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Rats are overturning decades of military norms as mine detectors (rodent life styles)

#1
C C Offline
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)
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#2
stryder Offline
(Jul 13, 2020 05:38 PM)C C Wrote: 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)

One thing that was overturned by Trump earlier this year was the US's stance on the usage of landmines. Apparently the US had banned their usage since the 1990's (with the last one produced in that time period) although some where used in Afghanistan in the early 2000's. So the US will likely start producing landmines, and although it's claimed they would be used for places of strategic important (probably between the walls bordering Mexico) they will likely be sold to less than reputable countries (since they are the only ones willing to use them.) But it brings to the question, Is the US mature enough to be willing to pay for the damages caused by a weapon that kill many years after it's be lost and forgotten? (Ideally the casing to every landmine should be stamped with the presidents Head on it, so you know just which persons responsible for the loss of limbs or life)
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#4
Syne Offline
(Jul 14, 2020 12:52 PM)stryder Wrote: One thing that was overturned by Trump earlier this year was the US's stance on the usage of landmines.  Apparently the US had banned their usage since the 1990's (with the last one produced in that time period) although some where used in Afghanistan in the early 2000's.  So the US will likely start producing landmines, and although it's claimed they would be used for places of strategic important (probably between the walls bordering Mexico) they will likely be sold to less than reputable countries (since they are the only ones willing to use them.)  But it brings to the question, Is the US mature enough to be willing to pay for the damages caused by a weapon that kill many years after it's be lost and forgotten?  (Ideally the casing to every landmine should be stamped with the presidents Head on it, so you know just which persons responsible for the loss of limbs or life)

It reverses a 2014 policy decision by the Obama administration that unequivocally banned US production and acquisition of antipersonnel landmines, as well as their use outside of a future conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
...
In 2014, US officials acknowledged for the first time that US forces used one antipersonnel mine in Afghanistan in 2002.

The US military has refrained from using antipersonnel mines in part because of the stigma the Mine Ban Treaty has established against these weapons.
...
US law has prohibited all antipersonnel mine exports since October 23, 1992, through a comprehensive moratorium enacted at the initiative of Senator Patrick Leahy. According to the new policy, the Department of Defense “will not seek to transfer landmines except as provided for under U.S. law.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/27/ques...ine-policy

So the ban was not until 2014, and US law has prohibited export since 1992.
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#5
stryder Offline
(Jul 14, 2020 03:57 PM)Syne Wrote:
(Jul 14, 2020 12:52 PM)stryder Wrote: One thing that was overturned by Trump earlier this year was the US's stance on the usage of landmines.  Apparently the US had banned their usage since the 1990's (with the last one produced in that time period) although some where used in Afghanistan in the early 2000's.  So the US will likely start producing landmines, and although it's claimed they would be used for places of strategic important (probably between the walls bordering Mexico) they will likely be sold to less than reputable countries (since they are the only ones willing to use them.)  But it brings to the question, Is the US mature enough to be willing to pay for the damages caused by a weapon that kill many years after it's be lost and forgotten?  (Ideally the casing to every landmine should be stamped with the presidents Head on it, so you know just which persons responsible for the loss of limbs or life)

It reverses a 2014 policy decision by the Obama administration that unequivocally banned US production and acquisition of antipersonnel landmines, as well as their use outside of a future conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
...
In 2014, US officials acknowledged for the first time that US forces used one antipersonnel mine in Afghanistan in 2002.

The US military has refrained from using antipersonnel mines in part because of the stigma the Mine Ban Treaty has established against these weapons.
...
US law has prohibited all antipersonnel mine exports since October 23, 1992, through a comprehensive moratorium enacted at the initiative of Senator Patrick Leahy. According to the new policy, the Department of Defense “will not seek to transfer landmines except as provided for under U.S. law.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/02/27/ques...ine-policy

So the ban was not until 2014, and US law has prohibited export since 1992.

I'm glad your fact checking. (I apologise I read a piece and didn't note down where it was online since it was a random site, although the NYTimes confirmed some of the information from the random site) so my memory for the facts might of been a little jumbled, however the reality is still the same.... "Progress being reversed for ignorance."
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#6
Syne Offline
(Jul 15, 2020 12:43 AM)stryder Wrote: ...however the reality is still the same.... "Progress being reversed for ignorance."
No, Bill Clinton nor Bush Sr. found good reason to do it. Only Obama did, because he likes a weak America.
Note, even Obama made an exception for the Korean peninsula. So obviously even he considered mines necessary for some enemies. You know, the ones he couldn't suck up to.
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