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Andrew Exum recommends the best books for Understanding the War in Afghanistan
The US has repeatedly misdiagnosed the war in Afghanistan. Former soldier, Andrew Exum, tells us about flawed policy, unhappy outcomes and what could and should have been different.
Interview by Sophie Roell
Buy all books
Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History
by Thomas Barfield
Heroes of the Age
by David B Edwards
Before Taliban
The Logic of Violence in Civil War
by Stathis N Kalyvas
On War
by Carl von Clausewitz
1 Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History by Thomas Barfield
2 Heroes of the Age by David B Edwards
3 Before Taliban by David B Edwards
4 The Logic of Violence in Civil War by Stathis N Kalyvas
5 On War by Carl von Clausewitz
You yourself fought in Afghanistan. I was wondering why you suggested understanding the war there as the title. Is there a lot about it people don't understand?
I've had a varied life over the past decade. I really started my professional life after the 9/11 attacks, as a young platoon leader in Afghanistan. I went back to Afghanistan in 2004 as a ranger platoon leader and I then went off and studied the Arabic-speaking world for several years. I earned my master's and PhD focused on Lebanon. But I started working on Afghanistan again in 2009 when I served as an adviser to General McChrystal and then went back briefly in 2010 to do an assessment for General Petraeus. If I look at my life over the past decade, even though I've probably spent more time in the Arabic-speaking world, Afghanistan is a place that I have kept going back to, much like the soldiers who are in the US military.
So you definitely know what you're talking about.
I'm not really sure. I would start with a position of intellectual humility. When I left the army I moved to Lebanon and spent several years studying the people, politics and cultures of the Arabic-speaking world. I think that regional studies background has made me much less likely to make broad claims about the people, cultures and languages of Afghanistan. When I first went into Afghanistan in the winter of 2001 and fought in Operation Anaconda in March of 2002, I thought I knew pretty much everything I needed to know as a young platoon leader. I knew how to manoeuvre my squad, I knew how to fire my weapon with accuracy, I knew how to run my platoon and to engage with the enemy. I thought that was enough. But one of the books I cited was Clausewitz's On War. The first and most far-reaching act of judgement that the statesman-commander has to make is to establish the kind of war on which he is embarking. For me, that means studying the human terrain of the environment in which you're operating. Like a lot of young military officers, I don't think I was humble enough about the environment in which I was operating as a young officer. I would like to think that over the years I have become more aware of all that I do not understand about the environment. When I went back to look at Afghanistan from the perspective of a think-tank scholar and as a civilian adviser to the commander there, I like to say that I knew more of what I did not know.
And knowledge of the environment is essential for success?
Yes. I remember when I first went to Afghanistan I'd read Ahmed Rashid's Taliban, which is a great book. But the soldiers who work in Afghanistan today – especially those that spend over a year in the country – need to have a much more granular understanding of Afghan culture. They're never going to be anthropologists with machine guns, but they should be able to understand the local dynamics better than I did when I first went there. One of the problems you have with military officers – and I speak as someone who used to be a military officer – is that they want to know the one book they need to read. The one thing they need to do. Often, working in an environment like Afghanistan or the Arabic-speaking world, more important than having the right set of data is being comfortable with all that you're not going to be able to understand. I especially like the David Edwards book, Heroes of the Age, for this. It highlights a lot of the ambiguities and contradictions within Afghan society and culture and history that are unrealistic for a US military officer to try to wrap his head around in a nine-month tour.
In terms of people not understanding this decade-long war, what is it that frustrates you most?
As a veteran of the war, what frustrates me more than anything else is that, for the most part, American society has waged war in a country that it hasn't bothered to learn much about, and it has waged the war with young men and women that it really doesn't know. Only 0.5% of America's population serves in the military, so the percentage of soldiers, marines and airmen that serve in Afghanistan is smaller than that. So there is this disconnect between American society and the military that serves in Afghanistan, and there is this disconnect between this large national project in Afghanistan – this conflict that we're waging and a variety of developmental activities associated with that conflict – and the American people. They really don't have any connection with it. As someone who has, at times, advised military commanders and often finds myself in conversations with younger military officers, guys that are doing the types of job that I used to as a young officer, I just try to promote a degree of learning about the environment before people go into it.
Which gets us into the books.
The one-volume introduction to Afghanistan that I always recommend to people is Thomas Barfield's Afghanistan. The two others that I really enjoy are by David Edwards, who is a social anthropologist at Williams College [Massachusetts]. He is just a delightful writer and an accomplished and fantastic anthropologist working on Afghanistan. So those three books by those two anthropologists I always recommend to people. If you only have time to read one book on Afghanistan, make sure it's Tom Barfield's – if you have time to read a little more, make sure it's the two books by David Edwards.
Let's look first at the Thomas Barfield book. He is an old Afghanistan hand, he has lived in Afghan villages, he's an academic – but is it also a readable book?
Yes. The first three books that I've recommended are all eminently readable. Both Barfield and Edwards are obviously Afghan hands, they know a lot about Afghanistan, but they present the material in a very accessible way. They really are a delight to read. When you think about anthropological texts on Afghanistan, you think of pretty dry reading – that's not these books at all. They're really delightful, if very sobering.
Tell me a bit more about the Barfield book specifically.
Barfield's book, which is a cultural and political history, was published in the spring of 2010. Oh, had this book been published just one decade earlier! When the US military and its diplomats and allies went into Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, we really didn't know much about the country. When I went back in the summer of 2009 I was shocked to discover that most people working in Afghanistan didn't know much more about the country in 2009 than they did in 2001. Tom Barfield is a scholar whom a whole lot of other scholars, military officers and diplomats have a lot of time for, and this is a very accessible one-volume history of Afghanistan. It serves as a great overview for anybody working there, whether he or she be a military officer, diplomat, aid and development worker or private investor. The things I would stress about this book are firstly that it's accessible. Secondly, that it's really quite funny – he's a witty writer. Thirdly, that it's become – for better or worse (mostly for better I would argue) – a reference point for anyone working on Afghanistan. I've seen this book on the shelves of everyone from serious scholars to squad leaders to General David Petraeus.
Let's discuss the next book, by David Edwards. As you mentioned, he is also an anthropologist.
David Edwards wrote two books. The first book, Heroes of the Age, looks at the competition within Afghanistan between tribe, state and Islam. I remember I finished this book flying from Herat to Mazar-e-Sharif in the summer of 2009. The conclusion is haunting. Edwards writes, "I contended that Afghanistan's central problem was Afghanistan itself, specifically certain profound moral contradictions that have inhibited the country from forging a coherent civil society. These contradictions are deeply rooted in Afghan culture, but they have come to the fore in the last 100 years since the advent of the nation-state, the laying down of permanent borders, and the attempt to establish an extensive state bureaucracy and to invest that bureaucracy with novel forms of authority and control." That was a very sobering thing to read, especially as we were trying to design a comprehensive counterinsurgency campaign in order to increase the legitimacy of the government of Afghanistan. Centralised authority and a strong state is something that Afghanistan has never really had.
And Edwards tells that story by looking at three individuals – a tribal khan, a Muslim saint and a prince who became king of the newly created state.
Yes, he traces a person's story and shows how that person says something about Afghanistan. For example, he traces the story of Amir Abdur Rahman, who was able to forge a strong state. But then, when he died, his body had to be smuggled out of the capital in order to be buried, because people were so enraged by his heavyhandedness. It was one of the more sobering books that I read on Afghanistan and the tension that exists between various different centres of authority.
is set in the 19th century. The second book you've picked by Edwards, Before Taliban, is more contemporary.
It starts with what happened in 1978 and Afghanistan's descent into violence, and brings us up to speed on developments in Afghanistan up until [the] September 11 [attacks]. Because if you look at the history of Afghanistan in the 20th century, it's a pretty peaceful country. As William Maley has written, Afghanistan is really the exception in Asia in the 20th century. When much of the continent of Asia was at war, Afghanistan was basically at peace until 1978. It's not true that Afghanistan has always been a country at war with itself. It's always been a country where authority has been contested, but it's mostly, up until August 1978, been the story of a country at peace with itself and its neighbours. Edwards traces Afghanistan's descent in 1978 into the Afghanistan of conflict that we tend to think of when we see it today.
Your next choice is The Logic of Violence in Civil War by Stathis Kalyvas. This is not about Afghanistan, but rather a book that made a big contribution to the theoretical framework for understanding violence in civil war.
Yes, in picking five books on the war in Afghanistan, I chose three books on Afghanistan and two on conflict itself. The reason I chose this book is that it had a revolutionary effect on the way social scientists think about civil wars in general. Prior to the publication of this book, social science literature viewed political allegiance and loyalty in civil wars as being primarily exogenous. You have a loyalty, you stick with that loyalty, that's who you are, that's what defines you during the conflict. This book challenges that notion.
In terms of the conflict itself, what concerns both an insurgent or a counterinsurgent, or the parties to a civil war, is really behaviour. How do you behave during the conflict? And if you look at the way populations behave throughout civil wars, whether or not they collaborate, and who they collaborate with, is largely determined by who controls that population.
This book had a revolutionary effect. Some would argue that Kalyvas goes too far in arguing that loyalty is all endogenous and that he glosses over things like religious identity and tribal identity. But, in general, if you're trying to predict how a population is going to behave, you'll be more successful if you look at what party or combatant controls a certain area or part of the population than what the pre-war political preferences are. That has direct policy implications. If you're trying to create collaboration within a certain area, you know that you have to exert control over the population, you can't take for granted a person's political loyalty. By the same token, you can't just write off a population. One of the things we saw in Iraq is that in areas where the US military was able to surge, you started to see rates of collaboration go up. You started to see concerned local citizens, you started to see people joining police forces. Part of the logic of the US campaign design in Afghanistan was underpinned by these observations about the way populations behave in civil wars.
And in Afghanistan as well, from your observations on the ground, there was validation of Kalyvas's theory?
Yes. Kalyvas writes that the higher the level of control exercised by a political actor in an area, the higher the level of civilian collaboration with this political actor will be. Populations in civil wars are basically trying to survive. They'll do this in a number of different ways: They'll survive by hedging, they'll survive by swinging back and forth between different factions, they'll survive by autarchy ("A pox on both your houses – I'm just living for myself!"). Their goal is just to survive. Both the insurgent and the counterinsurgent or the various parties to the civil war actually need the population to do something different. They need them to take sides. At the very least, they need them to start supporting the institutions of the state that are necessary in order to defeat the insurgency, like joining the police forces, for example. We've seen that in Afghanistan. The more the counterinsurgent forces are able to exert control over an area, the more collaboration with counterinsurgency forces go up. So have we seen The Logic of Violence in Civil War play out in Afghanistan? Yes, I think we have. The two questions are, is this drop in violence sustainable and is it worth it?
Maybe not. It's only sustainable if those counterinsurgent forces, which are predominantly US and allied, can be replaced by Afghan security forces. In a place like Helmand province, for example, the US has invested billions of dollars. The overall question of whether or not that expenditure was worth it is ultimately a political question.
Your last book is On War, by the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz.
If you're trying to understand any conflict you still have to start with the dead Prussian. If we're assigning a reading list to understand the war in Afghanistan, we first have to understand war as a phenomenon. It has a certain logic. There's still no other book that's as significant in terms of understanding war as On War. First, as Clausewitz said, you have to establish the kind of war on which you're embarking. One of the criticisms of the counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan is that there's been a disconnect between counterinsurgency operations and the political aims of the decision-makers back home. There hasn't been any strategic bridge. I think that's probably a good criticism. The operations in Afghanistan have taken on a life of their own, they have become disconnected from the politics. There's a divide between the civil policymakers and the military on the ground, and I think both sides are responsible for that.
Are you saying that when Clausewitz argues that the first thing you have to decide is what type of war you're embarking on, in the case of Afghanistan that wasn't done properly?
That is one area in which we have failed in Afghanistan. We've misdiagnosed the conflict at several key junctures. I'm not sure we even understand the war right now. I always think the US and its allies have been a step too slow in understanding the conflict in Afghanistan. For many years, we continued to fight what we called a counter-terror campaign. We then decided to fight a counterinsurgency campaign, but decided to fight it without the resources we knew would be necessary. Then, even after we surged resources, we were dealing with a partner in Afghanistan…
Traditionally, the problem a government faces when it faces an insurgency is a lack of capacity. When we think about counterinsurgency, we think about the problem being the capacity of the Afghan government. But one of the observations we made in 2009 was that the problem in Afghanistan was not necessarily the lack of capacity of the Afghan government, but also its behaviour. We've never created a political campaign to go along with our military campaign. We've waged operations to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al-Qaeda and to degrade the Taliban, but we've never come up with a coherent political strategy to address the behaviour of the Afghan government at all levels.
Are you talking about corruption?
The problem is not corruption per se. A state can be corrupt and still exist. The United States deals with corruption. The problem in Afghanistan – and one of the things that disheartens even people like me, who have invested a lot of time and sweat into the war in Afghanistan – is things like the Kabul Bank fiasco. You have officials who not only want to eat the golden egg, but also kill and cook the goose that laid it. The problem we have in Afghanistan is this mentality – in large part fed by the psychology of a population that's been living with conflict for 30 years – that is all about maximising returns over the shortest period of time, without thinking about long-term institution building. In the case of Kabul Bank, people just tried to make themselves as rich as possible without really worrying about whether or not the bank itself was going to collapse. We have never developed a coherent strategy to use our influence over Hamid Karzai and others, to affect the behaviour of key Afghan decision-makers.
A lot of people who read On War won't themselves be soldiers. As a former solider, was there a part in the book where you really thought, "Wow, he was writing at the time of the Napoleonic wars, but this is so true today!"
Personally, I think books one, two and eight [of On War] are just as relevant today as they were when they were written. In book eight there is a section about how war is only a branch of political activity. War is in no sense autonomous, it is simply a continuation of political intercourse with the addition of other means. And yet, you've seen the conflict in Afghanistan being prosecuted almost entirely by the US and allied militaries without really thinking through the political nature of the war. Had we thought through the war in Afghanistan as a political problem, that the end goal was not necessarily the destruction of the enemy's fighting forces, but political reconciliation, had we thought through the political behaviour of the Afghan government, then I think we'd look at a campaign that looks very different from the one we've been waging.
Are you in favour of the planned withdrawal by the end of 2014?
I've co-authored a paper that talks through how the US can draw down. I think the US needs to have an enduring commitment to the region, but it's entirely reasonable for the US and allied taxpayers to demand that the war in Afghanistan be fought with fewer resources and in a way that does not tie down the vast majority of our military and intelligence capabilities in a landlocked country in Central Asia. We have to be honest here – the US has very few interests in Afghanistan. It makes no sense for the US to be over-committed to Afghanistan over the long term. Personally, I wish the Obama administration had done things a little differently. I wish we had made a long-term commitment to Afghanistan with fewer resources. Instead, we made a commitment with a lot of resources but over a very short period of time. The way we committed to Afghanistan has encouraged behaviour among the Afghans – and Pakistanis as well – to simply try to get as much out of the United States and its allies over the shortest period of time possible.
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Andrew Exum
Andrew Exum is a former US army officer who served in Afghanistan, an American scholar of the Middle East and a fellow of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where he previously wrote the blog Abu Muqawama. He participated in General Stanley McChrystal's review of the American strategy in Afghanistan, and is the author of This Man's Army, a combat memoir
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Long-term analysis of irrational water use processes based on cartographic materials and remote sensing data
Andrey Medvedev1, Natalia Alekseenko2, Natalia Telnova1, and Alexander Koshkarev1 Andrey Medvedev et al. Andrey Medvedev1, Natalia Alekseenko2, Natalia Telnova1, and Alexander Koshkarev1
1Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
2Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Keywords: shoreline changes, ultra-high resolution, UAV, mountain lakes
Abstract. Assessment and monitoring of environmental features based on large-scale and ultra-high resolution data, including remote sensing data, which have advantages in the repeatability of information and the speed of processing of incoming data, often face issues of completeness and duration of time series in retrospective analysis. Cartographic materials and remote sensing data allow monitoring for rapidly changing natural and anthropogenic features in the study areas, but very often face a problem when an event or phenomenon occurred many years ago and it is necessary to make a complete chronology.
Ultra-high-resolution data, remote sensing data and the results of the subsequent geoinformation analysis are widely used to solve problems in a number of socio-economic areas of territorial development, in particular:
in environmental studies – identification of local sources of water pollution, the consequences of their impact onecosystems, synthetic assessment of the ecological state of the territories and their comfort;
in the management of various resources, including water – determination of biological productivity of water bodies, identification of water bioresources, detection of anthropogenically provoked and natural changes in water mass,implementation for glaciological studies, etc.
Within the framework of the current study, a multi-time analysis of the water area and the coastal strip of Lake Sevan (the Republic of Armenia) at an altitude of about 1900 m above sea level, was carried out. The lake has repeatedly beensubjected to changes in the water level of the reservoir in the past. The 1930s and in the period between 1949 to 1962 were noted by the most intense drop in water level (more than 10 meters). In the 1990s, there was a slight increase inthe level, and then until 2001, the level of the lake continued to decrease.
The main factors affecting aquatic ecosystems and the overall ecological status of the lake are:
Repeated changes in the water level of the reservoir in the past and its expected fluctuations in the future.
The uncontrolled discharge of harmful substances caused great damage to the lake, which affected the water qualityand biodiversity of this unique natural site.
Untimely cleaning of flooded forests, which increases the risk of eutrophication of the lake.
The poorly organized system of waste disposal and unauthorized landfills of municipal solid waste, as well as animalwaste.
Unauthorized construction of recreational facilities and capital structures in the coastal and water protection zonewhich may be flooded.
The information support of the study is based on the materials of satellite imagery from the worldview2, SPOT 5/6,Resurs-P, Canopus-B, materials from the international space station (ISS), materials of archival aerial photography anddata obtained from the UAVs, in combination with other map data sources in the range of scales 1 : 5 000 – 1 : 100 000,including digital topographic maps, land use maps, statistical and literary data. In fact, cartographic materials andremote sensing data provide a time history of 75 years, from large-scale topographic maps of 1942–1943 to highlydetailed images of 2017–2018.
According to the results of the study, it was possible to establish the position of the coastline for different time periods.The period between 1949 and 1962, when there was the most critical drop in the water level, was especially interestingand had not been studied before. Archival aerial photographs for 1943 and 1963 allowed to reconstruct the position ofthe coastline for almost every year of irrational water use.
How to cite: Medvedev, A., Alekseenko, N., Telnova, N., and Koshkarev, A.: Long-term analysis of irrational water use processes based on cartographic materials and remote sensing data, Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 1, 245, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-1-245-2019, 2019.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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MINI GALLERY 1
Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 31: The Intersection of Religion and Martial Arts
The true kinship between Zen and the martial arts lies in the fact that both can lead us toward the spirit of the way: because any conflict, whether it takes place within the body and mind or outside them, is always a battle against the self.
-TAISEN DESHIMARU (1914-1982)
Last week in Part 30 (The Source of Violence in Religion), we have explored how even Jesus' Sermon on The Mount as well as Islam's literal meaning of submission, surrender, peace or safety have failed to curb sectarian violence and religious wars for centuries. As outlined in Part 10 (The Pope who would have Burned his own Father), we need look no further than the Middle East—the cradle of human civilization and great monotheist Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). It has been a hot spot plagued by sectarian violence, bloody territorial disputes, protracted wars, and suicidal nihilism since the end of World War II. Somehow the eschatology of Abrahamic religions have generated unintended violent consequences.
Now let's explore how Zen Buddhism*, a nontheist religion, has its own unintended consequences, though in an entirely different direction. (First and foremost, though I have some interest in Zen Buddhism, my knowledge is quite basic. There are many excellent books about Zen Buddhism for those who want to explore further. The following is not a crash course in Zen Buddhism by any stretch of the imagination, much less an effort to proselytize anyone.)
"The prophet is without honor in his own land," Jesus once said. In 520 A.D. a Buddhist monk (not necessarily a prophet, but widely acknowledged as the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism), Bodhidharma (448-527), journeyed from India to China to spread Buddhism, and settled at a monastery called Shao Lin ("Little Forest"). In those days, it was common for Indian Buddhist monks to travel to China where their Buddhist teachings were better received than in India, a Hindu stronghold. Although Buddhism was born in India, it had found a more nurturing environment in China for 3 (three) reasons. First, Buddhism's temporal orientation in the present life—no promise of afterlife whatsoever—has never been quite compatible with that of Hinduism, which strongly believes in the rebirth and reincarnation of souls in afterlife. Whereas Buddhism accepts death at face value, Hinduism regards death merely as a temporary cessation of the physical body.
Second, there was an issue of linguistic incompatibility as explained by Alan Watts (1915-1973), a respected authority on the Judeo-Christian traditions, as well as an expert author of many books on Zen Buddhism and Taoism. Indian Buddhism did not translate well into the Chinese culture—then already a solid 2000-year old civilization under the influence of both nontheist Taoism and Confucianism. Recorded in Sanskrit, Indian Buddhism was abstract, speculative, poetic, philosophical, and metaphysical. On the other hand, the Chinese language is extremely practical, prosaic, and concrete as it is based on logograms (symbols that represent words or phrases) instead of phonemes (units of syllables within a word).
Third, in China, Buddhism found the perfect match made in heaven. The Chinese native philosophy of Taoism—which stresses the principle of yin and yang, living in harmony with nature and the Tao ("universal way")—has always shared Buddhism' temporal orientation in the present life and nonchalant standpoint in afterlife. (Taoism classic text, Tao Te Ching, written more than 2500 years ago by Lao Tzu, is the second most translated book in the world after the Bible.) Indian Buddhism better compatibility with Chinese Taoism facilitated the amalgamation and syncretism between the two religions to become a kind of "hybrid" called Chan Buddhism in China, which eventually became Zen Buddhism in Japan. As the most secular among all branches in Buddhism, Zen Buddhism is not merely a philosophy; it became the spiritual foundation and creative force for Japanese arts of painting, landscaping, flower arrangement, poetry, calligraphy, tea ceremony, architecture, swordsmanship and martial arts like karate, judo, aikido, kendo, etcetera. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
When Bodhidharma settled down at the Shao Lin monastery in the sixth century, he was disappointed to discover the monks were quite weak and unable to withstand the austere ways of Buddhism—a frugal lifestyle consisting of extended periods of fasting. According to legend, he then retired into a cave and after nine uninterrupted years of meditation facing a blank wall, he devised a set of physical exercises for the monks. Some of the exercises included yoga-like asanas and were intended to regulate and strengthen the monks' prana or chi (or qi) flow in order to improve their health and stamina.
These exercises were proven to be so beneficial that Bodhidharma's chi kung or qi gong exercises of holistic system which coordinate body posture, movement, breathing techniques, and meditation are still practiced today for health, spirituality, and martial arts training. Bodhidharma exercises formed the building blocks for Shao Lin Chinese martial arts developed by Buddhist monks to defend themselves from lawlessness due to endless civil wars. While in China, it evolved into kung fu, kuntao, and jeet kune do (popularized by Bruce Lee); in Japan, it evolved into karate, judo, aikido, and ju-jitsu; and in Korea, it evolved into hwarangdo, hapkido, and taekwondo.
Thus we arrive at the intersection of religion and martial arts, which is not only interesting, but quite revealing. Just juxtapose (a) the violence in religion with (b) the spirituality and pacifism of martial arts, and we may learn more than we bargained for about the eschatology of Abrahamic religions. If only we are willing to learn…
* Zen Buddhism, an offshoot of Mahayana Buddhism in Japan, should not be confused with the main three branches of Buddhism: (1) Theravada, mostly practiced in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka; (2) Mahayana, mostly practiced in China, Japan, and Korea; and (3) Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism mostly practiced in Tibet and Mongolia.
[To be continued.]
Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter
Part 30: The Source of Violence in Religion
There is a joke about a teaching nun who asked her young students what they would like to be when they grew up. A little girl raised her hand and said, "When I grow up I want to be a prostitute." This reply shocked the nun tremendously and she fainted on the spot. When she regained her consciousness, she asked the little girl, "What did you say you wanted to be when you grew up?"
"A prostitute."
"Oh, praise the Lord," the nun replied. "I thought you said you wanted to be a Protestant."
The joke may make us laugh, but sectarianism is surely no laughing matter. Among Christians, Catholics and Protestants had killed each other (at least) in the European Wars of Religion (1524-1648), the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969-2002), and in the Rwandan genocide (1994). It was reported that a Rwandan Roman Catholic bishop once said, "(t)he best catechists, those who filled our churches on Sundays, were the first to go with machetes in their hands." Although the genocide itself was ethnically motivated, the Human Rights Watch reported that a number of Roman Catholic leaders in Rwanda failed to condemn the genocide publicly at the time. In fact, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted several Rwandan Roman Catholic priests and nuns as well as a Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor for their roles in the genocide. So much for following in the footsteps of Jesus.
Among Muslims, sectarian violence has been as old as Islam itself. As illustrated in The Sunni-Shia Divide - A CFR InfoGuide Presentation published by the Council on Foreign Relations, Islam's schism has simmered for fourteen centuries, not long after Mohammed's death in 632. It all started over a disagreement about who should be his legitimate successor. The Sunnis, who argued that leadership should be awarded to qualified individuals, elected Abu Bakr, a companion of Mohammed, as the first caliph. Not so, said the Shias, who argued that the legitimate leaders must come through Mohammed's bloodline, namely the sons of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima, (Mohammed's daughter). As they say, the rest is history.
The history of Islam has been defined by perpetual bloodbath among Sunnis and Shias. Even today, rivalry, proxy wars and mutual hatred between Sunnis (led by Saudi Arabia) and Shias (led by Iran) have triggered innumerable civil wars, bloody persecution, and sectarian violence in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, and beyond. Millions have died and will die because of violence, cruelty, idiotic bigotry and suicidal nihilism committed in the name of Allah—all due to a disagreement that occurred almost 1,400 years ago. Suicide bombings, decapitations and mass shootings on innocent civilians are the products of this perpetual schism. (In addition, other sects in Islam, particularly Ahmadiyya and Sufism, have also been considered as "heretics and non-Muslim" by the Sunnis. Thousands of Ahmadis and Sufis in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, have been subjected to persecution and systematic oppression, even public stoning.)
Aren't religions supposed to provide compassion, grace, tolerance, and spirituality for believers, instead of making them violent, cruel, and murderous? In Christianity, the significance of the Sermon On The Mount (Matthew 5-7) cannot be overstated: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, … Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy, … Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." In Arabic, the word "Islam" may mean submission or surrender, but also peace and safety. Bluntly speaking, what is the X factor which may explain this paradox? Why pious, devout and holier-than-thou believers tend to be cruel and violent? Why do they act in contrary to what they claim to believe?
Eschatology.
Oxford defines eschatology as "(t)he part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind." The concept of eschatology is present in all organized religions, except Buddhism. Thanks to eschatology, believers in Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) are constantly bombarded—consciously and subconsciously—with the notions of last day judgment, Battle of Armageddon, heaven and hell, and perhaps martyrdom in its most perverted form: screaming Allahu Akbar then blowing oneself (and others involuntarily) up to pieces. In Judaism and Christianity, according to the Book of Revelation, Armageddon will be "the site of a gathering of armies for a battle during the end times." In Islam, Muslims believe in Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Resurrection Day) or Yawm ad-Dīn (Judgment Day) which is believed to be "the final assessment of humanity by Allah, consisting of the annihilation of all life, resurrection and judgment." A polytheist religion, eschatology in Hinduism is more cyclical than the linear Abrahamic monotheist religions.
Buddhism, unlike other organized religions, is a nontheist religion. Thus it does not promise an afterlife like others do. The closest eschatological notion in Buddhism may be outlined in Sutta Pitaka, which states that "Gautama Buddha's teachings would disappear after 5,000 years," but does not include any reference to anything like the Battle of Armageddon. As we'll discover soon, the subtle eschatological difference between nontheistic Buddhism and other theistic religions—i.e. the Battle of Armageddon and any form of judgment, or the lack thereof—may reveal the source of violence in most organized religions.
Part 29: The Importance of Intrapersonal Intelligence
to Curb Self-Aggrandizement and Filter Religious Dogmatism
Why do seemingly smart people believe in, may I say, stupid things? A 2016 Presidential Candidate who happens to be a retired neurosurgeon believes that "Joseph built Egypt's pyramids to store grain." An article titled Science Education is No Guarantee of Skepticism (Skeptic; Vol. 9, No. 3) by Richard Walker, Steven J. Hoekstra, and Rodnet J. Vogl found no correlation between scientific knowledge and paranormal beliefs. The authors concluded that: "Students that scored well on these [science knowledge] tests were no more or less skeptical of pseudoscientific claims than students that scored very poorly. Apparently, the students were not able to apply their scientific knowledge to evaluate these pseudoscientific claims. We suggest that this inability stems in part from the way that science is traditionally presented to students: Students are taught what to think but not how to think" (emphasis added). Then there was Mohamed Atta, ring leader of 9/11 attack, who believed in 72 virgins as heavenly reward for his barbaric act, despite his degree in architecture from Cairo University and enrollment in Urban Planning at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg (Germany) for a Master's degree. Where is the disconnect?
Homo sapiens' psychobiological instinct to imitate others mindlessly as discussed in Part 26 (Mob Mentality and Groupthink) seems to be the origin of rote learning style that mainly relies on repetition and thus eliminate the development of critical thinking. Plain and simple, to imitate (taking something or following someone as a model, or copying a person's speech or mannerisms) is basically to repeat (saying or doing the same thing again). Whether we call it aping, parroting, or regurgitating, successful memorization and the holy grail to cookie cutter academic degrees (with all their rights, privileges and honors) eliminates development of critical thinking.
By default, critical thinking (the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment - Oxford) means thinking outside the box, even thinking against the grain, and is the opposite of imitation and repetition. It also functions as a filter to weed out not only paranormal beliefs, but all sorts of mythologies, ideological and religious propaganda, pseudo-science, and misinformation. As concluded in the Skeptic (Vol. 9, No. 3) article, why is there a disconnect between scientific knowledge and paranormal beliefs? Why are students that scored well not able to apply their scientific knowledge to evaluate pseudoscientific claims? As the authors conclude, because students are taught what to think but not how to think!
How in the world can the education system fail so miserably? Since primary and secondary education in many countries are still based on the rote learning system, it is critical to distinguish between education and intelligence. By definition, education (the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university - Oxford), is provided by an external force, usually by teachers, instructors, or parents. Education is knowledge acquired in formal learning environments, usually at schools and colleges. On the other hand, intelligence (the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills - Oxford) is an innate and natural ability that we are born with. Intelligence is one's actual ability to learn, acquire, assimilate, synthesize then apply new knowledge properly. While education is an extrinsic or external force provided by formal education, intelligence is intrinsic and an internal force. While education is acquired, intelligence is inherited. One can be highly intelligent without being highly educated, and vice versa.
Ted Turner (CNN), Steve Jobs (Apple), Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Lauren, John Lennon, Wolfgang Puck, Frank Lloyd Wright and Woody Allen, are all college dropouts. Aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright never went to college. The same with Ray Bradbury—famous science fiction author—because his parents could not afford college tuition. He sold newspapers on the street corners of Los Angeles during the day and immersed himself in libraries at night. "I never went to college. I went to the library." Though he graduated from the library at 28, his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) became required freshman reading in many colleges. No one would call any of these trailblazers as unintelligent. Formal education is merely a means to spark one's own intelligence.
It's useful to consider the Multiple Intelligence Theory that was first introduced by Harvard developmental psychologist Howard Gardner (b. 1943) in his book, Frames of Mind (1983). Gardner's theory posits that there are seven types of intelligence; respectively linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences. Einstein, for example, excelled in logical-mathematical intelligence, as Mozart did in musical and Novak Djokovic does in bodily-kinesthetic. [While initially Gardner described seven multiple intelligence, in 1994 he added naturalistic intelligence as the eighth type intelligence of being.]
Our current educational system is heavily biased toward an exclusive appreciation of linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. Memorization of phonics (reading), the periodic table (chemistry), multiplication tables (arithmetic), irregular verb conjugation (grammar), anatomy (medicine), even legal cases or statutes (law) is highly rewarded. Those with visual-spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and interpersonal intelligences are still appreciated, as the society-at-large needs architects, musicians, athletes, and teachers. But what about intrapersonal intelligence, the ability to know oneself, to filter junk information, that is perhaps the most underrated?
The word intrapersonal means 'within the self'. Since this underrated intelligence is pursued through self-awareness or introspection, the student is also the teacher himself (or herself). Thus intrapersonal intelligence can only be developed over time, through independent study, self-discipline, contemplation and introspection. After all, it takes time to be in tune with one's inner voice and synthesize wisdom kernels from multiple sources. Intrapersonal intelligence does not only entail the ability to filter junk information and distinguish between true wisdom kernels and misleading propaganda. Most importantly, it curbs the desire for self-aggrandizement that is the source of religious dogmatism and fanaticism. Arguably Lao Tzu, Buddha, Zen masters, Sufi mystics, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Krishnamurti, and the 14th Dalai Lama have excelled in intrapersonal intelligence.
Thus one can be highly educated, with multiple degrees, a Master's or even a PhD degree; that does not automatically make that person intelligent. There are two reasons why smart people still believe in stupid things. First, education does not guarantee intelligence. The acquisition of information and knowledge acquired in formal education does not necessarily translate into the development of insight and wisdom which are the hallmarks of intelligence. Second, education without intelligence equals brainwashing, because intelligence—especially intrapersonal intelligence—functions to filter religious propaganda and misinformation and curb self-aggrandizement.
Part 28: Reflection on Today's World Hotspot
A donkey with a load of holy books is still a donkey.
-SUFI PROVERB
The relentless inclination to ape or imitate among Homo sapiens may be attributed to how one learns in a certain culture. As discussed in Part 23 (Do We Choose a Belief or Does a Belief Choose Us?), statistically speaking, one's religion depends very much on where he or she was born; i.e. a Sunni if born in Afghanistan; a Southern Baptist if in Atlanta; a Catholic if in Buenos Aires; a Hindu if in Mumbai; a Mormon if in Salt Lake City; and so on. The golden rule of real estate (Location, Location, Location) applies.
However, there is still another predictive factor: learning styles. We all learn differently. People who are reared in different cultures also learn to learn different things differently, even if they learn from the same book. All other things being equal, ceteris paribus, even within the same religion, different cultures have different preferred modes of learning, whether by memory (verbal-linguistic), cognition (logical-mathematical), active participation (discussion), demonstration (visual-spatial), interaction (interpersonal-social), contemplation (intrapersonal) or any combination thereof. The aforementioned taxonomy is but one among many offered by different experts in educational psychology and pedagogy. Dr Richard Feldman and Barbara Soloman from North Carolina State University for example, introduced The Index of Learning Styles (2002) consisting of four dimensions of learning styles in which each dimension is a continuum from one's learning preference to another: sensory to intuitive, visual to verbal, active to reflective, and sequential to global.
In spite of developments in educational psychology and improvements in pedagogy, certain cultures are still stuck (if not left behind) in their traditional learning systems. While modern learning systems all over the world have significantly improved by applying meaningful learning, associative learning, and active learning styles which promote bilateral (even multilateral) discussions with fellow students and teachers (acting as facilitators), traditional ones still rely on rote learning, which is basically a memorization technique based on repetition imposed by teachers (acting as infallible gods).
To be fair, rote learning has proven to be effective to master phonics (reading), the periodic table (chemistry), multiplication table (arithmetic), irregular verb conjugation (grammar), anatomy (medicine), even legal cases or statutes (law). The fact that most major religions emerged before the 1439 Printing Revolution—sparked by German blacksmith and printer Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468)—rules out any possibility of religious education beyond rote learning. Initially, Hinduism and Buddhism were spread through oral transmission and rote learning without the existence of text. After all, without printed books, what were other options? In Judaism, Jewish cheders use rote learning to teach the Torah. In pre-Enlightenment Europe, the method of loci (Latin: "places"), was mainly practiced in monasteries and universities, where divinity was taught. (Basically this method is a memory enhancement technique to use visualization in order to organize and recall information. Consecutive interpreters still use this technique to this very day.) Likewise, Muslim madrasas all over the world utilize rote learning to make students memorize the Qur'an. By the way, in the Summer of 2015, several media reported that to honor the holy month of Ramadan, the Islamic State (ISIS) launched a Qur'an memorization competition, with slave girls as prizes.
The rote learning style is still widely practiced in schools across Brazil, China, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Romania, Turkey, and most Middle Eastern countries. While Gutenberg's invention of mechanical movable type printing had prompted the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, the Industrial revolution and modern science, pre-Gutenberg rote learning style persists to this very day. Old habits die hard.
Naturally, rote learning has several drawbacks. Since by default it is based on repetition and comprehension takes a backseat, many educational psychologists regard rote learning as not more than parroting, or regurgitating. Under this system, a student may easily give the wrong impression of having comprehend something merely by saying or writing it. It also appeals to lazy teachers, as rote learning means less work.
Now let's reflect on the side-effect of rote learning in the Middle East, which is today's world hotspot. Interestingly, Arab researchers themselves—not infidels—have stated that rote learning is a "major contributing factor to the lack of progress in science and research and development in the Arab countries." As stated in the United Nations Development Program's Arab Human Development Report (2004): "In Arab educational institutions, curricula, teaching and evaluation methods tend to rely on dictation and instill submissiveness. They do not permit free dialogue and active, exploratory learning and consequently do not open the doors to freedom of thought and criticism. On the contrary, they weaken the capacity to hold opposing viewpoints and to think outside the box. Their societal role focuses on the reproduction of control in Arab societies" (page 147). Furthermore: "Learning comes to be governed by dictation without the learner being educated in, or practicing, freedom" (page 149).
The cruelest irony is that the futility of repetition had long been emphasized by the wise Sufis as illustrated in Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way (1983) by Idries Shah (1924-1996): "The more often you do a thing, the more likely you are to do it again. There is no certainty that you will gain anything else from repetition than a likelihood of further repetition."
Part 27: A Familiar Story that is Untrue is More Comforting than an Unfamiliar Story that is True
There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes.
One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair.
The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens.
-DESMOND MORRIS, The Naked Ape (1967)
The fact that Homo sapiens is the only hairless species among monkeys and apes seems to cause them having a soft spot for stories, narratives, and gossips. It seems that the less hair a species has, the more it is addicted to narratives. How so? What is the correlation between hair and narratives anyway?
Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, baboons, bonobos (the closest extant relative to humans, who may share 98.6% of their DNA with us) all have hair, but no taste whatsoever for narratives. Sure, they may have some primordial language communication system expressed in screams and grunts but not to the sophisticated level of human language. On the other hand we, Homo sapiens, are the opposite: hairless but with a knack to develop language and to structure narratives. The negative correlation between hair and the thirst for narratives cannot be ignored.
The explanation for this phenomenon may be buried in Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language (1998) by psychologist Robin Dunbar. Gossip, as defined in the Oxford Dictionary, is: "casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true." True or not, gossip satisfies human social instincts, especially that unquenchable thirst for narratives. Dunbar looks at gossip as an "instrument of social order and cohesion—much like the endless grooming with which our primate cousins tend to their social relationships."
According to Dunbar, apes and monkeys, humanity's closest kin, differ from other animals in the intensity of these relationships. All their grooming is not so much about cleaning each other of dead skin, debris, ticks, fleas, lice, and lice eggs (which groomers immediately eat as those fleas and lice are a protein source anyway), as it is about "cementing bonds, making friends, and influencing fellow primates." But for early humans—the most economic animal on earth—grooming as a way to social survival was too cumbersome. Given their large social groups of hundreds or so, early humans would have had to spend a significant chunk of precious time in the parasite removal business of grooming each other. After all, among early humans, limited amount of hair seemed to produce only limited amount of ticks, fleas, and lice.
Enter language. Dunbar concludes that, "humans developed language to serve the same purpose, but far more efficiently. It seems there is nothing idle about chatter, which holds together a diverse, dynamic group—whether of hunter-gatherers, soldiers, or workmates."
In short, whereas apes and monkeys form social bonding through grooming each other, humans do the same thing through telling gossips, stories, narratives. Whereas the social currency for apes and monkeys are ticks, fleas, lice; for humans it is gossips, stories, and narratives. Indeed anthropologists Levi-Strauss and Mircea Eliade have long argued that one of the earliest roles of the shaman or sage was to tell stories which provided "symbolic solutions to contradictions which could not be solved empirically." It did not really matter whether the protagonists and actors in those stories—whether gods, ghosts, dragons, unicorns, mermaids, centaurs, goblins—exist or not. That's beside the point. The most important thing was that those ancient mythologies and symbolism fulfill human desperate need for gossips, narratives, social taboos, explanations, even self-fulfilling prophecies.
Whereas there is an infinite supply of ticks, fleas, and lice for monkeys and apes, there is only a finite supply of stories for humans. Repetitions after repetitions became unavoidable. Therefore a familiar story that is untrue is much more comforting, compelling, and validating than an unfamiliar story that is true. Familiarity does trump truthfulness. The Great Stories, as eloquently described by Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, "are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably… They don't surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know again. THAT is their mystery and magic." I don't even know how many dozen times I watched Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sounds of Music (1965) when my daughter was between 8 and 12 years old.
Familiarity breeds complacency and credulity. As argued by American microbiologist and environmentalist René Jules Dubos (1901-1982), while ideally "man should remain receptive to new stimuli and new situations in order to continue to develop; in practice the ability to perceive the external worlds with freshness decrease as the senses and the mind are increasingly conditioned in the course of life." Not only does familiarity influences perception, but it diminishes our critical thinking and conscious attention with which we perform our acts. Not only we became conditioned to act on autopilot, we are conditioned to think this is normal! Thus our mind became hopelessly desensitized and extremely vulnerable to propaganda, pseudo-science, disinformation, and 1001 religious claims.
Thanks to this strong inclination to imitate whatever is familiar regardless of whether it's true or not, we became extremely vulnerable to Joseph Goebbels's maxim as stated in Part 25 (What If Adam had not Eaten an Apple?): "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." That's why so many among us, in this 21st Century, still take every single word in a particular holy book literally. Curiously, the definition of to ape in the Oxford Dictionary is: "(to) imitate the behavior or manner of (someone or something), especially in an absurd or unthinking way." What better way to underline this bitter truth by quoting Desmond Morris again, "I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape."
There is still reason to be optimistic.
Continuously exploring literal, semantic, idiomatic, contextual, metaphorical, symptomatic, conceptual and metaphysical meanings of everything worth thinking about.
Copyright © 2016 by Johannes Tan. All Rights Reserved.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Scott McLeod, massimob(ian)chi, final gather, Didriks, angesha, h.koppdelaney, Red Rose Exile, freestock.ca ♡ dare to share beauty, colinpoe, KateTheC, charlotte henard, the evil monkey, ninara, SFB579 Namaste, Eric Kilby, Tracy Hunter, lovelornpoets, Monado, tm-tm, Paul Mannix, Helmut Südema, Lexie Stevenson, joiseyshowaa, DncnH, Ömer Ünlü, dok1, colinpoe, LeonArts.at, Stifts- och landsbiblioteket i Skara, h.koppdelaney, sjsharktank, CPOA, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, Doggettx, Dunleavy Family, KAZVorpal, yigitozan, John-Morgan, Alan Cleaver, woodleywonderworks, Schleeo, Finntasia, Janitors, twm1340, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, kelseylynne.obrien, astrologyphotographywesildssharon, eli.pousson, [Duncan], Nature2Nurture, h.koppdelaney, Onefound, acca-67, tnssofres, JayCob L., youngil_pyun, pilarcopete, lundyd, One Way Stock, spinster cardigan, Moyan_Brenn, T I M E L E S S, Catarina Oberlander, Sean MacEntee, FutUndBeidl


Another Tyneside Wesley and Clarke?
The Wesleys and Clarkes below, all from the same mystery pottery, are very similar to the 'Maling' Wesley and 'Maling' Clarke (click on the highlighted words to read about the subtle differences between the transfers). The plaque form is very distinctive. They are larger than average – the top two shown are 190mm in diameter compared with 185mm for the 'Maling' leaf-bordered plaques. They are also very thin (5mm). As mentioned before, the clay body is a creamy off-white with a speckled appearance.
It's harder to tell whether the transfers below come from the same copper plate. My guess is, like the Wesleys and Clarkes, the below left transfer is a copy of its 'Maling' counterpart (below right). It has the same creamy speckled body as the plaques above, but is slightly smaller – 187mm.
This pottery's plagiarism extends beyond transfers attributed to Maling. The 'Thou God...' on the left is from our mystery pottery (190mm diameter), and its transfer imitates that on a 'Sheriff Hill''-attributed form (below right). NB sometimes the word 'ME' is spelt 'MEE' (see the black and yellow plaques page). The transfers below have obvious differences. Click on the images to enlarge, and to move between them.
Copying rivals' transfers was common practice – think about the number of Prepare to Meet Thy Gods with minute variations. The Sheriff Hill Pottery was in Gateshead. So as both Sheriff Hill and Maling are Tyneside potteries, it seems likely that's where our plagiarist pottery was located.


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By any objective measure, Massachusetts criminal defense attorney William Barabino could be named an accomplished attorney in his area. Mr. Barabino has served two Governors as a member of the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC). The JJAC, along with other experts and organizations, gives the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety input in developing a statewide directives.
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text:
General elections were held in San Marino on 29 May 1938. After it had taken over the country in April 1923, the Sammarinese Fascist Party was the only party to contest the elections, winning all 60 seats.

Electoral system
Voters had to be citizens of San Marino, male, 24 years old and meet at least one of the following requirements:
the head of the family,
a graduate,
belong to the militia,
have an annual income above 55 lire.

Results

References

San Marino
General elections in San Marino
General
One-party elections
San Marino

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Find resources on the world's most dangerous weapons—and how to reduce risks.
Understanding the delivery systems of various threats.
Country profiles include an overview of each country's nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile programs, in-depth information on participation in relevant nonproliferation treaties and regimes, compilations of countries' official documents relating to nonproliferation, and links to related content. This material was prepared for the NTI site by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
Putin said in 2015 that Russia is within its rights to store nuclear weapons in Crimea.


text:
Allan "Ajaye" Skeene Jr. | Becoming An Individual
Dance Industry, EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS
Dance Mogul: What inspired you to start dancing?
Allan: Michael Jackson was my first inspiration. I can remember when I was about 5 or 6 my mother would put on MJ's music and my dad would play the Thriller VHS and I would just jump and jiggle around. She also put me in Hip-Hop and Gymnastics classes at my aunt's studio "Kim's Danceland".
Dance Mogul: How did you develop a work ethic to train?
Allan: When I was younger both of my parents worked very hard to provide for me and my younger sibling, so by the time I had decided to take on a career in dance (which was in college) I already knew I was going to need to work very hard to make it happen. Both parents would put in extra hours at their Jobs sometimes which set a huge example for me. They taught me that nothing you truly want comes without hard work and dedication and they worked extremely hard to make sure they could get me and my brother whatever we wanted and needed. My whole family on both of my parent's sides are very hard workers. I also had many obstacles to overcome by the time I truly knew I wanted to dance as a career. I had quit all formal dance training at 13. I learned to freestyle watching music videos and dancing with friends. I only picked it back up seriously when the movie "You Got Served" had released while I was in High School. I wasn't the most trained dancer, but I understood to be taken seriously I was going to need to take myself seriously. So after I graduated high school and moved to Atlanta, GA to attend college at Clark Atlanta University, and realized that my area of studies did not compliment my true passion, I immediately started taking as much dance classes as I could on top of my studies. It Wasn't easy by any means, but I wanted it so bad I couldn't stop. I would take 2 or 3 courses a day at Clark and then take 2-hour bus and train rides to the studio to train for a couple of hours, come back to campus do homework and then practice what I learned in class every night. What shaped me further was a summer in Washington. I was homeless and living with my girlfriends family right after doing the biggest job of my career and needed to change my mindset on training knowing that the goal was to get to Los Angeles. I had the connections I needed but not the body. From there, every day was a training exercise. I looked at the lives of Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Bill Gates, Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs, Allen Iverson. I Started listening to motivational speakers like Dr. Eric Thomas. I wanted to be the best dancer I could be so I had to look at some of the greatest minds and athletes and see what made them dig deeper in themselves to be great.
Dance Mogul: When was your big break?
Allan: I had a series of "big breaks". The entertainment industry was so new to me when I started taking professional classes. I hadn't imagined myself dancing till I was 18. And my first few Major jobs were very far apart in time. I guess my very first big break was when I landed a promo tour with Lloyd in the summer of 2008. I had been training under a dancer and choreographer name Stephen Jones who recently was the lead "Villain" in "Step Up All In" for a few years and he had asked me to come and vibe with him and a few other guys in rehearsal. We recorded a version of "Street Love" where me and another dancer joined the second original dancers and upon seeing it that day Lloyd decided to add us on to the show. I learned so much about performance that summer during promo shows, which helped shape much of the rest of my career and led to my next few big breaks on "Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew "(Season 5) and Step Up Revolution(2012)
Dance Mogul: What have been some of your memorable moments on stage?
Allan: The first time I performed for my mother and a packed Arena was pretty epic! We were in Hartford, CT, extremely close to home(Springfield, MA) so I had my mom come out to see the show and she loved every minute of it! She hadn't seen me dance on stage in years, and like any proud mother, she had tears of joy running down her face when I came to see her after the show! On top of that, having your ears pop on stage because there are twenty thousand people screaming isn't too bad either. To connect to an audience that big was so nerve racking but so exhilarating! After the first few steps, I felt like it was where I belonged.
– The first episode I recorded with my dance crew on "Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew" was a dream come true. We had auditioned all 5 seasons and finally made it to the regionals. We came out of that as one of the top crews for the actual competition. The energy on the stage was bigger than anything I had felt before. My heart was pounding almost out of my chest before we started that performance and it went by so quickly. To hear all of these people and the judges cheering so loud for a little southern crew was more than fulfilling. All the hard work paid off.
– The very first time I was popped out of a "toaster" performing with Ariana Grande on the Honeymoon tour in 2015 was probably one of the craziest days of my life. I had dreamed of getting a world tour and it finally came true, and when they asked who wanted to be toasted in rehearsals I was the first to step up. All I could think about was watching Michael Jacksons History tour and seeing The dancers pop up from the floor, fly in the air, landing epically, waiting for their next cue. Giving so much presence and life to just standing still. I had wanted to do that my whole life and what better way to start the show! I said a prayer every time I stepped into the box under the stage, looking at myself in the plexiglass right before my cue, and then flew up, it was like R. Kelly's "I believe I can Fly" was playing in my head until I landed to the loud bangs of pyro from the stage and the chanting of "Bang Bang" by Ariana's fans! Another dream come true. I would continue doing that all across the world!
Dance Mogul: Based on your experience now what would you tell your younger self?
Allan: I would tell myself to never be afraid of what someone else has to say about you. Be an individual! Be confident in who you want to be! Growing up I was always so worried about pleasing others. Dance was the first thing I did for me and me only, but I let what I thought the opinion of my peers would stifle my training for fear of rejection. Boys played sports and girls did ballet back then, you did anything else you were teased at my school. I didn't want to be teased because I was at dance practice instead of basketball practice. My Senior year of high school I finally reinvented myself and realized I wasn't any less of a man for dancing and singing, I actually attracted more friends when I performed than anything else I had done. I stopped catering to everyone else and started developing who I wanted to be.
Dance Mogul: How was it performing on this year's BET Awards?
Allan: This was my first time performing at the BET Awards and I have to say I loved every moment of it! Rehearsal went smoothly so we were all very confident on stage, and the energy I got watching Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, and all the dancers were unreal! It was hard not to laugh at all the jokes from Anthony Anderson and Tracee Elise Ross. They both are hilarious and a pleasure to have worked with!
Dance Mogul: What advice do you have for the younger generation of dancers?
Allan: Be as versatile as you can! We all have our own favorite style but learning new styles and genres help you expand your dance vocabulary. Get comfortable with what makes you uncomfortable. I needed ballet and Jazz classes sometimes for structure and core training. Classes in both helped reshape my performances in my career from just freestyle and hip-hop to more theatrical performances like what you saw on the BET Awards. Dancers are actors too. When performing remember you are a character. You're embodying the music with movement so give life to it. Lastly, remember to have fun!
Dance Mogul: Is there anyone you would like to thank?
Allan: I thank God first and for most for blessing me with this talent and the drive to pursue it and giving me purpose. I'd like to thank My Auntie Kim Norrington for laying the foundation for my passion for dance to grow when I was younger. My parents Andrea Goodman and Allan Skeene for believing in me even when it seemed like I was throwing my life away pursuing a career that was so left field from what I had been doing my whole life. I thank god for Quincy Willis, Stephen Jones, and Gordie Holt for beating me into performing shape those years ago and giving me my first big break! Chuck Maldonado, I thank you for the wisdom you gave me when I first moved to Los Angeles and helping me get set up with my agency! I want to thank all of the Choreographers who believed in me and my talent (Jamal Sims, Dondraico Johnson, Todd Sams, Chris Scott, Luam Keflezgy, Jamaica Craft, Brian and Scott Nicholson, Aakomon Jones, Nappy Tabs, Will "Dabeast" Adams, Misha Gabriel, Flii Stylez, Kenny Warmold, Fatima Robinson, Roland "Roro" Tabor, Rosero McCoy) and everyone I've been blessed to be on stage with over the past 9 years. All of you have been a huge blessing and inspiration in my life.
Photo 1 Credit: Cory Graves
Photo 2 Credit: Max Pham Nguyen
Photo 4 Credit: Haille Walsh
Photo Credit: Luam Keflezgy
Photo Credit: Haille Walsh
Liz LeGrande
Living A Life Defined
By Courage
Holly Hyman | Trusting Your Process
Dance Mogul June 28, 2016


Manma Emotion Song Lyrics hd Video mp3 Dilwale Varun Dhawan Kriti Sanon : Here the song second song of Diwale movie is out featuring Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon in the song. Watch Manma Emotion Jaage with lyrics and hd video. The song is sung by Amit Mishra, Anushka Manchanda & Antara Mitra and composed by Pritam. Lyrics of the song is penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Its a fun track in which Varun and Kriti will show you some moves of Hip-Hop. Diwale movie also stars Shahrukh Khan and Kajol in the lead roles. Dilwale movie is directed by Rohit Shetty and is schedule to release on 18th december 2015.
Watch the latest song from Diwale and don't forget to share.
Keep in touch for full lyrics.
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1001 Arabian Nights and a Matinee by tlc Creative - songs, etc.
'1001 Arabian Nights and a Matinee' by tlc Creative - songs and additional information.
British Pantomime. Slapstick, visual jokes, puns, mayhem and a camel.
There's trouble brewing in old Baghdad! Unless the Princess Jasmina marries before her 21st Birthday, the evil Vizier will take control of the city! Things look grim... but hang on! A posse of would-be heroes are here to save the day! The love sick Ali Barber (who pines for the Princess), his dim witted brother Singbad the sailor and his fearsome mother, Dame Barber are ready to intervene and foil the villain's fiendish plot. They are helped along the way by their pal 'Bob' (a lad with a secret), a pantomime camel named Humpy and a lady Genie who's been stuck in a magic ruby for far too long!


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Home » The Shaw Group involves employees in safety and recognizes their efforts
The Shaw Group involves employees in safety and recognizes their efforts
The Shaw Group, a proud local developer and manufacturer in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for the past 160 years, has a variety of tools in its safety toolbox for engaging its workers to remain safe on the job. One of which is an internal marketing campaign with a "Safety First" theme.
"We've developed 'Safety First' posters and placed them throughout our sites that say things like 'The most dangerous words in Safety – We've Always Done it That Way.' We have a variety of different posters with slogans that we change up month to month," said Jeff King, health and safety manager for the Lantz, N.S. operations. "We look for those fun, catchy things that can create a positive safety culture."
Another tool is to encourage employees to look for hazards and report them as hazard IDs or as near misses in conjunction with empowering employees to implement corrective actions, when possible. For example, if there is a broken pallet sitting on the ground with nails protruding, an employee has the ability and is encouraged to take that piece of wood and toss it in the garbage, King explains.
"As employees identify concerns we jump on corrective actions right away," King said. "This creates a catalyst for change. If employees report concerns and nothing happens, they will then be reluctant to buy in to the safety culture thinking leadership is not paying attention to their concerns."
NAOSH Week
Yet another tool in the safety toolbox at the Shaw Group is encouraging employee-led health and safety initiatives as part of North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week. Last year, an employee spoke about his personal experience after suffering a heart attack. The company thought it was important and approached the employee and gauged his interest to discuss his experience with peers and highlight the warning signs as well as prevention mechanisms to lead a healthy life. The company then handed out key chains that can hold 81mg Aspirin which can be given to someone who is experiencing a heart attack to assist in maintaining blood flow.
"They get tired of me talking day in and day out," King laughs, "so I try to get employees involved, when possible, to speak in front of their peers as it's more impactful when it comes from a colleague they work with every day."
Safety Gotcha
A highly successful program at Shaw Group is called "Safety Gotcha," which recognizes employees who go above and beyond for health and safety. Just wearing your PPE is not enough — you have to take safety to the next level in order to receive the coveted recognition of being awarded a Tim Hortons gift card.
"We don't expect the gift card to change the world, but a lot of times our employees like a pat on the back and the recognition in front of their peers," King said. "It just helps promote the culture and is another catalyst of how things evolve or change for the better."
The Shaw Group is a big supporter in positive feedback for people doing the right things and recognizing those doing their part for safety. Employees also have the ability to nominate one another as part of the "Safety Gotcha" program when they witness workers who are really stepping up their safety game.
Electronic reporting software
Recently, the Shaw Group adopted a new electronic safety reporting software program from EHS Insight, making it even easier to report hazards in real time. The company anticipates this tool will further increase hazard reporting by allowing for an easier reporting process. The Shaw Group recently reached an impressive achievement in 2022 for a 65 percent overall increase in hazard reporting in just two years (2020 vs. 2022). Employees are no longer required to complete paper reports that can get lost and are difficult to administer and manage.
"Employees can take pictures of the hazard and upload them into a kiosk tablet, or by using a mobile app on their phone," King explained. "The software has also helped the safety team to accurately track its safety metrics, see trends as well as highlight areas for improvement."
All these efforts have made a tremendous impact on safety within the company seeing its TRIF rate drop by 50 percent in 2022. The Shaw Group also won the Most Improved Award from Construction Safety Nova Scotia at its AGM in April of last year.
Why COR®?
King says COR® is very important at the Shaw Group because of the external audit that it provides.
"People often put on blinders or get complacent after working at a place for a period of time, the COR® process tests to ensure we are doing everything that we have committed to in our safety manual, as well as compliance to provincial legislation and regulation," he said.
By holding the COR certification customers know that Shaw Group is a safety conscious company.
"When you decide to work with the Shaw Group, employees and customers can trust they are working with a company that puts the health and safety of their employees first and foremost," King said.
The Shaw Group gets its safety training through Construction Safety Nova Scotia because the content is "exceptional and extremely relevant."
"CSNS instructors effectively teach our employees the necessary safety content to keep employees safe every day. When not administered properly, training can be cumbersome and employees can easily lose interest, however CSNS maintain engagement with great instruction," King said.
The Shaw Group is also known to take advantage of on-demand training where a CSNS instructor goes to their facility to conduct various JOHS committee training courses. The company also uses the CSNS online training options, most recently having its entire leadership team complete the online "Leadership in Safety Excellence" course, which provided managers and supervisors with advanced level safety tools to apply in its operations.


Welcome to the Cupcake Inspirations 200th Challenge blog hop and celebration! You should have arrived here from the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge blog. If you happen to get lost along the way, please remember that you can always scoot on back to the CIC blog to find a complete list of blogs in the hop.
You are in for a treat today! To thank you for celebrating with us, the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge team and partners are offering two ways to win fabulous prizes. Read on for all of the details.
Win the grand prize valued at over $200 for playing along in the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #200 - Pick Your Favorite Challenge. Visit the Cupcake Inspirations Blog for all of the details.
To join in the challenge, you'll be selecting your favorite past Cupcake Inspirations Photo and making a creation based on it. I picked my favorite photo from challenge #100, shown above.
Then I made the card shown above based on the inspiration photo, using several products from the Echo Park Summer Days collection. It's that easy, friends!
We are excited to be sponsoring Cupcake Inspiration's 200th Challenge. You can view our entire class list on our website at My Creative Classroom. You can also view classes on our Facebook Page too! One lucky winner will receive a free seat to a class of their choice.....Good Luck!
Whew...that was quite a lot of information for one little old blog post. There are so many fabulous creations waiting for you along the Blog Hop. It's time for you to hop on over to Chris's blog and see what she has in store for you.
Darling card Anita. I love how cheery it is. - I'm part of the hop so leave my name out when you pick a winner.
Oh wow this is an awesome creative take on the cupcake inspiration. Love the cheerful colours. Merily hopping along.
Anita, I'm so glad you played along with the Sweeties for this challenge. Your card is great, it's so upbeat and fun, I love the color scheme.
so cute, luv this card...I'm part of the hop....have a fabulous day!
Nice n bright card...love it!
This is wonderful. I love the dimension to it. Great take on the cupcake!
How fun and colorful. I love the papers that you use. Awesome card.
Like the Spring feel in colors & the 3D dimension look to this. My daughter likes roller coasters. Last mth I went to DisneyLand and rode the Indiana Jones ride that is somewhat of a roller coaster ride, in a jeep vehicle and it was jerky at times but fun.
Your card is so cheerful and encouraging. Love the sentiment and the amazing roller coaster!
Your card is so pretty! Thanks for the opportunity to win!!!
I love your interpretation of this photo! So vibrant and FUN!
Love your card! It's so colorful and fun!
I love the colors you used. It looks so summery.
Love your card, bright and sunny!
Love your card!! Makes me ready for Spring to get here!!
What a great card. I love the bright colors and fun scene.
Wow, what a colorful fun card!
Anita your card is so fun and cheerful, it sure brighten my day! Thanks for a chance to win a spot in your class!
Oh my goodness. What a bright and cheerful card. I am in LOVE with this.
Love this card! So colorful and really clean and smooth!
Awesome card. Love the sentiment.
Super nice card and such a great take on the cupcakes.
I LOVE all the colors and patterns in your fun card!
Love this fun and happy creation!
Great card. The papers you chose go great with the CIC you picked.
Beautifull! So colourfull, i like it so much!
Such a pretty and happy card, love your interpertation of the cupcakes.
Such a cute card! It makes me long for summer days LOL!
Your card is sooo cute!!!
LOVE the colors, soft pastels!!
Thanks so much for sharing your talent with all of us!!
What a bright and cheery card!! Goes perfectly with your inspiration cupcakes. The recipient will love it.
Beautiful Card.i love this hop.Thanks for sharing.
Great card! So fun! The class giveaway sounds great too.
Super happy card! Love the sunshine!
Such a fun card Anita. Perfect make for your cupcake inspiration picture.
What a fun spring card. Great job.
Anita- This card is screaming Summer!! I love the scene you created and love the bright colored paper. Thank you for the inspiration.
what a fun and happy card! I love it! Thanks so much!


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Biz & Tech 2019-10-13 17:00
Cyworld faces business shutdown
A person uses Cyworld's microblogging service in this 2006 file photo. / Korea Times file
Once most popular social network platform out of service
By Baek Byung-yeul
Cyworld, once the most popular social media site here in the 2000s, is facing business shutdown after struggling with a rapidly decreasing user base and failure to revive the dying platform.
As of Sunday, the social media platform is not accessible via its website or mobile app as the company halted its service abruptly on Oct. 1 without issuing any notice.
Given company officials including its CEO Jeon Jae-wan have been out of contact, and Jeon commented on the difficulties in managing the social media platform in July, industry officials said the service is now on the verge of being shut down.
"Everyone regarded my sincerity to revamp the platform as a reckless challenge or money spinner… I guess it is time to stop operating the platform," Jeon wrote on his Cyworld account in July. Jeon is also known as a founder of now-defunct Freechal, the country's first-generation portal site.
As Cyworld is not accessible, users are expressing their worries that they may have lost the chance to make a backup of their photos and texts on the platform. They are also criticizing the company as it didn't issue any notification about the service closing.
"I am about to lose my diaries, photos and videos that I stored in Cyworld for the past 10 years. Maybe it is my fault for not making a backup because everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the company stopped the service," a netizen wrote on an online community site.
According to telecommunications business act here, operators should notify their customers of their service being shut down 30 days before doing so. As the domain of the website is scheduled to be expired on Nov. 12, the company should have issued a notice to its users by Oct. 13.
Launched in 1999, Cyworld enjoyed its popularity as a major social media platform until the mid-2000s, posting about 100 billion won ($85 million) in annual sales with about 32 million users in its prime.
However, the service yielded to overseas platforms such as Facebook and Twitter after failing to adapt its PC-based service to a mobile environment in the 2010s when the smartphone era started to gain traction.
The company was separated from SK Communications in 2014, a subsidiary of SK Group, which operated the platform from 2003 to 2013 and was acquired by Jeon, CEO of AireLive, a local video chatting service firm. In an attempt to revive the dead platform, Cyworld succeeded in raising 5 billion won from Samsung Group's venture capital arm in 2017 and launched an online news service but ended in failure.
Employees, who have been experiencing payment delays since the end of 2018, left the company in the second half of 2019 and the company's assets were seized provisionally as it failed to make a payment to content providers.
Baek Byung-yeul	baekby@koreatimes.co.kr


One reason for the obesity epidemic could be our cube-monkey culture: New research showsthat American males are burning at least 140 less calories per day at work than they did 50 years ago.
It's no surprise why. Instead of tending a store or working at a plant or a steel mill, most of us are chained to our desks. In the 1960s, more than half of private industry jobs required at least moderate intensity physical activity at work. Today, fewer than 1 in 5 jobs require that level of activity, says Timothy Church, M.D., director of preventative medicine and research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
When Church and his team plotted the rise in office sloth (using calories burned at work) against obesity rates, the patterns perfectly matched one another.
Throw in the recent news from the Centers for Disease Control that only 6.5 percent of U.S. adults meet physical activity guidelines while they're working, and it's easy to see why being an office worker makes you fatter. Here are some options to fit a little more activity into the daily grind.
We've written before how your office chair may be killing you. Stand instead. Editors here at Men's Health use shelves or sturdy books to prop up their monitors and keyboards, but we've also heard of guys using cardboard boxes, mail bins, and milk crates. First-graders who worked at stand-sit desks burned 17 percent more calories in a day than kids at regular desks, a recent study found. Just think, if 7-year-olds can do it, you can.
Want to add a little something to your standing workstation? Try an office step machine like Nordic Track's Office Mini-Stepper,nordicktrack.com, $119. A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that using an office stepper burned almost 300 more calories per hour than sitting.
All you need to walk at your desk is a treadmill. (Watch this video to see how simple this can be to set up.) Another British Journal of Sports Medicine study showed that if sitting time at your desk was replaced by walking, you could burn an average 119 calories more per hour.
If you're office space won't allow any of these, try these perfect exercises to do at your desk to keep you from being a slouch.


I've seen my fair share of fat gold chains. After all, I grew up in New York City during the birth of the hip hop scene. In 2013, I was asked to make some samples for the Kollabora booth at Vogue Knitting Live, and this is one of them.
My friend, Carlota Zimmerman, also remembers those days. We shared a few laughs and memories during this summer time photo shoot. However, this eye catching necklace could be worn in any season.
I'm sharing this as a blog freebie. Enjoy!
This necklace has enough bling to remind me of growing up during the early days of the hip hop scene.
Adjustable. Sample is 24" (61 cm) circumference.
Galler Yarns Kismet (87% polyester/13% nylon, 8 oz/227 g/1,400 yds/1,280 m) – 1 cone each in 902 Light Gold (CA) and 907 Fuchsia (CB), or approximately 170-210 yds (155.5-192 m) in each of 2 colors in any metallic, light weight yarn.
Link Tube 1 in pattern = 4" (10 cm) long before joining. Exact gauge is not critical for this project.
* Rep instructions following asterisk as indicated.
Tubes are crocheted in the round. Do not join rnds unless indicated.
Rnd 1: Being careful not to twist, join with sc in next st and begin crocheting in spirals, sc in ea st around.
Rep Rnd 2 until tube measures approximately 4" (10 cm) long, fasten off with long yarn tail of approximately 8" (20 cm) long.
Rep Rnd 2 until tube measures approximately 12" (30.5 cm) long, fasten off with long yarn tail of approximately 8" (20 cm) long.
Starting with Link Tube 1 in CA, fold link in half with short ends together. Line up sts across sides (4 sts on ea side). Close edge of tube by working sl st through 4 layers of corresponding sts on each side across (4 sl sts). With yarn needle, weave in ends.
Attach remaining Link Tube 1 pieces by alternating colors and folding through previously joined link, using the pictures of the finished necklace as a guide.
Join Link Tube 2 by folding through links on ea end of necklace to close.
© 2014 by Marie Segares (Underground Crafter). This pattern is for personal use only. You may use it to make unlimited items for yourself, for charity, or to give as gifts. You may sell items you personally make by hand from this pattern. Do not violate Marie's copyright by distributing this pattern or the photos in any form, including but not limited to scanning, photocopying, emailing, or posting on a website or internet discussion group. If you want to share the pattern, point your friends to this link: http://undergroundcrafter.com/blog/2014/09/26/free-pattern-80s-remix-chain/. Thanks for supporting indie designers!
This would make the best "paper chain" Christmas tree garland! Thanks so much for sharing it. Happy New Year!!
What a great idea! Thanks for stopping by, Laurelei.
I'd love to see pictures when you finish, Eva!