Demining!

This is coolbert:

Demining operations throughout the world have become a cause that is near and dear to many celebrities [Princess Diana was one of them].

The ubiquitous NGO's [non-governmental organizations] are also closely linked to demining operations all throughout the world. Having NGO's attempting to do something of this nature [demining] is to me somewhat self defeating. With the NGO's politics quite often interferes with realistic goals and solutions.

And when considering the problem of land mines throughout the world, the problem is staggering.

I think that the four worst places in the world for mines are Angola, Mozambique, Afghanistan, and Cambodia.

Within these four countries alone literally millions of land mines have been strewn in a reckless and wanton manner. Disparate places linked by the curse of indiscriminate and callous use of land mines by a host of combatants.

Land mine demining has become an industry unto itself in these lands.

And the rehabbing of land mine victims has also become a major venture for each nation. So many victims abound with missing limbs that need prosthesis and rehab. Almost all are civilians that stumbled upon a land mine that was placed not so much to kill or wound opposing combatants, but rather to intimidate civilians.

Normal mining operations carried out by military units calls for careful records to be kept [this may not always be the case, but nonetheless, it is a goal to be adhered to as closely as possible] of where mines have been placed.

When hostilities end, demining can proceed using these records.

In a place such as Angola, mining was carried out in the opposite manner, or so it seems. The more indiscriminate the mining, the better. And this went on for decades.

And demining is not cheap.

The mines of choice in most of these circumstances were almost exclusively either Soviet or Chinese Communist. Crude but effective. And CHEAP. Mines that cost about $2 each!! It is estimated that during demining operations, it costs about $1500 to find and deactivate each mine!! [this is the cost for employing human deminers].

Demining is also very dangerous for the human deminer.

The normal demining procedure is to crawl very slowly forward on one's belly, wearing what amounts to a suit of armor and a helmet with face shield, all the while probing gingerly on a say one meter front with a sharp wooden stick. You hope to find the land mine and uncover it without detonating the little bugger. You can then deactivate or blow the mine up with a small explosive charge of your own. And then start the process over again from the point where you left off. Obviously a laborious, time consuming, dangerous, and NOT 100 % effective method.

You may ask yourself, "well, why not employ those mine detectors that you see used in World War Two [WW2] movies?? Wouldn't that be easier than probing for the mines with a sharp wooden stick??"

Well NO!!

There now exists plastic land mines designed from the start with the goal of defeating the old-fashioned WW2 mine detectors.

And why use a WOODEN stick?

Well, some bright person [??] came up with the idea of placing a fuse activated by the proximity of a ferrous object on the land mines. Someone probing the ground in front of them with a metal object, such as as bayonet [again, you see this done in WW2 movies] will set the land mine off just by placing the steel bayonet in proximity to the specially fused land mine. BOOM!!

It is just as Will Rogers said. "You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way."

coolbert.