http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/world/asia/americans-raid-haqqani-byways-of-afghanistan.html
Haqqanis, USCIA PAKISI in Kashmir
It is important to put 2 news story streams together:
1. 2500+ unmarked graves recently discovered along the India-Pak border in divided Kashmir.
2. the attacks on US forces by the Haqqanis along the Af-Pak border.
If we don't put these stories together the daily terror narratives emanating from the Pentagon, Kabul and Pakistan might appear baffling and discrete or at the very least, confusing.
Even though India never has, and never would permit the US to put its bloody boots on the ground anywhere in India, the Indian state of Jammu Kashmir Ladakh (JKL), particularly the Kashmir Valley has long being targeted by the PakISI who hire the Haqqanis and their rivals, to supply suicide bombers whenever and wherever needed -- from Mumbai to Kashmir
Q. But how can Pak afford a decades-long terror infiltration in which cash flow and weapons must be sustained over 55 years? Enter the USA.
The US, even before the Cold War, over 55 years has armed, paid and trained the Haqqanis and many of the Haqqanis' rivals, through the PakISI. It is called the US aid package to Pakistan.
PakISI has, not surprisingly, used the cash and weapons provided by the US, to further their own objectives, the focus of which is the destabilization of Indian Kashmir.
The 2500+ unmarked graves along the LoC (the UN-monitored Line of Control)are mainly of the desperate young men who were paid indirectly through the 'aid package\" by the USA -- and armed, trained and deployed by the PakISI.
I have heard these stories, unsolicited, for 5 years, narrated directly to me in the Kashmir Valley.
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
NYTimes copyright
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/world/asia/americans-raid-haqqani-byways-of-afghanistan.html
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: October 2, 2011
CHARBARAN, Afghanistan — The first helicopter landed in the bluish gray gloom before dawn. More than 20 members of an American reconnaissance platoon and Afghan troops accompanying them jogged out through the swirling dust, moving into a forest smelling of sage and pine.
Multimedia
Photographs
Americans Move Against Haqqani Network in Afghanistan
Related
Brutal Haqqani Crime Clan Bedevils U.S. in Afghanistan (September 25, 2011)
Times Topic: Haqqani Network
Metro Twitter Logo.
Connect With Us on Twitter
Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.
The New York Times
Charbaran is a transit route for insurgents staging attacks. More Photos »
Readers’ Comments
Share your thoughts.
Post a Comment »
Read All Comments (3) »
Three more helicopters followed, and soon roughly 100 troops were on the floor of this high-elevation valley in Paktika Province, near the border with Pakistan. They were beginning their portion of a brigade-size operation to disrupt the Haqqani network, the insurgent group that collaborates with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and that has become a primary focus of American counterterrorism efforts since Osama bin Laden was killed.
The group, based in Pakistan’s northwestern frontier, flows fighters into Afghanistan and has orchestrated a long campaign of guerrilla and terrorist attacks against the Afghan government and its American sponsors.
Its close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence service, and Pakistan’s unwillingness to act against the Haqqani headquarters in Miram Shah, a city not far from the Afghan border, have drawn condemnation from Washington and escalated tensions between two nations that officially have been counterterrorism partners.
Against this backdrop, the helicopter assault into Charbaran this past week highlighted both the false starts and the latest set of urgent goals guiding the American military involvement in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon plans to have withdrawn most of its forces from the country by 2014. Talk among many officers has shifted sharply from discussions of establishing Afghan democracy or a robust government to a more pragmatic and realistic military ambition: doing what can be done in the little time left.
In the tactical sense, this translates to straightforward tasks for units in the security buffer along the border. While they still have their peak troop presence, American commanders are trying to bloody the strongest of the armed antigovernment groups and to put thousands more Afghan police officers and soldiers into contested areas.
The long-term ambition is that Afghan forces will have the skills and resolve to stand up to the insurgency as the Americans pull back.
And yet, even while looking beyond 2014, American units must fight a day-to-day war.
One element lies in trying to prevent more of the carefully planned attacks that have shaken Kabul, the Afghan capital, several times this year. The attacks — striking prominent targets, like the capital’s premier hotel and the American Embassy — have often been organized by the Haqqanis, and have highlighted the Afghan government’s vulnerability and the insurgents’ resiliency.
Lt. Col. John V. Meyer, who commands the Second Battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment, which used two companies to cordon off the Charbaran Valley and another to sweep the villages, called the operation “a spoiling attack to prevent a spectacular attack in the Kabul area.” It was also intended, he said, to gather intelligence.
The Charbaran Valley has become one of the main routes for Haqqani fighters to enter Afghanistan. They generally come in on foot, American officers say, and then, after staying overnight in safe houses and tent camps, they work their way toward Kabul or other areas where they have been sent to fight.
Mid-level Haqqani leaders also meet in the valley’s villages, American officers said, including near an abandoned school and the ruins of a government center that the United States built earlier in the war but that local fighters had destroyed by 2008.
It was 2010 when the last conventional unit entered the valley. An infantry company, it landed by helicopter and was caught in a two-hour gunfight as it left.
When the American and Afghan troops fanned out this time, their mission faced a familiar law of guerrilla war: when conventional forces arrive in force, guerrillas often disperse, setting aside weapons to watch the soldiers pass by.
---
Americans Raid Byways of Haqqani Insurgents in Afghanistan
Published: October 2, 2011
(Page 2 of 2)
The operation was also probably no surprise to the Haqqani fighters in the valley, American officers said, because during the days of preparation some of the Afghan troops probably leaked that the assault was coming.
Brutal Haqqani Crime Clan Bedevils U.S. in Afghanistan (September 25, 2011)
Times Topic: Haqqani Network
As the soldiers climbed the hills — laden with body armor and backpacks heavy with water and ammunition — they almost immediately found signs of the fighters’ presence.
In the first house they entered, not far from the landing zone, only two women and several children were home. The men had all left.
Inside, the Afghan troops uncovered a case of ammunition fired by both PK machine guns and Dragunov sniper rifles. They also found two bandoleers of .303-caliber ammunition for the dated Lee-Enfield rifles that remain a common insurgent arm.
Capt. Nicholas C. Sinclair, the company commander, ordered the Afghan troops to confiscate the ammunition. The younger woman protested loudly.
“There have been many American soldiers here, and they always left it,” she said.
This, the Americans said, was most likely a lie. An Afghan police officer packed away the ammunition. The company walked off.
Later, at the now-abandoned school, which the Haqqani and Taliban fighters had forced to close, the soldiers were greeted by a taunting note written in white chalk above the main entrance.
“Taliban is good,” it read, in English.
The school, the soldiers said, was evidence of an earlier setback. According to those who advanced the counterinsurgency doctrine that swept through the American military several years ago, building schools was supposed to help turn valleys like this one around.
Instead, it was shut down by the same fighters who overran the government center and chased the police away. It stands empty — a marker of good intentions gone awry, and of time and resources lost before this latest battalion inherited duties in the province.
More signs of the fighters soon emerged. At the edge of the Charbaran bazaar, where the Haqqani and Taliban fighters were said to gather, Second Lt. Mark P. Adams, a fire support officer, glanced into a woodpile he was using for cover and saw a makeshift bomb.
The weapon — fashioned from 120-millimeter and 82-millimeter mortar rounds attached to roughly 10 pounds of homemade explosives — was powerful but not armed. It apparently had been hidden there but was meant to have been moved to a road frequented by the Afghan and American troops.
Staff Sgt. Robert Blanco, an explosive-ordnance disposal specialist, put a small explosive charge against it and detonated the bomb in place.
Soon the soldiers climbed a mountain, joining the rest of the battalion, to sleep in the relative safety of a higher ridge.
The next morning, as the sweep resumed, one elder, Ghul Mohammad, sat with First Lt. Tony E. Nicosia, an American platoon leader, as Afghan and American soldiers searched the shops a second time.
There was a ritual familiarity to their exchange, a product of a war entering its second decade.
“When you come here, that’s a big problem for us,” the elder said. “Because after you leave the Taliban comes and asks us about you, and they take our food and are not paying for it.”
Whether this was true could not be determined from this conversation alone; many villagers, the Afghan and American soldiers said, support Taliban and Haqqani fighters.
The soldiers also said that at least some of the men gathered around them were probably fighters, at least part time, who had set down their weapons for the brief period that the Americans had a large presence in the valley.
“We understand your concerns and, hopefully, we can push some security in here,” Lieutenant Nicosia said politely.
Ghul Mohammad nodded. “I cannot do anything about it,” he said. “I want my God to bring security here.”
The Americans shouldered their equipment and began the walk to the next buildings, on the opposite side of the valley.
Throughout the operation, hidden fighters were occasionally heard over the two-way radios that Afghan interpreters were monitoring for intelligence. The guerrillas had threatened to ambush the reconnaissance company.
After the American and Afghan soldiers reached the opposite slope, the guerrillas managed their only attack: they fired four mortar rounds from outside the cordon.
The rounds exploded well behind the soldiers, near the abandoned school, causing no harm but making clear that Charbaran, which had fallen almost silent as the company moved through, remained out of government hands.
===================================================================================
Americans Raid Byways of Haqqani Insurgents in Afghanistan
Showing posts with label Kashmir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kashmir. Show all posts
Monday, October 3, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Akbar's Secular Governance PRE-DATES Indian Constitution.
Akbar's Proud Secular Legacy PRE-DATES India's Constitution. Yes, that is fact.
The Indian Constitution, which appropriately is a composite borrowing from many modern constitutions, could not exist without Akbar Mughal's 16th century legacy of strategic secular governance.
The Indian Constitution, it is true, offers a modern legalistic framework, BUT Akbar pragmatic idealism which included HUMAN RIGHTS, is more inspiring, as LIVED historical experience, for Aam Koshur, every Indian, every subcontinental.
Akbar's proud, strategic, secular, legacy of subcontinental GOVERNANCE forms the critical basis of Kashmir's unity within India.
1586 not 1947 is the modern starting point of Kashmir's integral unity within India.
2 questions for J&K's elected and unelected 'leaders':
Q. Why rely on the deadly and tragic fallout of colonial Brit divide and rule imperial politics, including the post-Mountbatten-era UN Security Council Resolutions, to limit Kashmir's forward-looking future ? Does anybody seriously think that In-Security Council Resolutions, (even when they are in India's favor), can serve as the guiding framework for Kashmir's integrity and future prosperity?
Learn from the failed UN Security Council Resolutions on Palestine.
Q. Why expect homegrown, postcolonial elites, (which include BOTH Hindutva dominant-caste interest, pseudo-nationalists plus the self-serving alpahabet-soup Hurriyat), to offer constructive solutions when we can take the evidence offered by the secular discursive legacy of Akbar?
My critical reading of subcontinental South Asian political and social history points to the greatest Mughal, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, as the pioneering architect of India's modern secular diverse nation-making.
Historians and contemporary politicians, including human rights advocates have failed to fully acknowledge the Mughal master of open-court strategic, philosophical, literary and artistic Navratna discourse.
Akbar and his great grandson Dara Shikoh are the authentic, proven modern architects of Kashmir's unique historical integration within the world's most populous and most diverse democracy.
Aam Koshur can justly share the pride of every indigenous ancestor, every Muslim and Hindu, every Sikh and Rajput, in the governance of the third Mughal.
I write this response today, March 09, 2011, as I leave my University, to meet two dedicated, inspiring representatives of the Youth Parliament (YPP) of Pakistan, a meeting arranged by a dear longterm friend at the OIC.
Such is the complex relationship of blood and kinship that is the unfolding destiny of all South Asians, including of course Aam Koshur of the great State of J&K, India's crown, bestowed by Akbar, in 1586.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogps...
www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
---------------------------------------------------------------
Rising Kashmir copyrighted article (see link)
* yesterday
* http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/solution-within-constitution-of-india-7125.aspx
The Indian Constitution, which appropriately is a composite borrowing from many modern constitutions, could not exist without Akbar Mughal's 16th century legacy of strategic secular governance.
The Indian Constitution, it is true, offers a modern legalistic framework, BUT Akbar pragmatic idealism which included HUMAN RIGHTS, is more inspiring, as LIVED historical experience, for Aam Koshur, every Indian, every subcontinental.
Akbar's proud, strategic, secular, legacy of subcontinental GOVERNANCE forms the critical basis of Kashmir's unity within India.
1586 not 1947 is the modern starting point of Kashmir's integral unity within India.
2 questions for J&K's elected and unelected 'leaders':
Q. Why rely on the deadly and tragic fallout of colonial Brit divide and rule imperial politics, including the post-Mountbatten-era UN Security Council Resolutions, to limit Kashmir's forward-looking future ? Does anybody seriously think that In-Security Council Resolutions, (even when they are in India's favor), can serve as the guiding framework for Kashmir's integrity and future prosperity?
Learn from the failed UN Security Council Resolutions on Palestine.
Q. Why expect homegrown, postcolonial elites, (which include BOTH Hindutva dominant-caste interest, pseudo-nationalists plus the self-serving alpahabet-soup Hurriyat), to offer constructive solutions when we can take the evidence offered by the secular discursive legacy of Akbar?
My critical reading of subcontinental South Asian political and social history points to the greatest Mughal, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, as the pioneering architect of India's modern secular diverse nation-making.
Historians and contemporary politicians, including human rights advocates have failed to fully acknowledge the Mughal master of open-court strategic, philosophical, literary and artistic Navratna discourse.
Akbar and his great grandson Dara Shikoh are the authentic, proven modern architects of Kashmir's unique historical integration within the world's most populous and most diverse democracy.
Aam Koshur can justly share the pride of every indigenous ancestor, every Muslim and Hindu, every Sikh and Rajput, in the governance of the third Mughal.
I write this response today, March 09, 2011, as I leave my University, to meet two dedicated, inspiring representatives of the Youth Parliament (YPP) of Pakistan, a meeting arranged by a dear longterm friend at the OIC.
Such is the complex relationship of blood and kinship that is the unfolding destiny of all South Asians, including of course Aam Koshur of the great State of J&K, India's crown, bestowed by Akbar, in 1586.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York [CUNY]
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogps...
www.disqus.com/EthicalDemocracy
---------------------------------------------------------------
Rising Kashmir copyrighted article (see link)
* yesterday
* http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/solution-within-constitution-of-india-7125.aspx
Saturday, October 9, 2010
1586 NOT 1947
1586 not 1947
In 1586 NOT 1947 Kashmir Became part of Mughal India. A Date we can ALL be Proud of
Critical Readers of Subcontinental and Global South history know that the British colonial Divide and Rule strategy grievously harmed aam janta interests everywhere in Africa and Asia.
On our own subcontinent, Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, Sikhs and Jains, adivasis and other indigenous peoples, had lived with a reasonable measure of peaceful co-existence and prosperity for several millennia.
The British imperial project changed all that. The British played Divide and Rule in EVERY region of the subcontinent,. The Instrument of Accession is just one more British divisive invention (like Lord Curzon's disastrous Partition of Bengal in 1905) to fabricate an artificial disconnect between Kashmir and the rest of India.
Jinnah fell for Britain's Divide and Rule strategy. Jinnah managed to do what even the British failed to do -- Jinnah separated Muslims from Muslims -- just as Geelani is trying to do now.
Pakistan is the tragic product of such painful and unnecessary division -- and the results can be read every day in the newspapers, seen online and on TV. Pakistan for 60+ years has fallen victim to US neo-imperial strategy, after the geopolitical power vacuum created by the departure of the Brits. As contemporary events have shown, Pakistan has jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
If Kashmiris follow the Valley Warlord and his criminal calendar of enforced unrest, loss of education and employment, Kashmir will predictably see the same conclusion as Pakistan.
In 1586, the greatest of the Mughals, India's foremost secularist Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, the pioneer of open-court philosophical and strategic discourse, sent Hindu generals to overthrow an upstart Turki ruler of Kashmir. Akbar annexed Kashmir and made Kashmir part of Mughal India.
Q. Do Kashmiris want to fall victim to the Divide and Rule legacy of the British?
Q. Do Kashmiris want to embrace our shared history under Akbar the Great?
1586 not 1947.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York (CUNY)
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
===============================================
Rising Kashmir copyrighted article
JK India’s integral part: Congress
Agencies
New Delhi: Congress Friday said Kashmir is an integral part of India and that the question of merger of the state with India was decided on October 26, 1947.
''The question of the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with India was decided on October 26, 1947 when late Maharaja Hari Singh
had announced accession of the entire state with the country, including parts of the state under the illegal occupation by Pakistan,'' Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari told reporters here, apparently in reference to the speech by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
He, however, did not make any comment on Omar.
''From the time of the first Prime Minister late Jawaharlal Nehru to the present Manmohan Singh, the Congress has believed that Kashmir is an integral part of India,'' Tiwari said.
In reply to a question, he said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had improved.
''It is the duty of all national parties and parties in the state to make responsible statements about Jammu and Kashmir to help improve the situation,'' he added.
In 1586 NOT 1947 Kashmir Became part of Mughal India. A Date we can ALL be Proud of
Critical Readers of Subcontinental and Global South history know that the British colonial Divide and Rule strategy grievously harmed aam janta interests everywhere in Africa and Asia.
On our own subcontinent, Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, Sikhs and Jains, adivasis and other indigenous peoples, had lived with a reasonable measure of peaceful co-existence and prosperity for several millennia.
The British imperial project changed all that. The British played Divide and Rule in EVERY region of the subcontinent,. The Instrument of Accession is just one more British divisive invention (like Lord Curzon's disastrous Partition of Bengal in 1905) to fabricate an artificial disconnect between Kashmir and the rest of India.
Jinnah fell for Britain's Divide and Rule strategy. Jinnah managed to do what even the British failed to do -- Jinnah separated Muslims from Muslims -- just as Geelani is trying to do now.
Pakistan is the tragic product of such painful and unnecessary division -- and the results can be read every day in the newspapers, seen online and on TV. Pakistan for 60+ years has fallen victim to US neo-imperial strategy, after the geopolitical power vacuum created by the departure of the Brits. As contemporary events have shown, Pakistan has jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
If Kashmiris follow the Valley Warlord and his criminal calendar of enforced unrest, loss of education and employment, Kashmir will predictably see the same conclusion as Pakistan.
In 1586, the greatest of the Mughals, India's foremost secularist Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, the pioneer of open-court philosophical and strategic discourse, sent Hindu generals to overthrow an upstart Turki ruler of Kashmir. Akbar annexed Kashmir and made Kashmir part of Mughal India.
Q. Do Kashmiris want to fall victim to the Divide and Rule legacy of the British?
Q. Do Kashmiris want to embrace our shared history under Akbar the Great?
1586 not 1947.
Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York (CUNY)
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
===============================================
Rising Kashmir copyrighted article
JK India’s integral part: Congress
Agencies
New Delhi: Congress Friday said Kashmir is an integral part of India and that the question of merger of the state with India was decided on October 26, 1947.
''The question of the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with India was decided on October 26, 1947 when late Maharaja Hari Singh
had announced accession of the entire state with the country, including parts of the state under the illegal occupation by Pakistan,'' Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari told reporters here, apparently in reference to the speech by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
He, however, did not make any comment on Omar.
''From the time of the first Prime Minister late Jawaharlal Nehru to the present Manmohan Singh, the Congress has believed that Kashmir is an integral part of India,'' Tiwari said.
In reply to a question, he said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had improved.
''It is the duty of all national parties and parties in the state to make responsible statements about Jammu and Kashmir to help improve the situation,'' he added.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Goats for Social Justice -- Lessons from the The Vale
Goats for Social Justice is a 1-year PILOT project that came out of the inspiring work of three doctors who live and work in the Kashmir Valley. These doctors realized that it is part of their professional obligation, to provide mental health services to the most vulnerable of Kashmiris -- the Female Poor.
Goats for Social Justice (GSJ) places local breeds of goats with women and girls who are suffering from depression, anxiety and other challenges to overall wellness.
Why?
Because poor women have asked for goats! And sheep and buffaloes.
Poor women understand best that subsistence supports and economic opportunity are essential to overcome mental health problems and societal restrictions on their freedom to acquire resources to feed their families and be active in their communities. Mental health problems are disproportionately high among the poor, especially in an area of ongoing armed conflict like the fabled valley.
Because of these repeated requests by poor women facing mental health challenges, our project, Goats for Social Justice has tried to assemble a diverse array of EXISTING RESOURCES -- psychiatric workers, livestock, veterinary students, veterinary faculty, veterinary extension bureaucrats -- in target villages where subsitence dairy producers live and are at risk for psychiatric problems. This is the core mission of Goats for Social Justice.
Think about it -- Goats Help Democracy! Goats Foster Economic Opportunity for the Female Poor.
The Kashmiri doctors' professional service is voluntarily offered in Ganderbal, Budgam and Anantnag district villages, to address this ongoing problem of helping poor women and girls cope with the special mental and physical wellness challenges that are the direct consequence of being poor, female, living and trying to earn a subsistence livelihood in a zone of ongoing armed conflict with its searches, disappearances, street confrontations, shutdowns, curfews, hartals.
The female poor are the most vulnerable under these conditions, because they must continue to attempt to earn a livelihood while living in daily physical danger.
Below, I first list, then elaborate, some lessons I have learned from my very limited field service in the Kashmir Valley during the past two years:
1. Kashmir, like every part of India is OVER-RESOURCED, yet UNDER-UTILIZED and these resources are cynically, deliberately UNDER-UTILIZED, against the poor.
Here's what I mean. National/local politicians/ bureaucrats would prefer to have us common people believe instead their self-serving ideology that Kashmir (and other parts of India) are UNDER-Resourced and OVER-utilized.
For example, officials complain that population increases negate any gains in development. The frequently blame the poor and the illiterate for "having too many children." Our netas and babus fail to learn from significant data gathered over 60 years, that the most effective check on population increase is jobs and social justice.
People limit the size of their families, marry later, have children at later ages, secure economic advantages for themselves their families and communities and become prosperous wherever and whenever the nation-state implements policies that ensure land justice, fair access to literacy and education, healthcare, housing, redress civic grievances.
Development Data analyses show that investing in women and girls' health, education and employment, gives government a bigger payoff and a larger return on investment than investment in any other population group.
Families will NOT need to make additional children to give them a safety net, if government provides that safety net for them.
So, What is the biggest check on population growth? Social Justice for our Female Poor.
What is Social Justice? Fair access to food, shelter, healthcare, education, employment.
I am chillingly reminded of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement in the monsoon session of Parliament last year (2009) "In order to distribute wealth, we must first create it."
That's the completely inaccurate, cynical, heartless mindset of our dominant-caste netas and feudal overlords in government.
2. The female poor contribute substantial resources every day by their unpaid labor, but they are denied their fair share of resources every day throughout Kashmir and elsewhere throughout India. The poor, especially the female poor are not seen as an untapped resource asset, which is in fact what they are -- the female poor are an untapped, rich resource asset.
3. Poverty is NOT a "curse" as mentioned to me in a meeting, by one well-intentioned but mistaken Kashmir official.
So how can poverty be most accurately defined?
Poverty is a CRIME committed by the rulers and bureaucrats of the nation-state, against its most vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens -- especially the female poor.
This is my definition of poverty, coming out of my field experiences in Kashmir, as elsewhere throughout India.
4. The diverse indigenous cultural knowledges, especially of the female poor in Kashmir are deliberately exploited or cynically ignored, by the well-heeled self-serving bureaucrats involved in planning and implementation processes. The politicians and bureaucrats employ a top-down strategy solely to benefit themselves and their patrons, relatives and friends. They have no friends among the poor of Kashmir, the poor are seen by them as invisible, less-than-human persons they can exploit every day. What we need is a bottom-up strategy in which aam aadmi gets to say and demand that their basic needs are met and not stolen from them.
5. Islamic religious culture, with its core emphasis on social equality/justice, is an UNDERUTILIZED asset in the efforts on behalf of the poor.
Allah says YES but netas say NO, to the Poor.
Islamic religious culture, a rich resource for ALL Kashmiris and ALL Indians, is also cynically manipulated by self-styled misogynist and Other-hater Islamists, so-called faux Jihadists and separatists.
In my time working in the Valley, I could see everywhere how ordinary folks turned to their faith for comfort and sustenance. Prayers flowed from homes and mosques. Ordinary people like me ( I draw whatever comfort i need from ALL faith systems, large and small, not just one) grow kinder, more emotionally generous, because of the deep faith that ordinary people carry around with them.
But this faith is not IMPLEMENTED in practical programs for the poor, especially the female poor. This needs to happen urgently.
Q. What is the use of any religion if it is just habit and ritual, if it is used by a cynical few to incite violent discord, and does not accomplish Social Justice?
6.Terror has become a Kashmir INDUSTRY with its own geopolitical economy and the female poor especially, suffer the most from the Terror Industry. The female poor are especially unable to earn a livelihood in the context of constant hartals called by politicians, faux jihadists, separatists, who OPERATE the Terror industry and/or are the BENEFICIARIES of the terror industry. They work against the poor, especially the female poor.
7. The female poor of Kashmir are tremendously resilient and are the most important resource of Kashmir. Babus and netas, faux jihadists/separatists should listen closely to the female poor and implement programs to meet their basic needs.
I'll be adding to these thoughts and welcome yours as we proceed to directly work with the female poor in Kashmir.
===========================================================================
Please note the following pilot project Goats for Social Justice can be implemented entirely through in-kind service and material inputs. That means these resource inputs already exist in every district in Kashmir. They just have not been adequately utilized in creative innovative ways. If GSJ is replicated by the state government after our successful pilot, then GSJ will require fiscal inputs (see budget below) wherever it is replicated.
GOATS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE (GSJ)
Livelihood Security/Social Medicine Dual Initiative for Women & Girl Dairy Producers Working in a Conflict Zone -- Kashmir, INDIA
A 1-year Field Pilot of PACEKashmir
1. Name and contact details: PACE KASHMIR -- Prevention & Care for Everyone
• Full legal name: PACE KASHMIR -- Prevention & Care for Everyone
• Acronym: PACEKashmir
• Legal registration number: DYC/NYK/SGR/YC/387 w/J&K State, India (doctors have been
volunteering in the Kashmir Valley, as trained and credentialed psychiatrists, since 2007)
• Official address: #29 Nursingarh, Srinagar 190011, Kashmir, INDIA
• Contact person: Arshad Arif Maghribi, MD
• Telephone: 91+9419428795;
• Fax
• E-mail:
2. Title of PACE's field project:
Goats for Social Justice: Livelihood Security/Social Medicine Dual Initiative for Women & Girl Dairy Producers Working in a Conflict Zone
3. Main thematic area
• Right to Female Livelihood Security & Public Mental Health Services In A Conflict Zone
4. Location
4.1 Country or countries: India (pilot & replication phases), Afghanistan (suggested replication site), Pakistan (suggested replication site)
4.2 Region or regions
• [ South Asia] X
5. Goats for Social Justice Project Narrative
" Arshad doctor, please can you get me a Goat?"
A middle-aged widow (whose teenage ‘militant’ son was shot in an ‘encounter’ by police) asked suddenly, as the 'barefoot' doctor encouraged her to describe her depressive symptoms – sadness, helplessness, despair, hopelessness, lethargy.
Goats for Social Justice (GSJ) A Livelihood Security/ Social Medicine 1-year Field Pilot Project will target female rural/urban dairy producers working & living in a conflict zone, suffering Depression, PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, substance-related psychiatric symptoms. One female patient, a dairy producer, said "I have sadness, I have become quiet, but my illness is poverty {Garibon ki bimaari}
The fabled Vale of Kashmir has been ravaged by conflict, in 25 yrs of infiltrations, shootings, killings, abductions, rapes, disappearances, by 'separatists', 'terrorists' 'militants’, state police & Indian Army.
Livelihood Security + Social Medicine – A unique combined strategy to counteract conflict and build prosperity for women subsistence earners, their families and communities.
Goats help Democracy!
• GSJ’s Objectives:
1) Conduct a 1-year field pilot in Srinagar & 3 villages -- Anantnag, Budgam, Ganderbal -- to demonstrate the vital importance of paying attention to subsistence women and girls’ own needs assessment, rather than what bureaucrats, politicians or aid donors prescribe for them
2) Promote Liberty; Safety & Security; Freedom of Movement; Self-Reliant Sustainable Economic Activity; Freedom to gain SCIENTIFIC Knowledge; Freedom to implement Livestock Management Sciences & Science of Mental Health Recovery & Wellness Maintenance for Women & Girl Dairy Producers in a 3-state conflict zone {pilot phase in Kashmir India only}
3) Pre-empt, Intervene, Treat Mental Disorders in women & girl dairy producers, resulting from working and raising families in a conflict zone, so that they can be productive entrepreneurial earners for themselves, their families & their communities
• Relevance
Goats for Social Justice (GSJ) is highly relevant to the lived needs of subsistence women and girl dairy producers because:
1. GSJ’s 1-year field pilot initiative directly addresses subsistence-earning women’s expressed livelihood and mental health needs.
2. Women & Girls working in Kashmir’s conflict zone are suffering from mental health disorders, as a direct consequence of living in a zone of extended armed conflict. Mental illnesses (which are preventable, treatable and curable) cause subjective distress; stigmatization; impair women’s freedom of movement and expression, and significantly impede livelihood economic activity.
3. Economic activity (example goatherding and dairying that are culturally valued by their families and communities) gives Women & Girls a socially acceptable opportunity to leave the confines of their homes, (while receiving livelihood and mental health supports), to work outside the home to engage in productive entrepreneurial economic activities within a developing market economy.
4. Women & Girl entrepreneurial dairy producers, through these economic activities, are empowered to approach municipal and civil authorities, as well as mental health personnel, to address their livelihood and mental health requirements.
Since the women and girls are hoping to become self-employed, self-sustaining family and community based entrepreneurs, they will likely be less dependent upon an employer, who would in most instances be a male with authority and influence.
• Activities - brief outline of activities:
Timeline of Activities
1. Week #1Point-person designation & allocation of daily/weekly/monthly clinical tasks; patient case-loading for 2-person psychiatric (one doctor, one counselor) teams; increase patient case-loads as feasible, increase patient case referrals to existing state & municipal mental health clinics and hospitals
2. Week #1 Point-person designation & allocation of daily/weekly/monthly tasks of livestock personnel teams
3. Week #1 Purchase order of livestock units for staggered delivery to 10 FHoH during 2nd week of first quarter.
4. Week #3 Planning for Bi-monthly psychiatric treatment & wellness camps (6) implemented from first month, monthly interim assessments
5. Week #4 Sustainability Consultant reports monthly on networking outcomes as a result of resource mobilization efforts to reach district and state level hospital/clinic personnel, health administrators, local officials, college faculty, psychology and veterinary students
6. Week #4 Sustainability assessment reports of mental health recovery and wellness maintenance, monthly
7. Week #4 Monthly Sustainability Assessment Report of livestock distribution/maintenance patterns to optimize dairy production by female subsistence earners, with expert guidance from livestock teams
8. Week #12 Case Management Review every quarter -- total 4
9. Week #2 Resource Atlas & Resource Directory database compilation, beginning first month of implementation of pilot, ongoing, point person is Sustainability Consultant
10. Week #4 All monthly and quarterly reports compiled to generate year end executive summary under leadership of Founder-Director, consultant is point person for pilot's monthly, quarterly and year-end reports due Week #52.
• Target group(s): Goats for Social Justice (GSJ) will PILOT a field demonstration project to target subsistence Women & Girl Dairy producers, with mental health problems, as a consequence of working in areas of armed conflict.
Each of 10 (ten) Female Heads of Household (herein under referred to as FHoH) will be supplied 2-sheep/2 goat Livestock units, along with expert in-service technical assistance from Animal Husbandry & Dairy Economists.
A.Targeted FHoH will receive technical assistance in
1. Developing and conserving livestock vegetational spaces
2. Green and dry fodder management techniques in their localities.
B. Targeted FHoH will receive
1. Psychiatric interventions, both preventive and ameliorative
2. Necessary medications in an overall program of
exercise, nutrition, mental health wellness maintenance while working and living in an area of extended armed conflict.
Expected Results:
The expected results are listed below, operationalized as Performance Outcomes showing projected behavioral, economic and social changes in the women and girls subsistence earners for whom the project is intended to benefit (based up their self-assessments as described above)
1. Women & Girls will earn a stable daily cash/barter income that would give them the market option to purchase additional livestock assets as well as access to public mental health services for their household members
2. Women & Girls will make social and economic decisions to access education/ vocational training and access to local retail markets for their produce and products.
3. Women & Girls’ social, economic activities generate a “muliplier effect” for their families and communities, thereby increasing the value of donors’ and public-private patrners’ investments in women and girls’ livelihood and health.
4. Women & Girls will speak up/ speak out /take civic action against armed violence
5. Women & Girls will directly participate in civil society through local municipal bodies and street level awareness work to secure their livelihood rights/mental health rights
• PACE Partners :
1. Retired army officers’ volunteer liaison work to help Army develop street strategies to meet female subsistence earners’ just demand for essential personal safety and protection, to ensure productivity
2.University, government, community-based veterinary/husbandry,/dairy economists/green and dry fodder specialists share best practices in dairy/fodder management/pasturage conservation, with subsistence-earning women and girl dairy producers, who in turn peer-assist women and girls in their localities
3.Hospital-based personnel extend mental health services to women and girl dairy producers
4.Municipal and bureaucratic functionaries at the local, state and centre facilitate women and girl subsistence dairy producers’ access to technical assistance, knowledge sharing.
• BUDGET (I year Field Pilot phase ONLY, no replication activity is covered by this budget)
Personnel costs: USD 19,000
[5 FTE -- 2 psychiatrists, 2 counselors, 1 part-time mobile health unit driver, 1 part-time sustainability evaluation consultant]
Administration USD 4,000
[2 FTE – case-loading, intake, discharge, payroll, awareness camps event coordination, clinical file management, livestock/fodder purchase ordering, distribution, management]
Field Activities USD 23, 386
[6 bi-monthly mobile mental health awareness camps, psychiatric interventions including counseling, therapies & medications]
Evaluation USD 1,000
[Executive Summary, Formative & Summative evaluations, Public Domain dissemination of GSJ pilot project results and recommendations]
Total USD 47, 386
[1 year Field PILOT PHASE Kashmir, India ONLY]
This Project is protected by copyright
COPYRIGHT Creative Commons Copyright Creative Commons License.
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice Blog by Professor Chithra Karunakaran is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
covering all materials at the following URL
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
Thursday, September 24, 2009
GOATS -- for Social Justice
The Goat Narrative seems to be gaining ground, clambering into ethical spaces in some of the most conflicted and battle-weary war zones of South Asia.
Kashmir and Kandahar (and several hundred villages in between), would benefit from a few thousand extra goats.
Homegrown goats from across South Asia and perhaps a nice Goat Exchange set up with our sisters and brothers in sovereign nation-states in the previously colonized and still oppressed Global South. Indonesia, Africa, Ecuador.
We need Goats instead of Drones.
Let those US generals and US-led NATO European occupiers, chew on that.
Let Obama ruminate.
Goats have work to do. Peacework. Pro-Poor development.
This past summer I volunteered in Srinagar with an innovative Social Medicine project called PACE -- Prevention & Care for Everyone. The founder-director a serene,intense,dedicated Kashmiri doctor who had quit his safe government job to directly offer care to persons suffering from symptoms related to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as drug related problems,
told me a Goat story.
One day, Dr. Arshad Arif was treating an elderly woman patient. She suddenly asked him:
"CAN YOU GET ME A GOAT?"
Is anyone listening to this innocent casualty of terror, violence, hunger and deprivation?
What is she telling us?
That she is fully capable of self-diagnosis. She doesn't really need a doctor to tell her what's wrong with her.
She knows what ails her. What has made her mentally ill is a cruel denial of livelihood opportunity.
If she has a goat, a goat will give her milk that she can sell to her neighbors and the money earned will give her a chance to feed herself and her family.
She will walk around while tending her goat and the very act of walking will take her outdoors with something safe and productive to do.
The very act of walking will kick in her endorphins, lessening her pain and despair, and lifting her depressive symptoms.
She wants to be an entrepreneur. She wants to be self employed and earn a living.
Who's listening?
She wants to be well and knows exactly how to get well.
She's basically saying Don't get my Goat. Just give me one.
Or two.
Or three.
Throw in some sheep to optimize sustainability.
Over in Afghanistan the Goat narrative has been repeated many times over. (see link below)
Who's listening?
Goats for PEACE of MIND.
Goats for a PIECE of the Rock, A Slice of the Pie.
Goats for SOCIAL JUSTICE.
Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
-------------------------------------------------
Goats for Social Justice (GSJ) places local breeds of goats with women and girls who are suffering from depression, anxiety and other challenges to overall wellness.
Why?
Because poor women have asked for goats! And sheep and buffaloes.
Poor women understand best that subsistence supports and economic opportunity are essential to overcome mental health problems and societal restrictions on their freedom to acquire resources to feed their families and be active in their communities. Mental health problems are disproportionately high among the poor, especially in an area of ongoing armed conflict like the fabled valley.
Because of these repeated requests by poor women facing mental health challenges, our project, Goats for Social Justice has tried to assemble a diverse array of EXISTING RESOURCES -- psychiatric workers, livestock, veterinary students, veterinary faculty, veterinary extension bureaucrats -- in target villages where subsitence dairy producers live and are at risk for psychiatric problems. This is the core mission of Goats for Social Justice.
Think about it -- Goats Help Democracy! Goats Foster Economic Opportunity for the Female Poor.
The Kashmiri doctors' professional service is voluntarily offered in Ganderbal, Budgam and Anantnag district villages, to address this ongoing problem of helping poor women and girls cope with the special mental and physical wellness challenges that are the direct consequence of being poor, female, living and trying to earn a subsistence livelihood in a zone of ongoing armed conflict with its searches, disappearances, street confrontations, shutdowns, curfews, hartals.
The female poor are the most vulnerable under these conditions, because they must continue to attempt to earn a livelihood while living in daily physical danger.
Below, I first list, then elaborate, some lessons I have learned from my very limited field service in the Kashmir Valley during the past two years:
1. Kashmir, like every part of India is OVER-RESOURCED, yet UNDER-UTILIZED and these resources are cynically, deliberately UNDER-UTILIZED, against the poor.
Here's what I mean. National/local politicians/ bureaucrats would prefer to have us common people believe instead their self-serving ideology that Kashmir (and other parts of India) are UNDER-Resourced and OVER-utilized.
For example, officials complain that population increases negate any gains in development. The frequently blame the poor and the illiterate for "having too many children." Our netas and babus fail to learn from significant data gathered over 60 years, that the most effective check on population increase is jobs and social justice.
People limit the size of their families, marry later, have children at later ages, secure economic advantages for themselves their families and communities and become prosperous wherever and whenever the nation-state implements policies that ensure land justice, fair access to literacy and education, healthcare, housing, redress civic grievances.
Development Data analyses show that investing in women and girls' health, education and employment, gives government a bigger payoff and a larger return on investment than investment in any other population group.
Families will NOT need to make additional children to give them a safety net, if government provides that safety net for them.
So, What is the biggest check on population growth? Social Justice for our Female Poor.
What is Social Justice? Fair access to food, shelter, healthcare, education, employment.
I am chillingly reminded of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement in the monsoon session of Parliament last year (2009) "In order to distribute wealth, we must first create it."
That's the completely inaccurate, cynical, heartless mindset of our dominant-caste netas and feudal overlords in government.
2. The female poor contribute substantial resources every day by their unpaid labor, but they are denied their fair share of resources every day throughout Kashmir and elsewhere throughout India. The poor, especially the female poor are not seen as an untapped resource asset, which is in fact what they are -- the female poor are an untapped, rich resource asset.
3. Poverty is NOT a "curse" as mentioned to me in a meeting, by one well-intentioned but mistaken Kashmir official.
So how can poverty be most accurately defined?
Poverty is a CRIME committed by the rulers and bureaucrats of the nation-state, against its most vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens -- especially the female poor.
This is my definition of poverty, coming out of my field experiences in Kashmir, as elsewhere throughout India.
4. The diverse indigenous cultural knowledges, especially of the female poor in Kashmir are deliberately exploited or cynically ignored, by the well-heeled self-serving bureaucrats involved in planning and implementation processes. The politicians and bureaucrats employ a top-down strategy solely to benefit themselves and their patrons, relatives and friends. They have no friends among the poor of Kashmir, the poor are seen by them as invisible, less-than-human persons they can exploit every day. What we need is a bottom-up strategy in which aam aadmi gets to say and demand that their basic needs are met and not stolen from them.
5. Islamic religious culture, with its core emphasis on social equality/justice, is an UNDERUTILIZED asset in the efforts on behalf of the poor.
Allah says YES but netas say NO, to the Poor.
Islamic religious culture, a rich resource for ALL Kashmiris and ALL Indians, is also cynically manipulated by self-styled misogynist and Other-hater Islamists, so-called faux Jihadists and separatists.
In my time working in the Valley, I could see everywhere how ordinary folks turned to their faith for comfort and sustenance. Prayers flowed from homes and mosques. Ordinary people like me ( I draw whatever comfort i need from ALL faith systems, large and small, not just one) grow kinder, more emotionally generous, because of the deep faith that ordinary people carry around with them.
But this faith is not IMPLEMENTED in practical programs for the poor, especially the female poor. This needs to happen urgently.
Q. What is the use of any religion if it is just habit and ritual, if it is used by a cynical few to incite violent discord, and does not accomplish Social Justice?
6.Terror has become a Kashmir INDUSTRY with its own geopolitical economy and the female poor especially, suffer the most from the Terror Industry. The female poor are especially unable to earn a livelihood in the context of constant hartals called by politicians, faux jihadists, separatists, who OPERATE the Terror industry and/or are the BENEFICIARIES of the terror industry. They work against the poor, especially the female poor.
7. The female poor of Kashmir are tremendously resilient and are the most important resource of Kashmir. Babus and netas, faux jihadists/separatists should listen closely to the female poor and implement programs to meet their basic needs.
I'll be adding to these thoughts and welcome yours as we proceed to directly work with the female poor in Kashmir.
===========================================================================
Please note the following pilot project Goats for Social Justice can be implemented entirely through in-kind service and material inputs. That means these resource inputs already exist in every district in Kashmir. They just have not been adequately utilized in creative innovative ways. If GSJ is replicated by the state government after our successful pilot, then GSJ will require fiscal inputs (see budget below) wherever it is replicated.
GOATS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE (GSJ)
Livelihood Security/Social Medicine Dual Initiative for Women & Girl Dairy Producers Working in a Conflict Zone -- Kashmir, INDIA
A 1-year Field Pilot of PACEKashmir
1. Name and contact details: PACE KASHMIR -- Prevention & Care for Everyone
• Full legal name: PACE KASHMIR -- Prevention & Care for Everyone
• Acronym: PACEKashmir
• Legal registration number: DYC/NYK/SGR/YC/387 w/J&K State, India (doctors have been
volunteering in the Kashmir Valley, as trained and credentialed psychiatrists, since 2007)
• Official address: #29 Nursingarh, Srinagar 190011, Kashmir, INDIA
• Contact person: Arshad Arif Maghribi, MD
• Telephone: 91+9419428795;
• Fax
• E-mail:
2. Title of PACE's field project:
Goats for Social Justice: Livelihood Security/Social Medicine Dual Initiative for Women & Girl Dairy Producers Working in a Conflict Zone
3. Main thematic area
• Right to Female Livelihood Security & Public Mental Health Services In A Conflict Zone
4. Location
4.1 Country or countries: India (pilot & replication phases), Afghanistan (suggested replication site), Pakistan (suggested replication site)
4.2 Region or regions
• [ South Asia] X
5. Goats for Social Justice Project Narrative
" Arshad doctor, please can you get me a Goat?"
A middle-aged widow (whose teenage ‘militant’ son was shot in an ‘encounter’ by police) asked suddenly, as the 'barefoot' doctor encouraged her to describe her depressive symptoms – sadness, helplessness, despair, hopelessness, lethargy.
Goats for Social Justice (GSJ) A Livelihood Security/ Social Medicine 1-year Field Pilot Project will target female rural/urban dairy producers working & living in a conflict zone, suffering Depression, PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, substance-related psychiatric symptoms. One female patient, a dairy producer, said "I have sadness, I have become quiet, but my illness is poverty {Garibon ki bimaari}
The fabled Vale of Kashmir has been ravaged by conflict, in 25 yrs of infiltrations, shootings, killings, abductions, rapes, disappearances, by 'separatists', 'terrorists' 'militants’, state police & Indian Army.
Livelihood Security + Social Medicine – A unique combined strategy to counteract conflict and build prosperity for women subsistence earners, their families and communities.
Goats help Democracy!
• GSJ’s Objectives:
1) Conduct a 1-year field pilot in Srinagar & 3 villages -- Anantnag, Budgam, Ganderbal -- to demonstrate the vital importance of paying attention to subsistence women and girls’ own needs assessment, rather than what bureaucrats, politicians or aid donors prescribe for them
2) Promote Liberty; Safety & Security; Freedom of Movement; Self-Reliant Sustainable Economic Activity; Freedom to gain SCIENTIFIC Knowledge; Freedom to implement Livestock Management Sciences & Science of Mental Health Recovery & Wellness Maintenance for Women & Girl Dairy Producers in a 3-state conflict zone {pilot phase in Kashmir India only}
3) Pre-empt, Intervene, Treat Mental Disorders in women & girl dairy producers, resulting from working and raising families in a conflict zone, so that they can be productive entrepreneurial earners for themselves, their families & their communities
• Relevance
Goats for Social Justice (GSJ) is highly relevant to the lived needs of subsistence women and girl dairy producers because:
1. GSJ’s 1-year field pilot initiative directly addresses subsistence-earning women’s expressed livelihood and mental health needs.
2. Women & Girls working in Kashmir’s conflict zone are suffering from mental health disorders, as a direct consequence of living in a zone of extended armed conflict. Mental illnesses (which are preventable, treatable and curable) cause subjective distress; stigmatization; impair women’s freedom of movement and expression, and significantly impede livelihood economic activity.
3. Economic activity (example goatherding and dairying that are culturally valued by their families and communities) gives Women & Girls a socially acceptable opportunity to leave the confines of their homes, (while receiving livelihood and mental health supports), to work outside the home to engage in productive entrepreneurial economic activities within a developing market economy.
4. Women & Girl entrepreneurial dairy producers, through these economic activities, are empowered to approach municipal and civil authorities, as well as mental health personnel, to address their livelihood and mental health requirements.
Since the women and girls are hoping to become self-employed, self-sustaining family and community based entrepreneurs, they will likely be less dependent upon an employer, who would in most instances be a male with authority and influence.
• Activities - brief outline of activities:
Timeline of Activities
1. Week #1Point-person designation & allocation of daily/weekly/monthly clinical tasks; patient case-loading for 2-person psychiatric (one doctor, one counselor) teams; increase patient case-loads as feasible, increase patient case referrals to existing state & municipal mental health clinics and hospitals
2. Week #1 Point-person designation & allocation of daily/weekly/monthly tasks of livestock personnel teams
3. Week #1 Purchase order of livestock units for staggered delivery to 10 FHoH during 2nd week of first quarter.
4. Week #3 Planning for Bi-monthly psychiatric treatment & wellness camps (6) implemented from first month, monthly interim assessments
5. Week #4 Sustainability Consultant reports monthly on networking outcomes as a result of resource mobilization efforts to reach district and state level hospital/clinic personnel, health administrators, local officials, college faculty, psychology and veterinary students
6. Week #4 Sustainability assessment reports of mental health recovery and wellness maintenance, monthly
7. Week #4 Monthly Sustainability Assessment Report of livestock distribution/maintenance patterns to optimize dairy production by female subsistence earners, with expert guidance from livestock teams
8. Week #12 Case Management Review every quarter -- total 4
9. Week #2 Resource Atlas & Resource Directory database compilation, beginning first month of implementation of pilot, ongoing, point person is Sustainability Consultant
10. Week #4 All monthly and quarterly reports compiled to generate year end executive summary under leadership of Founder-Director, consultant is point person for pilot's monthly, quarterly and year-end reports due Week #52.
• Target group(s): Goats for Social Justice (GSJ) will PILOT a field demonstration project to target subsistence Women & Girl Dairy producers, with mental health problems, as a consequence of working in areas of armed conflict.
Each of 10 (ten) Female Heads of Household (herein under referred to as FHoH) will be supplied 2-sheep/2 goat Livestock units, along with expert in-service technical assistance from Animal Husbandry & Dairy Economists.
A.Targeted FHoH will receive technical assistance in
1. Developing and conserving livestock vegetational spaces
2. Green and dry fodder management techniques in their localities.
B. Targeted FHoH will receive
1. Psychiatric interventions, both preventive and ameliorative
2. Necessary medications in an overall program of
exercise, nutrition, mental health wellness maintenance while working and living in an area of extended armed conflict.
Expected Results:
The expected results are listed below, operationalized as Performance Outcomes showing projected behavioral, economic and social changes in the women and girls subsistence earners for whom the project is intended to benefit (based up their self-assessments as described above)
1. Women & Girls will earn a stable daily cash/barter income that would give them the market option to purchase additional livestock assets as well as access to public mental health services for their household members
2. Women & Girls will make social and economic decisions to access education/ vocational training and access to local retail markets for their produce and products.
3. Women & Girls’ social, economic activities generate a “muliplier effect” for their families and communities, thereby increasing the value of donors’ and public-private patrners’ investments in women and girls’ livelihood and health.
4. Women & Girls will speak up/ speak out /take civic action against armed violence
5. Women & Girls will directly participate in civil society through local municipal bodies and street level awareness work to secure their livelihood rights/mental health rights
• PACE Partners :
1. Retired army officers’ volunteer liaison work to help Army develop street strategies to meet female subsistence earners’ just demand for essential personal safety and protection, to ensure productivity
2.University, government, community-based veterinary/husbandry,/dairy economists/green and dry fodder specialists share best practices in dairy/fodder management/pasturage conservation, with subsistence-earning women and girl dairy producers, who in turn peer-assist women and girls in their localities
3.Hospital-based personnel extend mental health services to women and girl dairy producers
4.Municipal and bureaucratic functionaries at the local, state and centre facilitate women and girl subsistence dairy producers’ access to technical assistance, knowledge sharing.
• BUDGET (I year Field Pilot phase ONLY, no replication activity is covered by this budget)
Personnel costs: USD 19,000
[5 FTE -- 2 psychiatrists, 2 counselors, 1 part-time mobile health unit driver, 1 part-time sustainability evaluation consultant]
Administration USD 4,000
[2 FTE – case-loading, intake, discharge, payroll, awareness camps event coordination, clinical file management, livestock/fodder purchase ordering, distribution, management]
Field Activities USD 23, 386
[6 bi-monthly mobile mental health awareness camps, psychiatric interventions including counseling, therapies & medications]
Evaluation USD 1,000
[Executive Summary, Formative & Summative evaluations, Public Domain dissemination of GSJ pilot project results and recommendations]
Total USD 47, 386
[1 year Field PILOT PHASE Kashmir, India ONLY]
This Project is protected by copyright
COPYRIGHT Creative Commons Copyright Creative Commons License.
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice Blog by Professor Chithra Karunakaran is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
covering all materials at the following URL
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
Thursday, September 24, 2009
GOATS -- for Social Justice
The Goat Narrative seems to be gaining ground, clambering into ethical spaces in some of the most conflicted and battle-weary war zones of South Asia.
Kashmir and Kandahar (and several hundred villages in between), would benefit from a few thousand extra goats.
Homegrown goats from across South Asia and perhaps a nice Goat Exchange set up with our sisters and brothers in sovereign nation-states in the previously colonized and still oppressed Global South. Indonesia, Africa, Ecuador.
We need Goats instead of Drones.
Let those US generals and US-led NATO European occupiers, chew on that.
Let Obama ruminate.
Goats have work to do. Peacework. Pro-Poor development.
This past summer I volunteered in Srinagar with an innovative Social Medicine project called PACE -- Prevention & Care for Everyone. The founder-director a serene,intense,dedicated Kashmiri doctor who had quit his safe government job to directly offer care to persons suffering from symptoms related to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as drug related problems,
told me a Goat story.
One day, Dr. Arshad Arif was treating an elderly woman patient. She suddenly asked him:
"CAN YOU GET ME A GOAT?"
Is anyone listening to this innocent casualty of terror, violence, hunger and deprivation?
What is she telling us?
That she is fully capable of self-diagnosis. She doesn't really need a doctor to tell her what's wrong with her.
She knows what ails her. What has made her mentally ill is a cruel denial of livelihood opportunity.
If she has a goat, a goat will give her milk that she can sell to her neighbors and the money earned will give her a chance to feed herself and her family.
She will walk around while tending her goat and the very act of walking will take her outdoors with something safe and productive to do.
The very act of walking will kick in her endorphins, lessening her pain and despair, and lifting her depressive symptoms.
She wants to be an entrepreneur. She wants to be self employed and earn a living.
Who's listening?
She wants to be well and knows exactly how to get well.
She's basically saying Don't get my Goat. Just give me one.
Or two.
Or three.
Throw in some sheep to optimize sustainability.
Over in Afghanistan the Goat narrative has been repeated many times over. (see link below)
Who's listening?
Goats for PEACE of MIND.
Goats for a PIECE of the Rock, A Slice of the Pie.
Goats for SOCIAL JUSTICE.
Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
-------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)