Literasy Ain't Everythin'

[jmm99]

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What we don't seem to do is go in, get done what we need to get done, and get out.

to which, I'd add my violent agreement - thereby yielding three wise men.

I suppose Operation Just Cause (US takedown of Noriega) comes closest to a US "in and out", "national-level punitive raid", in recent history. Noriega's successor, Guillermo Endara, had been elected (ca. 3-1 vote) prior to the US intervention; and Noriega's refusal to recognize that election was one reason for US action.

A similar action against the Mexican government was part of US war planning in the 1920's - just remove the government, then leave and let the Mexicans decide on who they wanted to lead them. Special Plan Green is briefly discussed in this post to source (full refs in Brian Linn's The Echo of Battle).

Those are two examples (one executed, one only planned) I can think of where the US went "in", "did" and went "out" - I DO.

Generally, we try to emulate the Creator in Genesis.

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Dayuhan: I'd suspect that the author of the gold mining article was sourcing primarily from Kankana-ey folks and not Ibalois. The latter are mentioned but briefly in one paragraph (p.9):

While the IPRA law is increasingly empowering IP communities in the Philippines in the recognition of their rights as indigenous people, in its implementation the assertion of identity through one’s ethnolinguistic affiliation is causing divisiveness in communities particularly in areas where different ethnolinguistic groups have been co-existing over time. For example, in the southern part of Benguet Province some Kankana-ey traditional small scale miners are at present in conflict over land issues with the Ibaloi, who are also indigenous to the area. The Ibalois claim that they and not the Kankana-ey are indigenous to the area and have applied for Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles under the IPRA law.

Which goes to further prove your point (and mine) that local can be very local; and that all "montagnards" are not the same.

Regards

Mike

[Dayuhan]

Just in terms of society building, it doesn't matter who is in Afghanistan. The problem I see is that unless someone, anyone, can actually build up a civil society, the area will remain unstable and a haven for the world's refuse. The same goes for Somalia, Yemen, any of those places. It will continue and continue.

I'm not sure that a true civil society can be "built" from the top down, either by external or internal actors. If it's built that way it's going to represent the interests of those who built it, and will probably be rejected by those on the receiving end. A functioning civil society has to grow from the bottom up, not be installed from the top.

I'd also not totally discount the ability of the tribal folks, literate or not, to manage their own affairs, and to know and pursue their own interests. They may not be literate, but they aren't stupid, and those who would govern them, whether foreign or domestic, would be well advised to lecture them less and listen to them more.

I wouldn't say literacy is unimportant, but I'm not sure what we can do about it. Afghans will seek literacy as it becomes more important to them, and as affairs stabilize to a point that allows them to develop a system of education that suits their own needs.

Dayuhan: I'd suspect that the author of the gold mining article was sourcing primarily from Kankana-ey folks and not Ibalois.

Astutely observed. The Kankanaey in general, the northern Kankanaey specifically, and most particularly my neighbors and in-laws in Sagada, Besao, and Bontoc are widely seen by the other tribes in the area as being a bit on the pushy and domineering side, inclined to impose their views as those of all, to hog leadership positions and funding, and having a habit of getting their way. From a slightly neutral position I admit that these observations are not entirely without substance. My neighbors and in-laws would respond that they merely receive that to which their (undoubtedly) superior levels of education and organization and their (remarkable, if not always entirely admirable) ability to manipulate outsiders entitles them. On these matters I typically remain silent, for the sake of domestic peace.