Thursday, November 20, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Bloodmobiles To Collect Plasma From West Africa's Ebola Survivors – NPR
Richard Harris
November 19, 2014

Researchers gear up tests in West Africa to see whether blood from Ebola survivors can help people who are sick with the disease. This is part of a broader effort to test therapies in West Africa.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Researchers are preparing tests in West Africa. They want to see if blood from Ebola survivors can help people who are sick with that disease. Three specially equipped blood mobiles have been shipped to Africa, and they could soon be put to use to produce what's called convalescent serum. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: People who've been treated for Ebola in the United States have been given blood serum from Dr. Kent Brantly and other people who have survive Ebola themselves. Vicki Tifft at a company called ClinicalRM says, this requires specialized equipment - equipment that is not available in West Africa. So her company outfitted three bloodmobiles with everything they need to collect that blood serum.

VICKI TIFFT: So the fastest means in mechanism for us to be able to provide this was to get these bloodmobiles outfitted very quickly, get them on a plane to the hot zone areas.

HARRIS: They're now on the ground in Guinea and elsewhere in West Africa. The project is funded principally by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also supports NPR's global health coverage. These vehicles don't simply collect blood. They collect the purified blood liquid, known as plasma or serum, and return all the blood cells to the donor. Dr. David Hoover, scientific adviser at ClinicalRM, says giving people back those blood cells is a real advantage.

DAVID HOOVER: You can collect more plasma, and you can collect it more often than you can if you just use whole blood.

HARRIS: Ebola survivors can donate plasma twice a month. The idea here is that the blood plasma from survivors contains antibodies, which can recognize and destroy the Ebola virus. So a plasma transfusion can, in theory at least, help people fight off the disease. This strategy has worked for other illnesses, but there are a lot of unanswered questions about this approach for Ebola.

HOOVER: The question of how high the antibodies need to be and what kinds of antibodies need to be there is really, completely unknown at this point.

HARRIS: Scientists will save samples of serum from each donor so they can go back and answer those questions once they've found out whether the treatment works at all. And before they identify the people who can get this experimental treatment, the researchers need to find Ebola survivors willing to donate their serum. There are survivor groups who could be at the core of this donor population, but that's still an open question for this and other trials of blood products in West Africa. Johan van Griensven at the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine is running a second test of blood in blood plasma and his group has sent anthropologists out to identify these sensitivities in Guinea.

JOHAN VAN GRIENSVEN: So these assessments will be vital to understand the exempt ability of such a study and how we should proceed in a correct manner.

HARRIS: Ultimately, three teams of scientists are hoping to try serum transfusions in hundreds of patients throughout West Africa. David Wood at the World Health Organization says the long-term goal is to help rebuild medical systems that have been crippled by the Ebola epidemic.

DAVID WOOD: It's important that we try to get convalescent plasma here at all, but for the longer term, having a well-functioning blood transfusion system will have a broad range of benefits that go much beyond Ebola.

HARRIS: Blood and blood products are used to treat malaria, complicated childbirth and many other medical conditions, which will remain long after the Ebola outbreaks have been brought under control. Richard Harris, NPR News.




“HARRIS: They're now on the ground in Guinea and elsewhere in West Africa. The project is funded principally by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also supports NPR's global health coverage. These vehicles don't simply collect blood. They collect the purified blood liquid, known as plasma or serum, and return all the blood cells to the donor. Dr. David Hoover, scientific adviser at ClinicalRM, says giving people back those blood cells is a real advantage. DAVID HOOVER: You can collect more plasma, and you can collect it more often than you can if you just use whole blood. Ebola survivors can donate plasma twice a month. ... Scientists will save samples of serum from each donor so they can go back and answer those questions once they've found out whether the treatment works at all. And before they identify the people who can get this experimental treatment, the researchers need to find Ebola survivors willing to donate their serum. There are survivor groups who could be at the core of this donor population.... It's important that we try to get convalescent plasma here at all, but for the longer term, having a well-functioning blood transfusion system will have a broad range of benefits that go much beyond Ebola.”

I am feeling angry that this use of blood or plasma transfusions has not been done on a wide scale in Africa ever since it became obvious that the epidemic was becoming a huge disaster. There have been news articles about blood transfusions from patients who have recovered since this all began to hit the news, but they never did it until now. It was done by an African doctor without the WHO approval in the previous epidemic several years back. He gave transfusions to 8 patients sick with Ebola and 6 of them survived, which is well above the Ebola survival rate. I know blood types have to match up, but still a sizable number of patients could have been safely treated this way before now. The serum was given in the US a couple of months ago and the patients survived. The use of sera is an old treatment for diseases going back to the 1700's or farther, but in this health crisis it wasn't tried in Africa. It took the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation to put that into action. Less testing and more action is what was needed. Sometimes in medicine we need more nurses and fewer scientists. In my opinion we don't need to have every scientific question answered in experiments that take up many months, to make the use of sera for Ebola valid for use on patients who have already developed symptoms. After all, at that point, they are under a death sentence in over 90% of the cases, and anything that helps should be used. The other interesting treatment I read about a month or so ago is to give the patient a mixture of a tablespoon of sugar and one of salt in a quart of water numerous times a day (several gallons worth) to relieve the dehydration involved with the vomiting and diarrhea symptoms, giving the body a chance to make its own antibodies. That cured several at least in Africa, according to the article. Thank goodness for Bill and Melinda Gates. They've done several really good things.








Despite A Massacre By ISIS, An Iraqi Tribe Vows To Fight Back – NPR
Alice Fordham
November 20, 2014

Photograph – Sunni tribesmen in Iraq's western province of Anbar say Baghdad has not sent them enough weaponry or money to help in their fight against the Islamic State. Here, Sunni tribesmen take part in military training on the outskirts of Ramadi on Sunday.

Photograph – Sunni tribesmen train on the outskirts of Ramadi, Iraq, on Nov. 16. Legislation authorizing a force of Sunni fighters drawn from Anbar province itself — modeled on the U.S. National Guard — has yet to be passed.

The massacre of the Albu Nimr tribe came after they had fought against the extremists of the so-called Islamic State for weeks. In Iraq's vast western province of Anbar, the tribesmen had been driven from their stronghold in the city of Hit in early October.
They clung on to one last outpost on the outskirts of the city for nearly two more weeks. The Albu Nimr are accustomed to fighting. They say they participated in two insurrections against Saddam Hussein and boast of their ancestors' roles in pushing out British colonial rule.

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the leaders debated whether to join the Americans or the insurgency against them. Sheiks say the Americans treated them with respect so they decided to side with them; leaked diplomatic cables speak of the tribe as a staunch ally since the early days of the occupation.

But this time, on Oct. 23, they ran out of bullets.

"There was no more," says Munir Jout, an Albu Nimr policeman from Hit. "And we were unable to fight."

He fled, piling his family in the car and driving north along the Euphrates River to the city of Haditha. ISIS flooded into the area, and many of the local residents who had stayed behind were rounded up and killed. Tribal sheiks think about 600 people died in less than a week.

For 11 months, ISIS has dominated large parts of Anbar, and the complex network of tribes there has divided. Some have fallen to the extremists. Others have freely chosen to join them, often motivated by the widespread hatred in this Sunni-dominated area for the Shiite-led government.

But Sheik Ghazi al-Kaoud, leader of the Albu Nimrs and a member of Parliament, says his men have consistently opposed ISIS, and he doesn't understand why no one came to help them. He says he called the Iraqi Cabinet and the American Embassy.

"I tried to draw their attention to the disaster, to the massacre that's going to happen," he says. "But all I got was promises."

For years, analysts and local leaders have said Iraq's stability depends on the government in Baghdad coming to some kind of accord with large Sunni tribes like the Albu Nimr.

The Shiite-dominated army and its allied militias are widely loathed in Anbar as representatives of a government that international rights groups say has abused Iraq's Sunni minority. A proposed alternative is a force of Sunni fighters drawn from Anbar province itself. The idea has been compared with America's National Guard.

Both American and Iraqi leaders have praised the idea as a means of winning back the trust of the tribes of the province and pushing back the extremists.

American soldiers have now begun putting their side of the plan into action. Special forces are now at Ain al-Asad air base, working with the Iraqi army 7th Division, and say they will begin training the tribes soon — though tribesmen say the training is already under way.

But an American military spokesman says there is no plan to arm or pay the fighters. Weapons and money must come from the government in Baghdad.

Despite a charm offensive — the prime minister said tribes would be helped, and Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jubouri came to Anbar to praise them and promise weapons — the Albu Nimr fear no real help will be forthcoming. Legislation authorizing the formation of the national guard force has not been passed by Parliament.

"I feel very desperate with the Iraqi government," says Kaoud, the sheik. He says very little weaponry has been delivered, certainly not enough to take on the militants with their stolen arsenals.

Hamad al-Mutlaq, an Anbari lawmaker, is the deputy head of the defense and security committee, but says he has no power to put pressure on the executive to supply weapons or money to the tribes of Anbar.

Mutlaq says the people in control of the supply of weapons are government-allied militias backed by the Shiite theocracy in Iran, who regard Sunni tribes as their enemies.

"We don't have a real state. We have power centers: like the Sadrist movement, Badr organization," he says, referring to influential, armed Shiite political groups. "These groups I mentioned are beholden to Iran, and Iran controls the political decision-making."

A spokesman from the prime minister's office, Ghassan al-Husseini, says the government has experienced logistical problems sending food and weapons to the front line.

But he also sounded a note of mistrust. The problem, he says, "is that within the same tribe, there are different loyalties.

"A part is with the Islamic State, and part is against the Islamic State," he says. "So the government is worried that the weapons will end up in the wrong hands by mistake."




“Legislation authorizing a force of Sunni fighters drawn from Anbar province itself — modeled on the U.S. National Guard — has yet to be passed.... After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the leaders debated whether to join the Americans or the insurgency against them. Sheiks say the Americans treated them with respect so they decided to side with them; leaked diplomatic cables speak of the tribe as a staunch ally since the early days of the occupation.... For 11 months, ISIS has dominated large parts of Anbar, and the complex network of tribes there has divided. Some have fallen to the extremists. Others have freely chosen to join them, often motivated by the widespread hatred in this Sunni-dominated area for the Shiite-led government. But Sheik Ghazi al-Kaoud, leader of the Albu Nimrs and a member of Parliament, says his men have consistently opposed ISIS, and he doesn't understand why no one came to help them. He says he called the Iraqi Cabinet and the American Embassy.... For years, analysts and local leaders have said Iraq's stability depends on the government in Baghdad coming to some kind of accord with large Sunni tribes like the Albu Nimr. The Shiite-dominated army and its allied militias are widely loathed in Anbar as representatives of a government that international rights groups say has abused Iraq's Sunni minority. A proposed alternative is a force of Sunni fighters drawn from Anbar province itself. The idea has been compared with America's National Guard.... But an American military spokesman says there is no plan to arm or pay the fighters. Weapons and money must come from the government in Baghdad. Despite a charm offensive — the prime minister said tribes would be helped, and Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jubouri came to Anbar to praise them and promise weapons — the Albu Nimr fear no real help will be forthcoming. Legislation authorizing the formation of the national guard force has not been passed by Parliament.... Mutlaq says the people in control of the supply of weapons are government-allied militias backed by the Shiite theocracy in Iran, who regard Sunni tribes as their enemies.... But he also sounded a note of mistrust. The problem, he says, 'is that within the same tribe, there are different loyalties. 'A part is with the Islamic State, and part is against the Islamic State,' he says. 'So the government is worried that the weapons will end up in the wrong hands by mistake.'”

I do hope these tribes sort things out among themselves and give weapons and money to these Sunnis and Kurds who want to oppose ISIS and who are willing and able to really put up a fight. The government of Iraq is blocking both alliances. Religiously based government really doesn't work on a national scale, and always keeps the seeds of division alive. I'm so glad that we have a basically religion free government, except for the occasional prayers in places which should, in my opinion, be secular.

See the next article about Oman, and the previous one in the November 17 blog. Oman has an Islamic population that is peaceful, with a long history of trade and enlightened leadership. That group is called the Ibadis, and they are neither Sunni nor Shia, but an even earlier branch of Islam. They don't force others to follow their religious tradition, though it is “strict,” so it may not be fair to women. They do get along better with their neighbors than the Sunni and Shia do, though. They may be good allies for the US, it seems to me. Neither of these articles about the Ibadis mentions ISIS, so I don't know whether they would join in a war against them. They would surely resist being terrorized and conquered by ISIS, though, because they have held onto their own religion for around 1,500 years.





With Hand-Sewn Ships, Oman Revives A Glorious Maritime Past – NPR
Peter Kenyon
November 19, 2014

Photograph – The Jewel of Muscat, a replica of a ninth century Omani trading ship, sails into the harbor of Galle, Sri Lanka, in 2010. The ship was built in a traditional manner that uses coconut fibers (but no nails) to hold the ship together. The ship followed old routes used by Arab traders.

These days, a visitor to the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman is likely to be a pale European seeking some winter sun, or perhaps a diplomat seeking to broker a deal between longtime rivals such as, say, the U.S. and Iran. But Oman's reputation as a go-between is well-earned and stretches back centuries.

Back when Northern Europe was overrun by Vikings, Oman had a vast maritime trading empire.
 Now the country is training a new generation of Omanis to care for that legacy, and along the way remind the world of its rich maritime history.

The group Oman Maritime devotes itself to re-creating some of the traditional wooden boats that defined Oman's remarkable seafaring past.

Oman expelled their Portuguese colonizers from the capital, Muscat, in the middle of the 17th century, then chased them down the east Africa coast, eventually claiming Zanzibar, more than 1,800 miles away, as the new Omani capital.

In the 1840s, New Yorkers were stunned to see an Omani vessel pulling into harbor, bearing gifts and the first Arab ambassador to visit the United States.

Relearning The Art Of Hand-Sewn Boats

A medieval stone anchor lies on its side in the Oman Maritime boatyard, which is sprinkled with vessels not unlike those that once plied the "maritime silk route" to Asia, dealing in exotic goods and African slaves.

Master shipwright Babu Sankaran chisels away at a bowsprit, and a pungent, fishy scent rises up as another Omani worker applies shark liver oil, the traditional sealant of choice, to a fishing boat.

Oman invited an American expert on Indian Ocean maritime history, Eric Staples, to be part of its heritage effort. He says the ocean is crucial to understanding Oman, with its thoroughly mixed culture built by waves of migrants from Arab states, Persia, east Africa, India and elsewhere.

"A very rich history, where you have this vast series of movements and migrations, transfer of goods," says Staples. "That's perhaps not in the histories because it's not part of the imperial histories, but it's still very present."

A shipwright patiently hand sands part of a fishing boat as Staples points to an example of the intricate rope work that goes into traditional wooden boat construction — planks not nailed, but stitched together.

The preferred rope is made of coconut palm fiber. It's elastic enough to survive a sea voyage, and prone to swell up when wet, so a wad of fibers underneath the stitching fills in gaps and improves the seal.

Staples gives a visitor a fast lesson in slow boat building.

"You have one guy on one side, takes the rope, pulls it through, pulls on it really hard. And then the other guy, on the other side, bangs on it with a hammer until it's nice and tight and he says 'OK, that's good,' " he says, feeding the rope through a hole in a sample plank.

"So that's for each individual stitch. And each hole, you have to do this four times, so if you think of 37,000 holes," he says with a smile. "It's a fair amount of labor, you get the idea."

Handmade nails and other innovations further expanded the maritime trade.

Oman Maritime's most famous project is the Jewel of Muscat, a replica of a ninth century wreck discovered off Indonesia. In 2010, Oman Maritime took the boat on a six-month voyage from Muscat to Singapore, which had bought the ancient Chinese ceramics found onboard the wreck.

Rising Above Sectarian Strife

Today the West tends to see Oman as a rare neutral Gulf State able to work with both the Iranians and the Saudis.

That ability to stay above regional sectarian tensions is sometimes attributed to one man, Oman's ailing 74-year-old sultan, Qaboos bin Said. But Staples says it's an approach that grew naturally out of Oman's oceangoing past.

"In many ways the cornerstone of Omani diplomacy today is founded upon that, in the sense that trade requires a fair amount of negotiation," he says.

"Relationships [Oman] has with the rest of the world didn't just appear out of nothing," he adds. "They have had long-standing relationships with all the political actors in this part of the world."

Having revived traditional boat-building skills that had nearly died out here, one of Oman Maritime's most important projects may be its Junior Shipwright program, which lets this generation of wooden boat artisans pass their skills to young Omanis, who are already building these venerable boats, and taking to the sea as their ancestors did.




“These days, a visitor to the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman is likely to be a pale European seeking some winter sun, or perhaps a diplomat seeking to broker a deal between longtime rivals such as, say, the U.S. and Iran. But Oman's reputation as a go-between is well-earned and stretches back centuries.... The group Oman Maritime devotes itself to re-creating some of the traditional wooden boats that defined Oman's remarkable seafaring past. Oman expelled their Portuguese colonizers from the capital, Muscat, in the middle of the 17th century, then chased them down the east Africa coast, eventually claiming Zanzibar, more than 1,800 miles away, as the new Omani capital.... Oman invited an American expert on Indian Ocean maritime history, Eric Staples, to be part of its heritage effort. He says the ocean is crucial to understanding Oman, with its thoroughly mixed culture built by waves of migrants from Arab states, Persia, east Africa, India and elsewhere. 'A very rich history, where you have this vast series of movements and migrations, transfer of goods,' says Staples. 'That's perhaps not in the histories because it's not part of the imperial histories, but it's still very present.'... 'In the 1840s, New Yorkers were stunned to see an Omani vessel pulling into harbor, bearing gifts and the first Arab ambassador to visit the United States.' This is a really impressive civilization.... Today the West tends to see Oman as a rare neutral Gulf State able to work with both the Iranians and the Saudis. That ability to stay above regional sectarian tensions is sometimes attributed to one man, Oman's ailing 74-year-old sultan, Qaboos bin Said. But Staples says it's an approach that grew naturally out of Oman's oceangoing past. 'In many ways the cornerstone of Omani diplomacy today is founded upon that, in the sense that trade requires a fair amount of negotiation,' he says. 'Relationships [Oman] has with the rest of the world didn't just appear out of nothing,' he adds. 'They have had long-standing relationships with all the political actors in this part of the world.'"

I am so glad to read about this country's long history of diplomacy and peaceful trade. They did successfully fight the Portuguese in the 17th century, so they can fight. Even if they won't fight ISIS, they are a beautiful example of an enlightened society with a tradition of performing diplomatic services for other national groups, and under the leadership of Qaboos bin Said have become very wealthy. See the following article about their women.


Women in Oman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Women in Oman were historically excluded from the forums of everyday life. But with the dispersal of Omanis in the early 1900s and their return in the early 1970s, a more contemporary population of Omanis that were influenced by the British colonial values during their time abroad have slowly challenged many traditions of gender segregation. Women now pursue careers and professional training, slowly moving from their previous household confinement to the public sphere.[2] In Oman, 17 October is celebrated every year as the Omani Women's Day with various pro-female events.[3]

Politics[edit]

In 1970, the political and social atmosphere of Oman changed with the advent of a new ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, son of the conservative and rigid Said bin Taimur. After decades of stagnant to non-existent growth, Qaboos overthrew his father in a palace coup and immediately began numerous social programs, commissioning hospitals, clinics, schools, etc. Many Omanis who had been living abroad to get a proper education returned to participate in the construction of a new nation. The abroadees also brought with them the liberal and open attitude of their host countries, including the idea of equal gender relations.[4]

Sultan Qaboos introduced many reforms funded mostly by the oil revenue, targeting development and social services. He also appointed the Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Council), a body of representatives elected by the people that review legislation. This act gave the people more control in their government which had been previously in complete control of the royal family and his appointed cabinet. In the September 2000 elections, 83 candidates were elected for seats in the Majlis al-Shura, including two women. In 1996, the Sultan issued "The Basic Law of the Sultanate of Oman" to serve as a form of written constitution. This document gives the Omani people their basic civil liberties as well as guaranteeing equality and protection under the law. In 2002, universal suffrage was granted to all Omanis over the age of 21.[5]

More recently, the Sultan’s Royal Decree in 2008 gave women the equal right to own land as held by their male counterparts.[6] Sultan Qaboos also recently signed the Decent Work Country Programme, a service dedicated to increase job opportunities for women as well as stand for justice, equality, and freedom. The program is supposed to be implemented from 2010 to 2013.[7]

Education[edit]

Modern education was foreign to Omanis before 1940.[8] Before the reforms made by Sultan Qaboos, there were only three primary schools serving 900 boys, focusing mainly on reciting the Quran and learning basic math and writing skills.[9] In 1970, Sultan Qaboos introduced the universal education policy for both men and women,[10] increasing female attendance in schools from 0% in 1970 to 49% in 2007.[11] In the years following, 600,000 students, both male and female, enrolled in over 1000 schools, bringing Oman one step closer to the goal of "education for all".[12]

After this first stage of universal education was established, the Ministry of Education implemented measures to improve the quality of education. In the 1980s, the Omani government sponsored construction of school buildings, the providing of adequate equipment and textbooks, and the provision of teacher training. The reforms continue today and saw a tremendous growth in school attendance.[13] The gender equality was the next focus of the education reform, especially after Oman’s 1995 "Vision 2020" that focused on the country’s economic future. As a result, in 2003 to 2004, 48.4% of students were female and out of 32,345 teachers of both genders, 56% were female.[14]

Unfortunately, setbacks and prejudices still exist. Recently, the College of Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University banned the entrance of female students, claiming that the "outdoor setting" of engineering field work was not gender appropriate. Though students protested, many women had to transfer to other institutions, but in the recent events it is changed and even females are allowed to be in it.[15]

Religion[edit]

Omani society and legislation as a whole is based on the Islamic Sharia law which provides men and women with different rights and responsibilities. The country's progressive interpretation of Sharia law mean that women are allowed to participate in politics, society and workforce to the fullest extent possible, but at the same time not allowing them to ignore their responsibilities they have towards their families. The country has made a concerted effort to improve the rights of women in accordance with the Sharia, at the same time keeping their responsibilities in mind as well.

The rules of sexual modesty in Islamic culture require a woman to be modestly covered at all times, especially when traveling farther from the home. At home, the Omani woman wears a long dress to her knees along with ankle-length pants and a leeso, or scarf, covering her hair and neck. Multitudes of lively colored Jalabiyyas are also worn at home. Once outside the home, dress is varied according to regional tastes. For some of a more conservative religious background, the burqa is expected to be worn to cover her face in the presence of other males, along with the wiqaya, or head scarf, and the abaya, an all-enveloping cloak revealing only her hands and feet.[22] Many women from varying regions of the Sultanate wear the scarf to cover only their hair.

The cotton burqa is symbolic of the expectations of the ideal woman and act as a mark of respect to represent her modesty and honor as well as her status. The burqa, first worn by a young girl after her seven-day honeymoon, is on whenever she is in the presence of strangers or outside the home, covering most of her face from view. The highest and lowest classes of Omanis do not wear the burqa—the highest being the children and relatives of the Sultan and the lowest being the poorest women in the town. This makes the burqa a symbol of rank as well. Some burqa differ in regions and designs as well, varying in size, shape and color. The Quran,however, makes no references specific to the modern day burqa.[23]





Officer's Death Raises Safety Concerns For Alaska's Unarmed Cops – NPR
Martin Kaste
November 20, 2014

Americans expect police to carry guns. In most places, it's just assumed that law enforcement is always armed. But not everywhere.

One of the last exceptions to the rule is the native communities of rural Alaska, such as Manokotak, a Yupik village of about 400 in southwest Alaska. Hunters and fishermen live there in modest houses huddled along a few roads.

On a bright, blustery day in early November, the big event in Manokotak is an elder's birthday party; but on the other end of town, nobody's out but a couple of dogs and the village public safety officer (VPSO), Mike Myers.

He's delivering a restraining order to a man accused of sexually assaulting members of his family. This could get tense — Myers will tell the man to move out of his own home, and they both know an arrest warrant is imminent. If things get rough, Myers has pepper spray and a Taser, but no gun.

But today, like most days, he doesn't need one.

"It went all right," Myers says.

In fact, as Myers gets back into the car, a woman comes out of the house for a smoke and waves politely. It doesn't surprise him.

"If you're in the Lower 48, the world's different," Myers says.

He says here in these native villages there's a gentleness that cops in other places don't experience.

"I've arrested a lot of people, and I've actually had a lot of people thank me for arresting them and taking them to jail," he says.

Some VPSO's are natives, related to people who live in the villages. Others are outsiders like Myers. He does this work in part because he just loves the setting.

"This'll all be frozen before long," Myers says, pointing at the snow-dusted mountains rising beyond the tundra. "Can't wait."

Spring, summer and fall, you can get out of this village only by boat or plane. But in winter, people have their snowmobiles.

"Wintertime comes, I can go over those mountains, because now all this is froze, I can just keep going and going and going, until you run out of gas!" Myers says.

This remoteness affects how Myers does his job. He works alone. If he wants backup, he has to wait for armed state troopers to fly in, weather permitting. Given this isolation, he has come to realize that his most important law enforcement tool is his mouth.

"How well can you speak to an individual, how can you talk them down, can you make them understand common sense?" Myers says. "If you can get somebody to understand common sense, they're going to follow along with you."

But this kinder, gentler form of policing isn't foolproof. Sometimes, you get someone who simply won't listen to reason.

Mike Myers' predecessor in Manokotak was a VPSO named Tom Madole. He was well-liked and spent much of his time at the village school. On March 19, 2013, he was called to the home of Leroy Dick Jr., who'd been having a fight with his family. Dick was in a furious mood when the officer arrived, and he was holding a rifle.

"I shouldn't have done that," Dick said when he confessed the next day. "I know it's wrong."

In a jailhouse confession to local public radio reporter Dave Bendinger, Dick admitted that the officer was just trying to calm him down.

"He just wanted to talk to me, and I told him not to bother me, and, you know, I guess I went out angry and did what I did, you know," Dick says.

It was brutal. As Madole tried to run away, Dick shot him several times, then came up to the wounded man, cursed and finished him off.

The murder shook the decades-old belief that in rural Alaska it was better to have these village officers unarmed. This year, the state Legislature voted unanimously to allow VPSOs to be armed — if the local native entities that employ them decide that's what they want.

Some have said they do, but they've been slow to sign up their officers for the special training that would allow them to carry weapons. Walt Monegan, Alaska's former public safety commissioner, says the native communities' reluctance to arm the VPSOs is understandable.

"I think some communities are afraid of it because as a community, you're kind of admitting now that maybe your community is dangerous, and what community really wants to say that?" Monegan says.

Monegan is part native Alaskan, and he had a long career in policing. He was also chief of police in Anchorage. He says big city cops could learn something from the village public safety officers.

"VPSOs, especially since they actually know the individuals in their community better, they can have that ability to rely on those relationships and get someone to calm down, to play well with others or whatever it takes," Monegan says.

He says some people worry that these conciliatory skills would be lost if officers were armed. He doesn't. He says it's time Alaska's VPSOs carried weapons.

And that's increasingly the opinion in places like Manokotak, where they've hung a photo memorial to their fallen lawman in the tribal offices, and the kids still refer to the squad car as "Tom's car." There's a sense in these villages that they've lost their innocence as they struggle with domestic violence and alcoholism, and now even heroin.

"I don't mind seeing our VPSOs armed," says Louie John, a fisherman in Manokotak and a public safety volunteer. "For their protection and our protection."

"How would you feel, walking around with no rifle or some kind of firearm?" he adds. "You walk into some community that is very scary, how would you feel?"

Manokotak is now patrolled by Officer Myers. He's actually a "rover," splitting his time between several villages. He has contemplated getting the special training to carry a gun, but he doesn't seem overly eager. If he does, he says, he'll try to think of the gun as just another tool — and one that's not nearly as important as his ability to talk to people.



http://www.answers.com/Q/Which_countries_have_unarmed_police

Which countries have unarmed police?
Answer by Linda Ingham

Apart from the UK (Excluding Northern Ireland) how many other countries have generally unarmed police officers on patrol (When I say unarmed I mean without a firearm) , I have listed below some that I am aware of, I would be interested to carry out a survey of the countries where the police are still unarmed most of the time. 

Countries:- 

1. The United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) 
2. Republic of Ireland 
3. New Zealand 
4. Cook Islands 
5. St. Helena (British Overseas Territory) 
6. Falkland Islands (British Overseas Territory) 
7. Pitcairn Island (British Overseas Territory) 
8. Iceland 
9. Norway 
10. Switzerland (?)




“He's delivering a restraining order to a man accused of sexually assaulting members of his family. This could get tense — Myers will tell the man to move out of his own home, and they both know an arrest warrant is imminent. If things get rough, Myers has pepper spray and a Taser, but no gun.... He says here in these native villages there's a gentleness that cops in other places don't experience. 'I've arrested a lot of people, and I've actually had a lot of people thank me for arresting them and taking them to jail,' he says. Some VPSO's are natives, related to people who live in the villages. Others are outsiders like Myers. He does this work in part because he just loves the setting.... This remoteness affects how Myers does his job. He works alone. If he wants backup, he has to wait for armed state troopers to fly in, weather permitting. Given this isolation, he has come to realize that his most important law enforcement tool is his mouth. 'How well can you speak to an individual, how can you talk them down, can you make them understand common sense?' Myers says. 'If you can get somebody to understand common sense, they're going to follow along with you.'... On March 19, 2013, he was called to the home of Leroy Dick Jr., who'd been having a fight with his family. Dick was in a furious mood when the officer arrived, and he was holding a rifle. 'I shouldn't have done that,' Dick said when he confessed the next day. 'I know it's wrong.'... The murder shook the decades-old belief that in rural Alaska it was better to have these village officers unarmed. This year, the state Legislature voted unanimously to allow VPSOs to be armed — if the local native entities that employ them decide that's what they want.... There's a sense in these villages that they've lost their innocence as they struggle with domestic violence and alcoholism, and now even heroin.... Manokotak is now patrolled by Officer Myers. He's actually a "rover," splitting his time between several villages. He has contemplated getting the special training to carry a gun, but he doesn't seem overly eager. If he does, he says, he'll try to think of the gun as just another tool — and one that's not nearly as important as his ability to talk to people.”

Remember Sheriff Taylor of Mayberry, NC? He almost never carried a pistol., and much of Barney Fife's comic eagerness to get his one bullet came from the fact that he usually shot the gun accidentally. That was a very good TV show which made fun of small Southern towns, but very gently. About guns and police, though, I don't think we have a law-abiding society like these Alaskans and the Brits. We still would be much better off if our policemen used talking as Officer Myers does and rarely pulled their guns. Meanwhile we wait with some anxiety as the Ferguson Grand Jury comes to its decision. I will collect that article as soon as it comes out.




Are NOLA Schools Failing Students With Disabilities? – NPR
Eric Westervelt
November 20, 2014

In New Orleans, schools have long struggled to provide for students with physical, emotional and mental disabilities. Even before Hurricane Katrina, many parents had to fight for extra help. But many say things have only gotten harder since the city's public school district shifted almost entirely to charter schools.

Crystal Walker is a 34-year-old single mother of two boys, ages 7 and 9, and a 12-year-old daughter. All three attend Akili Academy charter school in New Orleans, and all have been diagnosed with various physical, emotional and learning disabilities, including ADHD and dyslexia.

Walker alleges that every time she has tried to get her kids extra help — help that federal disability law says she has a right to expect — the school has pushed back.
"They wanted for me to just remove my children," Walker says, "because they felt as though they didn't need to make the accommodations for them."

For example, her youngest son, James, struggles academically and has had serious behavioral problems. But when Walker sought help, she says, one of her son's teachers told her James' problems were her fault: "Basically that I'm a bad parent and that I send my children to school to be a nuisance and that I'm not supporting the school or the school culture."

Instead of receiving a thorough evaluation, 7-year-old James was repeatedly suspended, Walker says. "They just suspend him all the time. Suspend, suspend, suspend. Up until the point they recommended him for expulsion."

Walker's eldest son, Te'Saun, was diagnosed with ADHD and emotional troubles. He has had discipline problems. Under his school-sanctioned special education plan, he is allowed breaks, cool-down time — and counseling. Walker alleges that at various times, Akili Academy has made him "earn" those breaks with school performance.

On several occasions, Walker says, he was denied access to school trips by his teacher. "She was like, 'He cannot go on the field trip.' She didn't give no other alternative. She just flat out said 'no.' "

Walker has pursued legal action through both state and federal departments of education. Citing confidentiality, school officials would not discuss Walker's complaints. But the school points out that it has brought in a new principal, Allison Lowe. And even Walker concedes that Lowe is working hard to improve things.
Lowe says she has hired a full-time psychologist, put two others on contract and is crafting a new program to better support students with a broad range of disabilities, especially those with mental and emotional health challenges.

"In our city we know that we have a mental health crisis," Lowe says. "Right now we're putting together our version of a setting that a student who has very high needs could be in and be safe while also being able to learn."

These challenges are not specific to Akili Academy or Crystal Walker's family. According to the state, nearly 4,000 students with a range of disabilities are currently attending Recovery School District schools in New Orleans.

"The needs of children with disabilities have been an afterthought in New Orleans' all-charter landscape," says parent and activist Karran Harper Royal. She once had high hopes that the charter revolution — with its focus on innovation and change — would mean good things for her two sons with disabilities.

"I tell people I cannot believe I am longingly wishing for the old days of the Orleans Parish school system when it comes to children with special needs," she says.

Four years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuiton behalf of the city's special needs students citing the state's "systemic failures to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to educational services and are protected from discrimination." The case continues to drag on, to the point that the presiding federal judge recently ordered mediation and appointed another federal judge to help spur negotiations.

"Right now we are seeing a lot of schools here that are simply unable to serve the most vulnerable and highest-need kids," says Joshua Perry, executive director of the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights. "Unfortunately it's too frequently that we find schools here for whom baseline compliance [with federal law] would be an improvement."

Perry says the problem is systemic: Baked into the charter system is the fact that each school is essentially its own district. Which means they're not able to pool resources, knowledge or expertise the way traditional public school districts do to meet the needs of students with special needs.

Each charter is, in effect, its own island.

"That means that every school needs to be able to provide the full range of services a kid needs," Perry says. "That's simply impossible absent the kinds of economy of scale that are present in large school districts."

The state-backed Recovery School District, or RSD, is the city's charter school watchdog. And critics say it has so far failed to provide adequate oversight.

"True accountability and oversight for special education issues would be a very robust office within the Recovery School District that was able to look at a pattern of complaints from certain charter schools and then devise a way to correct those problems in a timely manner," Harper Royal says. "That does not exist."

Patrick Walsh, the director of school performance at the RSD, disagrees.

"We are pleased with where we stand now on monitoring," Walsh says, "but our monitoring is focused 100 percent on compliance. And we don't think that's enough."

He says the RSD is now implementing changes that go beyond mere legal compliance — to help students with disabilities thrive in the classroom.

Another sign of progress that charter supporters point to: theLouisiana Special Education Cooperative. It's a statewide nonprofit that says it offers schools "a comprehensive special education support network." Officials with Recovery School District and the charter support group New Schools for New Orleans suggest that the cooperative really helps fill in professional development gaps for New Orleans' charters. But it's slow progress. While the city has 80 charter schools, only nine are current members of the cooperative.

Many needs remain, says Perry with the Children's Rights Center: better training and monitoring of special education instructors, and improved oversight, counseling, support and mental health services for kids — as well as better communication with parents.

"We recognize this is a big ask," says Perry. "But it's a big ask that our kids deserve and that's embedded in state and federal law."



http://www.greatschools.org/school-choice/6987-public-private-charter-schools.gs
Public vs. private vs. charter schools
By Psyche Pascual

Because public schools are reliant on federal, state, and local tax dollars, funding can be cut. Also, public schools have to follow state guidelines on what they can teach and how children are evaluated.

Charter schools offer an institutional hybrid. Like traditional public schools, charter schools are free, and they can’t discriminate against students because of their race, gender, or disability. However, parents must usually submit a separate application to enroll a child in a charter school, and like private schools, spaces are often limited. Charter schools are independently run, and some are operated by for-profit private companies.

However, charter schools are still funded by government coffers and accountable to the government body — be it state, county, or district — that provides the charter. (Many successful charters do substantial additional fundraising as well.) If a school is mismanaged or test scores are poor, a charter school can be shut down.




“But many say things have only gotten harder since the city's public school district shifted almost entirely to charter schools. Crystal Walker is a 34-year-old single mother of two boys, ages 7 and 9, and a 12-year-old daughter. All three attend Akili Academy charter school in New Orleans, and all have been diagnosed with various physical, emotional and learning disabilities, including ADHD and dyslexia. Walker alleges that every time she has tried to get her kids extra help — help that federal disability law says she has a right to expect — the school has pushed back. 'They wanted for me to just remove my children,' Walker says, 'because they felt as though they didn't need to make the accommodations for them.'For example, her youngest son, James, struggles academically and has had serious behavioral problems. But when Walker sought help, she says, one of her son's teachers told her James' problems were her fault: 'Basically that I'm a bad parent and that I send my children to school to be a nuisance and that I'm not supporting the school or the school culture.'”

I was wondering why a charter school would be averse to keeping these three children with special needs in their classrooms. If the children really are very disruptive, and if the mother is abusive or simply not teaching her kids to be sufficiently compliant – and I have seen some kids like that – it could make sense. But two things from the greatschools.org article above would seem to add to that reason. One is that a charter school can be shut down for not maintaining a high enough educational achievement among its students. That would certainly be threatening. Another thing is that some of the charter schools are being run by for-profit organizations. If that is so, I think they will be unwilling to add to their costs by hiring extra help.

The good news is that a new principal named Allison Lowe has been hired who is trying to address the schools need to aid such children. “Walker has pursued legal action through both state and federal departments of education. Citing confidentiality, school officials would not discuss Walker's complaints. But the school points out that it has brought in a new principal, Allison Lowe. And even Walker concedes that Lowe is working hard to improve things. Lowe says she has hired a full-time psychologist, put two others on contract and is crafting a new program to better support students with a broad range of disabilities, especially those with mental and emotional health challenges. 'In our city we know that we have a mental health crisis,' Lowe says. 'Right now we're putting together our version of a setting that a student who has very high needs could be in and be safe while also being able to learn.'”





Despite Low Employment, Millennials Hold Key To Reviving South Texas – NPR
Hansi Lo Wang
November 20, 2014

This story is part of the New Boom series on millennials in America.

Welcome to boot camp for the young and unemployed in McAllen, Texas.

"We're going to go ahead and do this," says instructor Marco Lopez, leading a small classroom of millennials through do's and don'ts for job seekers inside a strip mall near McAllen.

In this area, only half of the people between 20 and 24 have a job, according to the Brookings Institution, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. In fact, among the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S., the McAllen area has the lowest employment rate for young millennials. The numbers aren't much better for older millennials between 25 and 34. Their employment rate is just 68 percent, placing the area 95th out of 100 by that measure.

The statistics are troubling to 20-year-old Dennis Trejo.

"I feel that extra pressure against me," says Trejo, a participant in this workshop for unemployed millennials with little or no work experience.

After a week of training at the Workforce Solutions Center in Edinburg, Texas, he spends a few months working for the local government. It's temporary, but it's also a rare chance, he says, to start building a legitimate career in his hometown.

"I've had a lot of opportunities to get affiliated with the gang here or get in with the cartels in Mexico," explains Trejo, who adds that it's easier to join a gang than to get a job.

Trejo says he wants to join law enforcement one day. He finally received his high school diploma this year after dropping out of high school at 17.

"I really want to be someone in life, because my mom never finished school. My dad never finished school. Most of my family, my uncles never finished school," he says.

'I Need To Get Out Of Here'

"Not many people get to graduate from high school. The few that do don't always find themselves fit for college, like they feel like they can't do it," says 20-year-old Misty Miller, a student at the University of Texas-Pan American, located just north of McAllen.

Miller, like the majority of residents in the area, is Mexican-American. She says family ties keep many millennials in the area even when job opportunities are scarce.

"Most Mexican kids don't leave home until they're married, if they have a good job or not," she says. "It's just being with your family."

Family drew 30-year-old Olmo Maldonado back to McAllen. His first big break in the tech industry came in California, where he worked as a software engineering intern at Google. At that time, he didn't see a future in the Rio Grande Valley.

"I was really skeptical and pessimistic about the Valley," he says. "My rule of thumb was I need to get out of here as quickly as possible."

That changed after Maldonado came home to help run his mother's marketing company for what was supposed to be a few months. Now, almost five years later, he's working to inspire other millennials, leading monthly "Tech Tuesdays" talks by local entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists.

He wants to add technology to sectors like healthcare, government and tourism that drive the economy here. As more local leaders in McAllen retire, he says he sees opportunities for a new generation.

"We can take part in boards. We can be part in legislation," he says. "We can be part in a lot of activities."

'I'll Be Needed Here'

"There is potential here, but not necessarily potential for college students graduating," says Leilani De Leon, 22, who is set to graduate from UTPA next year with a marketing degree.

Born and raised in McAllen, De Leon says she's ready to relocate for her career.

"I am open to going anywhere," she says. "If I got to leave, I got to leave."

For the area to prosper, millennials who do leave need to eventually come back, according to UTPA economics professor Salvador Contreras. He says McAllen's geography — 300 miles away from San Antonio, the nearest major U.S. city — puts the area at a disadvantage.

"The area as a whole is depressed. Millennials, along with Generation Xers and so on and so forth, everybody's in the same boat," he says.

Contreras says McAllen's population has grown faster than economic development here. That means, for now, there aren't enough good-paying jobs to go around. Highly-skilled millennials, he says, will be key to helping break this cycle of poverty in the future.

Miller, the UTPA student, believes she can play a role now. She plans to stay put after graduation and help the community overcome health issues like high obesity rates.

"I am studying nutrition," Miller explains. "So I think I'll be needed here."
And so will other millennials.




“In this area, only half of the people between 20 and 24 have a job, according to the Brookings Institution, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. In fact, among the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S., the McAllen area has the lowest employment rate for young millennials. The numbers aren't much better for older millennials between 25 and 34. Their employment rate is just 68 percent, placing the area 95th out of 100 by that measure.... After a week of training at the Workforce Solutions Center in Edinburg, Texas, he spends a few months working for the local government. It's temporary, but it's also a rare chance, he says, to start building a legitimate career in his hometown. 'I've had a lot of opportunities to get affiliated with the gang here or get in with the cartels in Mexico,' explains Trejo, who adds that it's easier to join a gang than to get a job.... 'Not many people get to graduate from high school. The few that do don't always find themselves fit for college, like they feel like they can't do it," says 20-year-old Misty Miller, a student at the University of Texas-Pan American, located just north of McAllen. Miller, like the majority of residents in the area, is Mexican-American. She says family ties keep many millennials in the area even when job opportunities are scarce. 'Most Mexican kids don't leave home until they're married, if they have a good job or not,' she says. "It's just being with your family.'... That changed after Maldonado came home to help run his mother's marketing company for what was supposed to be a few months. Now, almost five years later, he's working to inspire other millennials, leading monthly 'Tech Tuesdays' talks by local entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists. He wants to add technology to sectors like healthcare, government and tourism that drive the economy here. As more local leaders in McAllen retire, he says he sees opportunities for a new generation.”

Maldonado is working to drum up some business activity with his monthly Tech Tuesdays in which local entrepreneurs are teaching and encouraging the young people. That statement that most kids do not graduate from high school there is very discouraging, though. McAllen sounds like so many other very small places, they simply don't have the infrastructure to draw businesses to their area.

The Piedmont area of NC has taken off and is growing rapidly, while the eastern part of the state still has few cities of any size. The Piedmont was becoming industrialized when I lived there, and then the Research Triangle which encompassed the cities of Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham, brought in even more business. In the eastern section it was still largely rural and made up of very small towns. There is a wide disparity between the two classes of people there, most of whom are either very rich or very poor.

When I last went through there on the train I could see large cotton and tobacco fields out the window; there was a huge and smelly hog slaughtering plant; and I remember seeing a family of very poor people who were just sitting out on their wide porch watching the train go by. Young people in places like that do better to get that college degree, hopefully in something technical, and move away to Bethesda, MD or the Research Triangle Park of NC. I love the peacefulness of small places like that, and crops growing in the field are very beautiful, but I couldn't stand to be in a place where there weren't any movie theaters or good restaurants. Jacksonville is a good size – just over a million in the whole metro area, and plenty to do for entertainment. I'm very glad I don't have to look for work anymore, though, and grateful for HUD housing.