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3-year-old dies due to closure of Rafah crossing
On: 13 maart 2014 By: KhamakarPress
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) — A three-year-old child died on Thursday after he was unable to receive medical care abroad due to the closure of the Rafah crossing, an activist group said.
Spokesman for the National Committee to Break the Siege Adham Abu Salmieh said that Ahmad Ammar Abu Nahl was suffering from an enlarged heart and liver and had been planning to go to Turkey via Egypt for treatment.
However, the young child died Thursday while waiting for the crossing to open.
Abu Salmieh told Ma'an that the continued death of victims is unfortunate and demanded the reopening of the Rafah crossing for humanitarian cases.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been the principal connection between the Gaza Strip's 1.7 million residents and the outside world since the imposition of an economic blockade by the State of Israel beginning in 2007.
The death of Abu Nahl brings the number of deaths to two as a result of the closure of the crossing since the the Egyptian military overthrew democratically-elected president Morsi, Abu Salmieh said.
Egypt's army has repeatedly closed the Rafah border crossing since the July coup while simultaneously destroying hundreds of tunnels that Gazans used for years to import fuel, building materials and other goods, as well as to enter and exit the blockaded coastal enclave.
Category: Terrorism Tagged Health, Palestine, Terrorism Leave a comment/
Israeli regime resumes Gaza aerial attacks
This file photo shows Palestinians gathering around a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip
The Israeli military has again launched aerial attacks on the besieged Palestinian coastal strip of Gaza, striking the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border.
The latest strike by the Israeli regime on Thursday, which injured several Palestinians, came following retaliatory rocket attacks from Gaza that struck two southern Israeli towns of Ashkelon and Ashdod, causing panic and prompting Israelis to seek shelter.
This is while Israeli sources stated that the regime's US-supplied Iron Dome anti-missile system failed to intercept at least eight Palestinian rockets.
The escalation of fire exchanges began on March 11 when an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The deadly incident triggered a series of retaliatory attacks between the two sides.
The Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas has blamed Tel Aviv for the escalation of tensions in the region.
This is while the hawkish Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for the full re-occupation of Gaza in the wake of the violence.
Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.
Demand grows for halal food as industry evolves
Dubai Industrial City CEO Abdullah Belhoul said the idea to create a zone just for halal manufacturers was driven by the increased demand locally and internationally for such products.
The global industry for halal food and lifestyle products – ones that meet Islamic law standards of manufacture – is estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars and is multiplying as Muslim populations grow. Producers outside the Muslim world, from Brazil to the U.S. and Australia, are eager to tap into the market.
The United Arab Emirates is positioning itself to be their gateway, part of its push to become a global center of Islamic business and finance.
UAE officials announced last month that the city of Dubai has dedicated around 6.7 million square feet of land in Dubai Industrial City for a "Halal Cluster" for manufacturing and logistic companies that deal in halal food, cosmetics and personal care items.
"This industry itself, we know it is growing," Belhoul told The Associated Press. He said the industry is expected to double in terms of value within five years. "So we think there is a lot of opportunity… and we need to capitalize on this."
The world's Muslim population is estimated at around 1.6 billiion, and the majority is believed to adhere to or prefer to adhere to halal products when possible. The general understanding is that halal products should not be contaminated with pork or alcohol and that livestock is slaughtered in accordance with Islamic Shariah law. Similar to kosher practices, Islam requires the animal is killed with single slash to the throat while alive. It is intended as a way for animals to die swiftly and minimize their pain.
However, as with most issues in religion, opinions vary greatly over what is permissible and what is not. Despite attempts by international Islamic bodies, such as the World Halal Food Council, to achieve worldwide guidelines, there are no global standards for halal certifications.
Stricter interpreters of Shariah say chicken must be slaughtered by hand to be considered halal. Others say it is acceptable if the chicken is slaughtered by machine, as is the case in much of the fast-paced food industry around the world. To accommodate various Muslim consumers, several companies even specify on their packaging how the chicken was slaughtered.
Belhoul said that if halal products are manufactured in the UAE, they will need to be certified halal by the government body that oversees this. But, as with most countries, if the halal products, such as livestock or raw material, are being imported from abroad for processing in the UAE, then the stamp of approval comes from Islamic organizations in the exporting country.
This is where organizations such as Halal Control in Germany have an important role to play, said General Manager Mahmoud Tatari. He said that when the company started 14 years ago in Europe, there was little awareness or demand for halal products. Today, Halal Control has 12 Islamic scholars who offer guidance on certifications to international companies such as Nestle and Unilever who want to do business in the Muslim world.
Halal Control, which concentrates on products made in Europe, does not certify meat and poultry, but almost everything else from dairy products to food ingredients. Tatari said Muslims around the world may think they are eating halal-certified food, but that often raw materials may include alcohol or pork gelatin in candies and soups, or may have been cross-contaminated during production.
"It is a process and this will take maybe now five to 10 years (until) we can more safely eat halal," he said.
Malaysia is the global leader in developing the halal industry and putting forth the highest standards, said Tatari and others in the industry.
Malaysia exported $9.8 billion worth of halal products in 2013, the Oxford Business Group said. That makes it one of the largest suppliers in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an international group with 57 members.
U.S. manufacturers, such as Kelloggs and Hershey, plan to build halal-compliant plants in Malaysia. The Oxford Business Group says Indonesia, with the world's largest Muslim population, plans to establish a center for the halal industry in 2015. In Thailand, more than a quarter of food factories are already making halal products.
But it is in the Gulf, where countries almost entirely rely on food imports, where the halal industry seems to have the biggest potential for growth in the coming years.
Brazil is the world's second top exporter of meat and poultry to Muslim-majority countries after the U.S. The Brasil Food Company, which is among the world's largest food companies, plans to open its first manufacturing site in the Middle East in UAE's capital, Abu Dhabi, in June. The factory will process poultry from Brazil for repackaging and shipping to other countries.
"Having the factory will allow us to be closer to the market and will allow us go to different markets that today we cannot export to from Brazil," BRF Quality Assurance Supervisor Tiago Brilhante said. The company already exports 70,000 tons of chicken to the Middle East each month, making the region its biggest export market.
Datamonitor, a company that provides market and data analysis, says halal food already accounts for about a fifth of world food trade, and the Muslim market is growing substantially. According to a Global Futures and Foresights Study, 70 percent of the world's population increase from 7 billion today to 9 billion people by 2050 will be born in Muslim countries.
Already in Muslim-majority countries, outlets like McDonald's, Subway and Papa John's pizza serve halal to their customers.
In the U.S., the family-run Midamar Corporation, based out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been tapping into the halal market since 1974. Midamar exports American beef and chicken to around 35 countries.
Jalel Aossey said the company's halal certification comes from an organization his father started called the Islamic Services of America, which he says was the first of its kind in the U.S.
Today there are around 30 halal certification bodies in the U.S. and several mainstream supermarkets that carry halal food items.
Even in markets where Muslims are not the majority, there are billions of dollars to be made in the halal industry. The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, a not-for-profit halal certification organization, said the domestic U.S. halal market is estimated at $20 billion.
Mark Napier, director of the Gulfood trade show that brings together more than 4,500 food and beverage vendors from around the world to the Dubai World Trade Center annually, said producers of halal products want to serve markets where their supply is not keeping up with demand. Many Muslims in the West buy Jewish kosher products when their halal counterparts are not available.
"Food business is big business," Napier said. "Producers are increasingly aware of the need for halal standards and certification and bringing that to the fore of their export promotions."
Category: Zorg / Health Tagged Health, Islam Leave a comment/
Forget Benghazi Conspiracies, The Real Disgrace In Libya Is What's Happening There Now
A Libyan man guards a detention camp for illegal migrants in November, 2013
The news that Libya's parliament dismissed Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from office on Wednesday after the government failed to stop armed groups in eastern Libya from exporting oil independently should not surprise anyone — over the past year, the country has slipped deeper into chaos.
Zeidan was run out of office and fled the country just a few days short of the third anniversary of U.N. Resolution 1973 that imposed a no-fly zone and sanctions and opened the door to NATO's intervention. What we see today in Libya is certainly not the result that the United States and its partners hoped for when it intervened to stop the Qadhafi regime from massacring its people.
I just finished nine months serving on the United Nations Panel of Experts on Libya — a group charged with monitoring and reporting on the implementation of sanctions imposed by a series of U.N. resolutions since 2011. The panel is an independent body that analyzes what is happening on unauthorized arms flows into and out of the country and efforts to freeze assets associated with the former Qadhafi regime, and it offers recommendations on what can be done to enhance measures on those fronts.
The full report, available here, paints a troubling picture of the insecurity inside of Libya and the widespread spillover effects it is having, particularly on weapons flows coming out of the country. Some of the report's key findings:
A number of actors have trafficked shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles from Libya to Mali, Chad, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and the Gaza Strip, among other places during the past year.
Libya's government lacks a strong centralized oversight over weapons it receives, and non-state armed groups control most of the weapons in the country. Weak government controls over land borders and ports are a large part of the problem of regional weapons proliferation and insecurity spillover.
Regional terrorist and criminal networks have exploited the insecurity and lack of control over weapons and materiel in Libya.
Libya's insecurity and political divisions are interlinked, as a number of groups used actual and threatened force to advance their agendas.
The Middle East and North Africa has long been a region flooded with large amounts of weapons and military assistance, usually state-to-state transfers. The difference now in Libya and the regional spillover effects is that fragmentation inside of the country is reflected in disorganized weapons outflows driven largely by non-state actors. In a very real sense, Libya is exporting its insecurity to surrounding countries.
Meanwhile in Washington, many conservatives continue to harp on conspiracy theoriesabout the 2012 attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, all the while mostly sleepwalking through the current trends in Libya and the region. As my colleague Peter Juul and I argued last year, the mindless political debate over Obama administration talking points from the fall of 2012 harms efforts to come to grips with the deterioration of the overall situation in Libya and the longer-term challenge the United States faces of managing security risks when conducting diplomacy in insecure locations.
Some leading analysts on Libya like Karim Mezran of the Atlantic Council and Fred Wehrey at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace have sounded the alarm bell on Libya with sharp recommendations for U.S. and international policy, and Obama's national security advisor Susan Rice outlined a framework for supporting Libya in a speech to the Middle East Institute last fall. But despite these ideas, and an international conference on Libya held in Rome earlier this month, the country continues to slide into chaos.
With so much going on in the Middle East these days — attempts to deal with Iran's nuclear program, Syria's civil war, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and incomplete political transitions in places like Egypt — it is hard to find time on the crowded agenda for Libya.
But as I learned over the past nine months, what happens in Libya isn't staying in Libya — and it is time to redouble international efforts on Libya before the country and the broader region slips into further turmoil.
Category: Revolution Libye Tagged Libye, Revolution Leave a comment/
Gaza under attack, day 2
* URGENT
Another Explosion, zionist warplanes bombed a Qassam trainingsite east of Rafah City!!
* Occupation targeted sites of resistance east of Rafah , no injuries
* A new wave of Israeli strikes on #Gaza right now
* URGENT BREAKING NEWS
Zionist Warplanes bombed a trainings site of the resistance west of Rafah city!!
* War planes have bombed Khan Younis via Hassan Rabie
* Gaza now | urgent | now targeting of warplanes in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip
A explosion was heared and the sound of F16s above us
* Flights F-16 enters a strong atmosphere of #Gaza now and spread significantly to reconnaissance aircraft .
* Zionist warplanes hovering heavily in the skies of #Gaza City Now
* Warplanes target site resistance to the west of #Rafah shortly before
3 Explosions was heared in Gaza City
The Zionist F16s are flying at low altitude above khan Younis!!
Syrian Coalition: Toppling Assad Is Essential To the Stability in Region
Khalid Saleh, President of the Media Office, condemns a statement made by Deputy Foreign Minister of the Assad regime who said that "Assad's running for the presidential elections is a guarantee for security and stability of Syria." Saleh said that this statement proves that the Assad regime is detached from reality and demonstrates the uttermost disregard for the blood of more than 150,000 Syrians. The fall of the Assad regime is the sole guarantor to the security and stability not only in Syria but the whole region, as Assad threatened to set the regime ablaze if the Syrian people insisted in ousting him." Furthermore, Saleh points out that the latest election laws adopted by the so-called People's Assembly two days ago are illegitimate as they were drafted by an illegitimate body, who chose to be an accomplice in the bloodshed in Syria rather than siding with the legitimate demands of the Syrian people. Saleh also stresses that the Syrian Coalition "strongly rejects participation of opposition members as candidates against Assad in the presidential elections, as this would imply recognition by us of the legitimacy of his presence in the elections. Assad's insistence on clinging to power at the expense of the blood of the Syrian people undermines the international efforts at Geneva II and proves his outright rejection of the political solution."
(Source: Syrian Coalition / 13.03.2014)
Category: Revolution Syria Tagged Revolution, Syria Leave a comment/
Fighting for Assad, Hezbollah buries its own
Hezbollah has incurred its greatest casualties ever while fighting for the Assad regime in Syria. Emotional funerals for fallen 'martyrs' are a way to keep up morale.
A tank belonging to the forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is seen at Al-Sahl town, about 2km (1 mile) to Yabroud's north, after the soldiers took control of it from the rebel fighters, March 3, 2014.
The coffin, draped in the bright yellow flag of Hezbollah, was surrounded by a noisy crowd of mourners. They had come to help bury Mohammed Jaber Jaber, the latest fighter from the Lebanese Shiite militant group killed in the Syrian war.
Standing on stage, beneath a large poster showing the faces of other fallen fighters, a teenage boy led the prayer chants, guiding the throng with a confident and steady voice. The men slapped their chests with their right hands in time to the chanting, a traditional Shiite gesture of mourning.
This scene is replayed on a near-daily basis in Shiite-populated areas of Lebanon, as relatives, friends, and Hezbollah supporters converge to pay their respects to the slain fighters who are lauded as "martyrs." Hezbollah says the sacrifices are necessary to prevent Syria falling to Sunni jihadist forces.
"This is a danger that threatens all Lebanese," said Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, at a speech last month. "If they [the jihadists] have the opportunity to control the border areas, their goal will be to transform Lebanon into a part of their Islamic state."
RECOMMENDED: Do you understand the Syria conflict? Take the quiz
More practically, Syria is a key component in a regional alliance that includes Hezbollah and its patron, Iran. If Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime were to collapse, Iran's reach into the Arab world would be diminished and Hezbollah would become more isolated and vulnerable to its enemies, including Al Qaeda and Israel.
Still, Hezbollah's intervention in Syria's civil war has led to the group's most prolonged and intense accrual of casualties since its formation three decades ago.
Mr. Jaber, a 21-year-old from Ghobayri in southern Beirut, was killed last week near the town of Yabroud in Syria's Qalamoun region. Hezbollah is spearheading an offensive against Syrian rebels to seize the strategic mountainous territory north of Damascus and adjacent to the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah is gradually tightening its grip around Yabroud while avoiding a full frontal assault that could incur significant casualties. But the more cautious approach has taken a toll. Two weeks ago, two dozen Hezbollah fighters were reportedly killed when their convoy of SUVs was ambushed while traveling to the frontline.
While the group's exact fatalities are hard to quantify, fresh "martyr" pictures are posted online most days.
On a rescue mission
Jaber was killed during a rescue mission for two missing fighters. Under covering fire, Jaber and a medic ran to a building where the two were located, according to one of his fellow unit members at his funeral. When the medic tried to open the front door, a booby-trapped bomb killed both men.
Hezbollah fighters are taught to avoid doorways and windows in a combat zone because of the threat of such traps. Over the radio, Jaber's comrades had heard him call out to the medic not to open the door. "He should have waited for the engineers to come first and clear the route. But his friends were in the house and he was an impulsive guy," says a fighter.
Like most soldiers, Hezbollah fighters grow close through the rigors of hard training and the dangers of combat. When a team member dies in action, fighters often display both sorrow at their loss and pride in his "martyrdom."
After Jaber's death, his comrades held lengthy meetings with military commanders to discuss their friend and the meaning of his death. The purpose of this form of counseling, according to sources close to Hezbollah, is to maintain morale and focus, while reassuring fighters that their sacrifices are not taken for granted.
At the funeral, several of Jaber's comrades, wearing military uniforms, emerged from the hallway weeping and hugging each other. As prayers echoed from a loudspeaker, the mourners followed the coffin up a narrow street toward the "martyrs" cemetery. As the coffin approached, several men fired AK-47 rifles into the air, their guns tilted towards the adjacent neighborhood of Tariq Jdeide, a Sunni-populated rival to the Shiite Ghobayri.
To chants of "Labyakh Ya Hussein," an exhortation of loyalty to a revered Shiite imam, Jaber's shrouded body was removed from the coffin and lowered into an open grave alongside several other fresh plots.
On a Facebook page honoring Jaber, photos of him standing arm in arm with fellow fighters appear alongside praise for his sacrifice.
"Congratulations to the martyr. Peace be upon you, Daeesh killer," says one, referring to the Arabic acronym for the Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a bitter enemy of Hezbollah.
The Yarmouk Camp for Palestinian Refugees in Syria: Where Do We Go From Here?
Palestinian refugees in Syria are facing difficult and tragic conditions, as a result of the uprising there and the conflict between the regime and the opposition. Of the 160 thousand Palestinians who lived in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp (RC), 130 thousand have had to flee. Those who remained were subjected to a brutal blockade and a famine that killed dozens.
Although most Palestinian factions agreed on maintaining the camp's neutrality and refraining from intervention in internal Syrian affairs, various developments and attempts by many of the warring parties to take advantage of the camp's strategic location, or to draw the Palestinians into the conflict, eventually turned Yarmouk RC into one of the arenas of the Syrian war.
There are several possible scenarios: implement a truce and render the camp neutral; the battle for the camp could continue; or one of the warring parties could prevail and end up controlling the camp. However, it will still be important to spare no effort to lift the siege on Yarmouk RC and all other camps, allow the displaced to return, and keep the camps neutral from all forms of armed conflict. In addition, all forms of support should be extended to Palestinian refugees in Syria.
Needless to say, the Palestinian community in Syria came to exist in the aftermath of the Nakbah (catastrophe) of 1948. According to statistics by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the number of Palestinian refugees registered with the agency until 31/3/2013 was 537 thousand. As there were other categories of Palestinians present, for example those who came to Syria from Jordan, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip in different periods and for different reasons after 1948, who are not registered with UNRWA in Syria, the real number of Palestinians is estimated to be 600 thousand. This puts the Palestinian population at 2.8% of the total population of Syria.
Almost a quarter of these Palestinians live in 13 camps (including three that the UNRWA does not designate as official refugee camps, such as Yarmouk RC). The largest bloc of Palestinians (around 80%) is concentrated in the Damascus area, known as the Damascus Countryside. Yarmouk RC is considered the largest Palestinian concentration in the Damascus area. According to data from UNRWA, more than 160 thousand people lived in Yarmouk RC until December 2012.
Before the uprising (which turned into a revolution later) in early 2011, the Palestinian community in Syria was one of the most stable and integrated Palestinian refugee communities in their host countries. The Palestinian refugees in Syria had a special legal status (based on Law No. 260 dated 1956) giving them a wide range of economic, social, cultural, and civil rights, close to full citizenship rights, while retaining their Palestinian nationality. In general, the Syrian state maintained this status for the Palestinians throughout the past decades, guaranteeing their participation in the economic, social and cultural life on par with the Syrian citizens.
The Post-Crisis Period:
After the current crisis erupted in Syria, the Palestinians, like the Syrians, were exposed to its devastating repercussions on the fabric of their community, especially in the camps, and their social wellbeing and various facets of their daily lives. This has forced them either to become displaced within Syria, in search of relative safety, or to flee outside Syria, for the same reason.
Thus, the second and third generations after the Nakbah were exposed to internal and external displacement from the country where they were born and raised, and than which they knew no other country. Those of them who were forced to flee outside Syria were subjected to various forms of suffering and discrimination in the neighboring countries where they sought temporary asylum. Some of them risked their lives and their children's lives in death boats and along international crossings in search for safety. Some of them made it, but many died trying.
Since the start of the crisis until late 2012, before the situation deteriorated in Yarmouk RC, the Palestinians in Syria maintained a kind of neutrality. They had in mind the lesson of the first Gulf war, when the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) sided with Iraq, causing the mass deportation of Palestinians from Kuwait.
Under this state of relative neutrality, Palestinian camps in the north, south, and around the capital Damascus (particularly Yarmouk RC and Khan Eshieh RC) turned into safe havens for Syrian refugees fleeing the fighting. This truly embodied Syrian-Palestinian brotherhood at the popular level.
The Palestinian refugees shared their food with their Syrian brethren. The population of some refugee camps such as Khan Eshieh soon doubled because of the influx of Syrian refuges. The refugee camps also turned into supply lines for both of the warring parties, the regime and the opposition. In the beginning, this situation was agreeable to all Palestinian factions and the two warring parties, despite the fact that the regime forces would sometimes raid the camps and besiege them when opposition fighters took shelter there – whether in search of safety, to treat their wounded, or for other logistical requirements. This happened many times, especially in the Daraa RC. Before it was completely thrown into the conflict, Yarmouk RC was a model of that state of "positive neutrality."
However, the complexity and militarization of the Syrian crisis, as a result of direct intervention by regional, Arab, and international parties in the conflict, and the overlapping and conflicting interests of those parties, led to a state of polarization in the Palestinian positions, which was interpreted as bias for one side or another in the conflict. The Palestinian division, in addition to increased pressure by the regime and the opposition on the Palestinians through threats and enticements, with the goal of pushing them to abandon their neutrality, aggravated that polarization and made it less likely for the Palestinian factions to maintain neutrality.
In reality, the situation in Yarmouk RC since the beginning of the crisis until now summarizes how Palestinian RCs turned from being demilitarized, neutral areas hosting Syrian refugees, into hot spots that each side in the conflict wants to dominate and implicate in the fighting.
The Scene From the Yarmouk RC:
The Yarmouk RC, which has sprawled to become one of the capital's boroughs, is considered the largest Palestinian concentration in Syria. The majority of its population is Palestinians, and the camp is seen as a mirror of Palestinian attitudes towards the Syrian crisis.
With the Syrian opposition's attempts to tighten its siege around the capital, in order to storm it and defeat the regime, the military importance of Yarmouk RC was further underscored for both sides. This importance stems from its proximity to the hot spots of the fighting (al-Hajar al-Aswad, Yalda, Babila, Tadamon, al-Qadam), and from being the southern entrance to the capital for the opposition forces in the context of the so-called "Battle of Damascus." This is what happened at the end of 2012, when opposition forces advanced from the southern flank in the direction of Yarmouk RC, on the grounds that there were pro-regime militants inside the camp, meaning the fighters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command (PFLP-GC).
The battle for the camp resulted in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Islamist opposition factions (al-Nusra Front and others) taking control of the camp, while regime forces, in coordination with the PFLP-GC, took control of the northern entrance of the camp, which leads to al-Zahirah neighborhood, an area known as Madkhal al-Batikha.
As a result of this military situation, the refugee camp came under heavy bombardment in mid-December 2012, in which the regime used the air force for the first time, targeting the Palestine Mosque and Al-Bassel Hospital. This was followed by a wave of displacement from the camp as a result of which about 130-120 thousand residents left. Those who stayed (20-30 thousand) were subjected to a tight siege that killed more than 120 people, because of starvation and the lack of medical care.
Since that time, many Palestinian factions and the PLO made efforts in coordination with UNRWA to end the siege on the camp, and bring in humanitarian aid to its residents, calling on militants to withdraw from the camp and restore its neutrality. As a result, a solution was found but it was difficult to implement at the time. Currently, a revised version of this solution is being implemented, and its most important provisions include: That the non-Palestinian militants' withdraw from the camp; that Palestinian militants deploy along its perimeter; that supplies are brought in to the refugee camp and those in critical conditions are evacuated; and that the displaced residents return to the camp. But in light of the security conditions hanging over the Yarmouk RC, it is not easy to predict whether this agreement will hold.
The Possible Scenarios:
It is difficult to predict the outcome of the revolution in Syria, and whether the talks in Geneva—if they resume—would succeed in reaching a political solution to the crisis. Both parties to the crisis and the international powers backing them differ over interpreting the proposals and the priorities over their implementation. In the foreseeable future, it does not appear that there will be a solution to the crisis on the basis of sharing power between the warring parties. The possible scenarios for what will happen in Yarmouk RC can be summed up as follows:
First Scenario: De-escalation and Neutralizing the Yarmouk RC
It seems that there is an apparent accord over this scenario among the various parties. There is a desire to keep the Palestinians and their camps away from the ongoing conflict, and for them not to be used as weapons in the hands of any party. This scenario would allow the displaced to return to the camp, aid to flow in, reconstruction efforts to begin, and normal life to resume. However, the crisis of confidence between the conflicting parties, and the urgent need to use all their means to control and put pressure on opponents, and the failure to decide the conflict in favor of any party, all make the scenario for de-escalation a fragile possibility that can be breached and that can collapse at any moment.
Second Scenario: The Battle for the Camp Continues
This scenario assumes that geopolitical or military-based interests are prioritized by the conflicting parties over humanitarian considerations and the special Palestinian circumstances of the camp. This means that the camp would be dealt with as part of the political geography of the conflict, and as one of the means of pressure in the latter. Thus, the camp could be subjected to further siege, destruction, and suffering.
This scenario also assumes that the regime may not be in a hurry to resolve the battle in its favor, even if it has the means to do so, especially if the cost in lives would be too high, so that it may not be accused of targeting Palestinians and their camps. The scenario also assumes that the Syrian opposition is still far from achieving any substantial gains in Damascus. Furthermore, the Western-international desire seems to be in favor of prolonging the conflict, attrition, and destruction of Syrian infrastructure, as well as destroying the social fabric in Syria.
Third Scenario: The Battle is Settled in Favor of One of the Two Parties
This scenario assumes that one of the two parties would take full control of the camp, its entrances, and its exits, meaning the end of the siege and the return of some of the displaced, with normal life returning in one degree or another to the camp. However, conditions will not return fully to normal until a full solution is found in Syria. This means that even if the battle is settled in favor of one of the parties in the camp, the camp will not be safe from aerial or artillery bombardment, or military-security operations, as long as the environment around it and beyond remains unstable.
No matter which scenario is the most likely on the ground, efforts should focus on protecting what is left of the Palestinian presence in Syria, and on keeping it neutral in the conflict. Efforts should also focus on trying to find accords with the two parties, in order to protect the camps' residents, and supply it with all necessities of life, in preparation for the return of those who were displaced and stranded inside and outside Syria.
In this context, the Palestinian leaderships and factions must keep in mind the importance of safeguarding the social fabric of the Palestinian refugee camps, to preserve the Palestinian identity and to use the camps as bases for the struggle to return to Palestine for they have produced Palestinian freedom fighters generation after generation. On the other hand, the Palestinian national factions must think hard and seriously to maintain the gains and privileges of the Palestinians in Syria throughout the past decades, embodied in the special legal status the Palestinians have enjoyed.
Suggestions and Recommendations:
Lifting the siege on Yarmouk RC and all camps immediately, allowing the freedom of movement, the return of the displaced, and the return of normal life.
Developing a unified Palestinian position stressing the neutrality of the Palestinian RCs in the armed conflict in Syria, reinforcing this position on the ground in a tangible and practical manner, and convincing the various sides to the conflict of this.
Appealing to donor countries to fulfill their commitments in support of UNRWA, and offer the agency exceptional support to shore up its role in offering relief to Palestinian refugees inside Syria, as well as those who were driven out to neighboring countries. In the same context, appealing to international NGOs to provide more support to secure the basic needs of these refugees.
Getting the Syrian government's General Authority for Palestinian Arab Refugees to exercise its humanitarian role and duty, in coordination with UNRWA in providing relief services.
Gaza ceasefire agreed
GAZA, (PIC)– Islamic Jihad movement leader Khaled al-Batesh said that following intensive Egyptian contacts and efforts, the calm agreement has been restored in Gaza Strip in accordance with understandings reached in 2012 in Cairo.
Batesh said on Thursday afternoon on his Facebook page that after Egyptian strenuous efforts the ceasefire has been reinstated, and that the Islamic Jihad movement would hold its fire as long as Israel did the same.
For his part, the movement spokesman Daoud Shihab stressed that his movement was not concerned with the escalation and that the Israeli occupation forces have violated the calm agreement reached with Egyptian mediation in November 2012 more than 1,400 times.
Hebrew sources said that – until this moment – there was no Israeli official confirmation that the truce agreement with Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip has been restored.
The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, fired dozens of rockets at Israeli targets on Wednesday after Israeli soldiers killed three of its fighters a day earlier in an air raid.
The armed wing called its retaliation "breaking the silence", adding that the firing of those rockets was in reprisal to the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Category: Revolution Palestine Tagged Palestine, Revolution Leave a comment/
Palestinian shepherds bitter at rise in Israeli demolitions
A family member of Palestinian shepherd Mahmoud Ka'abneh tends to sheep at Ein el Hilwe in the Jordan Valley, a hotly contested part of the occupied West Bank February 15, 2014.
Palestinian shepherd Mahmoud Ka'abneh has squeezed his family of 12 into a neighbor's hut on a hilly desert oasis since an Israeli bulldozer turned his own flimsy dwelling into a pile of stones and twisted metal.
"They showed up at dawn and threatened to arrest me if I didn't vacate the house immediately. They wouldn't give me time to remove our personal belongings," Ka'abneh, 43, said.
Palestinian officials say Ka'abneh is one of more than 180 people uprooted since the beginning of the year by what they say is an upsurge in Israeli demolitions in the Jordan Valley, a hotly contested part of the occupied West Bank.
This increase comes against a backdrop of U.S.-brokered peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which remain stuck on various issues, including the fate of the sun-scorched valley, home to more than two dozen Jewish settlements.
Israel describes shepherds such as Ka'abneh as nomads and squatters. It says their ramshackle dwellings, built without permits and often located near Israeli military bases, are torn down in accordance with court orders.
International aid officials who help the Palestinians find themselves increasingly at loggerheads with Israel, and accuse it of violating international law that calls for an occupying power to ensure the welfare of the civilians it administers.
Last year, according to human rights groups, Israel demolished 663 Palestinian dwellings and farming structures, the highest number in five years. About 60 percent of the demolitions were carried out in the Jordan Valley.
The valley covers about a third of the West Bank and is home to some 10,000 Palestinians, among them 2,700 shepherds or Bedouin, the Israeli human rights group B'tselem says. An estimated 6,000 settlers live along the length of the valley.
Palestinians want the Jordan Valley to be the eastern border of the state they seek to establish in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, noting its breadbasket potential and easy access to Arab markets and underground water supplies.
Israel, which captured those areas in the 1967 Middle East war but quit the Gaza Strip in 2005, seeks in any peace deal a long-term security presence in the strategic valley abutting Jordan. The Palestinians have rejected this demand, saying they are only willing to see international troops stationed there.
It's a dispute that inflicts damage in particular on shepherds who count among the West Bank's poorest people, and who rely on the low-lying region's patches of greenery to graze their flocks of goat and sheep, to eke out a living.
"The shepherds want to feed their children, but Israel says, 'this is all ours,'" said Arif Daraghmeh, a Palestinian official and head of a regional council that includes the village where a dozen structures were destroyed in January.
"Israel is destroying our life in this area," he said.
Palestinians charge it is next to impossible to obtain an Israeli permit to build in any West Bank zones under Israeli administrative or security control.
Israel's military-run Civil Administration in the West Bank says it is working on 19 master plans to permit Palestinian construction in parts of the territory.
Tent confiscations
In the Jordan Valley, the International Commission for the Red Cross (ICRC), which had been providing tents to Palestinians whose homes had been destroyed, halted the supply in January, complaining of Israeli confiscations.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor accused the ICRC of overstepping its authority and encouraging Palestinians to violate Israeli eviction orders.
"We are not dealing with purely humanitarian action but rather political action, which is way out of line," Palmor said.
A coalition of 25 aid groups in the West Bank said at least 65 aid items were confiscated by Israel last year. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under a 1993 interim peace accord, has stepped in to provide tents to some homeless shepherds.
Near the spot where Ka'abneh's three shacks were razed in January on the hilly oasis village of Ein el Hilwe, neighbors speak bitterly of confrontations with the Israeli military.
Ahmed Mohammed Ismail, 75, said soldiers once confiscated his sheep when they wandered too close to a military base, and that last year, they destroyed one of his shacks.
His head covered by a classic Palestinian black and white checkered kuffiyeh, Ismail points at a steel pipe at his feet supplying water to a nearby Jewish settlement, one of several dozen built illegally, according to the West, in the valley.
"They have concrete homes. We aren't even allowed to pitch tents," he says of the fenced in Maskiot enclave, the closest settlement to the shepherd village of Ein el Hilwe.
Neill Kirrane, an official with the Swedish-based human rights group Diakonia, links Israel's demolitions in the Jordan Valley, with its goal of keeping the territory in the peace talks that resumed last July after a three-year deadlock.
"In reality the current talks are being used as a cover for increasing violations of international humanitarian law," Kirrane said in a statement to Reuters.
Palmor called such allegations "conspiracy crazed" and said the court-approved demolitions were aimed at preventing "nomads squatting on land that isn't theirs."
"It has nothing to do with political views about what should be done with the Jordan Valley," Palmor said.


Sorry, the guestbook is closed for new entries until further notice.
PS. I plan to implement 8x8 variants with this rule, too. Pool checkers would also benefit from it, I think. DS.
Please resubmit it to the usual Zillions mailbox to have it updated there.
Hi, ik kreeg een uitnodiging voor een base6 havannah game, maar mijn uitdager is aan zet en hij heeft nog geen eerste zet gedaan... Het mailtje heb ik al weggegooid. Kunnen jullie hem/haar een berichtje sturen?
The automatic mail telling me it is my turn to move does not allways arrive. I'm afraid you could loose players this way :-(. Certainly one of my opponents will.
Yes, it has been reported by several people now but I'm still in the dark as to the cause.
Sorry is all I can say for now.
Sorry, as far as I know, there isn't one. I've searched one before to no avail, even though Android is Java based.
- no two tiles are adjacent: not touching.
Hi, the Ayu programming challenge started at 18-8-2014. Also good publicity for your site!
Has anybody ever thought of this before? The first player to get a king *loses* in the case of a draw? This seems to me to be more strategically interesting than Lombok dammen, and also less unbalanced. I would think it would work especially well with a relatively drawless and balanced game such as killer draughts. It would, of course, make the game completely drawless. It would also make the game completely unfair. However, this problem could be solved by the simple expedient of using a coin toss to choose who plays first. Every individual game would still be unfair, but statistically, the game would be completely fair. My preference would be that the winner of the coin toss gets to choose whether he plays first or second, to add to the strategic choices involved.


text:
Posts Tagged 'No-Fly Zone'
Kucinich: Try NATO Commanders as War Criminals
Posted in Libya, tagged Dennis Kucinich, electromagnetic warfare, Gadhafi, International Criminal Court, Israel, Lasers, NATO, No-Fly Zone, Obama, thermobaric weapons, us on August 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Tuesday, 23 Aug 2011
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has been an outspoken critic of U.S. military action in Libya since it began six months ago, even saying President Barack Obama's policy amounted to "an impeachable offense."
Now, as Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's regime appears to be toppling, Kucinich is ramping up his criticism with the contention that NATO commanders in Libya should be tried in court for killing civilians, Politico reports.
"NATO's top commanders may have acted under color of international law, but they are not exempt from international law," Kucinich said in a statement issued today.
"If members of the Gadhafi regime are to be held accountable, NATO's top commanders must also be held accountable through the International Criminal Court for all civilian deaths resulting from bombing," Kucinich said. "Otherwise, we will have witnessed the triumph of a new international gangsterism."
Posted in Libya, tagged african mercenaries, Barack Obama. Netanyahu, democracy, Ghadafi, Global CST, Israel, Libya, NATO, No-Fly Zone, Peace, us, war crimes on April 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »
A World View Interview with Benjamin Netanyahu
Uploaded by israelnews on Mar 31, 2011
Channel 2 and YouTube bring you a special interview with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, in which citizens ask questions about the peace process, unrest in the Middle East, and more.
Hogwash, how about the question about Israel funding of mercenaries? This was brought up by Firedoglake in early May, but, of course, not repeated in the main stream media, so the question is…
Did the Israeli government authorize the Israeli company, Global CST, to finance and arm and supply Gaddafi with 50,000 African Mercenaries?
The US demands that Israeli-funded African Mercenaries be granted Immunity from War Crimes!
By: marsdragon Friday March 4, 2011 9:29 am
Edward Teller first posted a story about this yesterday, but its not up on the front pages anymore so, I need to hat tip him first by linking to it here.
Second, I want to add some more details that have come to my attention since he posted it. This story is important because it involves the potential use of US Military personnel in a theater of war where they may be harmed, and it involves the use of US tax dollars to pay for those forces. It also involves the right of an indigenous people, Libyans, to determine their future for themselves, and how they have risen up to oppose a brutal tyrant of over 40 years. Finally, this story involves the potential that our Commander-in-Chief and President, Barack Obama, may be lying through his teeth to us, the American people, and that NATO, the United Nations Security Council, and other European nations may also be doing one thing but claiming to do another.
~More~
Libyan Airspace 'Under Control' As Two Sides Meet
Posted in Gaddafi, Libya, Moammar Gadhafi, Turkey, tagged Ajdabiya, Benghazi, Britain, Dmitry Medvedev, France, Gaddafi, Hillary Clinton, John Boehner, Libya, Libya No-Fly Zone, Libya Protests, Libyan rebels, Middle East Protests, Misrata, Muammar Gaddafi, NATO, No-Fly Zone, pentagon, robert gates, Tomahawk, Turkey, UN Security Council, United Arab Emirates, United Nations Security Council on March 25, 2011| 1 Comment »
Huffpost- First Posted: 03/25/11 08:48 AM Updated: 03/25/11 08:48 AM
BENGHAZI, Libya — France declared Libya's airspace "under control" on Friday, after NATO agreed to take command of the no-fly zone in a compromise that appeared to set up dual command centers and possibly new confusion. Coalition warplanes struck Moammar Gadhafi's forces outside the strategic eastern gateway city of Ajdabiya.
(SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES)
Representatives for the regime and the rebels were expected to meet formally for the first time Friday, in Ethiopia, in what the U.N. described as a part of an effort to reach a cease-fire and political solution.
The overnight French and British strikes on an artillery battery and armored vehicles were intended to give a measure of relief to Ajdabiya, where residents have fled or cowered under more than a week of shelling and fighting between rebels and government troops. Explosions also could be heard in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, before daybreak Friday, apparently from airstrikes.
"Libyan airspace is under control, and we proved it yesterday, because a Libyan plane in the hands of pro-Gadhafi forces, which had just taken off from Misrata in order to bomb Misrata, was destroyed by a French Rafale," Adm. Edouard Guillaud said on France-Info radio.
But the compromise that puts NATO in charge of clearing the skies still leaves the U.S. responsible for the more difficult task of planning attacks on Gadhafi's ground forces and other targets.
Ajdabiya has been under siege for more than a week, with the rebels holding the city center and scattered checkpoints but facing relentless shelling from government troops on the outskirts. Residents are without electicity or drinking water, and many have fled.
The U.S. military said coalition jets flew about 150 on Thursday, about 70 of them with American planes.
"The operation is still focusing on tanks, combat vehicles, air defense targets – really whatever equipment and personnel are threatening the no-fly zone or civilians on the ground in such locations as Ajdabiya and along some other areas on the coast," Marine Corps Capt. Clint Gebke told reporters from aboard the USS Mount Whitney.
The U.S. has been trying to give up the lead role in the operation against Gadhafi's forces, and NATO agreed late Thursday to assume one element of it – control of the no-fly zone.
Iraq ~ Afghanistan ~ Libya: Haven't we been here before?
Posted in Libya, tagged deja vu, Gaddafi, global elite, Great Briton. France, Iraq. Afghanistan, Italy, Libya, Middle East, military, military roadmap, No-Fly Zone, pre-emptive war, us, US-NATO War Theater on March 24, 2011| 1 Comment »
Libya: Largest Military Undertaking since the Invasion of Iraq. Towards a Protracted Military Operation
by Michel Chossudovsky
Outright lies by the international media: Bombs and missiles are presented as an instrument of peace and democratization…
This is not a humanitarian operation. The war on Libya opens up a new regional war theater.
There are three distinct war theaters in the Middle East Central Asian region. Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.
What is unfolding is a fourth US-NATO War Theater in North Africa, with the risk of escalation.
These four war theaters are functionally related, they are part of an integrated US-NATO military agenda.
The bombing of Libya has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for several years as confirmed by former NATO commander General Wesley Clark.
Operation Odyssey Dawn is acknowledged as the "biggest Western military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq began exactly eight years ago." (Russia: Stop 'indiscriminate' bombing of Libya – Taiwan News Online, March 19, 2011).
This war is part of the battle for oil. Libya is among the World's largest oil economies with approximately 3.5% of global oil reserves, more than twice those of the US.
The underlying objective is to gain control over Libya's oil and gas reserves under the disguise of a humanitarian intervention.
The geopolitical and economic implications of a US-NATO led military intervention directed against Libya are far-reaching.
"Operation Odyssey Dawn " is part of a broader military agenda in the Middle East and Central Asia which consists in gaining control and corporate ownership over more than sixty percent of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas, including oil and gas pipeline routes.
With 46.5 billion barrels of proven reserves, (10 times those of Egypt), Libya is the largest oil economy in the African continent followed by Nigeria and Algeria (Oil and Gas Journal). In contrast, US proven oil reserves are of the order of 20.6 billion barrels (December 2008) according to the Energy Information Administration. U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves).
Largest Military Undertaking since the Invasion of Iraq
A military operation of this size and magnitude, involving the active participation of several NATO member and partner countries is never improvised. Operation Odyssey Dawn was in the advanced stages of military planning prior to the protest movement in Egypt and Tunisia.
Public opinion was led to believe that the protest movement had spread spontaneously from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya.
The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers. Rebel forces in Benghazi immediately hoisted the red, black and green banner with the crescent and star: the flag of the monarchy of King Idris, which symbolized the rule of the former colonial powers. (See Manlio Dinucci, Libya-When historical memory is erased, Global Research, February 28, 2011)
The insurrection was also planned and coordinated with the timing of the military operation. It had been carefully planned months ahead of the protest movement, as part of a covert operation.
US, British special forces were reported to be on the ground "helping the opposition" right from the outset.
What we are dealing with is a military roadmap, a timeline of carefully planned military and intelligence events.
Read more @ GlobalResearch.ca
NATO To Assume Command Libya Operation
Posted in Gaddafi, Libya, Turkey, tagged Arab World Unrest, Command, Fighting, Gaddafi, Libya, Middle East, military, NATO, No-Fly Zone, Operations, Turkey, violence on March 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Turkish TV: NATO To Assume Command Libya Operation
ANKARA, Turkey — NATO appeared on Thursday to move closer to assuming command of the military operation in Libya when Turkey's foreign minister was quoted as saying an agreement has been reached.
The alliance needs the approval of all 28 of its members in order to coordinate the operation, and Turkey had set conditions on that role for NATO.
"The coalition that was formed following the Paris meeting will abandon the mission and hand it over entirely to a single command system under NATO," Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted as saying by Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency.
"All of Turkey's concerns, demands on the issue have been met," he said, and NATO has promised to complete the work needed to take over the Libya mission "within one or two days."
Earlier in the day, Turkey's parliament authorized the government to participate in military operations in Libya, including the no-fly zone. Turkey is NATO's only Muslim member.
Turkey's government had insisted that any NATO mission, including the no-fly zone, must be restricted to protecting civilians, enforcing the arms embargo and providing humanitarian aid.
Davutoglu had said Wednesday that his country would not agree to a "framework that goes beyond this." But Turkey also said it would contribute four frigates and one submarine to the NATO naval force that patrolling off Libya's coast to enforce a U.N. arms embargo. Two frigates had reached the Libyan coast while two others were on their way.
In Brussels, NATO officials said the Military Committee – the alliance's highest military body – met Thursday morning in Brussels to review plans to enforce the no-fly zone in Libya. The decision-making North Atlantic Council, consisting of envoys from all 28 member nations, was meeting later Thursday to review them.
It has been meeting for six straight days, but a series of disagreements, including whether NATO should have overall political control over the operation and how aggressive rules of engagement should be, have so far blocked an agreement.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
conferenza/convegno
Europe-China Relations: National Perspectives on Relations with China in Challenging Times.
In the past few years, Europe-China relations signaled a dramatic development and became a subject of heated international debate.
If traditionally, engagement and skepticism coexisted in both sides' perspectives on one another, bilateral relations recently underwent a significant deterioration, providing reasons and opportunities for increasing mutual distrust. Issues involving a level playing field in trade and investment, human rights, and the status of Hong Kong ignited vocal criticism by many within EU institutions and European national governments. China opposes these gestures as illegitimate because they are considered an infringement on Beijing's domestic affairs. As a result, Europe-China relations have reached an unprecedented low that could further detriment the bilateral ties and determine critical implications for the international system.
Against the backdrop of the current predicament, this digital lecture series will explore the characteristics, drivers, and challenges informing Europe-China relations and their political-diplomatic stances vis-à-vis each other.
As Europe has neither a single stance on nor a unified strategy towards China, the series will employ a number of national case studies to address the status and peculiarities of the bilateral relations. On this basis, this initiative aims to draw a comprehensive framework for understanding Europe-China relations, where due relevance will be given to the differences and specificities regarding European nations' interaction with Beijing. Finally, the series will be taking a close look at China's perspective over its relations with Europe, a dimension without which the picture would be anything but complete.
21 February, 16:30-18:00, Norway-China Relations by Marc Lanteigne
14 March, 16:30-18:00, Southeastern Europe-China Relations by Plamen Tonchev
21 March, 16:30-18:00, Germany-China Relations by Jens Damm
4 April, 16:30-18:00, Central Eastern Europe-China Relations by Richard Q. Turcsanyi
20 April, 17:30-19:00, Italy-China Relations by Francesca Ghiretti
2 May, 12:00-13:30, China-World Relations by Cui Zhiyuan
Students, staff, and the broader public are invited to learn more about the relation between China and European countries through six digital lectures.
The lectures will be recorded and the videos put online after the lectures.
If you have questions regarding the lectures, please contact Julia Marinaccio or Alessandro Albana.
Department of Asian and North African Studies and Asia Institute (Alessandro Albana); University of Bergen (Julia Marinaccio); TerzaMissioneDSAAM
https://www.uib.no/en/hf/151042/europe-china-relations


text:
// DirectoryBuilder.cpp : implementation file
//

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "TemplateMFCDialogPlugIn.h"
#include "DirectoryBuilder.h"
#include "DMOperator.h"

// DirectoryBuilder dialog

IMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC(DirectoryBuilder, CDialog)

DirectoryBuilder::DirectoryBuilder(CWnd* pParent /*=NULL*/)
	: CDialog(DirectoryBuilder::IDD, pParent)
{
	a=1;
	b=0;
	c=2;
	mParent = pParent;
}

DirectoryBuilder::DirectoryBuilder(int a, int b, int c, CWnd* pParent /*=NULL*/)
	: CDialog(DirectoryBuilder::IDD, pParent)
{
	this->a=a;
	this->b=b;
	this->c=c;

	mParent = pParent;
}

DirectoryBuilder::~DirectoryBuilder()
{
}

BOOL DirectoryBuilder::Create(UINT templateID, CWnd* pParentWnd)
{
	// TODO: Add your specialized code here and/or call the base clase
	return CDialog::Create(IDD, pParentWnd);
}

void DirectoryBuilder::DoDataExchange(CDataExchange* pDX)
{
	CDialog::DoDataExchange(pDX);
	DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_COMBO1, path1);
	DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_COMBO2, path2);
	DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_COMBO3, path3);
}

BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(DirectoryBuilder, CDialog)
	ON_BN_CLICKED(IDOK, &DirectoryBuilder::OnBnClickedOk)
END_MESSAGE_MAP()

// DirectoryBuilder message handlers

void DirectoryBuilder::OnBnClickedOk()
{
	CDMOperator* pp = (CDMOperator*)mParent;

	pp->pathorder[0] = path1.GetCurSel();
	pp->pathorder[1] = path2.GetCurSel();
	pp->pathorder[2] = path3.GetCurSel();

	pp->SavePathOrder();

	// TODO: Add your control notification handler code here
	CDialog::OnOK();
}

BOOL DirectoryBuilder::OnInitDialog()
{
	CDialog::OnInitDialog();

	path1.AddString("Date");
	path2.AddString("Date");
	path3.AddString("Date");

	path1.AddString("Specimen");
	path2.AddString("Specimen");
	path3.AddString("Specimen");

	path1.AddString("Area");
	path2.AddString("Area");
	path3.AddString("Area");

	path1.SetCurSel(a);
	path2.SetCurSel(b);
	path3.SetCurSel(c);

	return TRUE;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Some services are provided by a single, or very small group of, service providers. Should they be taken over by the most relevant level of government?
We have few news sources, news is almost monopolized. We have few fuel sources. Natural gas delivery is a monopoly for me. Our Internet is delivered by deliberately checker-boarded individual companies that have monopolies in their "squares". Clearly in all such cases the potential for abuse exists.
Thus the question: are we monopolized? and if we are, should government take over the monopoly? Is it just a choice between being greedily run, versus badly run? That's the dumb question here.
If we voted on it, would we have more RIDE checks?
The MADD people will be all over me for this one, so let me point out that MADD should really be named MAADD, Mothers Advertising Against Drunk Driving. They spend most of their dollars on advertising – which, unlike other charities, actually makes sense in their case.
What makes me want the question put to a vote is, the statistics. My memory was that for every thousand people stopped last year, something like three charges were laid. The police, again this from memory, said that that proved how effective the RIDE stops were.
Firstly, I am sure I could tell you where to set up a RIDE check and get much more than a 0.3% hit rate. I am sure that one tavern I might name would stridently object to its clientele being so discriminated against. Perhaps the MADD people should find some way to let patrons of establishments know that a designated driver, a cold-sober one, is needed to get out of the parking lot. I think that makes sense. I think that not doing the spot check in such locations is gambling with lives.
Secondly, I am sure I could find a better use of police force time than a generic checkpoint in a generic area.
Thirdly, I am pretty sure most of us would agree that the annoyance of being stopped for no reason, with very little to show for it, does not particularly help the police image.
Doing it this way, with steadily decreasing results, looks to me like a second-class use of time. What do you think?
Some really dumb things get done. I suspect that certain lobbies are given visible successes to hush them up. Here are two dumb things that got done within driveable distance of where I live.
The West Mall Bicycle Lane. This was billed as going from Bloor Street to The Queensway. It does not.
The section between Bloor and the bridge over Dundas never got a bike lane. The roadway is four lanes. Parking is allowed on the east side, and there are always a few cars parked there. So the roadway is effectively one lane northbound, and two lanes southbound. It would have been possible to put a bike lane in by removing the extra lane and repainting. The homes here look prosperous, perhaps they were consulted and refused.
Somewhat south of Dundas the bike lane begins. The roadway was widened to allow this, and a sidewalk added to the west side (there has been one on the east side for ages). I marvelled that a bike lane was wanted here, as I have seen a bicycle along here exactly two times more often than I have been riding my bike along here. People don't cycle on this road. But we now have a bike lane – sort of.
The bike lane does not reach the Queensway. Instead, it ends with no warning on a curve just as you begin to turn and descend to go under the railway tracks. Where the lane ends it is not possible to jump the curb – the sidewalk here never has pedestrians on it, so an escape for a trapped cyclist might be a good idea.The sidewalk does not go under the bridge either – at least not on the west side. The bridge is exactly four lanes of pavement, so without building a new one, it was certain that the bike lane would never go through here.
So that's one really dumb municipal decision – a bike lane that nobody uses and ends dangerously.
Now for another weird municipal decision.
There is a place to walk, or cycle, or walk a dog that is accessible from Creekbank Road and Sismet Road. This used to be a very rough trail alongside the Etobicoke Creek until a second sewer was put through – apparently for Brampton – at which time the trail was smoothed over and paved, section by section. While the work was ongoing, there was legal parking on Sismet, everywhere. Once the work was done, a large sign was put up advertising the park, and showing where car parking was. Except that there isn't any parking lot. And at the same time, new no parking signs were added to this street. The street is very wide, without lane markings but more than four lanes width for sure.
Finally someone had some sense and put stickers over the arrows on the last two no-parking signs, making it legal to park at the extreme end of the street.
Why would you put in a nice walkway, clean up the park, add a bridge, and then make it inaccessible? Nobody lives close to this area, it's more or less an industrial park with the exception of one church. You are probably going to drive to get here.
I note that this location is in Mississauga, whereas the bike lane is in Etobicoke. So neither municipality has a monopoly on dumb decisions.
Is TV Content that Expensive to Create?
I ask this after watching the news the other night. The Canadian team had beaten another team by eight to one. In the one-hour news program, this fact was presented four separate times. The same video clip was used repeatedly as well.
I have a sick sort of game I play when watching a Canadian local news channel: I try to find the most-copied clip. I think the record is five times, but I might have slept through additional repetitions.
Talking heads. "This has been me, standing here at this corner. Back to you, sitting there in the studio". There is no content in these cute little hand-offs.
Logos and logo-like shots. Panning around the studio, playing a standard introduction. "These are the voyages of the star ship …. " Again, no content.
Really dumb interviews. There is a special vocabulary for wine tasters. There is a sort of inverse special vocabulary for sports team members. words like execute, but mostly monosyllabic. Either the team won or lost. They are either happy with how they played or are not. It does not take three team member interviews to communicate this.
Real content must be very expensive to create. Real advertising must contribute very small fees, so we need so much of it to be profitable. Or do we?
A cynic might suggest that the TV stations know their days are numbered, and are cashing in on our credulous watching of thin, poorly-made content sandwiched by extensive, carefully and manipulatively crafted commercials.
Why did TV Stations ask for more advertising time?
TV stations once were limited in the percentage of time that can be advertising. They got this restriction removed a year or so ago. It used to be something like twenty percent, or twelve minutes per hour. Now it is unlimited on ordinary TV stations.
What do the stations I watch do with this extra ad time? They advertise other programs on the same channel or carrier company. They advertise other media which is themselves "re-formed", i.e. co-subsidiary companies such as radio or newspapers. They run the same ad twice in the same commercial break. They run the same ad and a shortened version in the same program slot.
Is real content that expensive? That's for another dumb question. Is this large dilution of air time quality really selling more stuff? Am I going to start getting all my news from the Internet because it is faster, more complete, and any ads that are in it can be skipped over?
Why did TV stations think they needed more advertising? Is this like the tobacco industry, which at one time was a big advertiser.
One final dumb question: does anyone else out there think that the various "quit smoking" devices are becoming a substitute nicotine habit? That a dispenser of tiny, quick-hit oral nicotine pills is compared to a lighter? Should this advertising be limited, as tobacco advertising is?
My wife's computer usage is not that technical nor subtle; I got the old machine up long enough to capture some files, settings, favourites and did the best I could with my knowledge at that time.
It occurred to me that my own desktop, older than hers, could also fail; and that my dependencies on old technology were hugely larger than hers. So, seeing how nice her new computer was, I got a similar one. I then began the migration effort to put all my stuff on the new machine.
It turns out that workarounds are required. Windows XP supported old, very old, programs that won't run on Windows 7 64 bit. I used old old utilities and self-coded utilities to make XP files I needed accessible under Windows7. One example of my difficulty will suffice.
PCOutline is (was) a very nice program for collecting thoughts. I used it whenever I was uncertain of the final organization of what I was starting, as in writing a presentation or designing a story. Trust me that this program had unique features that I exploited. However, it is not 32 bit and thus canNot run in Windows 7. What to do? Export every outline I really need, one by one, manually, onto a "structured file" format. Run a program I wrote (in 1987?) to convert that format to Script/GML. Run a program I wrote more recently, thank goodness in FreeBasic (which seems to run in Win7) to convert Script/GML to .rtf (Rich Text Format) usable in Wordpad and Word.
My point here is, I needed to run old stuff to get a format usable by newer stuff. And, I was able to do it by myself. The conversion from Script/GML to RTF is incomplete, limited by my needs, uses a large parameter file, and is over 300 lines of FreeBasic code.
I should in fairness give FreeBasic a kudo. The compiler works, the website documentation is good, it does the job – and it is free.
All this to point out that I sort-of know what I'm doing, but have knowledge gaps of various sizes when dealing with Windows 7. Thus my need for support on various issues.
I have always wanted to be able to synchronize mail from computer to computer. This is not really possible using ThunderBird from Mozilla. (I have repeatedly suggested that this is a shortcoming, but no workaround was ever suggested to me.) Now I have a new problem: I want to move my eMail, all of it, just once, from one computer to another. I keep the mail on my machine because it includes legal stuff (rejection letters from magazines, for example), support stuff, et cetera. I don't want it on Google or Yahoo where it might be hacked or lost.
So I went into the Mozilla forums and asked for a way of moving mail from one machine to another. The first response eMail listed several hotlinks, one of which was to MozBack(up?) which in fact allowed me to collect both FireFox and ThunderBird setup on the XP machine, and install them on the Win7 machine. Accounts, server settings, passwords, mail folders and contents; bookmarks, options, startup file. Amazing. I had an answer within a day, and it worked.
Thank you, the Mozilla community, for this excellent support.
Personal Editor 32 / PE64. I was once an IBM employee, and there was a thing called employee-written-software. I contributed a few small programs as payback for value I received. One thing was an editor someone else wrote called Personal Editor, or PE. Later extended to PE2. Later commercialized as PE32. You can find the latter via google search. Once I tried this upgrade, worked around a few minor incompatibilities, and settled down, I found this editor to be ideal (as customized by me) for me (writing, mostly poetry; and driving odd utilities to format and manipulate files).
PE32 sort-of runs under Win7 64-bit, then crashes. So I upgraded to PE64. There was a discount for old users. The program worked. I had installation questions and eMailed Paolo Chiartano about them. He explained why to run it from where and some non-obvious facts about how key files are found. This support, via eMail, was free. It was thoughtful and effective.
Thank you, Paolo Chiartano, for excellent support of PE64.
Ordering of folders. I have a folder called, Jim's Tools, which normally is icons pointing to programs, directories, specific spreadsheets, et cetera. I normally order this in a specific, idiosyncratic way. Windows 7 will not permit this. You can have icons, and sort them by various criteria, but canNot place them just as you would like. They must be in some "order" by some attribute.
There is a fix for this, which involves registry changes. A supplied, commented, .bat file should do this.
I will back up my registry first, I guess, and try it. I found the answer among others saying that it could not be done under any circumstances. Wild. That someone took the time to create a commented .bat file makes me fairly certain that it will in fact work.
So, conditional kudos for the Microsoft support community. My lack of registry courage will be overcome once I find out how to back up and recover….
Windows 7 computer shares three drives (partitions). Windows XP can "net use" and see and modify those drives. The computers are both on the same router.
May I note that I have done this between XP computers for ages. I am not a novice at drive sharing, but suddenly I am at Win7 drive sharing.
I solved this myself after much trial and some insightful advice from my son. I did post my solution on a Microsoft website.
Open Office, and Linking spreadsheets. This is not a kudo. I used to use Lucid3D for financial spreadsheets. It had one very nice capability: I could track the history of an investment, through years of re-investment, in a simple spreadsheet. I could cause the top row of this spreadsheet to be "=" the current, latest row, on a cell-by-cell basis. Then I could have the Main spreadsheet have a single row which "hotlinked" the simple spreadsheet top row. Repeat for every recurring investment, and you have my basic tracking system. One summary, many contributors.
Imagine my surprise when, with luckily-formed google searches, I found out that Microsoft Excel could do all of the above, albeit slightly differently. copy, edit, past special, paste link. tools, edit, edit cells in place – off. It was just as good as Lucid, in a more-standard (Lucid went kaput in about 2003 I think) program.
So, by hand, I recreated my entire Lucid3D spreadsheet suite of files in Excel. I am using an incredibly old version of Office, which I did not want to install on my new Win7 computer. So, of course, I installed OpenOffice. And used my Excel files therein.
This is weird. If I do the "excel" incantation to link a new previously un-linked sub-spreadsheet file row, it generates completely different cell references than those created by Excel and then re-saved by OO. There is no option comparable to "edit cells in place" to turn off: from Excel I could "jump" to the linked spreadsheet with a double click; from Open Office I cannot.
I posted this minor problem on the Open Office website and got …. nothing. As I said, this is not a kudo.
Acer, Hotkey Utility. This is not a kudo.
I need ctrl-f12 as I use it at the very start of a PE64 editing session. This utility captures that keystroke and starts some fool game program. Opening the utility seems to show that ctrl-f1 goes to the utility, and SomeKeyStroke goes to the clear.fi (whatever that is). You cannot take a hotkey out; you cannot see the hotkey used, and the utility claims that it will choose a hotkey for you. This is, for me, gratuitous crap. So I asked Acer support how to disable this without using add/remove programs to un-install it. I do not want to have to turn this off every time I decide to run my editor of choice, eh?
You would not believe the suggestions I got. Disable services.exe was one. Take it out of start menu, a second: it is not in start menu, or it would have been deleted already, eh? Of three responses, two suggested I go to the Acer fee for service web site.
I tried to point out that I was an Acer user, but had never needed support before, and was disappointed in the level I was getting.
I bought my first Acer, a netbook, against the recommendations of almost every tech guru I know. Can't add memory. Can't change the hard drive. Not literally true, but it is, apparently, a b…ch to do so on this netbook. Luckily the drive has not failed.
The netbook has proven itself on several trips, and on frequent (xcopy) synchronizations between desktop and netbook. (see issue above.) Despite detractors' comments on battery life, I find it pretty good.
I bought our second, and third, Acer because the components seemed to be pretty good – cpu, memory, and decent graphics card.
I will probably consider Acer on a later purchase. AND, I will not forget that a very simple support request: how do I stop a hotkey utility from being loaded automatically – was met with bafflegab, for-fee suggestions, odd warnings, plus mis-advice.
Acer computers are, imho, a mixed bag. If you intend to upgrade your netbook, I am told there is a nightmare video showing how hard it is to get at the hard drive or memory. If you buy your netbook "as-is" you are probably OK.
I cannot help remembering that my daughter is using my very very old IBM laptop. Its hard drive died, and with some software help and a new drive, I set it back up. When she took it over, we went to Tiger Direct and they upped the memory from .5 gb (more than standard) to 2 gb.
My point: a human being could upgrade an IBM laptop, at least my old version. I am told often that Acer netbooks cannot be upgraded with reasonable effort. This would seem to make the original build more complex as well, eh?
Tiger Direct. This is a kudo.
Installed memory on my, now my daughter's, IBM laptop. Maximized the available memory. (More that I thought could be installed.) Got it working for a ten buck fee. Good.
Sold me the hard disk I upgraded in same laptop, ages before. Good.
Many other interactions. Pointed out which cables were cheaper (packaging). Had Brother 7820N cartridge at reasonable price. and on and on.
I should point out that I don't use "tiger direct" direct; I go to the physical store. I find them to be fairly competitive, and often helpful. That's pretty good for a store that's much bigger than, say The Source.
We, as a country, have created an untenable situation for our aboriginal people. They have contributed to this situation, but it is not entirely of their doing, not by a long shot.
There is no such thing as a traditional life. Hunting from snowmobiles with modern cartridge rifles is not traditional. Use of fossil fuels and modern materials is not traditional.
There appears to be no such thing as integration either. Reserves have, at least in those cases in the news, poor housing, poor health care, poor income levels. Yet a study of aboriginals living in Hamilton (in the Toronto Star recently) found that their in-city living conditions were also substandard. It is unclear why this is so.
Generally the cure for substandard conditions is education, and of both genders. Perhaps our standard education is viewed as an insidious attack on another culture. Perhaps it is, if the goal is integration. If we can get them to flip burgers and drive taxis, maybe they will look more like us. To do this we have to make them think more like us. Perhaps the failure to integrate is a cultural hold-out. Our Canadian attempt to not-integrate with the USA is a similar cultural hold-out, one that is under constant attack, sometimes from our own Federal Government. We can find some sympathy for cultural hold-outs, as should those of us speaking French, for example.
Nevertheless I believe that part of the aboriginal dilemma is in the folkways. By folkways, I mean how everything is implicitly understood (in a community) to work: birth death marriage relationships and most importantly, how goods are obtained and distributed or shared. I think we have broken the aboriginal folkways. It is not clear who could, or how anyone could, design a new set of folkways that work for the aboriginals and allow them to have things work for them at the same time. Perhaps they have to do it themselves.
Or are they "trapped in their own world" of not-integration and still not-traditional, whereby the poverty trap holds them from generation to generation? What to do? Lives are being wasted, for what?
All of my "knowledge" of this topic comes from newspapers and web news sources. I do not live near a reserve nor do I have the privilege of conversing with aboriginal individuals. Still, there has been enough news on aboriginal financial situations to make some conclusions almost inescapable.
Anyone with better information on this topic, please respond to this post. Meanwhile, here's what I think.
A few chiefs seem to have a lot of money, or a lot of money has disappeared. This is generally from our tax dollars. Many of those non-chiefs living on reserves seem to dwell in poverty, disease, with potential for various drug abuse as well. Nothing the government does ever seems to fix this.
Sadly, this seems to be the same as the pattern of our society overall: a few have most of the wealth, while services are being cut for the most vulnerable. Inner city slums seem to have more than their share of violence and drug traffic.
This comparison puts those chiefs who are doing well personally while their bands are doing badly, in the same light as the rich one-percent being demonstrated against all across North America. While the details vary, the overall we-versus-they attitude of those controlling resources has the same bad odour of selfishness associated with it, at least to those who are not millionaires.
It seems that aboriginal finances is financing the few at the expense of the many. Comments, anyone?
Mississauga has, apparently, not needed to borrow money for ages. Now it thinks it should start doing so. I must have missed something in the logic of this.
The municipality has been a sort of Ponzi scheme, whereby development fees were used to fund things, neglecting to put aside maintenance money for those new developments when they become old developments with decrepit infrastructure. This works as long as the new development is going ahead faster enough (sic!) to keep ahead of ongoing costs from old development.
Now that that era is coming to an end, Mississauga is finding itself short of cash. What I don't understand is, how borrowing can fix this.
Borrowing assumes on can pay back, with interest, money that one cannot find today. Municipalities that continually borrow more to fund old debt are also in a Ponzi scheme; eventually the future will arrive in which the debt can't be refinanced. We've seen this in countries, states, provinces, and cities.
So, the question must have a good answer, but I don't know what it is. I think it is dumb for municipalities to borrow, unless they are guaranteed to find new revenue streams in the future that they cannot access in the present.
Anyone who understands this differently from me, please comment.
In each case below the real headline is the first one.
Terrorists latest tool is Twitter. Unabomber licks US postage stamps. Anthrax sent in envelopes by mail, random inspection of all messages urged.
H&M shamed over digital models. Sears store windows use identical plastic dummies. Catholic madonnas made from head, hands, and clothes. Copying is evil, especially when easily detected.
Listeriosis victims include provincial health authorities. Maple Leaf Foods apologizes, promises completely thorough new antiseptic procedures – four times. Maple Leaf Foods closes Toronto plant completely. Maple Leaf Foods changes name to Fleur-de-Lis Aliment.
Attawapiskat forced to pay consultant $1300 a day. Normal consultant rate is $200-300K per year: that is, 154-230 days work at the above rate. Natives forced to pay someone to fix their budget when they're broke, a gift from a caring government.


Online registration for the Jodi Livon, The Happy Medium class is closed. Please call 763-506-5766 for more information.
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In Spring 2017, a student let someone not from Temple into the back doors of Annenberg Hall. That person got into a fight and Temple Security had to break it up.
But changes to Annenberg's security system were already in the works to conform with Temple University policy. Klein College Senior Vice Dean, Don Heller, says Klein changed its building access so that students could only enter Annenberg through the front of the building.
"This was the only building on campus where students had swipe access and there was no guard," said Heller.
Heller understands that students like to hold the door open for other students to get into the building, but he also worries about their safety. Students who work at TUTV and graduate students in the theatre and production department are guaranteed authoritative access since they are in the building most of the time.
Captain of Temple University Police Department, Jeffrey Chapman, makes sure that the bike patrol frequently checks the back door, so unauthorized persons do not get into the building.
"We want to make sure that there are no propped doors," said Chapman.
Currently, Temple Security is trying to install swipe access in all buildings while having a security guard stand in the front of the building.
Even though many students find this to be inconvenient, most understand that this benefits their safety. It took many students time to adjust to the changes.
Dean Heller says the change to Annenberg's back door access is permanent.


text:
Q: R - How to normalize the values in matrix using R I have a matrix like this.
term        SaS   PaP   WH
affection   3.06  2.76  2.3
jealous     2     1.85  2.04
gossip     1.3    0     1.78
wuthering   0     0     2.58

I want to convert this into a normalized matrix as below
term        SaS     PaP     WH
affection   0.789   0.832   0.524
jealous     0.515   0.555   0.465
gossip      0.335   0       0.405
wuthering   0       0       0.588

I tried to normalize the values using  scale and sweep. But I am getting the below mentioned error
sweep(terms, 2, colSums(terms), FUN ="/" )
Error in colSums(terms) :
'x' must be an array of at least two dimensions

scale(terms, center = FALSE, scale = colSums(terms))
  Error in colSums(terms) :
'x' must be an array of at least two dimensions

This is the class type
> class(terms)
[1] "DocumentTermMatrix"       "simple_triplet_matrix"

Kindly help.
Update
As per the below suggestion from @small_data, i have changed the code as follows:
  terms <-DocumentTermMatrix(obama.train.p,control = list(weighting = function(x) weightTfIdf(x, normalize = FALSE)))
inspect(terms[1:2, 1:100])
sweep(terms, 2, colSums(as.matrix(terms)), FUN ="/" )
scale(terms, center = FALSE, scale = colSums(as.matrix(terms)))

Luckily it has not thrown any error. But it has not normalized the data.
Docs           93republican94 93son 93stopgap 93surge94 93the 93we 93where 93whi 93you a10  abandon abbottabad
  Obama 1.txt               0     0         0         0     0    0       0     0     0   0 2.321928          0
  Obama 10.txt              0     0         0         0     0    0       0     0     0   0 0.000000

If you could see for the word abandoned, even before and after normalization the value is 2.321928. Any help on this will be useful for me.
Thank you

A: Because of first column's class is factor sweep function does not works. Try this:
data.frame(term=term$term,sweep(term[,-1], 2, colSums(term[,-1]), FUN ="/" ))

       term       SaS       PaP        WH
1 affection 0.4811321 0.5986985 0.2643678
2   jealous 0.3144654 0.4013015 0.2344828
3    gossip 0.2044025 0.0000000 0.2045977
4 wuthering 0.0000000 0.0000000 0.2965517

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Start planning now. The 2018 National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls will be held May 7-11.
The Safety Stand-Down is a voluntary event for employers to talk directly to employees about safety. Employers are encouraged to take a break during the event and focus on fall hazards and and fall prevention.
"It's an opportunity for employers to have a conversation with employees about hazards, protective methods, and the company's safety policies and goals," according to OSHA. Some companies use the event for training or fall protection demonstrations or to conduct safety equipment inspections and develop rescue plans.
It can also be an opportunity for employees to talk to management about fall hazards they see in the workplace.
In past years, participants included commercial construction companies of all sizes, residential construction contractors, sub- and independent contractors, highway construction companies, general industry employers, the U.S. Military, other government participants, unions, employer's trade associations, institutes, employee interest organizations, and safety equipment manufacturers.
Click here for Suggestions to Prepare for a Successful "Stand-Down" and Highlights from the Past Stand-Downs.
If you plan to host a free event that is open to the public, see OSHA's Events page to submit the event details and to contact your OSHA Regional Stand-Down Coordinator.


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The loudness of expectation from a world begging for me to listen to the seductive songs of leisure and mediocrity has threatened to leave my nerves strung out and dry. I feel alone, withering away on the scorching asphalt of the demands of everyone and everything except the one I long to serve most—my Lord and my God.
The only antidote I have found to the barrage of solicitation and thirst for more is the familiar cushion of truth found in the scriptures. These five passages bring balm to my blistered efficiency and calm to the chaos.
This is the perfect remedy for the overstimulated soul. In the midst of the clatter that arises from within and around us, it honestly directs us to where the truest peace, power, and purpose is found—at the feet of Jesus.
We don't always think of peace when we think of sitting in a fortress, but what this passage reminds our battle-weary thoughts is that God is the ultimate maker of peace. While rumors of wars accost our eyes as we scroll through news feeds, God is not to be forgotten. He is to be known. He is mighty and strong, just and merciful, and he is the one who was, is, and always will be. Our enervated hearts can know victory is his. He will be exalted, and because of him, our souls find quietude.
In this passage, Elijah is in hiding. The threats from Jezabel swung over his future, and he ran for the hills, even after seeing God rain down fire and give victory when Elijah stood against the prophets of Baal. I hate that I recognize this pattern in my own life. That life reaches a high and I see the goodness of God right before my eyes, and still, I can turn, run, and hide when pressure pushes in. However, just as God meets Elijah, not in the wind, earthquake, or fire I find God gently leading me back to the places I can find him speaking. His patience relieves the shame that blinds me.
Few suffer as Paul did. He rejoiced and remained content in all circumstances. This verse reveals his secret—Christ who gives him strength. This passage takes away all our right to add to the noise that surrounds us with complaint. Yet it replenishes us by emphasizing that even here, even there, that wherever you are you may be content because you are one of the saved, redeemed, and children of the Most High.
What relief there is in the simplicity and succinctness of this verse. It meets me in my tired and tried places and reminds me that Jesus is not a slave driver. He is a refuge, and there is no true rest away from him. The voices from competing sources are drowned out when we bask in the truth—we are welcome with all we are to enter Jesus' comforting care.
Chara Donahue enjoys freelance writing, biblical counseling, and speaking to women when her four kids are out playing with dad. She holds an MSEd from Corban University and is passionate about seeing people set free through God's truths. She is a regular contributor at iBelieve and her words have appeared at Christianity Today's Women Leaders, (in)courage, Patheos, and The Huffington Post. She longs to be a voice that says, "Hey we are in this together, and there is room for us all." You can find more from Chara at One Anchored Voice, on Facebook, and on Twitter.
The quest to find peace ends nowhere else other than the loving embrace of our Father. In Him alone does our anxieties and frantic scurrying to and fro end.