As the train of the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) nears its final destination through the referendum on self-determination for Southern Sudan, some observers started to raise concerns about what they call "an imminent war between Northern and Southern Sudan".
The referendum, scheduled to be held in January 2011, is one of the major provisions of the CPA. The CPA is the most important achievement for both the Government of the Sudan and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM). The two parties bore the brunt of the conflict which lasted for 21 years. They realised that there is nothing that can justify this high price. The leadership of the two sides repeatedly reiterated that there is no going back to war and that dialogue is the only way to sort out issues that may arise in the implementation of the CPA.
The implementation of the CPA is going well. The remaining items, which are currently under consideration by the two parties can not justify going back to war. The Sudanese people are eagerly waiting for the referendum in order either to retain the unity of the country or have two states that live in peace. There are many things that bring the Sudanese together even if the people of Southern Sudan choose separation.
The backbone of the Sudanese economy is the oil which the country began exporting in 1999. Around 70 per cent of the current oil production comes from fields located in the South. It is exported through a- 1610- Km-long pipeline to the export ports on the Red Sea. The South, which is land locked, will need to use these oil infrastructure until it finds another option if it decides so.
The writer is a diplomat at Sudan Embassy in Nairobi.
Wishful thinking. The talks are the result of war between the north and the south, which was not resolved to the satisfaction of the 'Arab' north. At some point between now and the implementation of the referendum's decision to split up, there will be war again, as the north attempts to force unity (and northern ownership of southern oil fields) on an unwilling south.
From "Army" magazine, December 2009.
The bee is defined by individual capabilities that allow it to accomplish its role within a larger community. The bee is a team player who has three main descriptors: task oriented, analysis driven and information sharing.
A bee sees its day as task oriented: It has "x" amount of flowers to collect pollen from in a given day. When the bee returns home at night, it is going to assess the day in terms of how many flowers it collected pollen from, the amount of pollen collected, the distances flown and so on. The bee is concerned with accomplishment of agenda items or task lists. To accomplish this list, the bee must conduct at least basic levels of analysis - how far to fly, how long it will take, how many flowers in the field, how many trips or other bees are required, and a host of other basic analysis items. When the bee finds a particularly rich field or garden with the ideal types of flowers, it returns to the hive and begins a dance that is designed to demonstrate to the rest of the community the direction and distance to the riches. The bee accepts the premise that it is better to share more information with the greatest number of members of the community in the fastest way possible.
The spider sees success as directly associated with its web in terms of its strength, size, location and effectiveness. The spider defines its daily success by the efforts it has made to strengthen the web. In this analogy, the spider's web is connected not to branches and leaves, but to other spiders.
Each day for the spider is an exercise in sending out additional strands to other spiders - increasing the reach and size of its web or strengthening the existing strands that already connect it to others. The spider does not need to do significant analysis. Basic social networking answers the question of which are the best spiders for future connections. The spider is not interested in sharing information about the location of its web or the other strands and their strength with its other spider connections. To do so would directly threaten the placement and success of its own web. For example, if a spider had a web across a trail that provided particularly good hunting, introducing other spiders to that same location would threaten the current success enjoyed by the spider.
The main motivation is to increase the web. In general, spiders do not work together to build webs. It is also true that within its sphere the spider may show tremendous initiative in choosing the web location, which strands to strengthen and when to have the web prepared. The entire purpose of the web is to reach the point that when some other spider comes for assistance or a favor, the spider can simply tug on a web strand and make some other spider react favorably. The spider with the strongest web, therefore, has the greatest ability to convince others to do as it desires.
A large part of this difference is in the definitions of success held by the bee and by the spider. A U.S. soldier might have a to-do list of tasks, and he mentally or physically checks them off over the course of the day. The day is successful if the highest priority task is accomplished, and if time permits, other tasks are accomplished throughout that day. It is success based on doing.
The Middle Eastern officer bases success on whom one meets with and how many people one has made contact with throughout the day, although the officer probably does not think about it that way himself. He does not determine his success on what he does, but on how he builds or strengthens his network. It is not a linear approach to success, but rather a network- or webbased approach. The officer who sits in offices of more senior officers all day and drinks tea with them and speaks about their families and cultivates connections is building his web. He sends out strands to connect himself socially with those above, equal to and below him. He wants to build this network so that when he needs something, he can reach out and touch a line and make contact with someone who can help him. This is a reason why hospitality is so important. If someone enters another's office, he must feel welcome and be treated well - the strand connecting the two people must be strengthened.
A great deal of effort is placed on such things, in many cases to the detriment of what some Americans have considered real work. Meetings will be interrupted by phone calls with people in the web or to greet someone, even of a lesser rank, who has just entered the room.
This is vitally important to understand, especially when one begins a meeting. If one has the desire to inspire the counterpart to do something, then the conversation must be shaped so as to make the doing seem logical within the construct of the counterpart. What motivates a spider to do something is different from what motivates a bee and must be considered prior to the meeting if one truly wants to achieve success. Conducting the meeting on a "bee-only" framework will end in frustration, as the spider will see no value in the logic or arguments.
#2
Survival is based on both traits. Political contacts (individual, family, clan, tribe, race, state, nation, ect) are critical but so is the ability to complete tasks based on the goals of the individual, family, clan, ect. If the society cannot do both and modify or blend as needed it is a good chance it will fail in the long term.
Parasitic wasps - Some members use many different insects as a host, others are very specific in host choice. Various ichneumons are used successfully as biological control agents in controlling pests such as flies or beetles.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/04/2010 8:09 Comments ||
Top||
#5
How about spiders, Bobby? Do Icneumons control pests like spiders too?
#6
Tarantula Hawk The females attack and lay eggs on fat juicy spiders. They like to get drunk. They have a vicious sting. The males hang out all day checking out the females.
#15
I have one of the earliest textbooks that showed up in. Poor bastard couldn't handle his caffeine...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/04/2010 21:20 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Barbara. There's a rule of thumb that says, except at the poles, there's always a spider within 3 feet of you. Better a spider than an ayrab sez I...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/04/2010 21:23 Comments ||
Top||
#17
"there's always a spider within 3 feet of you"
Behind something or under something, perhaps, M. Murcek. If he's visible, he's dead.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/04/2010 21:45 Comments ||
Top||
Because the 21st-century economy is global and portable, residents and businesses have other options. Employers and educated people can uproot themselves, and they have been, fleeing the congestion, the traffic, the crumbling infrastructure, and the deficient schools. Between 1990 and 2000, 2 million more left the state than arrived from other states. Guess what was the predominate political persuasion of the 2 million leaving the state? Guess who replaced that 2 million deficit?
The U.S. Census Bureau report noted that a number of states have benefited from California's woes: "199,000 of the 466,000 people who moved to Nevada during this time came from California.... Between 1995 and 2000, 644,000 people moved to Colorado from other states, led by 111,000 migrants from California."
#1
A basic principle of human behavior is that 'you get more of what you subsidize'. What has California subsidized and what have they not? Rewarding non-productivity and punishing productivity gets you California.
#2
It's been getting liberal for a looong time. Got too liberal for me after a mere 25 years. Too bad because it is a beautiful and wonderful place to live. But not with the government they have and the citizens who are co-dependents.
#3
Seems like most of the Californians who left went to 1) Las Vegas, 2) Phoenix, and 3) Denver, and all those places have been getting a lot more Lib/Dem over that time frame, so California wasn't preferentially losing Republicans as a mechanism for getting liberal so fast. Unless even non-liberal Californians turned out to be more liberal than the average of other localities.
#4
Undoubtedly some that infected and killed "the host" California moved on to infect other hosts. Also, perhaps the influx of you-know-who from south of you-know-what border overwhelmed the California positive migration to other states.
#5
California is not as liberal as its elections would suggest. It is more accurate to say that California's political power has been concentrated into the hands of extreme liberals (teachers' unions, etc). These guys rely on public money and huge amounts of vote fraud to maintain their hold on that power (over 40% of ballots in CA are cast absentee, for example). As a result, genuine R's can't get elected and people who would otherwise be voting R register I or D instead.
#6
Also, perhaps the influx of you-know-who from south of you-know-what border overwhelmed the California positive migration to other states.
Uhhhhhh, yeahhhhhhh.
This is why I have such a big, big problem with the likes of Bush, McCain, Fiorina, etc., etc. Shot themselves in the foot, they did. Lost the biggest chunk of electoral votes they could possibly lose. Frickin' morons.
But then, as I recall, and I was here at the time so I should, there was a very noticeable influx of people into California in the 1970s from places like New York, New Jersey, Michigan and, yes, Texas. Those were the license plates that I kept seeing. It seemed like there were New Yorkers all over the place. They drove up the cost of housing and the resulting building boom was shocking. Why, I can remember when you could drive up and down Interstate 5 in San Diego County without ever having to use your brakes. I can remember when this state gave you presidents like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But I'm guessing that, apart from the Texans (God love 'em), the majority of these new residents were kinda left leaning. What was I supposed to do? Stand at the border and shoot at them when they tried to come in?
I've said it before to you Rantburgers in Nevada, Colorado and Arizona: When you see an ex-Californian taking up residence in your state, chances are he was from somewhere else before he was from California. So if you see them acting like New Yorkers it isn't necessarily the right thing to blame Californians.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
Posted by: No I am The Other Beldar ||
10/04/2010 17:38 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Promising poor people free sh*t is a proven method of getting elected. They are totally retarded and cannot remember 4 years back, so they keep voting for you every time you promise, even though you don't deliver.
Chavez has made quite a career for himself using the exact same method. In caliphornia we have at least two blocks of voters that vote based solely on race, they elect the biggest crooks over and over again. And look at our choices, they are all SERIOUSLY flawed.
...(Hayes and I) sat down for breakfast late last week at the Billy Goat. And if Jesse Jackson Jr wants to sit down with me for a tasty Spiros Special breakfast sandwich and talk without lawyers and spinners he's welcome.
I asked Hayes: How difficult is it being an African-American conservative in a district where the Jackson family machine is so dominant?
"It's difficult if you're not willing to speak up about what you believe," Hayes said. "If you're weak, you wouldn't want to do it. It's my opinion that black conservatives have to have strong character. The easy smear is when you're called a traitor to your race, or an Uncle Tom. That happens a lot.
"But just look at what's happened to the black community over the decades. Look at the family. Look at the lack of economic opportunity," he said. "These problems are in part because of liberal Democratic policies. But people like me get smeared as race traitors for not being liberal Democrats? That's ironic. But that's not why the media is interested in me."
Reporters are now interested in Hayes because Jackson a child of privilege who has always been about as deep as a teaspoon has been weakened....
The smart people say Jackson couldn't lose his re-election bid in a heavily Democratic district to a conservative Republican unknown. They may be right. They're smart people.
But I get the feeling that voters are exhausted by Jackson's drama....
#1
i wanna see him ride down that bridge with Jesse Jackson on the hood of his car...from the neck up.
______________________
Vote for "The Duke of New York"
_________________________________
[Arab News] At least 15 four-wheel drive vehicles, license plates covered, stormed Beirut's International Rafik Al-Hariri airport on Saturday. Out of the vehicles jumped armed Hezbullies members and other supporters of a Lebanese ex-security official, who had just arrived on a flight from Paris.
The Hezbulliesgunnies surrounded Gen. (ret.) Jamil Sayyed as he spoke to press at the airport, escorting him home at the end of the event.
Sayyed, the former head of Leb's General Security, was jugged in 2005 and held in jail for nearly four years without charge for involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
"The Beirut airport was turned into one of Hezbullies's security quarters," an anonymous member of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri March 14 Alliance told the Arab daily Sharq Al-Awsat. "This dangerously revealed airport security."
"Seeing the airport incident, it is clear that Hezbullies has decided to attack the regime," Ghazi Youssef, a Parliament member in Hariri's Al-Mustaqbal (Movement of the Future) bloc told The Media Line. "Hezbullies believes this is part of the democratic game, but what was done was a breach of the law. There are limits to freedom of expression.
Mohammad Shatah, a former Lebanese minister, was less diplomatic.
"The airport scene was surreal. Lebanese could have never seen such a sight in any other country in the world."
But clearly more than airport security is now at stake in Leb.
Before leaving for Paris on Sept. 12, Sayyed called Prime Minster Hariri a liar and urged the Lebanese to topple his government. Upon his return to Beirut, again Sayyed did not mince his words. This time, he attacked State Prosecutor Said Mirza, who called him in for questioning following his threatening statements.
"Mirza is supposed to be a public prosecutor - i.e. neutral - but considering these lawsuits, he became my personal adversary," Leb's Daily Star quoted Sayyed as saying.
The issue of "false witnesses" has become a main point of contention for Sayyed and his supporters in Hezbullies. The term refers to Lebanese legal and security officials who testified before the Special Tribunal for Leb, which is investigating the assassination of Hariri.
Prime Minister Hariri recently rescinded his accusation of Syria as primarily responsible for his father's assassination in an interview with the Sharq Al-Awsat, acknowledging the existence of false witnesses.
However, The infamous However... on Monday, Hariri reiterated his support for the Special Tribunal for Leb, defying Hezbullies's demand that Leb officially accuse Israel of the murder.
Professor Eugène Sensenig-Dabbous, chairman of the Political Science department at Leb's Notre-Dame University, said that Hariri's overture toward Syria was implicitly implicating Hezbullies.
"If Syria isn't involved in the assassination, who is?" he rhetorically asked in an interview with The Media Line. "It's looking more and more like Hezbullies was involved in the assassinations that took place in 2005."
Sensenig-Dabbous predicted a re-alignment of powers, with Hariri's March 14 Alliance drawing closer to Syria, leaving Hezbullies isolated with Iran.
"I don't know if a partnership with Michel Aoun, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah's Free Patriotic Movement and Iran will be enough for Hezbullies," Sensenig-Dabbous said.
Samir Al-Sa'adawi, a Beirut-based journalist at the Arab daily Al-Hayyat, said that tensions in Leb would likely intensify rather than calm down.
"The situation is tense, and is only escalating," he told The Media Line. "I don't know if the regional players, Syria and Saudi Arabia, can stop the escalation - if not, we're facing more trouble."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
