millions in East Africa

This may seem like a story that you have heard time and time again! Parts of Africa are starving. There are children and mothers who are malnourished and facing death by starvation. This article takes a look at the worst drought in the horn of Africa for the past 60 years. The simple question can’t be ignored anymore and simply has to be asked. Why does this keep on happening in the horn of Africa and in Africa? At the largest refugee camp in the world, Dadaab, there is a sea of people peppered everywhere in a camp that was built to hold 90,000 refugees but now holds over four times that limit. At Dadaab refugee camp, there are groups of men and women waiting to be registered at the screening centers that have been set up. There are clinics where there are people who are malnourished and children who are receiving vaccinations.  But what is the world food organization doing about this crisis? People come all the way from Somalia to get food aid from the camps. Some walk for more that 20 or 30 days to Dadaab to receive the rations that would last them and their families a few days. The number of people who go to Dadaab for food each day is about 1200 people. In the month of March, the camp received over 10,000 refugees, but in the month of June, Dadaab received over 30,000 refugees. There is clearly a crisis on the Kenya-Somalia border and the rest of the world still hasn’t woken up to it. The drought in 2007/2009, involved 22 million people at its peak. Now, in 2011, there is a crisis that involves over 10 million people, according to Oxfam.

So, to answer the question, why is it still happening in Africa? Firstly, the weather and climate are the first factors at play here. The horn of Africa and the surrounding regions have been undergoing climate changes for decades. Secondly, there are conflicts going on in Somalia that have resulted in more refugees. Thirdly, there are high food and fuel prices in these regions of Africa. These factors combined are what have brought about the current drought in the horn of Africa. There needs to be some sort of political stability in these regions of Africa. With political stability in place, local people can start farming and producing food and crops for themselves. It is unfortunate that this isn’t the case at the moment. There is a harsh climate of political instability in the regions of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya and this has lead to poor decision making and poor rural developments. People in most of these regions don’t earn enough money to feed themselves and their families. Aid agencies have swept in to tame the drought problem, but unfortunately have been faced with other problems such as conflicts in the region, therefore making it even more difficult for Aid agencies such as Oxfam to work.

The story is pretty much the same on the western coasts of Africa. In Niger, there are over 7 million starving people. In Chad, there are over 2 million starving people. Again, the reasons for the drought on this side of the continent are very similar to that on the eastern side of the continent. There have been losses of livestock and continuous surges in food prices. Northern Cameroon and Mali are also suffering from a drought crisis. The Sahel region in Africa is one of the poorest in the world. It is underdeveloped and it is an arid land that stretches from Senegal to Sudan. Jane Cocking, Oxfam's humanitarian director, told The Associated Press that 12 million people face "a fight for survival". Oxfam hopes to raise $80 million, its largest ever appeal for Africa.

The U.N. has said the Horn of Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts since the early 1950s.

(http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/07/07/7031757-worst-drought-in-60-years-12-million-africans-face-fight-for-survival)

             

The South Sudan Independence: Reactions to the creation of the worlds newest country

On the 9th of July 2011 a new country was born in Sub-Saharan Africa. This country has become the 193 member of the United Nations and is the newest republic in the world. The name of this country is South Sudan. South Sudan was formerly part of Sudan but voted for independence and separation from the North of Sudan in January of 2011. Elections were held in January to determine if the south should separate from the north after over four decades of conflict and wars. Results of the elections showed that an overwhelming majority of 98% of South Sudanese believed that the south should separate from the north and become an independent government.  On the 9th of July 2011, this became a reality for millions of South Sudanese in Sub-Saharan Africa and reactions to this new development have been swift and interesting. There has been jubilation on the streets of Sudan because many believe that this is the beginning of a new page for the people who have been oppressed for several years by North Sudan. It is a time of excitement for many Sudanese around the world especially those who live in the Arab world. 

     

There are still problems in the relationship between the north and the south especially when the topic of Oil is brought up. These problems have to be addressed at some point in the future with the help of the governments and politicians.  Another point of view that should be highlighted is that it is in a way sad that the country of Sudan could not resolve their national problems diplomatically. It could be said that it is sad that to have peace in Sudan, there had to be a separation. It could also be said that it was a failure on the part of the north, having failed to bring peace between the two sides; the north simply didn’t offer the south anything that would have resolved their differences.  The question therefore arises; what can be done to make Sudan a better place to live in? Over the past decades, years of war and conflict has given Sudan a history of Violence, deaths, starvation and poverty. Sudan is currently one of the least developed places in the world. So, given the recent development and support by the International community, what can be done by the rest of the world to ensure that other areas of Sudan where there are conflicts don’t decide on a separation themselves, and what can be done to increase the standard of living in North and South Sudan? What can people do to make sure that the breakup of Sudan doesn’t continue or accelerate to other areas of north and south Sudan?

Firstly, this is the time to bring together the cultures and people of Sudan, especially when taking into consideration the effects of racism and discrimination with in the country. The Sudanese people need to take the good out of the current changes that are taking place around them. Change is a phenomenon that happens over the course of time, and with recent events in Sudan, there are going to be major changes in the way trade and business is done to the way education, food and natural resources are produced.  However, it is unlikely that the government of Sudan has a plan or blueprint for the future. It is unlikely, because the government in Sudan didn’t learn from the years of war and civil unrest that goes back to the 1950s. If they didn’t have a plan for the future of Sudan for the past five decades, then it is unlikely that they have learnt anything that would translate into the birth of a new future for the people of Sudan, even though the wars and conflicts has given birth to a new nation.

Secondly, the United Nations has promised to give South Sudan $83 million. This is a drop in the ocean in regards to the financial aid that South Sudan needs to govern itself. There are women who were born in war times, got married in war times, gave birth to children in war times and have educated their children through war times. $83 million will help several communities in Sudan, but it won’t do the job of providing good education, structural reforms, good roads and houses and electricity and power. There are no roads in South Sudan, no infrastructure and there is a lack of basic necessities. There are no jobs but there is still hope of a bright future. The international community has to come together to ensure that the youngest country in the world doesn’t remain the poorest and the suffer the consequences of a war torn government.

Education comes not from books alone but from practical hands on experiences

Albert Einstein once said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school” With this quotation, Albert Einstein was hinting at the importance of being educated with the ability to think for one’s self and the constant improvement of the mind through the process of learning. Einstein was pointing out that the aim of education was to teach one how to think rather than what to think, to improve the mind through learning and intellectual challenges so that a person can learn to think for his or her self. Einstein was simply saying that education would be worthless if it teaches people how to make a living but doesn’t teach them how to make a life. From this quotation, it is easy to understand that education is a lifelong process which has numerous benefits and rewards later in life. There are three steps in the process of learning: using books, hands on experience and observation.

The first step in the process of learning is to read and study subject matters through the use of books. Books are a set of printed works and collections of illustrations that can either be produced in electronic form or on sheets of paper. A book can refer to works of literature like War and Peace or the Count of Monte Cristo or biographies that tell a story about a person’s life.  A text book is usually used to convey subject matter to students studying a particular topic. It is found that in most subjects such as mathematics, literature and history, the use of books greatly improves the way the material is learnt and also best serves the purpose of teaching. The reason for this is simply because subjects such as literature and English are reinforce by studying works of literature and reading several books. The most important use of books in today’s society is for writing. Writing is the most powerful tool invented by humankind because it is a tool of the mind. A good advantage of using books is that it is easy for the authors to share their thoughts and opinions with the reader, and as most readers would find, it can be easy or difficult to understand the authors’ point of view or perspective.  When studying for a Bachelors degree or an MBA, the primary source of education is the use of text books. The reason for this is that books increase the knowledge pool of the students enrolled in the course and it also stimulates the mind, especially, when students come together to do a group work or finish a project.

              Practical experience is another vital step in the process of learning. Practical experience is important when learning skills that require physical ability or dexterity. Most organizations and institutions require that their employees and interns demonstrate their ability to apply the knowledge and skills gained from their formal education to a workplace environment. Students and workers alike are expected to assume higher levels of responsibilities as the advance through their studies and work. The Medical profession and the Engineering profession require the student and worker to have in depth knowledge of the techniques employed and also a certain amount of experience working in the theatre or in the fields. Through this practical experience, doctors and engineers can demonstrate that they have progressed to a level of employment with a well rounded knowledge acquired through studying and hands on experience, and that they are ready to apply these skills at work. Parenthood is another example where practical experience plays an important role. The art of parenting can be a daunting experience for most couples, especially in the early years of child bearing. Therefore most parents seek professional help with parenting. Some parents attend parenting classes together and try to be involved in their children’s lives especially in the teenage years of adolescence.  However, as time goes on, most parents find that their parenting skills have improved due to the fact that they have gained more experience caring and nurturing their families together. Practical experience is both beneficial to students and to the community. For the student, such as the medical doctor, or the car mechanic, practical experience can boost self esteem and improve self confidence.  For the community, practical experience can help the community come together to solve problems and issues that they face. Communities and community agencies openly value and support those individuals who come together to set the trends in society, make changes and challenge the views held within society.

Although not as tactile, observation is also very important in the process of learning. In the days of old, children learnt from their elders by observing them work. Many elders taught their children in the villages through the art of observation. Hunting, fishing, farming, cooking and making clothes were all skills that were learnt by observing the elder work. When out hunting, the little children would follow closely behind the hunter and watch his move and hunting style. They would observe how he tracks his prey and what time of the year was the best to hunt for prey in the forest and what time was not. Through the art of observation young adults learn how to cook and make clothes which they sell for a good profit. The art of weaving has been passed down from generation to generation by several cultures in different parts of the world. Through this process of observation, many people who cannot afford to go to school learn how to make a living for themselves and for their family.

To summarize, education is part of the process of learning which takes place through the use of books, practical experience and observation. Education in the 21^st century has become technological and innovative, both in the manner in which it is presented and the way in which it is applied. Various tools and systems make learning easy and affordable for many students in the 21^st century. Education in today’s world brings together people of different backgrounds, with diverse views, cultures and religious beliefs. As a result, many students and academics have come to realize the need for an open minded approach toward learning.