Dear President Obama, It’s Time to Stop Talking

It’s been over ten months since you were inaugurated to the office of the Presidency of the United States. In general, if you were a baby, you would be about 10 months now, still crawling, still trying to figure out who’s who, and what’s what. However, your responsibility as President does not require on-site job training, it doesn’t require you to figure out who’s who and what’s what, it requires actions. And, actions must be now.

I have always been one of your biggest supporters. I have always been one of your biggest fans. While I was a student at The Ohio State University during the election campaign, we at OSU, rallied for you, endlessly. And even if you were not elected as President, I would still support you, I would still rally behind you, because of whom you are and what you stand for. Yes, you have inspired me and millions of other people around the world, and more and more people everywhere are looking up to you. More and more kids around the world want to be just like you.

However, there comes a time when you have to stop selling, you have to stop talking, and start putting your words and promises into action. Mr. President, the time is now to start enacting and signing bills into law. Yes, not too long ago, you signed the gay rights bill into law, and you have signed a few more bills into law, such as the equal-pay bill, the bill reversing abortion funds ban, and a few other bills, however, we need more bills signed into law.

Yes, I applaud you for averting what could have been the greatest economic disaster in the history of mankind, by signing the stimulus bill into law, but given the fact that you have the backing of the majority in both houses of the representatives, you should be able to quickly wrap up many proposed bills and especially, the current issue at hand, the health care reform.

I don’t just want to complain about the things you haven’t done yet. No, I also want to thank you Mr. President, for working behind the scene to heroically help free the captured American sailors by the Somali pirates and the release of the American journalists by North Korea.

Yes, I understand the implications of you achieving such a historic health care reform, given the fact that you are facing the greatest challenges from both sides of the aisle, and mostly from the far right and the severity of the opposition from the health insurance industry. But you must not look back, you must not give in, you must act now, urge both of the houses to pass a health care reform bill, but it must have a public option. You must not sign it if it does not have a sweeping public option plan.

During the election campaign, you have brought so much hope to so many people. Yes, we were all flooded with all kinds of threats from within and outside. Threat elevations at airports and public venues became an everyday thing. We were faced with the war in Iraq, and the never-ending war in Afghanistan, followed by Hurricane Katrina, and then the Great Recession. Yes, we were all in need to hear something positive, something uplifting, something joyous, and you brought that to all of us, and we embraced you, we welcomed you into our homes, and we confirmed that at the voting booths, when we voted “Yes, We Can”!

Yes, Mr. President, you have inherited a lot of garbage from the previous administration. Most of us don’t even think about that, or don’t want to think about what you had to do when you came into Office. But you already knew what you were getting into when you took and accepted the challenge. So, that should not have been a surprise to you. Thus, Mr. President, now is no longer a time to keep speaking and rallying, now it’s time to start proposing and signing bills into law.

And most importantly Mr. President, now is no longer the time to continue asking me to donate to your Organizing for America campaign in your weekly email updates, the recession has hit me, I don’t have any more money to keep donating to your Organizing for America’s cause. I’m not even sure what Organizing for America does with the money donated to it. I thought the election campaign was over? But right now, Mr. President, it’s time to start executing all that you have promised to do during your election campaign rallies.

Yes, you’ve engaged and lifted some travel restrictions to and from Cuba. You are talking to Iran and North Korea, but we need more, for the people here at home.

And while you are at it, Mr. President, please look carefully into the immigration bill. In Silicon Valley and elsewhere in America, there are many companies whose combined annual revenue are more than $52 billion, and currently employ over 500,000 Americans. These companies, such as Yahoo!, Google, and many others, were partly founded and developed by immigrants, and most of these companies have and continue to help lead America as the next frontier in technology and energy.

Mr. President, there are many legal immigrants who have come to America, and continue to migrate to the United States, and most of them leave their families and everything they love behind, including myself. We come to America for one reason only, to make our dreams come true and realize our potential. Not all of us come to America to milk the system, but we come here equipped with ingenuity and with our own ideas. We come to America to create, develop, and reap the fruits of our own labor; the American dream, and in the process, we create large and profitable companies who pay hefty taxes and employ thousands of Americans. We come to contribute and make a huge impact to the American society and the world. We come to change the way business is done, efficiently.

However, most of us, the legal immigrants of the United States (weren’t we all at one point or another), always fall under the spell of not having seed money to develop our innovative ideas. As an immigrant, to fund a startup, you have to work twice as hard just to prove yourself, more than your native colleagues. You’re likely not to have the needed startup capital to help fund and grow your startup business. You are likely not to be able to go to the bank and apply for a loan simply because you don’t have the required credit scores, given the fact that you have just arrived in the U.S. and your social security number was just recently issued, and you haven’t established yourself in the country longer enough to qualify for a bank loan.

Most of us don’t bring utilities for use as collateral for bank loans, and then again, most banks don’t recognize technology startups as a qualified industry for bank loans. Since, we are new in the country, we weren’t born here and don’t have families and friends who may help fund our start-ups, compare to those who were born and grew up here, who have families and friends, when needed, can request for help to fund their startup ideas. Our sole reliance to secure seed money falls to venture capitalists, who in turn are already overly crowded, overwhelmed and flooded with many different business plans. Thus, only a few of us end up able to start and grow our businesses.

Mr. President, please see if you can help set up a special fund, for all legal immigrants, who have viable business plans in order to get funding for their startups. The SBA does not help that much, since even going through the SBA, you still have to go through a bank to get an SBA loan. In all, most of us who come to America, legally, with a dream to create and grow our viable businesses end up not realizing our business dreams. Only a few of us, create those companies who have and continued to make a huge impact to the American Economy.

For the war in Afghanistan, as I have written on this topic before, please don’t send any more US troops to Afghanistan, instead work with the government of Afghanistan and Pakistan to negotiate and politicize the Taliban to become a political organization, whereby they will become a political organization and participate in a general election and eventually become part of the Afghanis’ members of the parliament. That’s the only way there would be peace in Afghanistan and would be able to root out the members of the Al-Qaeda organization out of Afghanistan.

The poll number shows that almost half of Americans now feel a bit jittery with your current leadership. Some are those who may be listening to the foolish talk of the GOP mouthpieces, the Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin alike.

However, not all of us do. Some of those polls may be biased, due to the fact that they may not be scientific, thus we cannot completely rely on them. As most of those who were polled may be those who lean towards the right, or simply those who pay attention to what those fools; Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Rush Limbaugh, are saying, and may be a small percentage of those who voted for the other guys. However, the fact is; we cannot ignore their voices and that they should not go unheard. Please Mr. President, if you start signing more bills into law, then maybe, just maybe, their voices would calm down.

Mr. President, you do not want to wait until the third year of your presidency to start fulfilling your campaign promises. If you do, then you will be a one-term president, because by then, almost all Americans would be weary of your inaction, and will surely not vote for you again for a second term.

So, please Mr. President, stop talking, and start signing some bills, not just bills, but they must be the most relevant bills into law. The kind of bills that help make a great impact in the lives of all Americans; the bills that more Americans would appreciate you for as the President.

Thank you Mr. President, and thank you for giving America, once more, a positive outlook from an international perspective!

Filed under: Barack, McCain, Obama, economy, election, politics, president, war , Afghanistan war, Glenn Beck, GOP, Healthcare reform, immigration bill, Iraq war, legal immigrants, politics, President Obama, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, startups, supporters, war

What is Not Happening Inside the White House’s Situation Room for the War in Afghanistan?

On September 11, 2007, I wrote and published a blog article titled, “Bush to Kick Gen. Pervez Musharraf Out?“, and less than a year later, Musharraf was out of Pakistan as its President.

And I am now going to write about what’s current and has been happening in Afghanistan for the past 8 years, which most of you may not agree with this analysis, but one must look at both sides to completely understand what might need to happen in order to end the current war in Afghanistan, because it’s not through the barrel of the gun that the war in Afghanistan will come to an end and finally bring the US troops in Afghanistan back home, to their families and friends.

Yesterday, September 30, 2009, President Obama met with 8 of his top cabinets, military generals and advisers, inside the White House’s Situation Room to discuss a new strategy and direction for the war in Afghanistan. And today, it’s being reported that Mr. Obama will take a few weeks to decide what new direction he will undertake for the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. Some of the Top US generals in Afghanistan including McChrystal have asked President Obama for an additional 5,000+ troops to help curb the current escalation of violence and incidents caused by the ruthless and cunning Taliban fighters.

History tells us that, according to Stephen Tanner’s “Afghanistan: A Military History”, dating back to the 3rd century BCE, ranging from the occupations of Afghanistan by Cyrus, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, the British, the Soviet Union, and the recent rise, and fall, of the Taliban, no one, none of the above stated, dating back to about 2,500 years ago, has won the war against the Afghanis.

In the movie, Rambo III, as played by Sylvester Stallone, depicting his mission to supply weapons to the Afghan rebels, the Mujahedeen, who were fighting against the Soviet during the Afghan Soviet War. By paraphrasing, his co-star is heard telling Rambo how the Afghanis have always resisted and refused to be conquered by anyone, and that they never give up their land to anyone, no matter what the cost, they are willing to die for their land.

Following the heinous act of terrorism attack of September 11, 2001 on US soil, the U.S. and its coalition forces, NATO, raged Operation Enduring Freedom and toppled the unofficial Taliban government in Afghanistan which then housed Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda. And the US and NATO were instantly successful in toppling them, but have yet to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and most of the Taliban leaders, such as Mullah Mohammed Omar.

And for the past 8 years, the US and NATO have been on the defense, without much success in getting rid of and defeating the Taliban and Al-Qaeda members who have since fled and may be hiding in the deep and rugged mountains of Afghanistan or inside the Southern lawless of Pakistan.

What’s really the case with Afghanistan? Why can’t the US and NATO defeat the Taliban? What’s Obama going to do from here to defeat the Taliban? Will the increase of US troops in Afghanistan help make a difference in defeating the Taliban and bring peace and stability to the much devastated people of Afghanistan? Will Osama bin Laden finally be captured or killed once the Taliban have been defeated?

These are some of the many questions that most people around the world are asking themselves. But no one seems to have an actual solution of what to do, even the US top generals in Afghanistan are simply playing the chicken game of what to do next.

During the 2008 presidential election campaign, the then presidential candidate, Obama, promised that if elected, he will finally bring an end to the war in Iraq, and then moves the US troops from Iraq to Afghanistan in order to finally, once and for all, defeat the Taliban, capture or kill Osama bin Laden, and bring peace and stability to the people of Afghanistan.

But, let’s step out of the box for a minute and think about what the people of Afghanistan really want. Like most Iraqis, no matter who’s trying to help free them from the shackles of such as the Taliban, the Afghanis may regard you as an occupier of their beloved land, and thus they will always resist you. They will not honestly work with you, they will not listen to you, they will not honor their promise to work with you, and they simply look at you as an evil occupier, who doesn’t belong in their land. All they want is for you to leave and get off of their land.

The main problem right now that is currently treachery hindering the US and NATO, is that they just cannot find an easy way to defeat the Taliban. Simply because the Taliban fighters have perished their military uniforms and integrated themselves within and among the Afghani people. And that’s why the US and NATO forces have never been able to know whom they are fighting against.

And the Afghani people just never fully cooperate with the US and NATO forces to point out the Taliban fighters who are among them. It has gotten to the point that, anyone could be a Taliban fighter, who’s out to harm or kill the US and NATO forces with their improvised weapons. Thus no weapons of any kind will ever help bring peace and stability to Afghanistan.

In Angola, we have witnessed how civil war has ravaged the Angolan country for over 27 years as UNITA rebels, an anti-Communist rebel group, waged civil war against the MPLA, Angolan government forces. Not until 2002, when UNITA’s leader, Jonas Savimbi was finally killed by the MPLA, that Angola started to smell a sense of peace and stability, but only after UNITA disintegrated itself from an armed rebel group to an unarmed political organization and went to the poll, a general multi-party election, as an opposition party and is now a part of a democratic Angolan parliamentarian politics.

And, as President Obama currently reminisces on what strategy and direction to take in Afghanistan, increasing the US troops or NATO forces in Afghanistan will not make a difference. What Obama and his NATO allies must do is to craft a new strategy, to democratically politicize the war in Afghanistan, with the people of Afghanistan, to try to educate and explain to them about their new strategy, of not fighting arm to arm with the Taliban fighters but to bring them together with the Afghani government as a political party. To work with the government of Pakistan, and bring Mullah Omar and his Taliban group to a negotiating table with the government of Karzai, so that the Taliban can become an unarmed political organization, and join the government of Karzai to hold a democratic multi-party general election.

A better way to start out with this is possibly for Mr. Obama to allocate a certain amount of money as a grant to Afghanistan, unlike what Bush has done in the past, and allocate this money to the rebuilding of the Afghanistan institutions and marketplace for the general consumers.

Of course this process will take time, but Obama can work on it for the next few years towards this new strategy and resolution, to negotiate an integration of the Taliban group as an opposition, unarmed political organization within the Afghanistan government. And if that happens, then that will make Osama bin Laden come out of the hole where he’s been hiding for all these years.

Because wherever Mullah Omar is currently hiding, that’s the same place bin Laden is likely hiding, and if Mullah Omar peacefully joins a democratically elected multi-party Afghani government as an opposition party leader, unlike the recent election, then peace and stability may come to the people of Afghanistan and the US and NATO may then be able to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

This is the only solution that can help end the war in Afghanistan, which may finally lead to the demise of Osama bin Laden. However, if Obama decides to tackle the Taliban with armed forces, then that will simply yield in the same way as the war in Afghanistan by Cyrus, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, the British, and the Soviet Union, which resulted in a simple withdraw of their troops without ever achieving their objectives.

Filed under: politics , Afghanis, Afghanistan war, election, Karzai, Mullah Omar, Obama, Osama bin Laden, peace, war

Obama, the Lying Pig Dictator?

This post is a response to a forum discussion, posted on Affluence.org, read it here, but login may be required.

Some people, like you, are just plain fools. They just don’t know when they have something that’s actually good or better, even if you hit them in the face with it. They voted for Bush, instead of Gore in 2000, and Kerry in 2004, and look at what we got, 8 years of practically nothing, but unnecessary Iraq war, which has helped sky-rocketing a mountain of our deficit, followed by this Great Recession.

Yes, I said it and I am saying it again, some people are plain fools, and stupid.

And now we have a president who is actually trying to do something about the mess that Dumbya has put us in, and then you have the nerve to call Obama “a lying pig dictator”. You’re all fools! At least he’s trying to do something about it.

If your wallet and bank accounts are left intact from this recession, that doesn’t mean everyone else is unaffected. There are people out there who are actually going through a lot, who have lost their jobs, homes, cars, and have mountains of debts, mostly because of what Dumbya did to the country in the last 8 years, which is nothing.

Yes, you’re all fools for thinking that “Obama is a lying pig”, when he’s actually doing everything he possibly can to help turn around our economy and put more people back to work.

If you got guts, read my previous blog post explaining this very same topic on here.

Open your eyes, fools, get out of your comfort zone and think about other people who are going through hell, primarily because of the last 8 years of nothing!

Filed under: Obama, election, politics , Barack Obama, Bush, Dumbya, economy, fools, G-20 summit, Gore, Kerry, peace, politics, president, war

The Biggest Events of 2008 the World Community Has Ignored

1. The Darfur Crisis – thousands of civilians, women and children, are suffering and most are dying each day, from violence, diseases, and hunger, but no one wants to do anything. The UN seems to have stalled, powerless, or simply doesn’t care anymore, or never cared in the first place. Does China still threaten to veto any UN resolution which could help end the Darfur crisis?

2. The Zimbabwe Crisis – the world community has been barking but not biting at the Zimbabwean government to end the crisis. They want African governments to force Mugabe out of the office, but the fact is this; since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980 from Britain, Mugabe and his government acted as the guardian and pillar of other African neighboring countries, such as South Africa and Namibia, which helped them gain their independence from the South African Minority Apartheid Regime, thus most African leaders, with the exception to Botswana and Kenya’s opposition Prime Minister, are reluctant to pressure Mugabe to leave the office, because they feel like they still owe Mugabe. In the mean time, the majority of Zimbabweans are suffering. The recent report by BBC News states that about 1,564 people have died in Zimbabwe from Cholera. The country’s inflation is over 231,000,000%, healthcare facilities are non-functional, water in cities doesn’t run any more. Thus the majority of Zimbabweans are fleeing to neighboring South Africa. And what is Mugabe doing? He’s laughing at the West, calling them stupid, probably because they have become idle spectators. Read more at CNN.com.

3. The Somalia Pirates Crisis – welcome to the 8th century Mercantilism, when the Romans and the Greeks used to fight against the pirates, in almost the exact same area off of the coast of Somalia. Did you know that the insurance was invented by a band of British gentlemen in England as a result of ocean storms and pirates against their merchants’ ships to and from the New World? On the coast of present day Somalia, a band of pirates have been capitalizing on seizing foreign ships and cargos in return for hefty ransoms. It was reported that in 2008 alone, they profited over $100 million in ransom payment. What are the world powers; China, US, UK, Germany, etc, doing to end this crazy thing, pretty much nothing. They seem incapacitated by the Somali pirates.

4. Haiti – this is a country in the Western Hemisphere, but it is one of the poorest countries in the world. In November, a school in Haiti collapsed which caused at least 88 school kids to die, with another 150 injured. Not only that the school has caused devastation to Haiti, but many Haitians still live in poverty, and ravaged by all kinds of diseases.

5. The Israel-Palestine Crisis – about 320 Palestinians have died in just less than 3 days as a result of Israel’s all out war against Hamas. Since the recent signing of the Peace deal between Israel and Hamas government, Hamas has been firing rockets inside Israel, killing about 8 Israelis. In response, Israel has waged war against Palestine. Bush has become silent, while PE Obama has been a spectator. Read more at CNN.com.

In all, innocent civilians around the world are dying, children and women are hurting and endlessly suffering. The crisis in the Niger Delta, the Guinea’s recent military coup, coupled by the recent bombing of India’s hotels. Overall, President-elect Obama has a full plate waiting for him starting January 20th.

Filed under: AIDS, HIV, article, blog this, economy, politics, war, women , 2008 biggest events, 2008 crisis, crisis, Darfur, Darfur crisis, Haiti, India bombing, Israel, Palestine, Somalia pirates, UN, war, Zimbabwe Cholera, Zimbabwe inflation

One More Try, My First Attempt to Speak Up for the Darfuris

An article in today, September 6th’s Wall Street Journal, written by Mia Farrow and Eric Reeves makes me feel like getting up and do something beyond my usual comfort zone. Since I read this article this afternoon, I sat on my couch and stared at the TV all afternoon and evening, not really watching anything, but just sat there, with occasional tears rolling down my cheeks and my heart pounding fast; angry, very angry.

I don’t know what to do, I am just me, Simon, I am nobody, and I have no power to do anything relevant in order to help, right? But this article makes me furious, like I need to do something, but what can I really do, I am no body, right?

Okay, let’s rewind back a little, to the beginning of how it all started.

Today is Saturday, September 6, 2008; actually, it’s now 12:56 AM EST as I’m writing this, so it is Sunday, September 7, 2008. But I can still say it’s Saturday because I haven’t been to sleep yet.

Today, since I woke up this morning, has been a very quiet day. The last few days, I’ve been suffering from a severe sinus, it’s a seasonal thing for me, and this year, I have had it since February, so I am kind of used to the constant sneezing, running nose, and itchy eyes.

Last night I slept okay, but yesterday night my nose just didn’t let me go to sleep. I took some Benadryl, as usual, but it just didn’t seem to work. I have prescription pills that I need to go pick up when I get a chance. But last night I didn’t take anything, but I woke up feeling better, in fact, I feel like I am completely well and never had this sinus thing. So, I should be happy and go out and have some fun, it is summer, so maybe I should have gone to see my school’s football team beating Ohio University.

But, no. Since I read this article this afternoon, I’ve just been feeling different. I’ve been quiet all day. When I woke up, I watched cartoon, it’s Saturday, and yes, I still watch my Saturday cartoons. Then I went to do some work on my two current projects, but that was just for a few hours, so then I came back home at around 3:00 PM, and watched six seeded Murray beating number one seeded Nadal in the US Open. When the game stopped because of the rain, I started reading my Wall Street Journal paper. I browsed through, read a few articles, but one specific article caught my attention, no, it distracted my mind.

For the past five years, since 2003, I think that’s how far it goes back; I’ve been following the crisis in Darfur. I’ve been sitting on my behind, just watching it rarely on the TV news and reading about it in newspapers, but I haven’t done anything. In the US, you can’t really follow what’s really happening in Darfur by watching it on the news because they barely say anything about the Darfur crisis in any of the US TV networks. But, many people around the world have rallied for Darfur, George Clooney, Mia Farrow, and many other celebrities have voiced their concerns about the Darfur crisis, but I just sat on my behind and did nothing.

But what can I do? I am just me, nobody Simon. I am now studying Economics at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. I have never served in the military or in law enforcement or in any real life-saving organization, anywhere. My entire life, with the exception of living and surviving the South African Apartheid as kid, has been nothing real significant.

I have never done anything out of the box to help anybody. Even what I thought I did to help some may not have actually helped anybody as I thought, but more like may be hurting them than actually helping. I tried in the late 90’s to start an organization, hoping to help some students, but that was too stupid, all though its purpose was for a good cause and have helped some, and even though I have been helping some students since I was eleven, I just didn’t know and had no experience in doing anything of that nature, so you can basically say, the business model was lousy.

Thus, like some people, I basically have been living within my comfort zone. Unlike the people of Darfur who are constantly living in fear and starving. So, being me, nobody important, what can I really do to help, right? You’ve got to read this article to understand why I feel this way.

I am certain you know everything about the Darfur Crisis and Genocide, so there is no need for me to try to elaborate where Darfur is and what’s happening there since 2003. But one thing I want to retaliate is that for over six years now, I stand for correction, Darfur has been ravaged by civil war. Millions of people have perished in genocide. If you don’t know what Darfur is, please go to Yahoo and search for Darfur.

To paraphrase, this article states how early in the morning of August 25th, before foreign humanitarian aid workers come to work at Kalma Camp, a refugee camp of 90,000 displaced Darfuris, was surrounded by heavily armed Sudanese government military vehicles and its Janjaweed thugs, hastily armed with sticks, spears, and knives. And by the time they were finished, a score of mostly women and children were dead and over 100 wounded.

This article further states that; “Since 2003, 80% – 90% of Darfuris African villages have been destroyed; over 2.5 million survivors have fled to squalid camps across Darfur, eastern Chad and the Central African Republic”. While that’s going on, the world power is quiet, they talk but nobody is doing anything to stop all of that. The world community has attempted to bring the Darfur case to the UN Security Council, but China who has interest in Sudan and is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council nations with veto power, apparently threatened to veto the UN Darfur resolution over oil sanctions.

Last month, Russia was accused of invading South Ossetia, Georgia, and as soon as that happened, the world power started barking at Russia. Condi Rice ran to her European allies trying to rally their support in order to punish Russia for invading Georgia. And today, Cheney is in Ukraine, he left Georgia yesterday, where he went to visit and bring them over $1 billion dollar in aid. In another article, The Wall Street Journal reports yesterday that as Cheney spoke, warning the Ukraine about the Russian aggression, “the USS Mount Whitney was boldly anchored off nearby Georgia, at the port of Poti, a city still partly occupied by Russian troops, after last month’s conflict. The ship was delivering humanitarian supplies, including blankets and powdered milk”.

Well, like Iraq, Georgia has oil and natural gas while Darfur doesn’t have the oil that the word power needs, unlike China. Therefore the lives of the people of Georgia and Iraq, even those of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian War) are more valuable to defend than the lives of the people of Darfur. Just like the millions of lost lives of the people of Congo (African World War), where since 1998 to 2003 leading to the ripple effect and aftermath, over 5.4 million people died mostly from disease and starvation, making the Second Congo War the deadliest conflict worldwide since World War II (Wikipedia.org), while the world power stood back and watched.

In Liberia, hundreds if not thousands of lives were lost during the Richard Taylor’s brutal regime, and again the world stood and watch. The world power doesn’t immediately make any move if something like that is happening in Africa. But if it happens elsewhere, then Rice and Cheney are immediately dispatched to seek and bring aid. Well, let me not say so fast, we’ve seen how the world power has responded to the Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans about three years ago. And Haiti is always in turmoil, but what does Haiti have that the world power needs in order to help them? It seems more like as long as there’s dark skin, then the world power is slow to respond. But if it happens elsewhere in other parts of the world like in Europe (Bosnia or Georgia), Asia or the Middle East, then the world power is there instantly with billions of dollars in aid and its military mighty on standby, ready to move in if else fail.

In Africa, we let Africans handle their own crisis. We let the most powerless and ill-equipped African Union (AU) forces try to tackle the crisis. We let the UN and AU troops from the neighboring states, whose troops might be of the same tribe, and or speak the same language and who look like the very same people in the region that they are trying to help. And we have seen that happening over and over, from Liberia, the UN troops from Cameroon or Ivory Coast and neighbors trying to tackle the Liberian crisis, to Congo with UN troops from Nigeria, Namibia, and other states, and now Darfur, and we all know that, it just never works. You just can’t do that, you can’t send and expect the UN or poorly equipped AU troops from Kenya, Uganda, Chad even Nigeria to tackle and stop the crisis in Darfur alone.

For one, they may be speaking the same language, and that makes them even more ineffective. And two, the neighboring states usually have cooperative ally and friendship, so common sense, you can’t expect the UN or AU troops from across the border to topple their neighboring head of state even though they know that that elephant is doing some inhumane to its people. So, they simply stroll, sit back and watch while things like the genocide go on. And then, when the world power makes its move after many months or years, then many lives of helpless and innocent civilians have already perished.

Taking one to The Hague to answer for his or her act of inhumane is commendable, but that’s just too late and too little. Why can’t the world, over 4.7 billion people on earth, not counting China’s 1.3 billion people, why can’t we, the able and capable, do anything to stop the government of Sudan and its proxy, Janjaweed. Why can’t we do something, not just talking and matching, but actually order some mighty military ships and planes and for once and all topple the Sudan government. Screw the UN Security Council, they are not doing anything. Why do we need to have the UN Security Council pass a Darfur Resolution so we can stop the Darfur war?

We didn’t wait for the UN Weapons Inspectors to finish their job in Iraq before we toppled Saddam. So, why do we need the UN Security Council or the world to pass laws in order to stop the Sudanese government now? Even if China threatens to veto it, the world power didn’t wait for Russia to approve the toppling of Saddam Hussein. And if my mind serves me well, either Germany was not a go for toppling Saddam, but the world power didn’t wait for their stamp of approval either. So, why are we waiting now for some government to approve to topple Sudanese’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir?

I am very angry but don’t know what to do, there’s nothing I can really do., right? The article that infuriates me is titled; “Now Sudan Is Attacking Refugees Camps”, by Actress and Activist Mia Farrow and Eric Reeves, published on page A9, in the Opinion section of The Wall Street Journal of Saturday, September 6, 2008. If you can, please find it and read it. Go to your local library and look it up or go to WSJ.com and search for it. Oh, I found its link here.

There are nearly 3 billion of us, who are able and capable, on this planet, and can we really just let this go on in Darfur without actually doing anything? If each one of us, keep telling ourselves that we can’t do anything, like myself, then this will keep going on for another 10 years. A few hundred kids will be born in Darfur, if there are still women left there capable of nurturing babies, and will eventually die sooner without ever knowing anything better in life other than seeing what’s going on now, and every day.

I want to hear from anyone, anybody, out there with an idea of what to do to really help put an end to this. May be we can share some ideas and together take a concrete step. If all of us, 3 billion of us try, we may be able to do something, but if we don’t try, then this will go on forever.

I don’t foresee anybody else really trying to help other than those who have been speaking out already and doing what they can. Even the current US presidential candidates, both McCain and Obama, rarely mention Darfur in their campaign. And even if one of them take the Office in January 2009, he will have a tantamount of problems to tackle, the mounting $482 billion budget deficit, fixing the economy, healthcare, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the war on terror, and many other important issues that they will have to handle.

So, honestly, just like the current president, Bush, Cheney and Rice, Darfur might be the last thing in the next president’s mind.

So, please contact me, all of you, let’s talk, let’s put our mind together and then present it to the world, and see if we can put an end to this. Just think, what would you do if that were you or your family members?

Filed under: article, blog this, culture, economics, education, living, news, politics , African War, crisis, Darfur, genocide, refugees, Sudan, war

Fast Forwad; What Would It Be Like, 4.6 Billion Years From Now?

A million years from now, or even a billion years from now, what and how is history going to be written about us, the humans? What’s the earth going to be like, let’s say 10 billion years from now?

Would there be anything left for our children’s children’s future generation? With all the things that are happening everywhere, from global warming, the depletion of ozone layer, the depletion of all the natural resources, from the water in the oceans, the plants, humans and animals, what would be left for the on-coming generation?

What and how is our history going to be written about, 500 million years from now? What’s our excuse for inexcusably messing things up for all the generations and generations to come? How are we going to explain to what we have done to Mother Nature, to everything we govern on this earth?

Some experts estimate the earth to have been formed about 4.6 billion years ago, and from about 250 million years ago, the dinosaurs and other earthly creatures roamed the earth, up to about 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs suffered a major catastrophic distinction, some believes that a large meteorite hit the earth, and that was the cause for a massive distinction to both earthly plants and animals.

About 150 thousand years ago, Adam and Eve were sanctioned to work in the Garden of Eden, and about 4,900 years ago, Moses freed the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, and about 2006 years ago, Jesus was born and crucified on the cross, and on the third day, He was risen.

It’s obvious that history is written for every event, whether it is about Abraham, Noah, the famine in Egypt or the freeing of all the Negro slaves in America about 400 years ago. Every year when history is written and all the major events, good or catastrophic, are all noted at the forefront of the “never-to-be-forgotten” page, let it be the crumbling of the Roman Empire, the British Empire, or the end of World War I, II, Cold War, Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the end of South African Apartheid, the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein Regime, or the current Israel-Lebanon War, in every catastrophic event, the lives of hundreds and thousands of people and animals are unreasonably, incomprehensibly wasted. When a 500lbs bomb is dropped anywhere, every living creature in that area is completely and perhaps forever destroyed, and radiation may stay there for years to come, which may cause incurable diseases and illness both to humans, plants, animals and or birds.

What must we be accountable for, we as humans who have, from the very beginning, have been naturally sanctioned to govern this earth and everything in it? What are we doing to help curb and or stop any future devastating global events that may cause the spread of diseases to our children’s future generation? What’s it that we are supposed to do on here, on this earth? Are we to help build or destroy it? What is it? When history is written 500 years from now, what will it be? What will it say? What are we doing to help make our planet, this planet, to be more habitable for our children’s children future generation? What and how will it be, this planet, planet earth?

Aren’t we supposed to be accountable for all that we do now, so that our children’s children’s future generation, anytime from now, whether it’s 20 years from now or 10 billion years from now, will they have playgrounds and backyards, soccer fields and clean ocean water to play and swim in them? What’s it? Why are we like this now? What do we need to change, all of us, whether it’s Africa, North and South America, Asia, Europe, or Australia? Are we really doing enough to help secure the future of our children’s future generation? Are we? Are you? What and how?

Filed under: AIDS, HIV, animals, army, blog this, business, climate, culture, economics, education, energy, environment, food, global warming, insects, life, living, men, news, politics, sex, social, technology, war, weather , earth, environment, global warming, humans, people, temperature, war, weather

Bush to Kick Gen. Pervez Musharraf Out?

What’s happening with Gen. Pervez Musharraf lately? Obviously, almost everyone knows that General Pervez Musharraf is president of Pakistan and he’s also the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army.

Since he came to power by way of a bloodless military coup d’état in 1999, prior to 9/11, Pakistan was the only country that had supported and recognized the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan as legitimate government and was the only country that had diplomatic relationship with the Taliban led government.

After 9/11, General Pervez Musharraf reversed Pakistan’s position and became the pro-supporter for the US move to remove the Taliban from power and has since been the chief ally for the U.S. fight and struggle against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region.

And, so far because of his commitment to helping the US fight against terrorism in the region, the US has given over $10 billion in aid to Pakistan. However his decision to suspend the constitution and declare a state of emergency has made the US possible think twice against his leadership and is talking about reviewing its financial aid to Pakistan.

As reported in Boston,com, Rice, who was traveling in Jerusalem yesterday, spoke as Musharraf pursued a second day of arrests of hundreds of opposition leaders, lawyers, and Supreme Court judges in what Pakistani newspapers described as a “coup” against his own government.

Rice told reporters that the crackdown might trigger legal statutes that would make Pakistan ineligible for some of the aid that has flowed into the country over the past five years. But she also suggested that President Bush would be very reluctant to cut off military support for Musharraf, a military ruler who has become a crucial partner in the war on terror.

“We have to be very cognizant of the fact that some of the assistance that has been going to Pakistan is directly related to the counterterrorism mission,” Rice said.

But President Bush has also suggested that Gen. Musharraf should give up his role as chief of the Pakistani Army. “You can’t serve as President of a country and head of the military the same time,” said President Bush in the CBS Evening News of November 8, 2007.

Is Benazir Bhutto currently more likely to finding favor with Bush?

Wasn’t Saddam Hussein once a close ally of the US in the early 1980’s, as well as the likewise of Osama bin Laden and Jonas Savimbi?

If this is the case that General Musharraf falls out with the US, what will happen of him? If so, will history repeat itself?

Filed under: article, blog this, law, life, living, news, politics, president, war , Bhutto, fight, General Pervez Musharraf, Jonas Savimbi, Osama bin Laden, Pakistan, President Bush, terrorism, war

One Step Forward for Women in the Unites States Military Forces

Women in the United States have long fought for the right to be included in many facets of society, from the right to vote to breaking into professions like the medical field and other traditionally all-male fields to getting females elected to major government offices.

But one of the most intriguing questions of integration has yet to be fully answered, to equally allow women to have the right, the honor, and the privilege of serving and defending their country as part of the United States Armed Forces.

Being in the military means prestige, honor, pride, and the sheer satisfaction that comes along with engaging what is considered one of the most valiant and traditionally revered professions on the face of the Earth.

There has always been and continues to be considerable debate in this country as to exactly what extent women should be allowed to serve their country, and what the effects and trade-offs of such integration might be.

Sex scandals such as what happened at the Las Vegas’ Tailhook convention in 1991, where dozens of servicewomen were accosted and sexually molested by servicemen or the misconduct of former Lt. Kelly Flinn, the Air Force’s first female B-52 bomber pilot, who faced court-martial in 1997 for military charges of adultery, have served to raise questions about military integration:

Can female and male military personnel be combined without the military losing some of its effectiveness? Can women be as good at being soldiers, sailors, naval aviators and fighter pilots as men? Should women be allowed in the line of fire and in direct combat? What role should sexual harassment and fraternization play in the combination of women into the military?

The real question, essentially, is whether or not women can serve in any military capacity at all. The issue the United States faces at present is to decide for itself whether or not women should be allowed in combat. That is, in every major war until World War II, thousands of women served in the military in traditional roles such as nurses, office staff, and the like.

But as WWII broke out, sheer need, often the best equal opportunity employer, led to the creation of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), the Navy’s Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES), the Coast Guard’s Semper Paratus: Always Ready (SPARs), which is their motto. The Marines and what was to later become the Air Force also began to accept women applicants, (Moskos 2).

In 1976, the three service academies; the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, and the United States Military Academy all accepted their first class of women. While it was long debated whether women could compete and excel in the kind of environment that service academies are known for, at least the scholastic questions were answered when one of the female cadets at West Point was recently named the valedictorian of her graduating class.

In October 1997, the United States government dedicated a new memorial at the Arlington War Memorial in Arlington, VA. Named the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, it was the first national monument of its kind that, like Arlington itself, recognized those who fought and died in the protection of their country.

Women have faced two fights when it came to the Armed Services, the first being the right and honor of serving their country and secondly on the battlefield itself. While women are now capable of being both enlisted personnel and officers in the military, a new question arises – should the role of women in the military finally be expanded to allow them to fight for their country in direct combat?

Many experts argue that when it comes to women in the military, there are over-riding reasons why the proverbial line must be drawn when it comes to making women part of America’s combat force. Among the most strenuous objections to the proposed integration comes from male officers and enlisted men themselves, whose primary fear is that this proposed change would have the potentially cataclysmic effect of significantly weakening the effectiveness of the U.S. military.

They say that this change could cause a decline in the cohesion and the effectiveness of the troops, elements that could quite literally mean the difference between life and death. Among the reasons commonly cited for their belief that the nation’s defenses would suffer are: a belief that women are simply physically incapable of the tasks and strains that come along with combat, the risk of sexual misconduct that accompanies the combination in close proximity of young men and young women for long periods of time, the incalculable expense of accommodating women onboard combat vessels, and the risks and consequences of pregnancy.

In a report to Congress entitled “Summary of Presidential Commission Findings and Record in Support of Alternative Views”, it was pointed out that the need for a superior military, which are the needs of the nation, must outweigh any civil rights claim no matter how noble or seemingly justified.

“Civil society protects individual rights, but the military, which protects civil society, must be governed by different rules, civilian society forbids employment discrimination, but lives and combat missions might be put at risk by service members who cannot meet the demands of the battlefield, the military must be able to choose those most able to survive, fight and win,” (Congress 1, 75).

Most studies show that women are biologically weaker than men. They are smaller in stature and have weaker skeletons and upper bodies and cannot do as much as men. Combat not only pushes people to their emotional and mental limits, it can also be inordinately physically demanding as well. A test of Army officer candidates showed that “only one woman out of 100 could meet a physical standard achieved by 60 out of 100 men,” (Congress 2, 59).

Likewise there is the question of whether or not women would be able to handle the physical strain of fighter planes. “Aviators on combat missions must maintain situational awareness on all sides while coping with repeated exposure to high G force; i.e., up to 9Gs in the Air Force, 7.5Gs in Navy aircraft,” (Congress 1, 77).

It has not yet been proven whether or not the female body can sustain exposure to this severe stress for long periods of time, but it is believed that very few women are strong enough to survive this magnitude of force.

It is also believed that women generally are less able to lift large weights than men because of their smaller upper bodies. Heavy lifting jobs onboard ship such as the transportation of bombs and missiles which previously were done by four men are now assigned to teams of five or six people of mixed gender to do the same task, (Congress 1, 176).

On board ship, they say, this kind of redistribution of manpower is not only expensive, it is nearly tactically impossible. At sea, every man counts, and having two people do one man’s job is not an option. Likewise in the Army, cadets and soldiers often need to carry almost 100 pounds of weight over rough terrain for several miles, both in training and in battle. People argue that the physical inferiority of women would make them costs rather than assets in the ranks of combat.

It is said that when he was asked what he thought of the Battle of the Sexes, Gerald Ford said that there could never truly be a Battle of the Sexes as long as there is so much “sleeping with the enemy”. This points out what people say is a real fact of life, if you put men and women together for long periods of time, even if there is no actual sexual misconduct, the risk and implication of impropriety will always exist.

A recently released science-fiction movie, Starship Troopers, portrayed a futuristic view of the Armed Forces, including a scene where men and women who were about to go into combat together even shared communal showers with no stigmatism whatsoever.

While this was hardly the most unrealistic scene in the movie, it certainly implied a considerable amount of societal change between now and this time in the future when men and women can work and live together without any sexual tension.

In addition to the intimate relationships that might distract from their work, mixed crews on combat ships could again cause manpower problems in an increasingly downsized military. “Several men volunteered that objections from their wives to the introduction of women aboard ship could cause them to leave the Navy.

One man said that although his marriage is secure, he would feel the same way if his wife’s job required her to be living in a closely confined workplace with all male workers for months at a time,” (Congress 1, 179).

Even in a book which examines the issue from a feminist point of view, Gender Differences at Work, outlines some of the problems integration can cause. She gives the example of how Titan missile silos require two people to work in very close spaces and as a result the Navy has adopted the policy of having only same-sex crews working at any given time, (Williams 53).

Unfortunately, unlike in society where a huge labor market is at your disposal, in the military it’s not always feasible to have a crew of all women working in the more specialized fields at any given time. If integrating combat vessels were to cause mass resignations and retirements in the Navy, problems with manpower and repairs, or even just serve to lower morale, the wisdom of the decision would be at best in doubt.

Also there is the risk of sexual molestation from the enemy if captured. One woman, Rhonda Cornum, was reportedly fondled and “violated manually, vaginally and rectally” (Maginnis 1) when her helicopter was shot down by Iraqis in the Gulf War. Conversely, there are no recorded incidents of male POW’s being subjected to sexual violation since the Vietnam conflict, (Congress 1, 79).

Another set of limitations to putting women on combat vessels are the considerable changes that would have to be made to accommodate them. They say that whether in barracks or aboard submarines, creating separate sleeping areas, bathing and restroom facilities is simply not a realistic option.

Especially in the case of attack submarines, their capacity is already near dangerous limits and there is simply no place to put new facilities. Also, giving separate facilities to the few female passengers onboard and forcing all the men to divide up the remaining ones could cause serious resentment among crewmembers if the impression of unfairness is given.

The biggest perceived risk of integration, however, could be the chance that a woman in a combat role runs the risk of getting pregnant. The problem here is actually twofold: the first being that men think that women on the front lines are getting pregnant to avoid having to go into combat and the second being that once a woman becomes pregnant the kind of work she can be exposed to is severely limited.

As it stands, men can volunteer for combat, but they can also be assigned to combat. If women are allowed to volunteer for combat in the interests of fairness they also would have to be subject to mandatory deployment on the front lines. For this reason, many women may be tempted to get pregnant as a way to get out of combat.

“According to a Newsweek report, about once every three days a woman has to be evacuated from Bosnia to Germany because she’s pregnant. That rate is less than half of the ‘Love Boat’, the repair ship Arcadia that lost 36 of its 360 women sailors to pregnancy during the Gulf War,” (Miller 1).

If a woman does not want to go into combat, all she has to do is get pregnant and she will be re-assigned. A man has no such means of getting out of the line of fire. Again the issue of loss of manpower comes up. Ships cannot always afford to lose 10% of their crew in one mission.

There are also limitations to where a woman can work if pregnant. Obviously she cannot be around any amount of nuclear radiation, toxic gases, or perform any heavy labor because of the risk of severely damaging the fetus.

Onboard ship or a submarine this eliminates a number of tasks from what women can do. And though the law says that pregnant women in the military can serve up to twenty weeks into their term as long as at all times they are within six hours of medical facilities, on a submarine this is not always an option since they may be submerged for weeks at a time, (Congress 1, 163).

There are a number of compelling reasons that people cite for women to be allowed in combat roles too, however. Among the reasons they cite are: the fact that exclusion from combat impedes their chance of advancement in the ranks, studies that show women can train to be as fit as men, the success of combined units here and in other nations, and the insistence that readiness actually increases when a new pool of applicants exists.

The fact that women are not allowed in combat roles, say supporters of integration, is one of the reasons why they do not advance to the highest ranks in the military. “Another consequence of these policies is that women tend to be concentrated in the lower ranks.” says Williams. “There are approximately 20% more women than men in the four lowest pay grades, and men outnumber women in the four highest pay grades eight to one,” (Williams 51-52).

While there is no official government policy on the matter, combat experience is certainly beneficial when it comes to being considered for promotion. A recent study actually showed that contrary to popular belief, women can train to be as strong as men.

The Department of Defense commissioned a $140,000 study to see just what effects a rigorous training program would have on the average woman. “The results were impressive,” said an article in Working Woman magazine, “following the conditioning, 78% of women qualified for ‘very heavy’ Army jobs, versus 24% before. ‘I knew they’d improve’, said Everett Harman, the research psychologist who conducted the study at the Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass., ‘but I didn’t know they could improve that much’,” (Pisik 20).

This evidence supports a logical argument that if even one woman can match the physical capacity of men, then outlawing them from combat solely on the basis of biological inferiority becomes unfair. Mixed gender military units have existed both in the United States and around the world throughout history.

The most famous example of the ability of a woman to not only be involved in combat but to lead forces is that of Joan of Arc’s legendary battles leading the French army when she was just a teenager.

These exploits are just one of any number of stories about how women in the past have successfully served in combined forces in the past. “Russian women served in combat in World War II where they flew anti-aircraft planes made of plywood and fabric with no parachutes. They volunteered as bombers and fighter pilots, navigator-bombardiers, gunners, and support crews,” (Casey 1).

Similar stories of bravery come from the Israeli army where women have bravely fought shoulder to shoulder with men in that country’s ongoing battles in the Middle East. Women in Israel are subject to compulsory service just as the men are and are considered a valuable asset in their army.

Similar success stories can be told of the non-combat battalions in our military. Studies were done by the U.S. Army to see if the varying “woman content” actually affected field units. Some controls in the study were units ranging from 0%-15% female, where others went from 15%-35%.

Contrary to the results they expected to get, the test proved that the camaraderie, the effectiveness, the performance of combined units in America is not affected by the presence of women. Another study of combat exercises in Europe yielded virtually the same results, (Williams 49-50). It seems that for all the talk, in practical application men and women can get over their tension and work together and get their job done when they have to after all.

Probably the most convincing argument in favor of allowing women to compete for combat positions is the inherent nature of competition. This nation, our entire capitalist system, and the laws of human nature rest on one basic and fundamental truth: competition makes for better products.

It is true in the marketplace, where if one company has to compete with another to get a consumer’s dollar they have to put out a more appealing product (“build a better mousetrap and the world will beat down your door” says Williams).

In the same vein, when the applicant pool for any given position is bigger, competition theoretically yields the best person for the job. Because of this, people argue that the military is like any other field. Readiness is not decreased when more people are allowed to apply for combat, it actually benefits, say those who support desegregation.

“Readiness is enhanced when we remove unnecessary impediments to the recruitment, training, and use of people. During the past year-and-a-half, the Department has made major progress in removing such impediments. As a result, some 260,000 more jobs in the military can be filled by either men or women. This represents an increase in the flexibility that the Services need to maintain readiness.

Altogether, about 80% of all jobs in the armed services and more than 90% of military career fields can now be filled by the best qualified and available person, man or woman,” (Congress 2, 9).

America’s present position on the issue is good, but it could be better. The Department of Defense recently removed its “substantial risk” clause from its definition of what exactly combat was — that is that just because a woman will be at risk of capture does not mean she cannot fill a position, and as a result today in the Air Force 99.7% of positions are open to women as are 91% of positions in the Navy are open, (RAND 2, 1).

It would seem that the best man for the job could always, theoretically, be a woman. But don’t make it any easier for women; this will just make things worse when it comes to adjustment for men and women. More than that, though, women should neither be given an unfair advantage nor disadvantage when it comes to the military because gunfire doesn’t discriminate. Neither should the Armed Forces.

Works Cited

United States. House of Representatives. Committee on Armed Services. The Military Forces and Personnel Subcommittee. Women in Combat. 103rd Cong., 1st sess. Hearing, May 12, 1993. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1994 (herein referred to as “Congress 1″)

United States. House of Representatives. Committee on Armed Services. The Military Forces and Personnel Subcommittee. Assignment of Army and Marine Corps Women Under the New Definition of Ground Combat. 103rd Cong., 2nd sess. Hearing, October 6, 1994. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995 (herein referred to as “Congress 2″)

Maginnis, Lt. Col. Robert L. (USA, ret.) “Leadership Can’t Make Soldiers Ignore Sex”. Retrieved from http://www.nationalsecurity.org/frc/insight/is97k1wc.html.

Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute – a think tank – whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.

Moskos, Charles. “Army Women”. The Atlantic Monthly. August 1990. Retrieved from  http://www.theatlantic.com/election/connection/defense/dpmoswom.htm.

The Atlantic Monthly (also known as The Atlantic) is an American literary/cultural magazine founded in Boston in 1857. The magazine covers topics ranging from arts and literature, politics, society, and digital culture. Its creators were a group of writers that included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and James Russell Lowell (who would become its first editor).

Pisik, Betsy. “Military Women Exercise Power Potential”. Working Woman Magazine. July/August 1996: 20.

Working Woman Magazine is monthly magazine dedicated to the lives of working women and mothers. It’s a publication of Working Mother Media, a multi-media marketing company that provides strategies and solutions for millions of consumers, specifically working mothers and female business owners, as well as a corporate audience of CEOs, top executive decision-makers and human resources professionals.

Starship Troopers. Produced by TriStar Pictures, Big Bug Pictures, and Touchstone Pictures. 1997. Written by Ed Neumeier.

Starship Troopers is a film about Jonny Rico, played by Casper Van Diem, who upon graduating from school, volunteers for the Mobile Infantry to do his Federal Service, not to help defend his country, but he purposely joined the infantry to win the heart of his girlfriend, Carmen Ibanez, who has signed up for the Fleet Academy to become a starship pilot. He undergoes rigorous military training at boot camp along with other young recruits but he has to fend off a love crush from Dizzy Flores, his old schoolmate.

United States Air Force, “Candidate Fitness Test Preparation Guidelines”. Retrieved from http://www.usafa.af.mil/rr/cft.htm.

The staff and faculty of the U.S. Air Force Academy, in the interest of our future national security, molds our future leaders into outstanding young men and women into Air Force officers with knowledge, character, and discipline; motivated to lead the worlds’ greatest aerospace force in service to the nation. Before its graduates enter various flying and support specialties, the Academy trains them to be, first and foremost, Air Force officers. Of the more than 35,009 cadets have graduated in 44 classes, more than 51.2 percent are still on active duty.

Williams, Christine L. Gender Differences at Work: Women and Men in Nontraditional Occupations. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991.

Nurses and marines epitomize accepted definitions of femininity and masculinity. Using ethnographic research and provocative in-depth interviews, Christine Williams argues that our popular stereotypes of individuals in nontraditional occupations–male nurses and female marines for example–are entirely unfounded. This new perspective helps to account for the stubborn resilience of occupational stratification in the face of affirmative action and other anti-discrimination policies.

Filed under: army, article, blog this, culture, education, gender, law, life, living, men, movie, news, politics, sex, social, war, women , army, business, fighting, gender, governing, law, men, military, politics, religion, sex, social, US Army, war, women

Who’s Killing All The Parents, Kids Ask?

Joseph is 26 years old and lives in Windhoek, Namibia. At the age of 21, he has unexpectedly become the father and mother of his 4 young brothers and 2 sisters, when his most loving mother, Hileni, a school teacher and city councilwoman, the only provider of the family, unexpectedly died from the HIV disease.

Their father, Samuels had died a year before. The youngest child at the time was just less than 4 years old. Fortunately, when Hileni passed away, Joseph has already graduated from high school, and he was planning on going to college, but he could never go, as he had to find a job to support his young brothers and sisters.

Joseph has a brother, Fritz, who is 23 years old and is defying the gravity of their hardship by going to college. He wants to go to Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, and then transfer to UCLA to complete his degree education, so he can one day find a good paying job to help his brothers and sisters.

And by the time Fritz completes his degree education, Joseph would be in his 30s, but Joseph also plans on going to college as soon as Fritz finishes and gets a job to help take over the family load. However for Fritz to find the money he needs to pay for his tuition and fees at SMC is another dream that needs to come true for him, which is almost impossible, his mother and father have died and they have no relatives who can afford to send them to college. With stringent bureaucracy, who and how can anyone even ask the government to help fund their education?

In Columbus, Ohio, Timothy is 20 years old and a second year student at the Ohio State University majoring in Computer Science Engineering. His mother was gunned down in a drug related accident when Timothy was just three years old. His father has had unfortunately fallen a victim of drugs and alcohol since Timothy was little, so he has never been in any place to help raise Timothy and his young brother.

Luckily, Timothy has an aunt who helped raise him and his young brother. And at the age of 14, Timothy was forced to find a job in Richmond, Virginia, at a local McDonald’s restaurant, but because he was just too young to work, he had to lie on his job application that he was in fact 16 years old. He had to work in order to support himself and his young brother.

Timothy calls himself the ‘definition’, the definition of overcoming hardship, struggle, and growing up without any proper supervision and parental love. His favorite word is ‘focus’.

Whenever you talk to Timothy, you would hear that word ‘focus’ lamenting in his tone more than a dozen times. It’s his vocabulary and his reminder to staying focus on what he has always wanted to do, reaching his goal and realizing his potential. He has already defied that by finishing high school no matter what he had faced in his early years of life and by enrolling in college to achieving his dream.

Timothy works more hours each week, more than the hours he needs to study. He has to work in order to pay for his rent and housing expenses, for him and his young brother. However, he’s at least fortunate that he has financial aid and student loans from the U.S. Department of Education to pay for his tuition and fees at the Ohio State University.

Zanelle is a 16 years old from Soweto, South Africa. She has three sisters and one brother. Her father died of AIDS when she was just 12 years old and her mother died of the same disease when she was 14 years old. At 16, Zanelle is the mother and father, provider and bread-winner of her siblings. She dropped out of school in order to work as a brick layer in order to earn money to help and support her brother and sisters.

Her relatives, aunts and uncles have also died of AIDS and the few remaining relatives are also HIV positive. Her 79 years old grandmother is the only one left to help out at home, but what can she really do at her age, except to look after the kids when Zanelle goes to work?

In the rural areas of India, there’s a place well known as Destiny Village (http://www.destinyvillage.org), with children, mostly orphanage, some of whom were abandoned by their families. This same Destiny Village has also been setup in Haiti to help house the same type of children. These two houses have been generously setup and sponsored by members of The Potter’s House Church of God (http://www.pottershouse.org) in Columbus, Ohio, under the leadership of the anointed, Pastor Tim Oldfield.

Some or all of the children in the Destiny Village housing projects, if it was not for the Potter’s House initiatives to help them by providing them with adequate housing, food, and education, God only knows where these kids would be today, most of them would probably be dead, or staying homeless as they once were prior to the Potter’s House initiatives to help them.

In the rural areas of Lundazi in Zambia, Mathias Zimba, director of Rising Fountain Development Program (http://www.risingfountains.org) is trying his utmost best to help families; grandparents, children and HIV positive victims in the whole rural area of Lundazi to have access to medical facilities and education.

Lundazi is one of the largest Districts in the Eastern part of Zambia, with a total population of 296,560, of which the majority live in the Lundazi rural area, while only a small part of the population lives in the city district.

Most of the population of the Lundazi area is HIV positive for those who are still living, while the majority of the parents have died of HIV and only the grandparents are left to raise and look after the orphanage kids.

When only the grandparents, most of them are in their late 70s and 80s, they cannot really provide the children with the care they need and cannot also help them with their educational work, as what normal parents would do. Because most of the grandparents were born during the colonialism and did not have opportunity to get an education. Thus now, the cycle of illiteracy continuous to repeat itself.

“There are a number of policies that have been put in place and slowly being implemented by the Zambian government, though the challenge is that, most of these policies are really only effective in urban areas and trickle at a snail rate into rural areas” said Zimba.

Among some of the notable policies in place by the Zambian government include:

Education Policy – free education for all at Basic Education. However the challenge is that despite being a policy, school authorities still charge a fee ‘user fee’ for students to pay.

“This money is used for operational costs for the school to cover the deficit they have from their lean budgets. Now, in rural areas, where on earth can a family with almost no income meet these costs? The end solution is that in rural areas, some children, particularly girls are left out from school and are forced into early marriages and so forth” said Mr. Zimba.

Healthcare Policy – free HIV/AIDS drugs to people infected with the disease. Zimba said that this is a wonderful policy to allow people who are HIV positive to have access to life saving drugs.

“The challenge is that most of the rural area clinics are centralized near the urban areas and sick people need to walk by foot almost 120 km (about 75 miles) to access the help they desperately need. There is no reliable transportation, despite the community efforts to put up good feeder roads and in the end; people are just dying in the rural areas” said Mr. Zimba.

“What are the consequences? HIV is increasingly being spread throughout the country and grandmothers are now taking over, looking after their grandchildren as due to the death of their own children” Said Zimba.

Agricultural Policy – a good policy has been put in place relating to marketing of farm produce to allow local farmers to sell their produce through a liberalized system in order to earn a few monies to support their families.

“The challenge is that despite all of these wonderful policies for Agriculture, in rural areas, we are only seeing a few “unscrupulous” traders who come and rip off poor farmers and buy their produce at extremely low prices” states Zimba.

“Our main goal really is to help children and women in these areas of Zambia to have a future and fulfill their dreams. But to do that, we need advocacy on our work so that people who have power and resources can help us meet our objectives. We need to help children to have food on the table, medical, clothes and most importantly, a good health system” cries Zimba.

One of the projects that are currently helping and working with the Rising Fountain Development Program is The Pencil Project (http://www.thepencilproject.com) led by Maria Vick and is based in South Carolina, USA.

“I lived in Swaziland as a child and was able to witness poverty firsthand. As you know, a trip to Africa will change anyone forever. I was always struck by the joy and gratefulness that I found in the African people despite the fact that so many had so little” states Mrs. Vick.

“As I’ve matured, now at 36 years of age, I have come to believe that education is the only real way out of poverty and that all the world’s children should have access to the tools they need. A pack of one dozen pencils, something that people in well developed countries take for granted, could help 12 children” states Mrs. Vick.

“In just a short time, my project has gotten a pencil into the hands of over 10,000 needy children. The pencil, though a simple thing, symbolizes education and the promise that I would like every child to feel” Says Maria Vick.

Mrs. Vick says that she acts as a ‘matchmaker’ between a donor school and a needy school. People come to her website who are looking for an easy way to help children in need. The donor school will collect pencils and then ship them to the needy school that she has found for them. And that’s how her organization started working with Mathias Zimba and the Rising Fountain Development Program.

“I believe that Mathias first contacted me, I can’t remember, and we sent an initial shipment of pencils to his students. He responded so beautifully by sending me many photos of the children receiving the pencils. They were so grateful! Their photo is on my homepage. Simon, I cried for days” sadly states Mrs. Vick.

“I have helped numerous needy schools around the world since my project’s inception but something about this program, about Mathias Zimba, and about these students have touched me as they have touched you. I have pledged to personally collect supplies for their school and am currently sending two additional parcels a month of paper, books, etc. all on my own dime” cries Mrs. Vick.

“The children have nothing, no shoes, and no blankets, nothing…and yet they try to come to school every day with a smile on their face. I don’t believe that the UN or any government for that matter is doing much to help the world’s children. There are children that are forgotten all over the world. Even in my state of South Carolina, we have school districts that are terribly underfunded (http://www.corridorofshame.com). I personally feel that we cannot wait for the government to come through for these children. They need materials now and every day that goes by is another lost opportunity for them. I won’t wait for the government. I just want to put the materials into their hands” states Mrs. Vick.

“As far as the children left homeless by AIDS, it is devastating. But it’s all part of a much larger problem which comes back to education. Knowledge is power, Simon. I know that you understand that. It is often difficult to recruit people to help in these efforts if they have never been to Africa or have only ’seen’ poverty through the television screen in their warm, comfortable living room. That’s why I am focused on the younger generation—the children who email me every day to help. They are so eager and so willing to help build their generation. It encourages me that my small idea has blossomed into something that I never could have imagined” states Mrs. Vick.

Mathias Zimba states that his organization’s main goal is to help children and women in these areas of Zambia to have a future and fulfill their dreams. “But to do that, we need advocacy for our work so that people who have power and resources can help us meet our objectives. We need to help children to have food on the table, medical, clothes and most importantly, a good health system” cries Mr. Zimba.

“Our current urgent need is to allocate funding to help pay teachers at our rural community school, which is US$150 a month in salary for a qualified teacher to work in the rural areas. We need to recruit two qualified teachers to help out. Currently we are only working with volunteers and there is no consistency” Says Zimba.

“Rehabilitation of water wells. Water borne diseases thrive in the rural areas and we want to help them rehabilitate and maintain by forming a water committee. It costs around US$400 to rehabilitate a well and we need to help them rehab approximately 5 wells that will serve 300 members” states Mathias Zimba.

The most important problem currently facing Mr. Zimba is to find someone who may be willing to help them through donations or grants to buy a vehicle that they can use for an ambulance which will help people in his communities be able to go to healthcare clinics and receive medical care they so desperately need.

Most sick people when they walk the long distance to go to collect their daily HIV dozes of medicines, most of them don’t even make it back. They die on the way to the clinics because it takes them up to 3 days to get there by foot.

And when they don’t return home, the kids ask, who’s taking away all of our parents? Who’s killing our parents? Doesn’t God love us anymore? Why has God forsaken us?

The grandparents have no answers to any of these questions, they simply look at the kids and tell them that it’s God’s will that He’s taking them away.

Some of the people, who can afford, use donkey carts to go to and back from the clinics. Zimba believes that finding someone to help them with a van that they can use as a vehicle will tremendously help them solve one of the most critical problems of getting the sick to the healthcare.

The week of October 16, 2007, Jennie who is one of the volunteers from Ireland who arrived last week to volunteer at the Rising Fountain Development Program, brought Mr. Zimba and his team an award, presented to them by Mayor Edwin Stevenson of Limavady City, Ireland, who awarded Mathias Zimba and his group as a recognition for their outstanding community work.

“This is great news for all of us. It’s a great daily challenge being faced with so many problems in our community, and this award encourages us to work relentlessly and help people in our community as much as we can. We just need help, more resources and supports in order to enable us to carry on with our tasks, even a small contribution can help make a difference in a big way” states Mr. Zimba.

In the near future, Mathias Zimba and his organization want to initiate a cooperative program to help farmers sell their produce at economic prices and raise income for their savings.

“There are many other organizations such as WVI, Global Fund, and others that are working for the same cause in Zambia, but most of these organizations are centralized in large cities and towns and don’t really reach people in rural areas” says Mr. Zimba.

There are many Josephs, Timothys, Zanelles, Destiny Villages and Lundazis out there, all around us, everywhere in the world, and the question is, what are you doing to help out?

If you would like to learn more or find out how you can help Mathias Zimba and his organization, The Rising Fountain Development Program, please visit their web site at http://www.risingfountains.org.

About Simon Kapenda

Simon Kapenda is a volunteer author of this article. He’s founder of Tip-Mart, Inc., (http://www.tipmart.com) and developer of RentersQ (http://www.rentersq.com) and Gatepedia (http://www.gatepedia.com). He’s a student in Economics at the Ohio State University, a self-declared serial entrepreneur, speaker, and philanthropist, and an avid amateur blogger at his blog at http://www.princesimon.com.

Filed under: AIDS, HIV, blog this, culture, economics, education, living, news, politics, simon kapenda , africa, AIDS, blacks, dying of AIDS, education, HIV, hunger, politics, poverty, suffering, war

A Call for an African Community Forum

There’re many business, economic and political forums in the world such as World Economic Forum, World Business Forum, TransAfrica Forum, and other forums that meet regulary or yearly to discuss issues that pertain and matter to them.

The murdering of Lucky Dube reminds the world of just how the violence has gotten out of control in South Africa, as well as in most countries in Africa, the cry of hundreds of thousands of parentless children, whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS, lack of access to quality education and healthcare, the poverty and corruption in many different African countries call for an immediate and actionable action to figure out how to severely take whatever the necessary steps to put an end to these inhumane.

In the honor of Lucky Dube, I am calling for the establishment of an African Community Forum, a free non-political and non-partisan peaceful discussion forum for a multitude of young African people to get together to discuss, decide and make strong and actionable recommendations to the world bodies such as the United Nations and the developed countries about what steps must be taken to immediately ensure that these issues as stated far above can be eradicated effectively.

We can organize the first African Community Forum to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in June 2008. This will be a weekend long events, composed of panelists, questions and answers discussion style, workshops, and a celebration of life through music and storytelling, and at the end of the events, there would be a selection of five individuals who would be tasked to go present the recommendations and outcomes of the events to the United Nations in New York. The African Community Forum will then make a persistent follow up to make sure that these recommendations are implemented.

Each year, the African Community Forum will then gather together in any selected city anywhere in Africa to discuss certain issues that matters to the African people.

These events are for senior high school students, college students, academia professors, and business and community leaders. Transportation, food and lodging to and from the African Community Forum will be provided.

It’s time to step up. During the apartheid era, students around the world used to march and demonstrate on the streets against the injustices by the South African apartheid government, and likewise, it’s time to step up against violence, HIV/AIDS, corruption, poverty, and better education and healthcare.

I am looking for well-placed individuals to help carry out these events. Interested individuals and parties should contact me via email at simon(at)rentersq.com, immediately.

Filed under: AIDS, HIV, article, blog this, culture, economics, education, entertainment, launch, living, politics, simon kapenda , africa, African Americans, black, crimes, education, hunger, politics, South Africa, suffering, war