Diplomat's Daily Quotable

Two great quotes today.

Diplomat's Daily Quotable:

Words:  "The world is older than the state.  Words form and reform states.  Those who run states know the power of words and attempt to control them."
-Richard Stern, quoted by George P. Schultz, 1993.

"Words are swords."
-Talleyrand

Poet of the Week from Algeria: Moufdi Zakaria

Poet of the Week from Algeria: Moufdi Zakaria

This week's POTW is both a poem and the Algerian national anthem. It was written by Moufdi Zakaria while imprisoned for his politics (by the French) in 1956. Supposedly he wrote this poem in blood on the wall of his cell...it's not a short poem, so he must have had some blood to spare. For his efforts they named an airport after him in Algeria.


Oh, and one more interesting tidbit...here's his original full name:
Cheikh Zakaria Ben Slimane Ben Yahia Ben Cheikh Slimane Ben Hadj Aissa


Kassaman (We Pledge)


We swear by the lightning that destroys,
By the streams of generous blood being shed,
By the bright flags that wave,
Flying proudly on the high mountains,
That we have risen up, and whether we live or die,
We are resolved that Algeria shall live -
So be our witness -be our witness - be our witness!


We are soldiers in revolt for truth
And we have fought for our independence.
When we spoke, none listened to us,
So we have taken the noise of gunpowder as our rhythm
And the sound of machine guns as our melody,
We are resolved that Algeria shall live -
So be our witness -be our witness -be our witness!


O France, the time of reproof is over
And we have ended it as a book is ended;
O France, this is the day of reckoning
So prepare to receive from us our answer!
In our revolution is the end of empty talk;
We are resolved that Algeria shall live -
So be our witness -be our witness -be our witness!


From our heroes we shall make an army come to being,
From our dead we shall build up a glory,
Our spirits shall ascend to immortality
And on our shoulders we shall raise the standard.
To the nation's Liberation Front we have sworn an oath,
We are resolved that Algeria shall live -
So be our witness -be our witness -be our witness!


The cry of the Fatherland sounds from the battlefields.
Listen to it and answer the call!
Let it be written with the blood of martyrs
And be read to future generations.
Oh, Glory, we have held out our hand to you,
We are resolved that Algeria shall live -
So be our witness -be our witness -be our witness!



FUUO Past Poets of the Week:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/05/african-poets-of-week-compilation.html

Some of my favorite poetry books:

Diplomat's Daily Quotable

My apologies for the scarcity of posts lately.  I need to front load them in the future.  That way when things get busy I can just one click post them.  Today we are gonna flip it around and work bacward from the zzzzzzzzzzzz's.

Diplomat's Daily Quotable:

ZEALOTRY:  Not everyone regards survival as an imperative.  Some prefer the dignity of death to the ignominy of peace on an enemy's terms.

This quote definitely speaks to the danger of such assumptions.  For most of us survival is our most basic imperative.  However, we must be quick to discern when this is not the case in our adversaries (or potential adversaries) and shift our strategies as appropriate.

CNO dishes on fish...OR Fish is the new cocaine

Important article from the globe...nowhere are territorial fishing rights more important than in Africa, specifically West Africa!  The global shwarming aside, this article highlights the incredible global revenue fishing yields.  

   It's estimated that West Africa's overall inability to stop illegal fishing off of it's shoreline cost those countries in excess of $1 billion a year.  More to come on this.

As the world’s ice melts, the Navy’s role grows

WHEN THE chief of naval operations of the United States starts rattling off global fishing statistics without notes and frets about climate change like an MIT scientist, we should all stand at attention. If Admiral Gary Roughead had his way, it would be full speed ahead toward a military strategy that considers not just nukes and nutty dictators, but also oceanic food resources and melting Arctic ice.

“All I know is that there’s a lot more water out there,’’ Roughead said in a meeting last week with the Globe editorial board.

Roughead joked that lots of water is great for a Navy guy, but he otherwise was quite serious. He noted how the growth of China’s navy runs parallel to the explosive growth of that nation’s fishing operations, similar to how the British and Dutch royal navies of centuries past grew to protect their seafaring mercantile trade. Roughead said China now accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s fishing. According to a 2009 United Nations report, China’s marine and inland fish captures reached 17 million tons, equaling the next three countries of Peru, the United States, and Indonesia combined.

Roughead also said the potential for conflict is growing, with fishing fleets of many nations now traveling around the world to plunder waters after depleting stocks close to home. The UN says 52 percent of the world’s fish stocks are already fully exploited and another 27 percent are overexploited or depleted. But in a world where marine and inland capture was worth $91 billion in 2006, the exploiting will still go on without global cooperation, and many developing countries are already angry that more developed countries are conducting industrial-scale fishing off their shores.

Parallel to that, Roughead said that the melting Arctic creates all kinds of issues as more water is freed up for fishing, shipping and mineral exploration. The United States, Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark (via Greenland) have made new claims for territory, prompting Chinese naval Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo to say four months ago, according to the China News Service, “The Arctic belongs to all the people around the world as no nation has sovereignty over it . . . China must play an indispensable role in Arctic exploration as we have one-fifth of the world’s population.’’

For Roughead, that means that the United States needs to become an indispensable player in the global marine legal arena. The first step, he said, is for Congress to finally approve the UN Law of the Sea Convention. The convention has 160 signatories, but not the United States. It creates a global structure for using the oceans. The Obama administration and the preceding Bush administration, as well as other military leaders, support the treaty. But hard-line conservatives and some business interests have blocked passage in the Senate, saying the United States would cede too much to the UN in territorial sovereignty and resource rights.

Roughead said these burgeoning sea issues mandate that the United States sign the treaty “so we have a seat at the table. The Arctic makes it imperative.’’ In congressional testimony in March, he said, “Not being a party to this Convention constrains efforts to develop enduring maritime partnerships, inhibits efforts to expand the Proliferation Security Initiative (the United States-led effort to stop trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, including sea smuggling), and elevates the level of risk for our sailors as they undertake operations to preserve navigation rights and freedoms.’’

Roughead argued that a more orderly ocean would actually allow the United States to “expand its sovereign rights to the increasingly accessible outer continental shelf areas of the resource-rich environment of the Arctic.’’

When the Navy’s head of operations talks about the continental shelf as well as how much fish is being caught by whom and can see melting ice having a direct impact on geopolitical relations, that is all the more reason we need to understand that our vast waters have their environmental and political limits. We need to understand those limits before water becomes a source of war.

Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.

One video that shows why illegal fishing is one of the biggest problems in Africa

This video shows succintly why Africa (specifically West Africa) needs maritime security.  The livelyhood and future of many of these poor countries such as Sierra Leone are literally being robbed on a daily basis. 
    This is just one reason programs such as APS (Africa Partnership Station) have the capability to be a transformative force in Africa.




Deadly Catch from Environmental Justice Foundation on Vimeo.

The Law of the Navy in their entirety

I thought today was as good as time as any for a throwback posting of the Laws of the Navy.  I am pretty sure MIDN Buxton, Schulz or maybe Potts had me write these out 50 times at some point during Plebe Summer.

THE LAWS OF THE NAVY
by Adm. R. A. Hopwood, Royal Navy

Now these are the laws of the Navy,
Unwritten and varied they be;
And he who is wise will observe them,
Going down in his ship to the sea.

As naught may outrun the destroyer,
So it is with the law and its grip,
For the strength of a ship is the Service,
And the strength of the Service the ship.

Take heed what you say of your seniors,
Be your words spoken softly or plain,
Let a bird of the air tell the matter,
And so shall ye hear it again.

If you labour from morn until even,
And meet with reproof for your toil,
'Tis well, that the gun may be humbled
The compressor must check the recoil.

On the strength of one link in the cable,
Dependeth the might of the chain.
Who knows when thou may'st be tested?
So live that thou bearest the strain!

When a ship that is tired returneth,
With the signs of the seas showing plain;
Men place her in dock for a season,
And her speed she reneweth again.

So shall ye, if perchance ye grow weary,
In the uttermost parts of the sea,
Pray for leave, for the good of the Service,
As much and as oft as may be.

Count not upon certain promotion
But rather to gain it aspire;
Though the sightline may end on the target
There cometh perchance the miss-fire.

Can'st follow the track of the dolphin?
Or tell where the sea swallows roam?
Where Leviathan taketh his pastime?
What ocean he calleth his own?

So it is with the words of the rulers,
And the orders these words shall convey;
Every law is naught beside this one:
Thou shalt not criticise, but Obey.

Say the wise: How may I know their purpose?
Then acts without wherefore or why.
Stays the fool but one moment to question,
And the chance of his life passes by.

If ye win through an African jungle,
Unmentioned at home in the press,
Heed it not. No man seeth the piston,
But it driveth the ship none the less.

Do they growl? it is well. Be thou silent,
If the work goeth forward amain.
Lo! the gun throws the shot to a hair's breadth
And shouteth, yet none shall complain.

Do they growl, and the work be retarded?
It is ill, be whatever their rank.
The half-loaded gun also shouteth,
But can she pierce target with blank?

Doth the paintwork make war with the funnels
And the deck to the cannons complain?
Nay, they know that some soap and fresh water
Unites them as brothers again.

So ye, being heads of departments,
Do you growl with a smile on your lip,
Lest ye strive and in anger be parted,
And lessen the might of your ship.

Dost deem that thy vessel needs gilding,
And the dockyard forbears to supply?
Put thy hand in thy pocket and gild her --
There are those who have risen thereby.

Dost think in a moment of anger
'Tis well with thy seniors to fight?
They prosper, who burn in the morning,
The letters they wrote overnight.

For many are shelved and forgotten,
With nothing to thank for their fate,
But that on a half sheet of foolscap
A fool "Had the honour to state."

Should the fairway be crowded with shipping
Beating homeward the harbour to win,
It is meet that lest any should suffer,
The steamers pass cautiously in.

So thou, when thou nearest promotion,
And the peak that is gilded is nigh,
Give heed to words and thine actions,
Lest others be wearied thereby.

It is ill for the winners to worry,
Take thy fate as it comes, with a smile,
And when thou art safe in the harbour
They may envy, but will not revile.

Uncharted the rocks that surround thee,
Take heed that the channels thou learn,
Lest thy name serve to buoy for another
That shoal the "Court-Martial Return".

Though a Harveyised belt may protect her
The ship bears the scar on her side;'
'Tis well if the Court should acquit thee --
But 'twere best had'st thou never been tried.

MORAL

As the wave washes clear at the hawse pipe,
Washes aft, and is lost in the wake;
So shalt thou drop astern all unheeded
Such time as these laws ye forsake.

Take heed in your manner of speaking
That the language ye use may be sound,
In the list of the words of your choosing
"Impossible" may not be found.

Now these are the Laws of the Navy,
And many and mighty are they.
But the hull and the deck and the keel
And the truck of the law is -- OBEY.

Diplomat's Dictionary Daily Quotable

Jokes: "Most jokes entertain through plays on words, double entendres, the clever alteration of clichés, anecdotes embellishing individual or group stereotypes, or surprise twists to apparently familiar stories...
So it is a rare joke that translates effectively across a linguistic or cultural divide.  That is why interpreters generally wince when speakers being to tell one."

Jokes, friendship: "Shared laughter is a step toward friendship."

Justice, charity: "Charity is no substitute for justice withheld."   -St. Augustine.