The presidency of George Bush will undoubtedly go down in history as one in which repeated diplomatic errors were committed by a government that claimed to be led by an individual skilled in business efficiency. Perhaps, only President Bush could transform a simple relief expedition into one which arouses the anger of recipients because he found a way to violate the laws of their nation. Last week, the Philippines suffered a terrible disaster when a ferry over turned in a typhoon with the loss of over 800 people. The United States offered assistance in recovering bodies trapped inside the hull of the capsized vessel. But, of all the ships President Bush could think to send on this rescue mission, he dispatched the USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. The Philippine constitution forbids the entry into any of its harbors of a ship possessing nuclear weapons and members of the nation’s legislature are infuriated over the diplomatic blunder.
Minority leader, Rodolfo Blazon, expressed the feeling of many colleagues by noting, “We do not know, however, whether or not the USS Ronald Reagan is carrying nuclear weapons because if that is the case, it is a clear violation of our Constitution.”s
The more interesting question is why an aircraft carrier was sent to help in rescue operations of a capsize ferry? One would assume there are other vessels better equipped to handle such an operation.
The situation in Gaza highlights issues in attaining peace in the Middle East. The opposing forces are locked in a Catch-22 arrangement in which each side insists the other agree to its conditions before accepting anything on faith from the other. Israel and Hamas agreed on a cease fire with the assumption border crossings would be re-open and all rocket attacks cease on Israel. Several days after the cease fire was implemented, rockets were fired by the Islamist Jihad which, ostensibly broke the truce. Israel closed entry points in retaliation. Hamas announced, it “is not going to be a police securing the border of the occupation.” There is a madness in reading such statements. What do the words “cease fire” mean to Hamas? Of course, the Islamist Jihad and Hamas claim Israel broke the truce by killing militants in a different areas of Israel.
Saudi Arabian leaders once again indicated their nation was ready to negotiate a peace with Israel but there must be a halt to construction of housing on the West Bank and the entire issue of who owns the West Bank must be resolved. The West Bank originally was to be part of a state of Palestine but Israel insisted it needed housing to protect itself against an attack. Housing construction began as a defensive move but now the means have become the end.
How do the parties extricate themselves from their fixed positions in which everyone believes its security depends on maintaining an immovable commitment to what is rather than investigating the possibility of what might be? The ironic aspect of this conflict is combining the creative talents of Palestinians and Jews would create a vibrant economy that would make the area among the most prosperous in the world.
The only possible solution begins with the cliche of– trust. Each side has to be willing to afford the other trust and be willing to risk. So far, both prefer the mess they have rather than risk achieving success.
A showdown is looming between teachers in Kenya and the government over the issue of standards. Basic Education Minister Sam Ongeri argues teachers must sign performance standard agreements which spell out what they seek to accomplish and have those documents sent on a quarterly basis to designated agencies which would evaluate if teachers are accomplishing goals. He wants teachers held to the same standards as any other public servant. Teacher unions fear moving in this direction ends concepts such as tenure and leaves teachers at the mercy of public officials as to what they are doing in the classroom. Professor Ongeri insists “nobody will force u to set the standards. You will do it yourself, something that you are sure of achieving.”
At first glance, the Kenyan government desire to establish standards appears reasonable, but the history of standards invariably results in developing tests to measure performance and this results in transforming teaching into preparation for tests. There is always fear among teachers that public officials, rather than themselves, will eventually determine the standard.
Unlike selling automobiles, teaching is a long loop occupation and results may require months to achieve. The idea of quarterly reports is a hindrance to effective teaching.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was critical of the failure on the part of Pakistan officials to take a more aggressive stance against the Taliban on the border areas of their country. He claimed there had been a 40% rise in violence along the east Afghanistan border during the first five months of this year. Gates said “it is a matter of concern, of real concerns and I think that one of the reasons that we’ve seen the increase…is more people coming across the border from the frontier areas.” He blamed the ability of Taliban forces to readily cross over into Afghanistan on “not being under any pressure from the Pakistan side of the border.” Gates believed the situation began to change when Pakistan officials initiated talks with Taliban leaders for a peaceful resolution of the violence in the frontier areas.
Gates ignored that seven years have passed since the Taliban were over thrown in Afghanistan, seven years of inept military policies most probably hampered by diverting forces to Iraq instead of completing the job in Afghanistan. Pakistan for years has been cooperating with coalition forces but the Taliban continue to grow in power. Why hasn’t the Afghanistan government been more effective? Why have seven years gone by without the emergence of an Afghan army that can deal with its own security? It is not all the fault of Pakistan, it is time for the Bush administration to own up to its own failures.
Jennie Bristow and Frank Fucedi are authors who have examined what is happening in Great Britain’s efforts to supervise relations between adults and children. It increasingly is necessary in the United Kingdom for any adult having a relationship with a child to undergo investigation by the Criminal Records Bureau(CRB) to determine if they are fit for interaction with children. This means anyone like a coach, a bus driver, a charity or community worker, must undergo criminal investigation. A parent, who for one reason or another, never went through the process can not do simple tasks such as drive children or accompany a bus trip. One children’s coach emphatically stated, “I only allow CRB’d parents to drive team members to training.”
No one wants sexual predators molesting children, but have we crossed the line of common sense? Criminal record checks tell what has happened in the past and offer no information about the present. Paperwork and being forced to undergo investigations may well turn decent people into skeptics who prefer their privacy to undergoing a bureaucratic process. Are we losing valuable people who have something to offer children? It also raises another question– are we building a sense of mistrust on the part of children that anyone could be a potential molester?
As one who spent fifty years in the field of education, my impression is the overwhelming number of people in the occupation are not into molesting children. I have noticed increasingly that children have less and less contact with older adults which only serves to create barriers between the generations at a time when children need to connect to their past.