CRS Report: Algeria Current Issues (Alexis Arieff)
Monday, March 4, 2013
CRS Report: Algeria Current Issues (Alexis Arieff)
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Malagasy poet Rabearivelo's "Lunar Images" from 'Almost Dreams' (Saiky-Nofy)
Poem of the week from Malagasy poet Rabearivelo's "Lunar Images" from 'Almost Dreams' (Saiky-Nofy)
Lunar Images (Sarisarim-Bolona)
Moonlight, moonlight--what then?
Do not drink too much of the milk that drips
from the teats of this savage one-eyed dog
baying into the wild lands of the sky
as though to summon from within the desert of the night
its countless offspring
opening their eyes: myriads of stars
Moonlight, moonlight--what then?
The wind itself is milky,
which shakes the sculpted shadows
on the earth
and multiplies the number of visible
souls of all things
that seem to flee the baying--silent
but resounding everywhere
Moonlight, moonlight--what then?
Do you see those gentle birds
that grow within the spectral landscape?
They feed on shadow,
they peck at night.
What will they fill their crops
when the stalks of rice and corn
carried off by the cocks
become songs in them?
Moonlight, moonlight--what then?
I am no longer young enough
to seek a lunar sister outside
after the games of little girls:
I will hold my children on my lap until they fall asleep,
and there are many books to be read with my wife
until the moon changes
and becomes itself for us
while waiting for the dawn
that will overtake us on the shores of sleep.
Other Madagascar Posts:
"Fruits" from Rabearivelo's Almost-Dreams
"9" from Rabearivelo's From the Night
"51" from Rabearivelo's Old Songs From Imerina Lands
"Zebu"from Rabearivelo's Almost Dreams
Peace Corps Vignette on Mango Season in Madagascar
Business Case Study on Mango Production in Madagascar
African Poets of the Week Compilation
Monday, February 25, 2013
CRS Report on Peacekeeping and Stabilization Missions Abroad: The Development of Civilian Capabilities (2004-11)
CRS Report on Peacekeeping and Stabilization Missions Abroad: The Development of Civilian Capabilities (2004-11)
I love these CRS reports. This one has great historical detail on the subject--a great reference report.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4BE1_xKfeEUbUJISGpvSnNINGc/edit?usp=sharing
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Great info from the 15th Annual Africa Business Conference
15th Annual Harvard Business School Africa Business Conference
This is just the type of conference to which it would be great to send a newly selected O-6 Africa FAO. Having a rising senior FAO at this type of conference would be an incredible networking opportunity (i.e. creating and building relationships), but also a great way to promote the FAO brand across a wide spectrum.
If you go the website and check out the panels that there's a ton of great info.
http://www.hbsafricaconference.com/the-agenda.html
Friday, February 15, 2013
This Navy Seal "Shooter" Nonsense: Much Ado Something?
18 Feb Update:
Following is a response to the article from Rear Admiral Pybus that answers many of my questions in the original post below:
This Navy Seal "Shooter" Nonsense: Much Ado Something?
I want to dedicate a full post to my thoughts on this but don't have the time right now. I did, however, want to get a couple of my notes on it out there.
LET ME SAY THIS FIRST:
The Esquire article was a well-written disaster that missed on the opportunity to explore so many key points.
Navy SEALs are brave dudes. I have some good friends who are SEALs--they are all about 1000 times tougher than I will ever be. And they all make incredible sacrifices at every level that I couldn't ever make. The subject of the article was no exception.
The military is full of courageous brave men and women.
I flew search and rescue helos for the first part of my career and make no assertions or claims as to my own bravery. As I've written about before here, six weeks of Leatherneck in Quantico before my senior year of college were more than enough to tell me that I could never hack it as a Marine (these men and women are also about 999 times tougher than me).
MY THOUGHTS:
The best way to address the myriad issues surrounding this controversy may be to break this down into the micro and macro level. There may been failures in the system but I would want to start at the Shooter's unit (i.e. the micro level).
Because this story isn't really about real or perceived shortfalls within the VA!
It's more likely about possible shortfalls in the military to civilian transition process.
It's about the capacity of the military to transfer a battlefield ethos centered on 'taking care of your troops' to the civilian transition process. It is imperative that leaders regularly counsel and mentor the troops under them--whether they are lifers or they are getting out.
At the macro level, there's a rabbit role that stems from all of this as to whether we are retaining the right people in our military today. There's been much written about it but not much put forth that can be quantified--to this I would add that think there's an appropriate verse from 1 Corinthians that would be applicable here:
"If I speak in the tongues of men or angels but have not STATISTICS I am only a noisy gong or clanging cymbal."
I am not convinced the military is losing its best and brightest until I see data that transcends the anecdotal.
Micro:
LET ME SAY THIS FIRST:
The Esquire article was a well-written disaster that missed on the opportunity to explore so many key points.
Navy SEALs are brave dudes. I have some good friends who are SEALs--they are all about 1000 times tougher than I will ever be. And they all make incredible sacrifices at every level that I couldn't ever make. The subject of the article was no exception.
The military is full of courageous brave men and women.
I flew search and rescue helos for the first part of my career and make no assertions or claims as to my own bravery. As I've written about before here, six weeks of Leatherneck in Quantico before my senior year of college were more than enough to tell me that I could never hack it as a Marine (these men and women are also about 999 times tougher than me).
MY THOUGHTS:
The best way to address the myriad issues surrounding this controversy may be to break this down into the micro and macro level. There may been failures in the system but I would want to start at the Shooter's unit (i.e. the micro level).
Because this story isn't really about real or perceived shortfalls within the VA!
It's more likely about possible shortfalls in the military to civilian transition process.
It's about the capacity of the military to transfer a battlefield ethos centered on 'taking care of your troops' to the civilian transition process. It is imperative that leaders regularly counsel and mentor the troops under them--whether they are lifers or they are getting out.
At the macro level, there's a rabbit role that stems from all of this as to whether we are retaining the right people in our military today. There's been much written about it but not much put forth that can be quantified--to this I would add that think there's an appropriate verse from 1 Corinthians that would be applicable here:
"If I speak in the tongues of men or angels but have not STATISTICS I am only a noisy gong or clanging cymbal."
I am not convinced the military is losing its best and brightest until I see data that transcends the anecdotal.
Micro:
Why did he get out at 16 years?
Who ran his TAP class?
Did he go to his TAP classes? All of his tap classes?
Who was his Commanding Officer and Executive Officer and did no pre-separation counseling go on from either of them?
Macro Rabbit holes:
Military retirement system
Military retention system
Military evaluation system
Military evaluation system
Maybe, Department of Veterans Affairs Capability/Capacity (how best can we support them) but this isn't REALLY what the story is about.
LINKS:
Confusion swirls around Esquire story on Osama bin Laden's killer (LA Times)
Army of None by Time Kane (Foreign Policy)
Not Much Better than Nothing by Phillip Carter (Foreign Policy)
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Valentine's Day Poem for my Wife
This is my life poem to my amazing wife and incredible mother to our daughters. I added two verses to it over Christmas and plan to continue to add to it over the course of our lives together.
You, My Love
You inhabit me my love
Grow deep and young inside me
Like a sapling
You sink your roots
They wander
and wonderfully
entangle me my love.
You transfuse me my love
My blood is no longer my blood
For you are present even there
Flowing
Ebbing
Beating
Searching out
my innermost places my love.
You have taken up residence my love
In the furthest reaches
Of the slumber of my sleep
You run with me
Your hand in mine
In impossible places
In surreal dimensions
of my dreams my love.
You come to me my love
A smile that creases my face
An echo of your joy
Surprising me
In the midst of my day
Memories of you
Flash and burn
Images of you
flickering and searing across my mind my love.
You, like a spirit my love
Like the inside of my soul
That I never knew
Before you
Who pulses now always
Inside of me my love.
You, embodiment of answered prayers my love
Extension of grace
Shining down upon me
Soaking into me
Seeping into my every thought
The crown upon my head my love.
You are there in the morning light my love
In my waking moments
I reach for you
I am drawn by the immeasurable gravity
Of your love my love
Against you
Amaranthine rock my love.
You infuse laughter in my life my love
You peal
And beckon me
Your song dances
Your voice
Clarion
Notes floating
And leaping
Whirling
And washing over me my love.
You abide restlessly in my heart my love
Always increasing
Pushing me further
Multiplying passion
Never ceasing
Insatiable hunter
Of my heart my love.
Always always always my love
You will remain the lover of my youth
As we grow old and everything around us decays and rusts
For you and I my love—nothing alters
For you my love
Are Beauty, eternally defined
Tattooed kisses accumulating overlapping everlasting
Across the story of my life my love.
You, the radiant carrier of life my love
Your belly swollen and growing
Your face beaming and golden
You, emerging and evolving
Into an even higher form of beauty
Me, falling deeper and deeper into you
You, Possessor of generations, my love.
You: succor,
nourisher and protector,
Our babies
cling to you
Like vines
they surround and grow to you.
Pillar of
strength and zenith of grace
Your love
refuses to ebb and only grows
Washing
over, sustaining, and imbuing protection
You are the
sun and your gravity immense
Pulling us
deeper into the chasms—of your love,
Mother and lover of our children my love.
You my love
Are me
And I
am you.
We.
my love.
We.
To my Readers:
Incidentally, you should buy this book if you don't already own it. The best love poems ever written:
Incidentally, you should buy this book if you don't already own it. The best love poems ever written:
by Pablo Neruda.
Friday, February 8, 2013
BBC Chronology: Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Libya, Sudan
BBC Chronology: Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Libya, Sudan
BBC News has some excellent timelines/chronologies of various countries that are well worth the time to check out. Here's there one on Ethiopia: Ethiopia Profile
I cut and pasted a bunch of them and put them in word docs a while back:
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