Jul 13, 2020 05:38 PM
https://www.sapiens.org/culture/land-min...tion-rats/
EXCERPTS: The fact that most Cambodian deminers have combat experience affects the way people perceive deminers and the organizations they work for. [...] a sense of distrust -- an irony, given that land mines are responsible for Cambodia having over 40,000 amputees, making it the country with the highest ratio of land mine amputees per capita in the world.
[...] While the deminers risk their lives to clear lands for cultivation, they are ultimately former soldiers who are connected to governmental power. Such a military stigma is not unwarranted. In a context where government operations are rumored to grab village lands, disappear people who disagree with the ruling party, and quell legitimate protests, deminers carry a stigma of military corruption.
[...] Enter the land mine detection rat. When APOPO convinced the Cambodian state to use rats for land mine detection, they lauded the rats as an innovative technology for land mine detection. Rats are less expensive and more precise than dogs, and metal detectors, the more mainstream technology, result in a lot of false positives since they do not detect only explosive powder.
[...] Early on in Cambodia, the rat stood out as a welcome change from the heavily militarized materials and practices on the minefield. The rat’s attributes disarm more than the landscape. The animals follow the footsteps and taps of their human handlers. They crawl up people’s arms to snuggle and nibble their necks-an affectionate relationship that leads to a very different atmosphere compared to rat-free minefields. At times, even former enemies laugh with one another about their newfound “friends.”
[...] APOPO, a Belgian NGO whose acronym translates to Anti-Personnel Landmines Removal Product Development, was founded with the mission of using pet rodents to detect land mines and other explosives.
As an anthropologist who has conducted fieldwork with deminers since 2010, I had grown accustomed to the militarism of these organizations. The people who work in the land mine action industry are typically former soldiers, and they follow military structures [...] The rats presented a puzzle, though: No matter how much the NGO tried to make them “heroic,” they were either cartoonish or pest-like, given their historical connotations.
Yet through their loveable rat attributes, the animals have largely disrupted the militarism long associated with land mine detection [...] a shift that could over time undo the military stigma that surrounds land mine detectors in Cambodia. The rat itself has arguably altered not only the ways in which land mine detection groups portray their animal helpers, but it has also restructured organizational practices and ways people in land mine detection understand their own work... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: The fact that most Cambodian deminers have combat experience affects the way people perceive deminers and the organizations they work for. [...] a sense of distrust -- an irony, given that land mines are responsible for Cambodia having over 40,000 amputees, making it the country with the highest ratio of land mine amputees per capita in the world.
[...] While the deminers risk their lives to clear lands for cultivation, they are ultimately former soldiers who are connected to governmental power. Such a military stigma is not unwarranted. In a context where government operations are rumored to grab village lands, disappear people who disagree with the ruling party, and quell legitimate protests, deminers carry a stigma of military corruption.
[...] Enter the land mine detection rat. When APOPO convinced the Cambodian state to use rats for land mine detection, they lauded the rats as an innovative technology for land mine detection. Rats are less expensive and more precise than dogs, and metal detectors, the more mainstream technology, result in a lot of false positives since they do not detect only explosive powder.
[...] Early on in Cambodia, the rat stood out as a welcome change from the heavily militarized materials and practices on the minefield. The rat’s attributes disarm more than the landscape. The animals follow the footsteps and taps of their human handlers. They crawl up people’s arms to snuggle and nibble their necks-an affectionate relationship that leads to a very different atmosphere compared to rat-free minefields. At times, even former enemies laugh with one another about their newfound “friends.”
[...] APOPO, a Belgian NGO whose acronym translates to Anti-Personnel Landmines Removal Product Development, was founded with the mission of using pet rodents to detect land mines and other explosives.
As an anthropologist who has conducted fieldwork with deminers since 2010, I had grown accustomed to the militarism of these organizations. The people who work in the land mine action industry are typically former soldiers, and they follow military structures [...] The rats presented a puzzle, though: No matter how much the NGO tried to make them “heroic,” they were either cartoonish or pest-like, given their historical connotations.
Yet through their loveable rat attributes, the animals have largely disrupted the militarism long associated with land mine detection [...] a shift that could over time undo the military stigma that surrounds land mine detectors in Cambodia. The rat itself has arguably altered not only the ways in which land mine detection groups portray their animal helpers, but it has also restructured organizational practices and ways people in land mine detection understand their own work... (MORE - details)