#2
War was a "far away spectator sport" for most of human history. Unless the marching armies literally walked over your lands, devouring everything edible in the process!, battles were something that happened "somewhere over there" and only affected the peasantry indirectly (tax increases) if at all...
If anything, war is becoming more like it was before the Industrial Age ushered in mass impersonal slaughter -- local and chaotic.
#3
with anal-ysts like Michael Yawn and Rave Thedumjar babbling on about what you are, you'd be having an identity crisis too.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/31/2018 13:49 Comments ||
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#4
Analysts have *blinders*, too. I enjoy reading the military histories of Theodore Ayrault Dodge, particularly his Series on Napoleon.
Because Dodge died in 1909 and he does NOT see military history solely through the prisms of the Industrial Age Period and World Wars I & II. Many modern analysts torture events to fit them into modern contexts when they simply do not fit those preconceptions.
#1
Are they planning on using the sealift ships we keep in mothballs for this? Note that if we ever have an overseas war we will immediately find that we need more sealift -- and the Enemy might, just might endeavor to sink our existing capacity.
An interesting idea, though...
#FeesMustFall protests may have contributed to the death of UCT health dean and world-class cardiology researcher Professor Bongani Mayosi.
Mayosi, 51, committed suicide on Friday.
Addressing the media on Sunday, UCT vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng said Mayosi’s office was occupied for two weeks by protesting students in 2016.
"He went on three months’ leave and early this year collapsed because of a psychological attack. Protests in 2016/17 weren’t kind to him as a dean. Students were angry at him, called him a coconut - out of anger. He experienced pressure from staff, students and black students."
She said the university was aware that Mayosi was suffering from depression.
Phakeng said Mayosi tendered his resignation to then vice-chancellor Max Price in November.
"It’s a pity that we as an institution didn’t listen to him then draw on his strength. Make sure he is happy."
She said the university should have rather had him leave the dean’s office and go back to his professorship.
Phakeng said UCT had seen a rise in mental health issues, not only among students but among staff, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the #FeesMustFall protests.
UCT students embarked on a series of #FeesMustFall protests from 2015 to 2017, demanding free education and transformation.
"This is a moment for us to reflect that when we pursue our own struggles, we be cautious that we’re dealing with human beings and can affect them in undesirable ways," Phakeng said. "Be conscious. The idea is not to destroy people, whether they are against or for the protest. It shouldn’t be destructive conflict."
She said the university had lost an A-rated world leader in cardiology as well as a leading scholar.
"We have lost someone whose voice was important at critical times, someone who never spoke much at Senate, but when he did, people listened. He had an important voice at management level."
Mayosi will be buried on Saturday. The university is yet to announce a date for the memorial service this week.
He leaves his widow Nonhlanhla Khumalo and two daughters.
#FeesMustFall activist Chumani Maxwele said he respected Phakeng’s opinion but believed "the university killed Mayosi and seven other black students who committed suicide last year".
"The biggest silent killer is the work environment for black academics at the institution, not him being called a coconut. Anyone who knew Mayosi knew his best work was at the lab. Who called him a coconut, asshole? YOU.
"He at the time was the only senior academic, hence we pushed that he be elevated to a leading role in the institution. He was the most supportive academic, why would he be offended by students for whom he showed understanding?"
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
07/31/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
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#1
Students were angry at him, called him a coconut
Brown and fuzzy on the outside, white on the inside, or just a nut?
#3
coconut is presumably a smear for 'brown on outside, white on inside'
any supervisory position has the potential of being soul destroying as the pressures from above and below tear you apart
true for Deans at University; staff sergeant in Army, manager at a fast order restaurant, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/31/2018 8:09 Comments ||
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#4
This wasn't "any supervisory position", this was a highly respected black man with tons of legitimate accomplishments to his credit who was treated as a traitor to his own kind by the social justice mob. He was more on their side than anyone and still got hounded to death.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
07/31/2018 9:17 Comments ||
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#5
Gee, sounds like Ben Carson, Herb. Hope he doesn't buckle to the pressure.
[Miami Herald] When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently estimated that Venezuela’s inflation will reach 1 million percent this year, many analysts jumped to the conclusion that President Nicolás Maduro’s days in power are numbered.
But the experience of Zimbabwe, which went through a similar hyperinflation in 2008, shows that the Venezuelan dictator may remain in power for several years by dollarizing the economy, and incorporating some opposition leaders into his regime.
I see three scenarios for Venezuela in light of the latest forecast by the IMF. In addition to estimating a 1 million percent hyperinflation this year — which it compared with that of Germany in 1923 and that of Zimbabwe in 2008 — the IMF calculates that Venezuela’s economy will contract by a whopping 18 percent this year, for a record 50 percent decline over the past five years.
Maduro announced on July 25 that he will cut five zeroes from Venezuela’s currency to help bring down inflation. But no serious economist thinks that such measure will work absent drastic market reforms. And Maduro may do just that — try capitalist recipes.
The Zimbabwe scenario, The Cuban Scenario & The Brazilian and Argentine scenarios.
See article at link for descriptions of how the 3 scenarios can play out.
h/t Instapundit
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about Russian spying in the United States. And while a lot of the concern is really just evidence that some people have trouble dealing with a lost election, it’s not as if the Russians haven’t been spying on us since my grandparents' day.
But with all the attention focused on Russia, maybe we need to pay a bit more attention to the spying ‐ and related meddling ‐ being done by the People’s Republic of China. Because China is a bigger threat in general, and seems to be doing a lot without engendering much of a response, or even much awareness.
In fact, it may be that the Chinese government is quite happy to see us focus on Russians, as a distraction from what it’s doing. I would be, if I were them.
It wasn’t the Russians, after all, but the Chinese who were fingered for a massive 2015 hack on Office of Personnel Management records that was so damaging some dubbed it a Cyber Pearl Harbor.
[DAWN] IT would be correct to say that the seats tally is not a reliable indicator of the strength of the latest entrant in the national election scene, the Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistain.
The TLP has surprised everyone by taking two provincial seats in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... but the signs of its real potential are spread over areas of consistent performance in Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... and in Sindh, especially in the cities.
Read: Religious parties fail to make their presence felt
This outfit has notched up a benumbing 2.2m votes in its first general election. It is impossible to analyse which parties it has hit the hardest. A rather narrow frame applied to the problem would show that since both the leading parties in the election, the PML-N and PTI, are described as right wing, the TLP, as a faith-based group, would cut across their votes indiscriminately.
But last Wednesday’s election is more proof of how hazardous it is to apply old standards to unprecedented developments. The TLP symbolises a real threat for all those who have been in the political arena long before its leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi made his first motivational speech.
Not least, they are challenging the older religious-political parties, such as those that are grouped in the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal.
The MMA hasn’t quite lived up to the pre-poll projections in KP, but then this Jamaat-JUI-F combine was not slated to make a huge splash in the province this time round. It is believed that the PTI has to a large extent incorporated those elements that have made it acceptable to the moderate, right-of-centre voters, to the disadvantage of the MMA parties.
Also, Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... is right now at the peak of his popularity, particularly in KP, where he has not just overwhelmed the Jamaat and the JUI-F, but has also reduced the ANP, PML-N, and the PPP to a bare-minimum presence.
This rise of the PTI in KP, where the religion-based parties had or still have a big following, is chiefly responsible for these parties not scoring well in the 2018 election.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that the maulanas have lost all clout in the country’s politics. Together, the TLP and MMA took some 4m votes, whereas the vote count of the PPP, which came third with 43 seats, stood at 6.8m.
The TLP on its own crossed the 40,000 mark in many constituencies and it featured prominently in the coup against Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in Lyari, once a PPP stronghold. This was no mean achievement for the new anti-status quo force.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/31/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] THOSE who have reservations about the prospect of Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... have spent the past few days in search of silver linings. Thankfully, there are a few: for instance, the unprecedented female voter turnout in conservative districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; Mahesh Malani, a Hindu politician, winning on a general seat; the inclusion of former PTM leaders Mohsin Dawar (though since annulled, due to low women’s turnout) and Ali Wazir in the National Assembly.
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.
