Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
Since 2022 an external factor has threatened Ukraine's existence: the full-scale Russian invasion. Now internal factors—namely, the need to renew Ukrainian government's mandate with the help of democratic elections—have added to Ukraine's problems. The essence of the dilemma is as follows. On the one hand, there are legal grounds, popular consent and elites' agreement that trying to hold elections during wartime could hinder internal stability. On another, external and internal elements could use the exhausted legitimacy of Ukrainian government to accuse democratic Ukraine of formal disrespect of democratic principles. This last factor may become damaging, especially in the attrition phase of the war and in view of the West's need to respond to the increasing number of wars around the globe. Constitutional and Administrative ChallengesUkraine's constitution holds that the country may not hold parliamentary elections until martial law, in effect since February 24, 2022, is lifted, and for six months thereafter. Several laws would need to be changed in order for presidential elections to be held, which raises its own problems. Even if a legal solution could be found, security, financial, and organizational obstacles to holding free, fair, and representative elections are far more serious. President Zelensky is not opposed to holding elections but insists they must be held in accordance with the highest standards of democratic elections possible and should not detract from the country's national defense efforts. Many Ukrainian civic organizations promoting free and fair elections agree on the need to held elections only when the right conditions are present to ensure the integrity of the process and results.Security is an overarching concern. Almost 20 percent of Ukraine's territory is occupied. Some settlements are entirely destroyed, while others lack the necessary infrastructure to enable voting. With Russian military forces targeting civilian infrastructure, ensuring the safety of voters, election officials, and observers is simply impossible. President Zelensky has suggested that Western election advocates share in the risks, perhaps by stationing election observers in the trenches to assure the world of the legitimacy of the elections.Funding the elections is another major problem. According to the Central Election Committee's 2023 calculations, the presidential elections are estimated to cost around $196.7 million, while the parliamentary elections may require approximately $135.9 million. At the same time, Ukraine's 2024 budget anticipates $43.7 billion in revenues but almost twice that, $82.3 billion, in expenditures, without including election costs. The difference is projected to be covered by international loans and grants.President Zelensky has stated that he will not hold elections on credit, nor will he "take money from weapons and give it to elections." Instead, he has suggested that Western countries, especially the United States, that are pressing Ukraine to hold elections could help fund them, in this way sharing the financial risk. With funding and security assured, the country could potentially develop a legal framework to hold elections during wartime, he implied.That said, Ukraine has learned the hard way that the essence of elections extends beyond the voting day; it encompasses extended campaigns during which society can have honest debates on a range of divisive issues. To preserve national unity for a people facing existential threat is a life-and-death matter. Even antagonistic political forces are reluctant to gain office at the expense of losing the country.This is why the Ukrainian parliament's opposition leaders signed a joint statement that both parliamentary and presidential elections should take place after the cessation of the war and the conclusion of martial law. The document indicates a consensus among major political parties regarding the need for an appropriate period of time to prepare for elections and favorable conditions for campaigning and voting.What Do Voters Think?For the general population, holding elections under current conditions would be problematic. For example, in a November survey conducted by Kyiv's International Institute of Sociology, over 80 percent of respondents expressed a preference for deferring elections until the war had ended.The voters' views on holding elections can be explained by the fact that they understand the challenges of trying to participate in wartime elections. Voter dispersal across Ukraine and outside the country further complicates any electoral effort. With six million internally displaced citizens alone, updating the list of voters would be a daunting task. The right to vote should also be ensured for over eight million Ukrainian refugees, 60 percent of whom are eligible voters. Currently Poland hosts about 1.6 million refugees and Germany more than a million. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, there were only a small handful of overseas polling places. Moreover, current registration procedures could easily paralyze the work of consulates and embassies. For example, host countries wanting to help Ukraine hold elections by opening polling stations on their own territory might have to change their national laws.This opinion is supported by over 100 leading election and human rights CSOs, which in a joint statement emphasized the impossibility of holding elections during the active war phase. The statement urges international partners to increase support for Ukraine to finally conclude the war, making democratic elections feasible (at least six months after the end of martial law).Why It MattersUkraine's elections spark debates in the United States and Europe. The absence of elections is now being cited as a reason to withhold aid or to question Ukraine's democratic status. Observers believe such a stance is a political ploy on the part of members of the U.S. Congress designed to secure changes to immigration policy governing the U.S. border with Mexico.Ukraine is a democracy at war. It needs to deal with the external threat and then to hold elections. As Olga Ayvazovska, head of the board of the civil network OPORA and an expert in elections, rightly stresses, Ukraine has a record of hewing to a high standard for free and fair elections, but it is impossible to adhere to that standard in wartime. Instead of further entangling in the dilemma, a clear plan is needed. First, Ukraine and West together must resolve the external threat. Second, Ukrainians must elect a new government, continue Ukraine's democratic development, and start the needed postwar socioeconomic recovery. The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute
Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
Since 2022 an external factor has threatened Ukraine's existence: the full-scale Russian invasion. Now internal factors—namely, the need to renew Ukrainian government's mandate with the help of democratic elections—have added to Ukraine's problems. The essence of the dilemma is as follows. On the one hand, there are legal grounds, popular consent and elites' agreement that trying to hold elections during wartime could hinder internal stability. On another, external and internal elements could use the exhausted legitimacy of Ukrainian government to accuse democratic Ukraine of formal disrespect of democratic principles. This last factor may become damaging, especially in the attrition phase of the war and in view of the West's need to respond to the increasing number of wars around the globe. Constitutional and Administrative ChallengesUkraine's constitution holds that the country may not hold parliamentary elections until martial law, in effect since February 24, 2022, is lifted, and for six months thereafter. Several laws would need to be changed in order for presidential elections to be held, which raises its own problems. Even if a legal solution could be found, security, financial, and organizational obstacles to holding free, fair, and representative elections are far more serious. President Zelensky is not opposed to holding elections but insists they must be held in accordance with the highest standards of democratic elections possible and should not detract from the country's national defense efforts. Many Ukrainian civic organizations promoting free and fair elections agree on the need to held elections only when the right conditions are present to ensure the integrity of the process and results.Security is an overarching concern. Almost 20 percent of Ukraine's territory is occupied. Some settlements are entirely destroyed, while others lack the necessary infrastructure to enable voting. With Russian military forces targeting civilian infrastructure, ensuring the safety of voters, election officials, and observers is simply impossible. President Zelensky has suggested that Western election advocates share in the risks, perhaps by stationing election observers in the trenches to assure the world of the legitimacy of the elections.Funding the elections is another major problem. According to the Central Election Committee's 2023 calculations, the presidential elections are estimated to cost around $196.7 million, while the parliamentary elections may require approximately $135.9 million. At the same time, Ukraine's 2024 budget anticipates $43.7 billion in revenues but almost twice that, $82.3 billion, in expenditures, without including election costs. The difference is projected to be covered by international loans and grants.President Zelensky has stated that he will not hold elections on credit, nor will he "take money from weapons and give it to elections." Instead, he has suggested that Western countries, especially the United States, that are pressing Ukraine to hold elections could help fund them, in this way sharing the financial risk. With funding and security assured, the country could potentially develop a legal framework to hold elections during wartime, he implied.That said, Ukraine has learned the hard way that the essence of elections extends beyond the voting day; it encompasses extended campaigns during which society can have honest debates on a range of divisive issues. To preserve national unity for a people facing existential threat is a life-and-death matter. Even antagonistic political forces are reluctant to gain office at the expense of losing the country.This is why the Ukrainian parliament's opposition leaders signed a joint statement that both parliamentary and presidential elections should take place after the cessation of the war and the conclusion of martial law. The document indicates a consensus among major political parties regarding the need for an appropriate period of time to prepare for elections and favorable conditions for campaigning and voting.What Do Voters Think?For the general population, holding elections under current conditions would be problematic. For example, in a November survey conducted by Kyiv's International Institute of Sociology, over 80 percent of respondents expressed a preference for deferring elections until the war had ended.The voters' views on holding elections can be explained by the fact that they understand the challenges of trying to participate in wartime elections. Voter dispersal across Ukraine and outside the country further complicates any electoral effort. With six million internally displaced citizens alone, updating the list of voters would be a daunting task. The right to vote should also be ensured for over eight million Ukrainian refugees, 60 percent of whom are eligible voters. Currently Poland hosts about 1.6 million refugees and Germany more than a million. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, there were only a small handful of overseas polling places. Moreover, current registration procedures could easily paralyze the work of consulates and embassies. For example, host countries wanting to help Ukraine hold elections by opening polling stations on their own territory might have to change their national laws.This opinion is supported by over 100 leading election and human rights CSOs, which in a joint statement emphasized the impossibility of holding elections during the active war phase. The statement urges international partners to increase support for Ukraine to finally conclude the war, making democratic elections feasible (at least six months after the end of martial law).Why It MattersUkraine's elections spark debates in the United States and Europe. The absence of elections is now being cited as a reason to withhold aid or to question Ukraine's democratic status. Observers believe such a stance is a political ploy on the part of members of the U.S. Congress designed to secure changes to immigration policy governing the U.S. border with Mexico.Ukraine is a democracy at war. It needs to deal with the external threat and then to hold elections. As Olga Ayvazovska, head of the board of the civil network OPORA and an expert in elections, rightly stresses, Ukraine has a record of hewing to a high standard for free and fair elections, but it is impossible to adhere to that standard in wartime. Instead of further entangling in the dilemma, a clear plan is needed. First, Ukraine and West together must resolve the external threat. Second, Ukrainians must elect a new government, continue Ukraine's democratic development, and start the needed postwar socioeconomic recovery. The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute
Die Inhalte der verlinkten Blogs und Blog Beiträge unterliegen in vielen Fällen keiner redaktionellen Kontrolle.
Warnung zur Verfügbarkeit
Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
Conventional wisdom would have it that presidential elections are not decided on foreign policy, and that Black Americans, like the majority of the American population, vote primarily on domestic issues.Both statements are partially true. However, based on a recent survey conducted by the Carnegie Endowment's American Statecraft Program, African Americans do not vote primarily on foreign policy, but they are paying attention to how candidates describe the US's role in the world. In other words, foreign policy may not be the deciding factor for how the masses of Black Americans vote in 2024, but it stands to have an impact on voter enthusiasm and turnout.The Carnegie Endowment survey, comprised of a representative sample of Black Americans, revealed that economy and jobs registered as the most important issue with 29 % of respondents selecting that option. This finding tracks with a recent polling that found that the majority of Americans view the economy as the most important issue facing the country. Considering that increased inflation and the overall cost of living has placed hardships on many American families, this shouldn't come as a surprise..Our survey contained three options related to foreign policy: National Security, Immigration (which some argue cuts across international and domestic politics), and US foreign policy/role of the U.S .in the world. None of these choices cracked double digits. National Security received 5% of the vote, followed by immigration at 3%, rounded out by the U.S.'s role in the world at 2%. Despite these findings, evidence shows that Black Americans can see the importance of global developments, even when facing domestic issues. Respondents were asked if a President's foreign policy agenda matters to them when they vote. Interestingly, four in ten (39%) respondents said that it is "very important" and a plurality (44%) reported that it is "somewhat important." Across party lines, 43% of both Black Democrats (who comprised 70% of the sample) and Black Republicans reported that a president's foreign policy agenda mattered a great deal when they vote.Education attainment proved salient here, with 59% of African Americans with a postgraduate degree reporting that a president's foreign policy platform was "very important" when voting compared to 39% of all Black respondents who felt the same way. The same held true for respondents' familiarity with foreign policy issues. Forty five percent of Black Americans with postgraduate education reported being "very familiar" with foreign policy matters compared to 25% of all Black respondents that reported similarly.It should be noted, regardless of political affiliation, two of the top three most important issues to African American voters — economy and healthcare — have an international component. For instance, jobs and economic growth are impacted by trade agreements and foreign supply lines, and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic (which disproportionally impacted communities of color) required significant international cooperation. Even for foreign policy topics that did not rank high for respondents, such as immigration and National Security, there is evidence that these issues will weigh heavily on the minds of some Black voters. Take for example, the crisis at the southern border. While few African Americans see migrants as a critical threat (only 29% of African Americans see immigrants and refugees as a critical threat compared to 44% of White Americans), some African American communities may view the accommodation of migrants into historically underserved neighborhoods as reason to be concerned with Biden's handling of illegal immigration and border security.For instance, as the city of Chicago plans to turn a community center in the predominantly Black northwest neighborhood of Galewood into a migrant housing facility, Chicago CBS reported that many Black residents feel their already scarce community resources are being allocated elsewhere. One resident stated "the thing that we're most concerned about is our children, our Black children, the football, the soccer, and all the things that they do… and now they're going to take this part beautiful part and give it to migrants."On the topic of national security and US military intervention, only two in ten (20%) Black Americans are supportive of possibly sending troops to assist Ukraine or help Taiwan defend itself from a hypothetical Chinese invasion. This, of course, is partly due to the community's perennial concern with the material and human costs associated with major war. Moreover, research conducted by the Chicago Council for International Affairs reveals that 46% of Black Americans feel the US should urge Ukraine to settle for peace as soon as possible so that the costs aren't so great for American households, compared to 38% of the American public that feel the same way. According to the numbers, Black Americans are supportive of assistance to Ukraine, but many are cautious that an incipient forever war would potentially require imbalanced human and material costs from the community, or even draw attention and resources from domestic challenges. Perhaps it will prove beneficial if messaging around support for Ukraine for "as long as it takes" is coupled with a peace plan or pathways towards de-escalation.On collective action issues such as climate change, a majority of African Americans (54 %) believe the US should take the lead in combating the issue, at an even higher rate than White Americans (42 %). With concerns regarding Black voter enthusiasm and turnout in the 2024 presidential election, it might be beneficial for candidates addressing Black voters to tie together how mutual cooperation on shared global challenges will impact the economic wellbeing of the Black community. One potential solution to solving the disconnect between Black voters and the foreign policy establishment lies in connecting with Black American civil society. The same manner in which Vice President Kamala Harris tapped into the Black sorority network (which serve as some of the Black community's oldest advocacy organizations) to galvanize the Black vote, it can prove beneficial for political parties to connect with historically Black fraternities and sororities and explicate how foreign policy translates into domestic wellbeing for the Black American community. Much more in terms of foreign policy messaging will be required, of course, but it is a first step.What is clear is that solely using messaging that addresses Black American domestic concerns without addressing America's role in the world will leave many Black voters feeling they are getting more of the same.
Arterial tourniquets are widely used in both military and civil medicine (particularly in the case of limb injuries, arthroplasty and angioplasty). Restoring the blood supply to the limb after removal of the tourniquet can cause ischemic-reperfusion lesions of both the primary ischemic tissues and distant tissues and organs. However, the ultrastructural changes of tissues at the local level by ischemia-reperfusion are in need of deeper study today. The aim of the study – to establish the condition of the haemomicrocirculatory bed of the hind limbs of rats with acute ischemia and subsequent reperfusion caused by the arterial tourniquet application. Materials and Methods. The electron microscopic examination of the blood vessels of the haemomicrocirculatory bed of the skeletal muscles of the hind limbs of 12 rats under experimental acute ischemia was performed. There were 3 intact animals in the control group. Acute ischemia was caused by application of SWAT rubber bands on the hind limbs of animals, 5–6 mm width, at the inguinal fold level within 2 hours under thiopental anesthesia, and reperfusion was modeled by removing the tourniquet. The examination of muscle tissue samples was carried out at the department of histology and embryology, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University by using an electron microscope PEM-125K. Results and Discussion. Electron microscopy of the skeletal muscles of the hind limbs of rats revealed in the vessels of the haemomicrocirculatory bed destructively altered hemocapillaries with unequal wall thickness, pronounced oedema of endothelial cells with their protrusion into the lumen of the haemocapillaries, desquamation of single endothelial cells, thickening of the basal membrane, enlarged by oedema perivascular spaces, accumulation of lymphocytes in the paravasal space, appearance of protein and erythrocytes extravasation around the haemocapillaries. Often in the lumen of vessels near the endothelial cells platelets were visualized, indicating the development in the haemocapillaries of microthrombosis near its wall. Ultrastructural changes were observed already within two hours after the removal of the tourniquet and were most pronounced after one day. In the late reperfusion period there was a reverse development of pathological changes, however, even after 14 days of ischemia-reperfusion the complete restoration of ultrastructure of haemomicrocirculatory bed still did not happen. Conclusions. The ultrastructural disorders in vessels of the haemomicrocirculatory bed of ischemic muscular tissue of the hind limbs reached maximal expression in rats one day after the removal of the tourniquet, confirming the development in experimental animals of ischemic-reperfusion syndrome. In the later reperfusion period there was a reverse development of pathological changes. ; Артериальные турникеты широко используются как в военной, так и в гражданской медицине (в частности при ранении конечностей, артро- и ангиопластике). Восстановление кровоснабжения конечности после снятия турникета может вызвать ишемически-реперфузионные поражения как первично ишемизированных тканей, так и в отдаленных тканях и органах. Однако на сегодняшний день требуют более глубокого изучения ультраструктурные изменения тканей на местном уровне при ишемии-реперфузии. Цель работы – исследовать состояние гемомикроциркуляторного русла задних конечностей крыс при острой ишемии и последующей реперфузии, вызванной наложением артериального турникета. Материалы и методы. Было проведено электронномикроскопическое исследование сосудов гемомикроциркуляторного русла скелетных мышц задних конечностей 12 крыс в условиях экспериментальной острой ишемии. Контрольную группу составили 3 интактных животных. Острую ишемию вызывали путем наложения резиновых жгутов SWAT шириной 5–6мм на задние конечности животных на уровне паховой складки в течение 2ч под тиопентал-натриевым обезболиванием, а реперфузию моделировали путем снятия турникета. Исследование образцов мышечной ткани проводилось на кафедре гистологии и эмбриологии Тернопольского национального медицинского университета имени И.Я.Горбачевского с помощью электронного микроскопа ПЕМ–125К. Результаты и их обсуждение. При электронной микроскопии скелетных мышц задних конечностей крыс в сосудах гемомикроциркуляторного русла обнаружены деструктивно измененные гемокапилляры со стенками неодинаковой толщины, выраженный отек эндотелиоцитов с пролабированием их в просвет гемокапилляров, десквамация отдельных эндотелиоцитов, утолщение базальной мембраны, расширенные вследствие отека периваскулярных пространств, скопление лимфоцитов в паравазальном пространстве, возникновение белковых и эритроцитарных экстравазатов вокруг гемокапилляров. Нередко в просвете сосудов вблизи эндотелиоцитов визуализировались тромбоциты, что свидетельствует о развитии в гемокапиллярах пристеночного микротромбоза. Ультраструктурные изменения наблюдались уже через 2 часа после снятия турникета и были более выраженными через 1 сутки. В позднем реперфузионном периоде происходило обратное развитие патологических изменений, однако даже через 14 суток реперфузии полного восстановления ультраструктуры гемомикроциркуляторного русла все еще не происходило. Выводы. Ультраструктурные нарушения в сосудах гемомикроциркуляторного русла ишемизированной мышечной ткани задних конечностей крыс достигали максимальной выраженности через 1 сутки после снятия турникета, что подтверждает развитие у экспериментальных животных ишемически-реперфузионного синдрома. В позднем реперфузионном периоде происходило обратное развитие патологических изменений. ; Артеріальні турнікети широко використовуються як у військовій, так і в цивільній медицині (при пораненні кінцівок, артро- та ангіопластиках). Відновлення кровопостачання кінцівки після зняття турнікета може викликати ішемічно-реперфузійні ураження як первинно ішемізованих тканин, так і у віддалених тканинах та органах. Проте на сьогоднішній день ультраструктурні зміни тканин на місцевому рівні при ішемії-реперфузії потребують більш глибокого вивчення. Мета роботи – дослідити стан гемомікроциркуляторного русла задніх кінцівок щурів при гострій ішемії та наступній реперфузії, викликаній накладанням артеріального турнікета. Матеріал і методи. Проведено електронномікроскопічне дослідження судин гемомікроциркуляторного русла скелетних м'язів задніх кінцівок 12 щурів за умов експериментальної гострої ішемії. Контрольну групу склали 3інтактних тварини. Гостру ішемію викликали шляхом накладання гумових джгутів SWAT шириною 5–6мм на задні кінцівки тварин, на рівні пахвинної складки, протягом 2год під тіопентал-натрієвим знеболюванням, а реперфузію моделювали шляхом зняття турнікета. Дослідження зразків м'язової тканини проводили на кафедрі гістології та ембріології Тернопільського національного медичного університету імені І.Я.Горбачевського за допомогою електронного мікроскопа ПЕМ–125К. Результати. При електронній мікроскопії скелетних м'язів задніх кінцівок щурів у судинах гемомікроциркуляторного русла виявлено деструктивно змінені гемокапіляри з неоднаковою товщиною стінки, виражений набряк ендотеліоцитів із пролабуванням їх у просвіт гемокапілярів, десквамацію окремих ендотеліоцитів, потовщення базальної мембрани, розширені набряком периваскулярні простори, скупчення лімфоцитів у паравазальному просторі, появу білкових та еритроцитарних екстравазатів довкола гемокапілярів. Нерідко в просвіті судин поблизу ендотеліоцитів візуалізувалися тромбоцити, що свідчить про розвиток у гемокапілярах пристінкового мікротромбозу. Ультраструктурні зміни спостерігались вже через 2 години після зняття турнікета і були найбільше вираженими через 1 добу. У пізньому реперфузійному періоді відбувався зворотний розвиток патологічних змін, проте навіть через 14 діб реперфузії повного відновлення ультраструктури гемомікроциркуляторного русла все ще не відбувалося. Висновки. Ультраструктурні порушення в судинах гемомікроциркуляторного русла ішемізованої м'язової тканини задніх кінцівок щурів досягали максимальної вираженості через 1 добу після зняття турнікета, що підтверджує розвиток у експериментальних тварин ішемічно-реперфузійного синдрому. У пізньому реперфузійному періоді відбувався зворотний розвиток патологічних змін.
Arterial tourniquets are widely used in both military and civil medicine (particularly in the case of limb injuries, arthroplasty and angioplasty). Restoring the blood supply to the limb after removal of the tourniquet can cause ischemic-reperfusion lesions of both the primary ischemic tissues and distant tissues and organs. However, the ultrastructural changes of tissues at the local level by ischemia-reperfusion are in need of deeper study today. The aim of the study – to establish the condition of the haemomicrocirculatory bed of the hind limbs of rats with acute ischemia and subsequent reperfusion caused by the arterial tourniquet application. Materials and Methods. The electron microscopic examination of the blood vessels of the haemomicrocirculatory bed of the skeletal muscles of the hind limbs of 12 rats under experimental acute ischemia was performed. There were 3 intact animals in the control group. Acute ischemia was caused by application of SWAT rubber bands on the hind limbs of animals, 5–6 mm width, at the inguinal fold level within 2 hours under thiopental anesthesia, and reperfusion was modeled by removing the tourniquet. The examination of muscle tissue samples was carried out at the department of histology and embryology, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University by using an electron microscope PEM-125K. Results and Discussion. Electron microscopy of the skeletal muscles of the hind limbs of rats revealed in the vessels of the haemomicrocirculatory bed destructively altered hemocapillaries with unequal wall thickness, pronounced oedema of endothelial cells with their protrusion into the lumen of the haemocapillaries, desquamation of single endothelial cells, thickening of the basal membrane, enlarged by oedema perivascular spaces, accumulation of lymphocytes in the paravasal space, appearance of protein and erythrocytes extravasation around the haemocapillaries. Often in the lumen of vessels near the endothelial cells platelets were visualized, indicating the development in the haemocapillaries of microthrombosis near its wall. Ultrastructural changes were observed already within two hours after the removal of the tourniquet and were most pronounced after one day. In the late reperfusion period there was a reverse development of pathological changes, however, even after 14 days of ischemia-reperfusion the complete restoration of ultrastructure of haemomicrocirculatory bed still did not happen. Conclusions. The ultrastructural disorders in vessels of the haemomicrocirculatory bed of ischemic muscular tissue of the hind limbs reached maximal expression in rats one day after the removal of the tourniquet, confirming the development in experimental animals of ischemic-reperfusion syndrome. In the later reperfusion period there was a reverse development of pathological changes. ; Артериальные турникеты широко используются как в военной, так и в гражданской медицине (в частности при ранении конечностей, артро- и ангиопластике). Восстановление кровоснабжения конечности после снятия турникета может вызвать ишемически-реперфузионные поражения как первично ишемизированных тканей, так и в отдаленных тканях и органах. Однако на сегодняшний день требуют более глубокого изучения ультраструктурные изменения тканей на местном уровне при ишемии-реперфузии. Цель работы – исследовать состояние гемомикроциркуляторного русла задних конечностей крыс при острой ишемии и последующей реперфузии, вызванной наложением артериального турникета. Материалы и методы. Было проведено электронномикроскопическое исследование сосудов гемомикроциркуляторного русла скелетных мышц задних конечностей 12 крыс в условиях экспериментальной острой ишемии. Контрольную группу составили 3 интактных животных. Острую ишемию вызывали путем наложения резиновых жгутов SWAT шириной 5–6мм на задние конечности животных на уровне паховой складки в течение 2ч под тиопентал-натриевым обезболиванием, а реперфузию моделировали путем снятия турникета. Исследование образцов мышечной ткани проводилось на кафедре гистологии и эмбриологии Тернопольского национального медицинского университета имени И.Я.Горбачевского с помощью электронного микроскопа ПЕМ–125К. Результаты и их обсуждение. При электронной микроскопии скелетных мышц задних конечностей крыс в сосудах гемомикроциркуляторного русла обнаружены деструктивно измененные гемокапилляры со стенками неодинаковой толщины, выраженный отек эндотелиоцитов с пролабированием их в просвет гемокапилляров, десквамация отдельных эндотелиоцитов, утолщение базальной мембраны, расширенные вследствие отека периваскулярных пространств, скопление лимфоцитов в паравазальном пространстве, возникновение белковых и эритроцитарных экстравазатов вокруг гемокапилляров. Нередко в просвете сосудов вблизи эндотелиоцитов визуализировались тромбоциты, что свидетельствует о развитии в гемокапиллярах пристеночного микротромбоза. Ультраструктурные изменения наблюдались уже через 2 часа после снятия турникета и были более выраженными через 1 сутки. В позднем реперфузионном периоде происходило обратное развитие патологических изменений, однако даже через 14 суток реперфузии полного восстановления ультраструктуры гемомикроциркуляторного русла все еще не происходило. Выводы. Ультраструктурные нарушения в сосудах гемомикроциркуляторного русла ишемизированной мышечной ткани задних конечностей крыс достигали максимальной выраженности через 1 сутки после снятия турникета, что подтверждает развитие у экспериментальных животных ишемически-реперфузионного синдрома. В позднем реперфузионном периоде происходило обратное развитие патологических изменений. ; Артеріальні турнікети широко використовуються як у військовій, так і в цивільній медицині (при пораненні кінцівок, артро- та ангіопластиках). Відновлення кровопостачання кінцівки після зняття турнікета може викликати ішемічно-реперфузійні ураження як первинно ішемізованих тканин, так і у віддалених тканинах та органах. Проте на сьогоднішній день ультраструктурні зміни тканин на місцевому рівні при ішемії-реперфузії потребують більш глибокого вивчення. Мета роботи – дослідити стан гемомікроциркуляторного русла задніх кінцівок щурів при гострій ішемії та наступній реперфузії, викликаній накладанням артеріального турнікета. Матеріал і методи. Проведено електронномікроскопічне дослідження судин гемомікроциркуляторного русла скелетних м'язів задніх кінцівок 12 щурів за умов експериментальної гострої ішемії. Контрольну групу склали 3інтактних тварини. Гостру ішемію викликали шляхом накладання гумових джгутів SWAT шириною 5–6мм на задні кінцівки тварин, на рівні пахвинної складки, протягом 2год під тіопентал-натрієвим знеболюванням, а реперфузію моделювали шляхом зняття турнікета. Дослідження зразків м'язової тканини проводили на кафедрі гістології та ембріології Тернопільського національного медичного університету імені І.Я.Горбачевського за допомогою електронного мікроскопа ПЕМ–125К. Результати. При електронній мікроскопії скелетних м'язів задніх кінцівок щурів у судинах гемомікроциркуляторного русла виявлено деструктивно змінені гемокапіляри з неоднаковою товщиною стінки, виражений набряк ендотеліоцитів із пролабуванням їх у просвіт гемокапілярів, десквамацію окремих ендотеліоцитів, потовщення базальної мембрани, розширені набряком периваскулярні простори, скупчення лімфоцитів у паравазальному просторі, появу білкових та еритроцитарних екстравазатів довкола гемокапілярів. Нерідко в просвіті судин поблизу ендотеліоцитів візуалізувалися тромбоцити, що свідчить про розвиток у гемокапілярах пристінкового мікротромбозу. Ультраструктурні зміни спостерігались вже через 2 години після зняття турнікета і були найбільше вираженими через 1 добу. У пізньому реперфузійному періоді відбувався зворотний розвиток патологічних змін, проте навіть через 14 діб реперфузії повного відновлення ультраструктури гемомікроциркуляторного русла все ще не відбувалося. Висновки. Ультраструктурні порушення в судинах гемомікроциркуляторного русла ішемізованої м'язової тканини задніх кінцівок щурів досягали максимальної вираженості через 1 добу після зняття турнікета, що підтверджує розвиток у експериментальних тварин ішемічно-реперфузійного синдрому. У пізньому реперфузійному періоді відбувався зворотний розвиток патологічних змін.
Ernest Hemingway is a symbolic figure in the literature of the 20th century. His name and works entered the history of world literature forever. The purpose of the article is to characterize the way of opening the inner world and the emotional state of the characters, the psychology of the 'lost generation' in the interaction of its external and internal manifestations through the civil war inSpain. The article analyzes the stories 'A clean, well-lighted place', 'A way you'll never be', 'The light of the world'.The heated atmosphere of the 'bloody decade' introduced new themes into the writer's work.Spainbecame a 'moment of truth' for E. Hemingway. He feels the inevitability of the coming world war. E. Hemingway expressed himself inSpaincompletely as an artist, and as a citizen. All the characters of his stories are simple people, men and women, unemployed, traumatized by war, looking for their place in the post-war world (a cook, a lumberjack, Indians, prostitutes etc.). Endless humor, laughter, self-irony, joke, and sometimes bitter laughter help them to stand and find their place in life.The 'code' of light, purity, and peace are universally introduced into all writer's works. In the personality of his characters there is much in common, unifying them with all the differences in appearance and life path, and above all, hopelessness and disappointment, indifference to life in general, and the most terrible is their loneliness. The utmost frankness and genuineness of soul movements, the combination of morals, history, nature with the chronicle of only human destiny, are exceptionally bright creative personalities of E. Hemingway, who describes his characters.In our work we came to the conclusion that the characters of the stories about the war years inSpain'A clean, well-lighted place' (about a lonely old man), 'A way you'll never be' (about the war), 'The light of the world' (the sad and ironic story about prostitutes who remembered the past) anyway are rejected by a prosperous society. Hopelessness, dark state of the soul of 'lost generation' are combined with the belief in the 'ordinary' life without the war for the characters of E. Hemingway's stories. Light and dignity are the main components of a person's peaceful life, the confession of a person who got out of the abyss and survived during the war, but who lost the sense of life in peacetime, they are distinguishing features of many characters in military conflicts.Keywords: Spanish theme, E. Hemingway, 'The Winner Gets Nothing', 'lost generation', 'code' of light. ; Эрнест Хемингуэй – знаковая фигура в литературе XX столетия, его имя и творчество навсегда вошли в историю мировой литературы. Целью статьи является характеристика способа раскрытия внутреннего мира и эмоционального состояния героев, психологизм «потерянного поколения» во взаимодействии внешнего и внутреннего его проявления через гражданскую войну в Испании. В статье анализируются рассказы «Там, где чисто, светло», «Какими вы не будете», «Свет мира».Накаленная атмосфера «кровавого десятилетия» внесла новые темы в творчество писателя, Испания стала для него «моментом истины», он чувствует неотвратимость грядущей мировой войны. В Испании Э. Хемингуэй в полной мере выразил себя и как художник, и как гражданин. Все герои его рассказов – это простые люди, мужчины и женщины, безработные, травмированные войной, ищущие свое место в послевоенном мире (повар, лесоруб, индейцы, проститутки и др.). Выстоять и найти свое место в жизни им помогают неиссякаемый юмор, смех, самоирония, шутка, а порой и горький смех.«Код» света, чистоты, мира повсеместно вводится во все произведения писателя. В характере его персонажей есть много общего, объединяющего их при всех различиях облика и жизненного пути – и прежде всего, – безысходность и разочарование, равнодушие к жизни вообще, и самое страшное – их одиночество. Предельная откровенность и неподдельность движений души, соединение нравов, истории, природы с хроникой одной человеческой судьбы, – исключительно яркая творческая индивидуальность Э. Хемингуэя, описывающего своих героев.В работе мы пришли к выводу, что персонажи новелл о военных годах в Испании «Там, где чисто, светло» (об одиноком старике), «Какими вы не будете» (о войне), «Свет мира» (грустно-ироничный рассказ о проститутках, вспомнивших прошлое) так или иначе отторгнуты благополучным обществом. Безысходность, болезненное состояние души всего «потерянного поколения» сочетается с верой в «нормальную» жизнь без войны персонажей его рассказов. Свет и достоинство – вот главные составляющие мирной жизни человека, исповедь человека, который выбрался из бездны и уцелел во время войны, но потерял смысл жизни в мирное время, – характерная черта многих персонажей военных конфликтов.Ключевые слова: испанская тема, Э. Хемингуэй, «Победитель не получает ничего», «потерянное поколение», «код» света. ; Ернест Хемінгуей – знакова фігура в літературі XX століття, його ім'я і творчість назавжди увійшли в історію світової літератури. Метою статті є характеристика способу розкриття внутрішнього світу і емоційного стану героїв, психологізм «втраченого покоління» у взаємодії зовнішнього і внутрішнього його прояву через громадянську війну в Іспанії. У статті аналізуються розповіді «Там, де чисто, світло», «Якими ви не будете», «Світло життя».Вогняна атмосфера «кривавого десятиліття» внесла нові теми в творчість письменника, Іспанія стала для нього «моментом істини», він відчуває невідворотність майбутньої світової війни. В Іспанії Е. Хемінгуей в повній мірі проявив себе і як художник, і як громадянин. Всі герої його оповідань – це прості люди, чоловіки і жінки, безробітні, травмовані війною, які шукають своє місце в післявоєнному світі (кухар, лісоруб, індіанці, повії та ін.). Вистояти і знайти своє місце в житті їм допомагають невичерпний гумор, сміх, самоіронія, жарт, а часом і гіркий сміх.«Код» світла, чистоти, миру усюди включається в твори письменника. В характері його персонажів є багато спільного, що об'єднує їх при всіх відмінностях зовнішності й життєвого шляху – і перш за все, – безвихідь і розчарування, байдужість до життя взагалі, і найстрашніше – їхня самотність. Гранична відвертість і справжність рухів душі, з'єднання моралі, історії, природи з хронікою однієї людської долі, – виключно яскрава творча індивідуальність Е. Хемінгуея, який описує своїх героїв.У роботі ми дійшли висновку, що персонажі новел про воєнні роки в Іспанії «Там, де чисто, світло» (про самотнього старого), «Якими ви не будете» (про війну), «Світло життя» (сумно-іронічна розповідь про повій, які згадали минуле) так чи інакше відторгнуті благополучним суспільством. Безвихідь, болісний стан душі всього «втраченого покоління» поєднується з вірою в «нормальне» життя без війни персонажів його оповідань. Світло і гідність – ось головні складові мирного життя людини, сповідь людини, яка вибралася зі безодні й вціліла під час війни, але втратила сенс життя в мирний час, – характерна риса багатьох постатей військових конфліктів.Ключові слова: іспанська тема, Е. Хемінгуей, «Переможець не одержує нічого», «втрачене покоління», «код» світла.
Today, there is a need to introduce medical devices into everyday medical practice with the goal to self-administer injectional drugs. The speed and safety of auto-injectors / pre-filled syringe pens use (AI/PFS) is the introduction of an injectional form drug in a special medical device, which allows patients to enter a pre-designated therapeutic dose due to the characteristics of the structure of the product, automatic dosing, data of the interactive display on some devices, comfortable design, etc. Considering that AI/PFS were developed to improve the quality of life of patients with various pathological conditions, therefore the creation of affordable medical devices for low-income groups of the population is relevant today. Also an actual issue is the provision of high-quality first-aid kits for soldiers, which is a vital component for medical care in the context of active combat conditions and the lack of the required number of field hospitals.The speed of administration, the onset of effect and ease of use provides significant advantages for AI / PFS. Therefore, the issue of affordability for the low-income groups of the population and the army with the necessary drugs should be sufficiently supported by state regulation.Purpose of study – study of the international experience in the implementation and use of drugs (drugs) in the form of affordable, safe and effective modern dosage forms in the form of autoinjectors.Materials and methods – foreign and domestic literature on the use of AI/PFS in complex and monotherapy treatment of various diseases. State registries of medicines of Ukraine, the USA and some EU countries. The study used systematic, statistical and comparative analyzes, as well as the generalization of information. The data used is freely available among various medical scientific and metric bases, the Internet and international scientific conferences.The analysis of the use of AI/PFS indicates that today the world market of medicines and medical devices contains a large number of drugs under different trade names. However, many patients in the world refrain from using these dosage forms due to the significant cost of medical devices, which makes impossible the required regular use of such drugs for the low-income population groups. This is a significant disadvantage, since AI / PFS is implemented to correct not only chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, but also to provide emergency careinurgent conditions (anaphylactic reactions, intense pain, etc.).In the global market for drugs and medical devices, injectable medicines in the form of AI/PFS are widely represented. The effectiveness of the use of such devices indicates the advantages and prospects for the use of existing AI/PFS on the global market for patients and medical personnel. Today, the most commonly used drugs in AI/PFSare for the treatment of diabetes, emergency conditions in civil and military medicine, chronic diseases of various etiologies, pediatric practice. The use of AI /PFS significantly improves patient compliance for the treatment of chronic diseases due to ease of use and reduction of adverse reactions at the site of administration. Most of the analyzed sources indicate a low level of economic affordability of drugs in the form of AI/PFS for the population and the government sector of drug supply due to the high cost of the medical devices, compared to traditional syringes. But the results of the study indicate a high level of advantages and prospects in the use of drugs in AI/PFS in medical practice for both medical personnel and patients. ; Сьогодні існує потреба у впровадженні в повсякденну лікарську практику медичних виробів для самостійного введення ін'єкційних лікарських засобів (ЛЗ). Швидкість та безпечність застосування автоінжекторів/попередньо заповнених шприц-ручок (АІ/ПЗШР) – це ін'єкційна форма ЛЗ, у спеціальному медичному виробі, що дозволяє вводити пацієнтам попередньо зазначену терапевтичну дозу за рахунок особливостей будови виробу, за рахунок автоматичного дозування, даних інтерактивного дисплею на деяких приладах, зручного дизайну та ін. Враховуючи, що АІ/ПЗШР були розроблені для поліпшення якості життя пацієнтів з різними патологічними станами, тому створення доступних медичних виробів для малозабезпечених категорій населення є на сьогодні актуальним. Також актуальним питанням є забезпечення солдатів якісними аптечками, що є життєво необхідним компонентом для медичної допомоги за умов активних бойових дій та відсутності необхідної кількості польових госпіталів. Швидкість введення, настання ефекту та зручність у використанні надає значні переваги АІ/ПЗШР. Тому питання економічної доступності для малозабезпечених верств населення та армії необхідними лікарськими засобами має бути достатньо підтримано з боку державного регулювання. Мета дослідження -- вивчення міжнародного досвіду впровадження та використання лікарських засобів (ЛЗ) у вигляді доступних, безпечних та ефективних сучасних лікарських форм у вигляді автоінжекторів (автоінєкторів). Матеріали і методи -- зарубіжні та вітчизняні літературні джерела щодо застосування АІ/ПЗШР у комплексній та монотерапії лікування різних захворювань. Державні реєстри лікарських засобів України, США, та деяких країн ЄС. У ході дослідження використовувались системний, статистичний та порівняльний аналізи, а також узагальнення інформації. Використані дані, розміщені у вільному доступі серед різних медичних науково-метричних баз, мережі Інтернет та міжнародних наукових конференцій. Проведений аналіз застосування АІ/ПЗШР вказує, що на сьогодні світовий ринок лікарських засобів та медичних виробів містить велику кількість найменувань ЛЗ під різними торговими назвами. Однак багато пацієнтів у світі утримуються від застосування цих лікарських форм внаслідок значної вартості медичних виробів, що унеможливлює потребу регулярного використання таких ЛЗ для малозабезпеченого населення. Це є значним недоліком, оскільки АІ/ПЗШР впроваджені для корекції не лише хронічних захворювань, таких як ревматоїдний артрит, розсіяний склероз, але й для забезпечення швидкої допомоги при невідкладних станах (анафілактичні реакції, інтенсивний біль тощо). На світовому ринку лікарських засобів та медичних виробів широко представлені ін'єкційні лікарські засоби у формі АІ/ПЗШР. Ефективність використання таких пристроїв вказує на переваги та перспективи застосування наявних на світовому ринку АІ/ПЗШР для пацієнтів та медичного персоналу. На сьогодні найчастіше застосовуються ЛЗ в АІ/ПЗШР для лікування цукрового діабету, невідкладних станів у цивільній та військовій медицині, хронічних захворювань різної етіології, дитячій практиці. Застосування АІ/ПЗШР значно підвищує комплаєнс пацієнтів для лікування хронічних захворювань за рахунок зручності застосування та зменшення проявів побічних реакцій в місці введення. Більшість проаналізованих джерел вказують на низький рівень економічної доступності ЛЗ у АІ/ПЗШР для населення та державного сектору забезпечення ЛЗ у зв'язку з високою вартістю медичного виробу і порівнянні з традиційними шприцями. Але результати дослідження вказують на високий рівень переваг та перспектив у застосуванні ЛЗ у АІ/ПЗШР у медичній практиці як для персоналу так і для пацієнтів.
Confederate batteries opened up on Fort Sumter in April of 1861, inaugurating the bloodiest conflict in American history. President Abraham Lincoln's war effort, nursing wounds from defeats at Fredericksburg in 1862 and Chancellorsville in 1863, sorely needed more men and supplies. Propaganda campaigns and conscription efforts filled gaps in the depleted ranks of Lincoln's army, helping it swell into the largest mobilization of troops in the world. Reliable supplies were, however, harder to come by; while Union soldiers fell to Confederate bullets and bayonets on the battlefield, army commissaries and quartermasters fell victims to fraud. A lack of meaningful government oversight had created an environment rife with profiteering. During the first years of the war, the government unwittingly purchased 1,000 horses so sick with every known equine disease that they were entirely useless; in another instance, the government paid a contractor for 411 horses of which only 76 were found fit for service (with the remainder being either blind, undersized, ringboned, or dead upon arrival). The government also bought artillery shells filled with sawdust rather than gunpowder, flimsy shoes that lasted for only twenty days, "rotten" blankets, "worthless" overcoats, and "muskets not [even] worth shooting." To stop these abuses, Congress appointed a special committee, called the Select Committee on Government Contracts, to investigate the extent of the fraudulent contracting; the committee solicited testimony from military personnel, experts, and others that highlighted the disturbing magnitude of the problem. In response, the Union government promulgated the False Claims Act ("FCA") in March of 1863. Following the conclusion of the war, and the rapid decline of government contracting needs, the FCA was left to gather dust in a forgotten corner of federal law until the late twentieth century. In the 1980s, the FCA surged back to prominence to address abuses in the defense contracting industry and, once again, it became the government's weapon of choice to combat fraud.Since its Civil War origins, the FCA has undergone substantial changes. Congress, in recognition of the FCA's increasing importance with the growth of the modern regulatory state, expanded the purview of the FCA in both 1986 and 2009, much to the chagrin of government contractors. The 2009 amendment, in particular, was a clear demonstration of congressional intent to expand the scope of the FCA by overriding federal judicial precedent that attempted to limit it. Congress's goal in amending the FCA, thus, was not just to "enact a broad remedial statute" but rather to "preserve the traditional boundaries of fraud," as well.The FCA operates as a powerful tool to combat fraud that, otherwise left unchecked, might imperil the federal government's finances. The FCA allows either the Attorney General or a qui tam whistleblower (known in the FCA context as a relator) to bring an action on behalf of the United States against persons or entities committing certain types of fraud against the government. The FCA, codified at 31 U.S.C. § 3729, holds that any individual who "knowingly" presents or knowingly conspires to "present[], or cause[] to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment or approval" or "makes, uses, or causes to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false . . . claim" is liable under the FCA, which imposes damages up to $11,000 per violation in addition to treble the amount of the government's damages. This can result in cases where the damages could total a staggering $2 billion. The FCA, as a tool of fraud deterrence and of compliance enforcement, has had the most significant effect on the healthcare industry. By way of illustration, between 1986 and 2009, two-thirds of the $22 billion recovered by the federal government ($14.3 billion) came from recoveries in the healthcare industry. Since 2009, however, differing interpretations of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act ("FERA"), the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("ACA"), and the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar have all expanded the scope of the FCA, leading new industries to find themselves increasingly in the crosshairs of expanded procedural theories of liability.At an operative level, the FCA posits that both "factually false" and "legally false" claims are actionable; "factually false" claims include goods or services either incorrectly described or not provided at all, and "legally false" claims are false based on statements, promises, or other certifications of compliance. While various circuits have held that the FCA reaches factually false conduct, legal falsity (with the Supreme Court's recent endorsement) could gain traction as an equally important theory for prosecuting fraud. This expanded theory of liability may continue to evolve as the industries that the FCA regulates continue to evolve, as well. One such industry falling under this broad purview is higher education.This Note will address whether or not educational institutions in the for-profit sector should be held liable under the FCA for entering into a Program Participant Agreement ("PPA") with the government, in good faith, only to thereafter commit fraud. This Note contends that the modern higher education environment provides an appropriate context in which courts may permissibly disregard any distinction between conditions of participation and conditions of payment for purposes of imposing FCA liability. It further posits that the Supreme Court's Escobar decision, though an important landmark toward a broader enforcement tool, did not go far enough to deter fraud in higher education. Part I will describe the background of the FCA, the rationale for the development of the "legally false" theory of liability, and the differences between the express and implied types of certification. It will also discuss judicial interpretation of legal falsity, with emphasis on the Supreme Court's decision in Escobar. Part II will address conditions of participation and conditions of payment and why the difference may remain significant in the fraud context. Part III will explain the structure of for-profit educational institutions, their role as government contractors, and the nature of the circuit split regarding the receipt of Higher Education Act ("HEA") Title IV funds and FCA liability. Part IV will discuss policy implications of this "implied certification of post-formation performance" theory and why the educational setting is the appropriate venue in which to hold government contractors liable for fraud on an expansive sub-theory of implied false certification.
[SPA] Los dispositivos electrocrómicos de transmisión variable son capaces de modular la luz que pasa a través suyo, por medio del paso de una corriente eléctrica. Sus aplicaciones más importantes pasan por el diseño de ventanas inteligentes en arquitectura, espejos retrovisores antirreflectantes en automoción o sistemas de visión adaptables para uso deportivo, profesional o militar. Estos dispositivos son celdas electroquímicas compuestas por materiales para los que los procesos de reducción u oxidación provocan cambios de color: materiales electrocrómicos. Dentro de los materiales con estas características, los polímeros conductores orgánicos se presentan como excelentes candidatos frente a los metales de transición inorgánicos, debido a su gran versatilidad en cuanto a colores alcanzables, facilidad de procesado, y bajo coste. Una configuración de celda en la que los dos electrodos sean activos electrocrómicamente, configuración dual, se presenta como una buena opción de cara a mejorar el rendimiento del dispositivo. El trabajo desarrollado en esta tesis pretende hacer hincapié en las relaciones existentes entre procesos electroquímicos y cambios de color, sobre la base de dos aspectos: estudio individual de los materiales constituyentes, y estudio del sistema dual. El objetivo es la optimización, tanto de los procesos electroquímicos como ópticos, de sistemas duales de polímeros conductores, obteniendo metodologías experimentales capaces de caracterizar, predecir teóricamente, y finalmente diseñar dispositivos electrocrómicos duales óptimos. La primera parte del estudio se centra en el desarrollo de la metodología precisa para obtener la caracterización óptica de un material electrocrómico en función de sus características electroquímicas, como son la carga redox total consumida durante sus procesos de oxidación o reducción, y la ventana de potencial donde ocurren estos procesos. Los materiales empleados son los polímeros conductores poli-3,4-etilendioxitiofeno (PEDOT) y poli-3,6-bis(2-(3,4-etilendioxi)tienil)-N-metilcarbazol (PBEDOT-NMCz). El primero de ellos se colorea mediante la reducción, mientras que el segundo lo hace durante la oxidación, además presentando coloraciones complementarias, por lo que pueden ser utilizados en un dispositivo electrocrómico dual. En base a los resultados obtenidos, durante la segunda parte se realiza un estudio teórico, junto con su comprobación experimental, sobre las respuestas ópticas resultantes en un sistema que incluya varias capas electrocrómicas. Las relaciones obtenidas permiten predecir la configuración de máximo contraste para un sistema dual, en función de las características electroquímicas de cada componente individual. El sistema dual estudiado es PEDOT / PBEDOT-NMCz. En una tercera sección, se propone y desarrolla una metodología experimental capaz de registrar los estados de oxidación individuales en cada electrodo durante el funcionamiento de un dispositivo dual, obteniendo una información directa sobre el rendimiento del dispositivo. Esto permite el estudio de la influencia que varias variables, como son el ratio de carga redox entre las dos películas constituyentes, el potencial aplicado al dispositivo, y el estado de oxidación inicial de los polímeros, tienen sobre el rendimiento del dispositivo. El objetivo final es la construcción de dispositivos electrocrómicos que puedan ser empleados fuera del ámbito académico. Para ello, y por motivos de seguridad para el usuario final, es necesario utilizar medios electrolíticos sólidos en la celda. Asimismo, es necesario fabricar dispositivos de unas dimensiones adecuadas. En la siguiente sección, se estudia la construcción de este tipo de dispositivos para el sistema PEDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz. La información obtenida en las secciones anteriores se utiliza para determinar las combinaciones con el máximo contraste posible. Se discuten problemas relativos a la deposición de polímeros en grandes superficies (alrededor de 30 cm2), la optimización de la velocidad de cambio de color cuando se utiliza un medio sólido, así como la capacidad de ajuste y retención del color en ausencia de potencial aplicado. Se propone un método de ensamblado fácil y rápido consistente en la solidificación del gel por curado ultravioleta. Por último, se propone una técnica electroquímica sencilla y rápida para detectar posibles dispositivos defectuosos. Los dispositivos electrocrómicos construidos presentan una superficie activa de 30 cm2, con un contraste de 30 % y con una velocidad de cambio de color menor de 1 s. La última sección incorpora el estudio de dos nuevos polímeros, poli-dibencil-ProDOT (PDiBz-ProDOT) y poli-bifenilmetiloximetil-ProDOT (PBPMOM-ProDOT), coloreables catódicamente y que individualmente presentan mayores contrastes que el PEDOT. Por esta razón, se estudia el efecto de la sustitución de éste por los dos nuevos polímeros en sistemas duales con el PBEDOT-NMCz. Para ello se repiten las caracterizaciones individuales con la metodología utilizada para el sistema PEDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz. Asimismo, se realiza el estudio teórico para calcular el máximo contraste de cada sistema. Con la información obtenida se construyen dispositivos en estado sólido, y se comprueba que los dos sistemas PDiBz-ProDOT/ PBEDOT-NMCz y PBPMOM-ProDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz presentan mayores contrastes que el sistema PEDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz. Los valores obtenidos son 46 y 52 % para los sistemas PBPMOM-ProDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz y PDiBz-ProDOT/ PBEDOT-NMCz, respectivamente. Por último, durante todo el estudio se propone la utilización de magnitudes ópticas comparables para cualquier estudio electrocrómico. Para ello, se propone la utilización de valores fotópicos, en sustitución a los valores descritos en una sola longitud de onda. Las medidas fotópicas están estandarizadas por la Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE), y se corresponden con las sensaciones reales que percibe el ojo humano, cuya sensibilidad es diferente para cada longitud de onda. ; [ENG] Variable transmission electrochromic devices are able to modulate, by means of electrical current, light passing through them. Applications such as smart windows in architecture, antireflective rearview mirrors or adaptable vision systems for sport, professional or military use are being developed. These devices are electrochemical cells, constituted by materials for which oxidation or reduction processes promote reversible colour changes. Among electrochromic materials, organic conducting polymers appear as excellent candidates for the construction of devices, compared with inorganic transition metal oxides, because of their larger versatility of attainable colours, or their easier processing and low cost. A cell configuration in which both electrodes are active and complementary from an electrochromic point of view appears as a good option to improve the devices performance. The aim of this thesis is to emphasize the existing relations between electrochemical processes, or electrochemical magnitudes, and colour changes. The work is focused on two aspects: individual spectroelectrochemical characterization of the constituent materials followed by an electrochemical and optical study of the performance of the dual system constructed with those materials. The objective is the optimization of both electrochemical and optical processes in dual conducting polymer systems, obtaining experimental methodologies able to characterize, predict, and finally design optimal dual electrochromic devices. The first part of the study is focused on the development of the proper methodology to obtain an optical characterization of any electrochromic material as a function of its electrochemical properties. Materials used were poly((3,4-ethylenedioxy)thiophene) (PEDOT) and poly-(3,6-bis(2-(3,4-ethylenedioxy)thienyl)-N-methylcarbazole) (PBEDOT-NMCz). PEDOT films are coloured under reduction, while PBEDOT-NMCz are coloured under oxidation, showing complementary colouration, and so they can be used to construct a dual electrochromic device. Based on the obtained experimental results, a theoretical study was undertaken to establish the optical responses of a system comprising several electrochromic layers. The theoretically obtained relations were experimentally proved. Relations obtained allow the prediction of the maximum contrast configuration for a dual system, as a function of the individual electrochemical properties of each constituent material. The system studied was PEDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz. The third chapter deals with the proposal and development of a new experimental methodology able to register the individual oxidation states of each electrode during operation of a dual device, obtaining then direct information about device performance. This methodology allows the study of the influence of different physical and chemical variables, like ratio of redox charge between both constituent films, applied potential to the device and initial oxidation state of the constituent polymer films, on the device performance. The final objective of this work is the construction of electrochromic devices that can be use in real applications out of research or academic contexts. It is necessary then, for safety purposes, to use solid electrolytes in the cell. For final applications it is also required to construct devices of appropriate dimensions. In the fourth chapter, the construction and study of large dimensions and solid state devices for the system PEDOT/ PBEDOT-NMCz was carried out. The information obtained in previous sections was used to determine maximum contrast combinations. Problems related to electrodeposition of conducting polymers on large surfaces (around 30 cm2) are discussed, together with the optimization of switching speeds when a solid electrolyte is used. Finally the ability to tune colour states and retain them in the absence of an external potential applied was studied and discussed. A fast and straightforward assembling method is proposed, consisting of the UV crosslinking of the gel electrolyte. Finally, an easy and fast electrochemical technique is proposed to evaluate possible defective devices. As a result of the above mentioned studies, solid state electrochromic devices with an active area of 30 cm2, with 30 % contrast and switching speeds lower than 1 second were constructed. The last section deals with the study of two new cathodically colouring polymers, poly(3-(Biphenyl-4-ylmethoxymethyl)-3,4-dihydro-2H-thieno(3,4-b)-(1,2)dioxepine) (BPMOM-ProDOT) and poly-dibenzylProDOT (PDiBz-ProDOT), which have been reported to show larger contrasts than PEDOT. For this reason, dual cells were constructed and checked by combination of these two polymers with PBEDOT-NMCz. The methodology previously developed and used to characterize PEDOT and PBEDOT-NMCz was applied to these polymers. The developed theoretical equations were used to determine the maximum contrast for both systems. The obtained information was used to construct solid state devices, and it was shown that both PDiBz-ProDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz and PBPMOM-ProDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz systems achieve larger contrasts than PEDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz system. The values obtained were 46 % and 52 % for PBPMOM-ProDOT/PBEDOT-NMCz and PDiBz-ProDOT/ PBEDOT-NMCz systems, respectively. Finally, the use of standard optical magnitudes as photopic values is emphasized. Photopic values are standardized by the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE), and correspond to real sensations perceived by the human eye, whose sensitivity is different for each wavelength. In this sense the use of photopic values, instead of values corresponding to a single wavelength, is encouraged. ; Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena ; Programa de doctorado en Electroquímica Ciencia y Tecnología
Die Inhalte der verlinkten Blogs und Blog Beiträge unterliegen in vielen Fällen keiner redaktionellen Kontrolle.
Warnung zur Verfügbarkeit
Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
A video has been released that purportedly shows Omar al-Bayoumi, a man with ties to Saudi Arabia's intelligence apparatus who has been alleged to have assisted 9/11 hijackers in California, engaging in what appears to be a reconnaissance mission a year before the attacks. Families of 9/11 victims are now in civil litigation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and have been alleging there are reams of documents including this video that prove Saudi Arabia's official backing of the 2001 terror attacks. A federal judge in New York City is now deliberating a Saudi motion to dismiss the case.This video, recently unsealed in court, shows Bayoumi taking shots of Washington monuments and buildings and talking about "a plan" back home, while zeroing in on entrances and exits to the U.S. Capitol, the Washington monument, and other places. At one point he says to his intended audience that he will go to the monument and "report to you in detail what is there."The video was shown on "60 Minutes" last weekend. The plaintiffs in the civil case say the U.S. government has been in possession of the video, along with tons of other evidence, collected at Bayoumi's apartment in England, since days after the 9/11 attacks, but all of it is still classified. On Monday, RS spoke with Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, a grassroots organization of 9/11 families that have been pushing for the declassification of evidence they say proves the Saudi connection to the 2001 terror attack. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.RS: So tell me first, what is 9/11 Justice?Brett Eagleson: 9/11 Justice is a grassroots campaign of family members that lost loved ones or that were hurt or injured the day of the attack, and goal of the organization is to bring about public education and awareness about not only what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia did in their capacity to facilitate and assist the hijackers, but also this fight that we've had to have with our very own government on transparency regarding documents surrounding 9/11. Everything has been kept under lock and key for over 20 years now. (We) are passionate about pushing for transparency and pushing for the truth to hopefully one day, finally bring peace and closure to our 9/11 community.RS: So tell me about this video that's been recently released. Why is it so important?Brett Eagleson: This video should make everybody upset. That should make not only the family members enraged, but it should make America enraged. The public at large should be up in arms about this. This is a video that our government has had for over 23 years. In the days after 9/11 the FBI asked (London's) Metropolitan Police, which is known as Scotland Yard, to raid the individual Al Bayoumi's apartment in Birmingham, England. So we know that our FBI knew about the existence of this video. It was our FBI that instructed the British authorities to raid his apartment. They came upon a trove of documents, hours and hours of videotape, handwritten notes, notebooks containing the names and phone numbers of Saudi government officials as well as senior al-Qaida operatives. But some of the most damning stuff is this video that we now are made aware of 23 years later. How can it be that the former deputy director of the CIA claims that he was not made aware of this video?So the importance here is everything we know about 9/11, everything that we've been told about the Saudi role in 9/11 needs to be re-examined. History needs to be rewritten, because in 2004 the 9/11 Commission came to its conclusion, saying that the Saudi government, as an institution, probably wasn't involved in the funding of Al Qaida and probably wasn't involved with supporting the 9/11 hijackers. But the 2004 commission, nobody, had the benefit of this latest trove of documents. Nobody saw this video that was partaking in that commission, senators, Congress people, the commissioners themselves, didn't get a chance to see this video. RS: So the U.S. government would have known all of this from the beginning, is your contention?Brett Eagleson: Of course. And now what they're saying is the DOJ has been writing letters to our judge in our civil litigation against Saudi Arabia, and they're saying that they need more time to vet these materials and to vet these videos, and they've had over 23 years, and they've denied the existence of any of these documents. First they said that they didn't have them, and then they said that these documents don't exist. Well now that the truth is out there, and we actually have them, because it was the British authorities that gave us these documents, now they're saying, well, they need time to vet them. Yeah, and they've had over 20 years.RS: So let's go to the court case. How long have the 9/11 families been battling the Saudi government in court? And can you tell us where that legal battle is today?Brett Eagleson: Sure. So originally, the 9/11 families filed suit against Saudi Arabia, and this was prior to the inaction of the law called JASTA, which stands for the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. That lawsuit was dismissed because of what's called Foreign Sovereign immunity, so American citizens can't sue a foreign country, because countries have immunity, and the judge threw the lawsuit out on that technicality. So in 2014 there was a massive effort by the families to create a law in Congress called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Law, and it's referred to as JASTA. (It) created a loophole in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and it said that if you're a foreign sovereign or foreign entity, there is credible evidence that the actions of your government harmed or killed Americans on American soil. President Obama, at the time, vetoed it, and we couldn't understand why, like, why would he veto this kind of no nonsense, no brainer legislation? We spent a lot of time and pain and effort overriding that veto, and we delivered to President Obama his one and only veto override of his entire eight years of his presidency. We finally got our law, and that is what allowed us to reintroduce Saudi Arabia as a defendant in our litigation, which we did in 2017. So from 2017 until today, we've been in active litigation against the kingdom. In 2018 the kingdom moved to dismiss our lawsuit, and their arguments were that we still didn't have jurisdiction, despite JASTA, so nothing on the merit, but more so on a technicality. They said that we didn't have enough evidence at that time. The judge said, no, actually, there is enough credible evidence here, and I'm going to deny your motion to dismiss, and I'm going to grant limited discovery on Southern California itself. So, all information related to Omar Al Bayoumi and (9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar) and any individuals associated with those two working in and around Southern California.That was the cell, the terror cell, that we were really focused on. He allowed discovery on that, and that is when things started to get really interesting. Because every attempt at gaining information from our own government about what they knew and what they investigated in Southern California, was met with resistance to the extent that we actually had to subpoena the FBI. The FBI did not cooperate with the subpoenas. Everything that the FBI would produce to us was completely redacted. You would think that the FBI would be salivating, chopping up the bit to finish an investigation that they never were allowed to finish. You would think that they would be overwhelmed that we were stepping in to try to finally close the gap here and close the loop. But it was the opposite. We were personally invited to the White House to meet with President Trump in 2019 because the ongoing battle of obtaining documents and obtaining evidence was persisting, and we begged President Trump at the time for help. The Constitution says that the president can declassify whatever he deems necessary. And the president looked us in the eye, shook all of our hands, and promised to help us. And he said he was going to declassify the documents, and was going to help us. So we left that meeting elated. Less than 24 hours with Trump's approval (AG) Bill Barr invoked what's known as the State Secrets Doctrine, an executive privilege which basically labeled all the information we were seeking in the courts from the FBI and DOJ a state secret. And it was like a gut punch to us. So that set us back a while. It wasn't until campaign season, when Trump was up against Biden, that we reached out to then candidate, Biden, asking if he was elected president, would he help us? At that point, he wrote up the letter saying that if he was, in fact, elected president, he would declassify the documents. So when Biden got into office, we kind of gave him the space and allowed him to get settled in a little bit. And you know, his first year in office was the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Up until that point his administration had been unresponsive to our requests. So we actually organized a protest because we knew that President Biden wanted to mark the 20th anniversary at Ground Zero, and we wrote him a letter signed by 5,000 family members, saying that if you come to Ground Zero, and if you talk about how important our loved ones are to you and how important this day is, and you still haven't honored your campaign promise to us, we will protest your appearance at Ground Zero. So I think that really moved the needle. Biden enacted a Presidential Executive Order which called upon the declassification of all 9/11 documents. So we've had this executive order for two years now, and his current administration is, one, not even honoring it fully, but two, they're fighting it in court. So they're now, as we talk about this video and all these documents, Biden DOJ officials are writing letters to the court saying this information is too sensitive. It's not appropriate. They've been fighting against us to try to continue to keep this information under lock and key. Thankfully, we have the video out.RS: What is the message that you would like the American people to get out of this case and the evidence coming out about it?Brett Eagleson: Saudi Arabia, if they, in any way, want to try to enjoy normal relations with this country, if they want to do business with our country on a state to state level, they need to fess up. They need to take accountability, and they need to come clean about what their own government did 23 years ago. And until that happens, it should not be that we're able to do engage in security agreements with them, that we're able to sell them the devastating weapons, that they're able to buy into our PGA Tour and have LIV Golf here — like none of those things should be happening until there's an acknowledgement and a reckoning of their wrongdoing.
Transcript of an oral history interview with Robert William Christie, conducted by Jennifer Payne on 21 November 2013, as part of the Norwich Voices oral history project of the Sullivan Museum and History Center. Dr. Robert W. Christie matriculated at Norwich University in 1940, the youngest member of his class. Although he is an alumnus of the class of 1944, he did not graduate until 1947 due to service in World War II. Dr. Christie received his M. D. from SUNY College of Medicine in 1951. He practiced medicine in Northfield, Vermont, 1952-1954, then specialized in pathology and practiced as a pathologist at seven hospitals in northern New Hampshire and Vermont. He discusses his experiences in the military as well as at Norwich University and as a physician in his interview. ; 1 Robert W. Christie, NU '44, Oral History Interview November 21, 2013 At the Kendal at Hanover Continuing Care Retirement Community 80 Lyme Rd, Hanover, NH 03755 Interviewed by Jennifer Payne JENNIFER PAYNE: This is Jennifer Payne with the Norwich Voices Oral History Project. Today's date is November 21st, 2013, and I am with Robert W. Christie—class of '44—and we are at Kendal at Hanover Continuing Care Community at 80 Lyme Rd. in Hanover, New Hampshire. Thank you, Dr. Christie for agreeing to be with us today and to do an oral history. ROBERT W. CHRISTIE: Thank you Jennifer. It's a pleasure and, I believe, a privilege to be able to do this. I've called a few things that I've written to augment this oral history, and I'll start off with the Independence Day celebration address that I delivered at the Dartmouth College Green in Hanover, New Hampshire on July 4th, 2012. JP: Thank you. RC: "I believe I was asked to speak here today because I am one of the contributors to—as well as one of the editors of—Kendal at Hanover's recent book of memoirs, "World War II Remembered". My comments will be about some local history, some personal history, some family history, and a few beliefs that I hope you may find to be of interest, and perhaps even instructive. I will conclude by offering you a challenge. (break in audio) JP: -- now. OK. RC: I will conclude by offering you a challenge. First, the local history. My alma mater is Norwich University, the country's oldest private military college, which was founded in 1819 right across the Connecticut River in Norwich, Vermont. Its initial enrollment, as I recall, was 17 male cadets. Captain Alden Partridge, its founder, attended Dartmouth and later became superintendent of the US military academy at West Point. Partridge, an American education visionary, believed that Norwich University's graduates should be trained to lead in times of 2 peace, as well as in times of war. The concept of land-grant colleges, and ultimately the nation's reserve officers' training program—ROTC—were founded at Norwich University. The first land-grant college bill was introduced by Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont in 1857—using Norwich University as a model and prototype—and was enacted into law in 1862. The mission of these institutions, which include Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as set forth in the 1862, was to focus on the teaching of practical agriculture, science, military science, and engineering—without excluding classical studies. I might add here that, during the Civil War, many of the Confederate Army officers were West Pointers—were West Point graduates, who had defected to the Confederacy, and many others were from the numerous state-supported military schools and colleges scattered throughout the South at that time. The Citadel and VMI are two examples. The only source of professionally trained officers in the Union army in the Civil War were graduates of West Point and Norwich University. Norwich University now resides in Northfield, Vermont, following a disastrous fire in 1866. An apocryphal tale has it that the university's old south barracks burned to the ground as an act of arson by Dartmouth College students who were intensely jealous of the attention Norwich's men in uniform were getting from the local young ladies. Since 1972, Norwich has been --" (break in audio) RC: "--teen-seventy-two Norwich has been co-ed—the first military college to become so. It now has an enrollment of over 2,000, including both cadets and civilian students. Last year, as I recall, the highest ranking cadet regimental officer, and one or two of the battalion commanders, were women." (break in audio) RC: I think I was a trustee during that time at Norwich, and I might have been involved in the discussions about integrating women into the Norwich family. So -- JP: That would be fascinating.3 RC: OK. Go back to. JP: Sure. Yeah. RC: "Next, some personal history. I spent eight years in the military. Three in horse cavalry ROTC at Norwich, and as an enlisted man and commissioned officer in the US Army. Horse cavalry had become obsolete, and I ended up in armor—tanks. My military occupational specialty—MOS—was tank unit commander. My military experience overseas in World War II was in the ETO—the European Theatre of Operations. I joined the 33rd Armored Regiment of the Third Armored Division. At the beginning, the Ardennes offensive—the so-called "Battle of the Bulge". The Third Armored Division was the spearhead of the First Army. My combat service was as its tank platoon leader, and eventually the company commander in a medium tank battalion. My promotion to company commander had much to do with fate, luck, and the attrition—300%—in men and equipment that the Third Armored Division experienced. From its going ashore in Normandy, until the end of the war. I moved up in command as my company's more senior officers were killed, wounded, or rotated. (break in audio) RC: "and a result of the attrition—300%—in men and equipment, that the Third Armored Division experienced. From its going ashore in Normandy, until the end of the war. I moved up in command as my company's more senior officers were killed or wounded. When the war ended at the Elbe River in Germany, we met the Russians, who had just arrived at the other side of that river. My survival and presence here today has a lot to do with my following one of Murphy's rules of combat: 'Never follow anyone braver than yourself.' Unless, of course, my company's orders from the battalion headquarters were taking that next objective, move out. I never felt brave or heroic. I just followed orders and trusted that I would somehow survive. It never really occurred to me emotionally that I would be killed. Now, some family history. On my mother's side of the family, my great-great-great-Grandfather, Johnathon Hildrith was a captain in the militia raised in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, and fought in the Revolutionary War's Battle of 4 Bennington in 1777 [sic]. I guess that makes me a son of the American Revolution—comparable to the Daughters of the American Revolution, whose name is much more familiar than the sons'. My great-Grandfather, on my father's side, George H. Weeks, was a sergeant promoted to first lieutenant in the Union army in the Civil War. American Civil War records show that as a member of the New York 115th infantry regiment, over his three years of service, he fought in 57 battles and scrimmages in Maryland, at Harpers Ferry, and Fredericksburg, Virginia—as well as in Florida, North Carolina, and Maryland. My father, George R. Christie, who's trained as a pilot and commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army's fledgling Air Corps in 1917—18. His memoir, "Wooden Props and Canvas Wings" tells, with humor and candor, what that experience and learning to fly was like in World War I. My younger brother, George R. Christie, Jr., enlisted in the army and was a parachute infantryman, AKA paratrooper. But fortunately, he did not have to serve in combat because Japan surrendered and World War II ended. He did, however, have to jump out of moving airplanes while in the air. And here are some of my beliefs. Perhaps my family history has led you to think that I am a hardcore, super patriotic, militarist by family tradition. Far from it. I found out firsthand what war was like, and I would like to see it disappear from the face of the Earth. But I fear it will not. I suspect war is built into the genome of the third chimpanzee. That's us, as Jared Diamond has characterized Homo sapiens in his book of that title, "The Third Chimpanzee". Anthropologist Jane Goodall describes troops of lower world-order chimpanzees systematically annihilating other troops whose territory they've coveted. Will and Ariel Durant, authors of the 11-volume, "The Story of Civilization" followed it in 1968 with a concise summary book, "The Lessons of History". I reread that 117-page book every New Year's Day. The Durants' chapter on war is not encouraging. Here is a quote: 'In the 3,421 years of recorded history, only 268 have seen no war.' Now, in 2012, you can add on another 44 years, and make that 268 out of 3,465 years. 5 Here are eight things that I believe to be true. War and religion are the two great constants in civilization's history. In our time, overpopulation of the Earth is a fundamental cause of most of the world's problems, especially war. Human ignorance, greed, religious conflicts, and weapons of mass destruction come next. In that order. If a country does not adapt, and prepare for war imaginatively and continually, others who have so prepared, will overcome it. The British were slow to find that out during our Revolutionary War when the colonials used the ungentlemanly tactics of guerrilla warfare over a period of seven years, to force the British to surrender. Number four, terrorists and drones are now the guerrilla equivalence of 21st century warfare. Number five, in warfare, science prevails. Prayer vigils and marches for peace, unfortunately, have not been shown to be effective. The world's acknowledgement of the overwhelming military and economic power of the United States is what has prevented, so far, another world conflict. Number six, American democracy—based, perhaps, on its Anglo-Saxon beginnings in English with the Magna Carta—shines as a beacon of hope to the rest of the world. Number seven, democracy cannot be exported. It has to arise from within a people, as did ours here in the United States. And number eight, our democracy along with liberty, must not be taken for granted. It must be nurtured, defended, and—when necessary—fought for when others threaten. So I am an unapologetic patriot, staunch believer in liberty, our constitution, and our way of government—with all its flaws. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis stated, 'Our country's founders believed liberty to be the secret of happiness, and courage to be the secret of liberty.' So here's my challenge to you. On this day of celebration of our independence, for which so many Americans before us have given their lives—I challenge each of you to carry in your heart that secret of happiness. The flame of liberty. And to accept the responsibility and courage to preserve and hold high the torch that carries that flame. May God bless each of you. May God bless our independence. May God continue to bless America." So that's the end of that. RC: I almost flunked out of OCS because my voice projection was inadequate in the eyes—or ears—of "Natty Bumppo" who was the "Tac Officer" for our class at OCS at Fort Knox. And he told 6 me he was going to wash me out if I didn't improve, and he gave me a week to improve my voice as I spoke—that I would use in commanding troops. So I did. Very carefully, I went out behind the barracks and talked loudly and focused and so on. And so, a week later, he had me take charge of the company—the OCS company that I was in—and had me lead them on the parade ground by giving voice commands of which way to turn, where to stop, so on. Incidentally, as a footnote, my father almost flunked out of flight school at Cornell—pre-flight school—because—for the same reason—he was not giving commands loudly enough! And as a result, he had to, once again, command his troops on the parade ground. And during that exercise, he managed to march them into the side of the barracks. Which again, almost flunked him out of OCS. But my father was survivor, and he survived that, too, and went on and graduated from the pre-flight training, and went on to learn to fly in Arkansas. JP: Oh, my. So, where were you born? RC: I was born in Mineola, New York. My father said that the hospital in Mineola was in Nassau County on Long Island, and my mother was supposed to have a delivery date—which had passed by—and so, they got out in the car and drove around in the hopes that driving around would stimulate labor. And they were going through Mineola, and she started to have labor pains, so they drove right up to the hospital, and there she stayed until she underwent the delivery. So that's why I was born in Mineola, New York. But both my parents were New York City folk for generations. And I actually lived in New York from time to time, and—but most of my boyhood, and going up to public high school, was in Freeport, New York—which is also on Long Island. But the—when people ask me where I'm from, I always tell them I'm a New Yorker because I really feel I have that accent—and I just feel like that was where I came from. OK? JP: Yes. That's great. Why did you—how did you decide on Norwich? RC: Well, that's an interesting question. Actually I didn't decide. My father decided. My father was an employee of the Standard Oil Company of New York all his life. And he moved up in the ranks—so to speak—and it was the—talking to some of the—of his colleagues in the fuel oil 7 division. And he said, you know my son is thinking about going to college. Do you guys—you're all college graduates—do you have any suggestions to give me? Because I never graduated from college and my wife never graduated from college. And so, we don't know where to start. So, one of the guys during this conversation happened to be a Norwich trustee. And he said, George, I know just where your son should go. And he said, Norwich University. It's a beautiful location up in Vermont. It's a wonderful school. I'm a graduate myself, and he should go there. And my father said, well you know, I've been thinking about seeing whether I could get Bob into West Point, but I don't have any political connections—and he just went to a public high school, and wasn't a particularly outstanding student, so I don't think that will ever happen. And this other fellow—whose name was [Fred Coburn?] [00:21:46] a Norwich trustee—said, well you'll get the same kind of training at Norwich that you would have gotten at West Point. And he said, you know, I think that we can agree there's a war coming. This was back in 1940. And you've been in the army, you know that officers are treated better than enlisted men in the service, and when he finishes his experience at Norwich, he'll be commissioned a second lieutenant from the ROTC. So my father came home and told me the story, and said, that's where I think you ought to go. I was a good boy. I always followed what my mother and father told me to do. So I said, OK, Dad. And he said, I'll write the checks and we'll go up there when we find out whether you've been accepted or not. And sure enough, I was accepted readily. Because getting into Norwich was not a problem in those days—there were very few applicants, as it turned out—and they, Norwich, was really very happy to have anybody show up who wanted to go to Norwich. So I never set foot on the Norwich campus until the day my mother and father drove me up to Northfield, Vermont. And neither of them had ever been in Vermont themselves. They dropped me off at the parade ground. I gave them a big hug, and they drove off, and I never saw them again on that particular location until my graduation seven years later in 1947. After the war. So, that was my introduction to Norwich University. JP: And your major was a chemistry—you were a chemistry major --8 RC: Well, yeah. That's another story. I said, "Pop, you know, I don't know anything about college. How do you know what kind of courses to take?" And he said, "Well, you know, son, the chemists in this company do exceptionally well. And he said that they're well paid and they have interesting job. Why don't you take courses in chemistry?" That's how I became a chem major. I wasn't an outstanding high school chemistry student, but my father told me it was a good idea. So, being a good boy. And incidentally, I was the youngest man—next to the youngest man in my class of 1944, when I matriculated. Gerry Collins was the only one who was a few weeks younger than I was, and we were both 16-years old. JP: You were 16. You graduated from high school and were at Norwich at 16? RC: Well, and that's another story in itself because my whole career at Norwich—in those first three years before I went into the service—I was just not of the same mindset of the rest of my classmates. They were one year older, one year more experienced, been out with more girls, done more things, and so on. And I just felt—and I really actually was—kind of a misfit. And I always was a—you know—I wasn't a momma's boy, or a daddy's boy, but I always was a—I followed what my family told me to do. And that wasn't what most of my classmates experienced, I bet. And so—and that feeling dogged me through the first three years of college, and I did not terribly enjoy Norwich as a cadet—for that reason. I didn't realize it at the time, but when I got back, and put in my final year—after having been in the army, been through the war, and all of my classmates at that time—I caught up with them. Let me leave it at that. I felt very comfortable my senior year, when I was at Norwich. The first three years, they were not good years for me. JP: Oh. Did you join a fraternity? RC: Because I was a social misfit, I was never invited to enjoy the privilege of being tapped for a fraternity. It was only when I came back to Norwich, as a veteran, that—over at Theta Chi—which started at Norwich University – they invited me to come and join the fraternity. A lot of my friends were there, so I did. So that's my fraternity history.9 JP: But you were—you were editor of the "Guidon"? RC: Well, I would have been—in my senior year—I had worked up from the reporter, to assistant managing editor, to managing editor, and I was actually putting down—putting the newspaper together—the "Guidon"—and I used to go down to John Mazuzan's office. He was a Norwich graduate, and he published the "Northfield News"—the Northfield newspaper—and I used to set type down in his printshop for the headlines of the next issue of the "Guidon". So that's really—I think—where I got hooked on writing, publishing, editing—which exist through—have existed through my lifetime. JP: You've written five books, at least? RC: Yeah. JP: Yeah. So, I was going to ask what you did to relax. But you didn't—didn't really -- RC: Well, that's another story. At Norwich, in those days, you didn't relax. I mean, if you were an engineer major—civil, electrical, whatever, mechanical—or you were a chem major—you had lab every afternoon, except those afternoons when you were on the parade ground, or down at the riding hall. And there was no free time. And you went to bed at taps, you got up at reveille, and you didn't relax. It was go, go, go. But, you know, for a kid my age—a teenager—that was life. And this is what you did when you went to a military college. I didn't know any different. JP: My gosh. What was your least favorite class at Norwich? RC: Well, if you were a chem major, you had to take scientific German. Not something you learn to speak, but you had to read—learn to read German. The reason being—purported reason—was that so much of the chemical—chemistry literature at that time, was written in German. Because all of the chemistry research was going on in Germany in the early 19—late 19th—early 20th—and throughout the 20th century. So if you wanted to be a chemist, and you wanted to be able to read the chem literature, you needed to be able to read German. And I didn't enjoy that at all. And also, I must say, that it wasn't all bad. Because, having been in Germany afterward—and having some familiarity with the language—and not having learned it to speak, or really 10 understand it as it's spoken, but to only to read and to write—it was helpful to me, because I ended up as a—in the Constabulary—which, incidentally, General Harmon was the commanding general of—after the war—the Third Armored Division became morphed into the Constabulary—which was essentially a state police organization—and we were training new recruits coming overseas to be, essentially, state police officers—rather than people going out killing people, which is what we were originally trained to do, and what we actually did during the war. So I got to know German well enough. It was called Schlafzimmer Deutsch—Bedroom Deutsch. I think you get the connection. And so you get to use a lot of the language necessary to get along. And my job, as a troop commander in the Constabulary in the city of Ulm was to run the city through the Bürgermeister, the mayor. And so the Bürgermeister used to come to me every morning to get his orders of what the Constabulary wanted him to be doing or not doing. And so, you know, I had to carry on a conversation with him, and he spoke some English and I spoke some Deutsch, and we were able to communicate. So this course that I took at Norwich was not completely lost. JP: You may not have enjoyed it at the time, but -- RC: No. JP: Was there -- RC: But that's true of so many things in life, you know? You just never know how things are going to be useful, not useful—you regret them, you enjoy them later on—never realizing how important they might be in your life. Incidentally, I notice that I'm dropping my voice at the end of—do I don't know whether that's not coming through well. JP: You're still—when you talk, it goes up to the orange, so—mine isn't—let's see—upped it a little bit. I'll keep an eye on it, but you're looking—looking good. RC: You mean, I'm hearing good.11 JP: Yes. Yeah. Well, I look at this, and as long as you go in—up to the orange—you're fine. We don't want you in the red a lot, because then it could clip—although I've never had that happen—but so far, so good. Was there a favorite instructor at Norwich who you had? RC: Well, I had two—three. Perley Baker1 who was a professor of chemistry. Shorty Hamilton2 who was next in command. They had both been in the—in World War I, and they had been in the chemical warfare departments. And I liked them both. Absolutely different personality. Perley Baker stood up straight, was well-dressed, uniform, trousers creased, so on. Shorty Hamilton was a bit of a slob, if I may say so—very relaxed—very laid back, Vermont-type personality. And we all were respectful of Perley Baker, but we all enjoyed the presence of Shorty Hamilton. I'll put it that way. And if you had a problem, you'd enjoy talking to Shorty rather than Perley. That does not mean that we didn't think a lot of Perley. The third guy—I've forgotten his first name—his last name was Taylor.3 He was a civilian. He was very uncomfortable in uniform. I think he was at Norwich as an instructor in English because somehow he thought he might not have to go into the real service if he was a professor at Norwich. Anyhow, it didn't turn out that way because Norwich closed, and I don't know where he went. Never—but he taught English. And I loved that course. That's where, incidentally, the term "Natty Bumppo" came from because some of the readings that I did were Nathaniel Hawthorne.4 And it may not have been American history that he taught. It might have been teaching American literature—I think that was it—and we did a lot of reading of American literature. And I really enjoyed that. And I realized—I've realized, latterly in my life, that I should have been an English major, not a chem major. But, you know, I was on the Dean's List all the time, so it wasn't completely lost. JP: For the audience, can you explain who Natty Bumppo is? For those not familiar. 1 Perley Dustin Baker, Professor of Chemistry 2 Harold Chapman Hamilton, Professor of Chemistry 3 Ralph Carlyle Taylor, Assistant Professor of English 4 Natty Bumpo is the protagonist of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.12 RC: Natty Bumppo was a comical character in Nathaniel Hawthorne. I've forgotten all the details, but if we can break right now -- (break in audio) JP: And we're back with Dr. Christie. So, let me ask you. Do you remember any funny stories about life or people at Norwich? RC: Well, after so many years, it's hard to recall. But one funny story that I actually described in a publication here at Kendal, was a small essay called "Life's Darkest Moment" or "The Day I Goosed Shorty Hamilton". So I'm going to read this little essay. "It was one of those Tuesday or Thursday afternoons when all those of my classmates majoring in liberal arts were either back in their barracks doing Chinese infantry drill, i.e., sacked out, or walking towards around the upper parade of Norwich University to work off excess demerits, or sweating on an athletic field for some jock team. The sophomore chemistry majors—guys like myself—were doing the lab exercise requisite to quantitative—or maybe it was qualitative—analysis, down in the dingy basement labs of Dodge Hall. Major Shorty Hamilton—his real first name, I believe, is Harold, but I'm not sure. Major Shorty Hamilton and Lieutenant Perley Baker were the two professors staffing the chemistry department. Both had graduated from Norwich, and both had served in the US Army. Each was rather austere. Perley always looked spit-and-polish military, with his neatly trimmed mustache, the bright silver leaves on one side of his cocky blouse's lapel, and cross-flasks of the army's chemical warfare department on the other. And a Sam Brown belt tightly buckled over his upper torso. I always felt that he was the very essence of a Norwich faculty member. "Shorty" was what cadets called Major Hamilton when he wasn't within earshot. My recollection is that his first name was Harold, but the years have dulled my memory. Shorty was a bit more—no, a lot more—casual in his appearance than Lieutenant Colonel Baker. His was the appearance of a college professor who dressed as casually in his military uniform as regulations would permit. His uniform did not seem to have been tailored for him, but rather for Ichabod Crane. And although he was clean-shaven, he always looked a bit scruffy. Shorty was at 13 least six-foot six, and perhaps even taller. The only other person on the entire hill who was equally tall was my across-the-hall chemistry major classmate in my barracks, Jim Lombard. 5 [00:40:45] Jim always looked a day late and a dollar short, and a dead ringer for Shorty when viewed from behind. Well, the lab on this particular afternoon wore on, and there were those frequent intervals when certain laboratory maneuvers—such as filtering in a solution—consumed time that could not be usefully employed on much else except poring over the lab manual to make sure you had it right, checking your neighbors' experiments for reassurance that you were not doing the wrong one, or even light horsing around to make time pass until a liquid in the funnel made its leisurely way through the Whatman filter and into the flask below. It was this last interval of waiting that lead to my downfall. (break in audio) RC: Since there were only uncomfortably high stools on which to perch while working at the bench, we often stood up and leaned on our elbows with our heads down over the manuals, trying to appear busy studying. To protect our uniforms from misdirected reagents, we wore long wrap-around aprons, and thus, one man's back looked very much like another's. In one of the intervals of waiting for things to happen chemically, I noticed Jim's derrière sticking far out, as it always did when he bent over the bench across the aisle from my own—a consequence of his long torso. The opportunity was more than an 18-year old could resist at the moment. I had hardly swung an extended thumb at the end of my looping right arm at the inviting target. I connected this maneuver with a resounding thump that almost lifted Jim off the floor. Or at least I had thought it was Jim. Of course, it wasn't. It was Major Hamilton. No cadet could ever have been more embarrassed than I was at that suspended moment. Although greatly surprised by this assault from behind, Shorty slowly drew himself up to his full height, and looked around to see the perpetrator of this bold and unseemly attack. His eyes centered on me through his steel-rimmed glasses, since I was the obvious culprit. I stammered, 'I'm sorry, sir. I mistook you for someone 5 James E. Lombard14 else.' I didn't know what else to do, pass gas or wind my watch. The then current colloquial military aphorism appropriate for such extreme circumstances of mortification. The professor said not a word, but rather turned around and assumed his former position leaning over the bench top next to him. Of course, I expected to suffer some terrible fate as a result of this misadventure, but none occurred. No demerits, no report to the commandant of cadets, no invitation to discuss the matter further in the privacy of Shorty's office. Nothing at all happened. But in a bleak, and laconic reference to the events came eleven years later. I was practicing general medicine in Northfield, Vermont where Norwich University is situated. Shorty, now retired from the faculty, came into my office as a new patient. Not having seen each other since my college days, we greeted one another warmly, and made some small talk as I addressed his relatively simple medical problem, which was easily solved. As was the custom in civility in those days, Shorty thanked me for my ministration, but then, on his way out—and halfway through the door—he turned, and with a broad smile, said wryly, 'You know doctor, when I heard that you had become a physician, I thought that you would have specialized in proctology.'" JP: That's a good story. RC: Well, it's kind of unique to Norwich. JP: It certainly is. And well told—well told. Gosh. How did your training prepare you for your work life? RC: Well, I can't really say that my training at Norwich prepared me for what I ultimately did with my life. And my life experiences have been so varied, and I've done so many different things at so many times, for so many different reasons, it's hard to say that I was really prepared through anything that I learned at Norwich. Except a certain attitude about—I would say—responsibility and leadership. JP: What about both of those? What is it about responsibility? RC: Well, Norwich—as you know—attempts to train people as leaders. And one of the things that you learn as a leader, is that you're responsible for the people that are under your command. And 15 since I was a corporal—promoted to corporal my sophomore year, I had a squad of cadets that I was responsible for. And learned that—also when I was down in the barn—the stables of course, is what they were called—my first responsibility was to my horse, before myself. The horse got watered, the horse got fed, the horse got groomed, before I took care of my own needs. So, I think those little things probably inculcated into my personality the importance of responsibility. JP: So you are the class agent for your class and—do you—you stay in touch with some of your classmates? RC: Well, I've stayed in touch with as many of my classmates as I was able to. The class agent before me was a fellow named Al Lockard6—good friend, a Theta Chi—and he, unfortunately, died suddenly after having both of his hips replaced. And while he was working out in post-op therapy, had a pulmonary embolism and died. And the irony is that before his operations, he and I had either spoken or corresponded. And I said, you know, Al, I would never have two major operations like that done at the same time because complications of being on an operating table for that protracted period is an additional hazard. He said, yeah, I know, but the physical therapy afterward—I don't want to go through that twice. So that's why I'm having both done. I said, OK, boy. And that was it. And sure enough, he had what I had predicted, unfortunately—a sudden, severe complications. So I took over from him as class agent. And that was many years ago. JP: You have correspondence in the archives between you and Perry Swirsky. How many years did you guys correspond? RC: Well, that's an interesting question. Perry and I were roommates during my junior year. Perry and I had entirely different personalities. He was a Jew. He had entirely different life experiences from my own—had grown up in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father was a banker. He owned and operated a chain of furniture stores, and he was very well-off. And I didn't have any contact with him at all after OCS because at OCS—when we graduated, we 6 Alan T Lockard16 spread to the winds. He went to Sicily and Italy as a tank unit commander. I went to France, Belgium, and Germany as a tank unit commander. And so, we just lost contact with each other. And he hated Norwich. I mean, I didn't have a terribly great experience my first three years, but he hated them. First of all, he was one of only two Jews in my class. And he never really integrated with the class, and as a result, he felt like a loner and an outsider. And I, in my own way, also had those same feelings—for reasons I've already explained. I was too young, and hadn't had enough of the experiences my classmates had had, and I always felt as—to be—in a way, a loner—and out of sync. So anyhow, that might have had something to do with the reason that we linked up as roommates during our junior year. Perry—if I may diverge—was a very interesting guy. Somewhere I have recorded—or recounted—the fact that there were two members of my class that I know were awarded silver stars during World War II. Perry was one of them, and another one whose name will occur to me in a moment—I'm having a senior moment—also was awarded a silver star at Bastogne during the Bulge in Belgium. Anyhow, back to Perry. Perry was a platoon leader in a brigade that was assigned to an Italian tank division. And the relationship between the American units and the Italian units was—according to Swirsky—pretty ad hoc. So he was commanded one day to take his platoon and to take the hill that this Italian major pointed out to him. And he said, when you get up there, hold your ground and don't leave for any reason. And we'll be up to relieve you. So Perry did just that. And on his way up, he was literally killing Italians and Germans who were on that hill. And then, because he couldn't stand the thought of running his tank over a possibly wounded soldier—or even a dead one—he jumped out of his tank and was taking these bodies—living or dead—out of the way of his tanks and his platoon, as he went up this hill under fire. And then he held out at the top against a counter attack, which he and his platoon repelled. And then he found himself stranded. Nobody ever came to relieve him. So, after a while, he got his guys together and took them back down the hill. And he said, the Italians forgot he was there. He said, I didn't do anything heroic, but I guess somebody thought it was worth a silver star, so that's what happened 17 to me. Well, anyhow, that's a story that I don't think has been told enough times. But just the idea that he's jumping out of his tank, under fire, to take wounded soldiers out of the way, so he wouldn't run over them. I mean, the mindset—the moral—whatever it is inside him to make him want to do that—or need to do that. But that's the kind of guy Perry was. Anyhow, at our 50th Norwich reunion, Perry and I got together again. He was awarded the Distance Cup for the guy who had traveled the furthest distance to come back to reunion. He had come from Israel. So that sort of cemented his relationship, I think, with his alma mater. Which had waned from a very weak beginning. But anyhow, he came back to his 50th. And he came and stayed at my home in Lancaster, New Hampshire after the reunion. And we really got to know each other, and our wives had a good time. And then I kept in contact with Perry, and he invited me to join him—he and his wife Betty were going to London for a week—and he said, why don't you come over and join us? So I said, OK. My wife, Connie, wasn't interested in going. So I flew over and met Perry at the hotel that he had suggested, and I went to check in, and I found out I was already checked in and my bill was paid in advance. So Perry and Betty and I had a ball for a week. We went to the theatre, we did everything. And, you know, after that it once again cemented our relationship. And then we started to write by cursive letters, then typewriters, then I started to send emails—and he didn't have a computer—and I got on his butt a little bit and told him it was time he came into the 20th century. So he got a computer and we started to exchange emails. I kept a record of every email I got from him, and a copy of everything I sent to him—and kept them in a three-ring binder. And at the end of every year, I sent the binder over to Kreitzberg Library as part of the archives. And I did that until just this past month—October, 2013—when I got an email from Betty telling me the sad news that Perry had died. And of course, in those volumes of correspondence—which is mostly nonsense, inane stuff—but correspondence between two guys with similar backgrounds, similar experience, one living in Israel, one living in the State, talking about what's going on in our country or town—and he lived in Ashkelon, which is about five kilometers from the Gaza Strip. So he used to report when the mortar shells were 18 being lobbed into Ashkelon, and they would hide in the stairwells of their apartment building—and so on. So all of this stuff, I think, is an important part of history. I'm so pleased that I decided to send that stuff to the archives. JP: I think that other researchers use it. I know I've used it. It's a great resource. It's, as you said, guys talking about world events with similar backgrounds. What advice would you give a rook today about how to survive and thrive? RC: Well, I—free advice, as you know, some said, "is the smallest coin of the realm," but I give it freely and frequently. I give it to my children whether they want it or not. And I give it to anybody when I think that they need it. But anyhow, I don't know what life is really like for a rook at Norwich now. All I know is what I remember back in the '40s. But I would say keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, keep out of trouble, work hard, learn responsibility and leadership. Beyond that, I don't know what I could say. JP: Those are good. You have a poem that you wrote. Would you be interested in reading that? RC: Well, yeah. One of my avocations is poetry. I'm an amateur. I never taken a course in poetry or how to write it, every once in a while the muse seems to sit on my shoulder, and I have this tremendous urge to sit down and write something. And at first I thought I had to write rhyme verse, and I think that's probably what kept me from writing poetry most of my life. But when I was on an expedition in Greenland and I kept a journal—which I self-published—it is also in the Kreitzberg Library. I found that I wrote some poems when I was in isolation, up on the icecap. And so I'm really surprised when I looked back and find that I've been writing fairly seriously for about 20 years—the last 20 years of my life. Why? I can't explain. But anyhow, I can only write what I feel and what I believe. And a lot of it is counterintuitive, and politically incorrect, and whatever—but I wrote one poem that I used at a veteran's luncheon that we had here at Kendal. And the poem is called "A Veteran Speaks". And here it goes. "Intelligentsia, laugh if you will. Yea, sneer at the patriotic redneck fools who chance their lives and crouch in fear in cold foxholes for the likes of you. You, who take the high ground or the streets to stake out your 19 perception of the higher morality with placards shouting, "Peace! Peace!", and then go home to a warm bed. Could it be that your God is neutral, and doesn't give a damn whether peace or war prevails? You take as a given that God is only with you. You, who are on the side of peace. Could it be that peace is but an unstable interval granted by God for the rest between the wars he has ordained as a sorting out, according to one of his laws, the one that Darwin deciphered? If you were as wise as Sophocles, you would know that only death keeps time from inevitably eroding friendships—be they of men or of countries—bringing them inevitably to war. God must laugh at the prophets. Those mystical schizophrenics that even now show up in every land, and claim to have heard the voice of God speaking directly to them. Explaining his will, giving birth to the myths contrived to all and control the credulous. And when the prophetic religious move on to theocracies, and the great Theocracies then clash for the great sorting out—Darwinian style. Then, perhaps God smiles and says, it is good. Laughers and sneerers, moral high-grounders, you leave it to others to lose their lives, taking the high-ground on the battle field. Lives you think they gave in vain. In peace's time, you finesse your turn to follow the action of someone else's father, mother, cousin, forebear, who risked their lives for you with the love you have never comprehended. Too late, you may learn that you have never lived until you have almost died. And that for those who have had to fight for it, freedom is a flavor you—the protected—have never known, and cannot understand." JP: Wow. Thank you. (break in audio) JP: So, in the book that you wrote with a couple of your classmates for your yearbook that never was—then and now. You talk about missing something—maybe—whether or not—no, it's called "Do You Remember?" and one of them is the joy of being dragged out of the sack in the middle of the night for P-call, and then being sent for a cold shower when your personal plumbing refused to produce. What is P-call?20 RC: Well, P-call is "piss call," and it was standard operating procedure to treat rooks in that way, as part of their growing up. And—what do you call that now? When you mistreat people? JP: Hazing. RC: Yeah. That was one of the hazing treatments that rooks were occasionally exposed to. And P-call was not only occasionally. I'll mention one other experience that I had as a matter of hazing by my classmates. Was that Basil Burrell who was my roommate in my freshman year—were pretty straight arrows. He and I had similar personalities, went to the same church, we had the same standards, both went to public high schools. We just got along very well together. And Bass and I were taking what was euphemistically called "a ride" as a sort of hazing and discipline, and kind of a getting-even with people who were straight arrows, and who—incidentally—were whistle-blowers. Basil and I, living according to the code of honor and the rook handbook, said that if you see something that is wrong and against the rules, it is your responsibility to report it. JP: It's still that way. Yeah. RC: So we saw guys cheating at an exam in a military class. And we said, hell, that ain't right. So we reported it. Well, I learned an important life lesson right then. Whistle-blowers get in trouble. And Basil and I were taken for a ride one night—about 2:00 in the morning—it was the late fall or early spring—I don't remember that it was in the dead of winter—and were taken in a car, blindfolded, and driven around for about twenty minutes—on what obviously were backroads—you could tell from, you know, from the rumple and the noise, and the tread of tires on the road—and they'd drop you off and leave you there to figure out how you're going to get home. And so Basil and I went on a ride once, as retribution, I think, for the fact that we were whistle-blowers. So, that's another level of hazing. And I must say that when I mentioned this anecdote to Russ Todd—a former Norwich president, and a Theta Chi whose butt I paddled as initiation to Theta Chi—and he looked at me and rolled his eyes in disbelief. He said, you mean that really happened? And I said, you're damn right it happened. And I'll tell you something else, I bet it's 21 happening right now, right under the nose of the people who have written and our trying to enforce the honor code—whatever it may be. And he said, well, Bob, you may be right. JP: You mentioned that Perry was one of only two Jews at Norwich—and I know there was a fraternity of the Klan during the teens. Was there much antisemitism there? RC: There wasn't expressed Semitism—antisemitism. And there weren't really two Jews in my class, there were three—which is another anecdote, if you're prepared for this? JP: Sure. RC: The day that my folks dropped me off on the parade at Norwich—my very first day—we were lined up by the company—the troop that we were assigned to. And we were told to line up according to alphabet—we had little tags on—and so we did that. And I was at one end, and there was another guy whose last name began with a 'Y' or a 'Z' at the other end. And in between were two Katzes—K-A-T-Z. The Katz were Isadore Katz and Sidney Katz, and once we were lined up, the second lieutenant in the army—who was assigned to the commandant of cadets—stood in front of us and said, OK. Now I want you to sound off, loud and clear, your last name first and then the first initial of your last name because that's how you'll be known here at Norwich. So we went down the line, got to me, and I was "Christie, R, sir." Then it was the next guy, and whoever it was. Well, we got to Katz. And Lieutenant Kelly was standing there observing all of this, and it came to Isadore Katz. And he said, "Katz, I." And the next one was Sidney Katz, and Sidney Katz said, "Katz, S." Kelly broke up. And the whole exercise got out of control. But the sad part of the story is that Katz Ass—as he was forever known—I say forever, for the next three weeks that he lasted at Norwich as Katz Ass. He left. He just couldn't stand that kind of treatment. And so there was only two Jews, and one was Izzy Katz, who was a good friend, paratrooper, never dropped in combat—which we reminded him of frequently. But anyhow, he and I were also on the "Guidon" staff, and we were on the War Whoop staff. So the then and now book, he and I worked together very closely. And we became very close friends. And he was a real New York Jewish type—wheeler dealer—he ran a Christmas tree farm in some 22 place up in northern Vermont. He was in show business, he was out in Hollywood, he was writing script and so on—wonderful guy—and I got to meet him again when he was living out in Tucson when I was visiting some of my wife's relatives out there. So anyhow, that's the story of Jews at Norwich in 1940-41—particularly of Katz, I and Perry Swirsky. JP: You mentioned earlier about being on the board of trustees when Loring Hart was president and considering adding women to the core. Do you want to talk about that at all? RC: Well, there isn't an awful to talk about. It happened. I would say the majority of the alumni were against it. Just as, here at Dartmouth, when it integrated and had women, the alumni were up in arms. And it was only the strength of character of the president and the trustees—said, it's going to happen. And that's what happened with Norwich trustees and Loring Hart said, this is going to happen. It's got to happen. And of course, this was before the civilian component. These were just women who were being integrated into the cadet corps. So, that was a big deal. JP: What were they afraid of? Not be obvious—not to be obtuse. RC: You know, in Fiddler on the Roof—it's tradition. Tradition. This is a men's college, it's a military college. Women have no place in the military. You know, whatever. That's history. Who would ever dream that there would be gay marriages in our time. JP: And Don't Ask Don't Tell got repealed. RC: Exactly. JP: Do you have anything else that you would like to add? Is there anything else you'd like to say? RC: Only to congratulate you and your tolerance of all that you've had to go through to take this interview. And I'm enjoying it immensely while it's happening. And, again, it's something for posterity, and that's part of what I do. Litera scripta manet, the written word endures. I think the spoken word, in our time, also endures. Someone may be listening to this 100 years from now, wanting to wonder what life was like in the early 20th century at Norwich. JP: It has absolutely been my honor and pleasure to talk with you, Dr. Christie. Thank you so much. RC: Well, thank you so much.23 JP: All right. (break in audio) [1:18:51] JP: And we're back with Dr. Christie, talking about his relationship with Dartmouth. RC: When I went to medical school, it was courtesy of the GI Bill and the Norwich Dean at the time, who made it possible for me to get into medical school without the preexisting courses that every pre-med has to take to apply to medical school. Zoology and comparative anatomy—which is dissecting cats and frogs and so on. The Dean at Norwich let me take freshman zoology and sophomore comparative anatomy in the pre-med program during my senior year, so that I would have the basic qualifications to apply to medical school. I had the good fortune to have a family friend who was on the admissions committee of the Long Island College of Medicine in Brooklyn, New York. I won't go into further detail—that's unnecessary—but anyhow, graduating from Norwich magna cum laude—having the World War II experience, the friendship of a member of the admissions committee of the medical school—all led to the fact that I was able to get into medical school at a time when GIs were coming back in droves—all with GI Bill opportunities ahead of them—and all trying to get into the existing colleges and universities. Well, I won't go into further detail, but the Long Island College of Medicine morphed into the State University of New York. So although I matriculated into a private medical college in Brooklyn, I actually graduated from the State University of New York at New York City—which was the official name at the time. It's now known as Downstate. And Downstate has an established academic history that I think has been accomplished since it was put together. The reason that SUNY was founded was that New York state found that they had no state university, much to their amazing. There were all kinds of private universities and colleges all over the state, but there was never any need for a state university. So they cobbled together one, and they needed medical schools, graduate schools, law schools, and so on. And Syracuse's medical school—which was a private medical college, like Long Island College of Medicine—became the SUNY upstate medical school, and Long Island College became the downstate medical school. 24 And that's the way they exist at the present time. Anyhow—with that little footnote—when it came year for me to graduate, I had just been very fortunate to graduate where I did in my class. Which was right about in the middle. You know, one thing that most people don't realize—and it's important—that 50% of the doctors in the Unites States graduated in the lower half of their medical school class. But anyhow—that being said—I did actually write two medical papers while I was a student—which sort of, I think, got me started on my writing career—which has continued to this day. Anyhow, these publications were the reason that I was awarded two prizes on the day of graduation, much to the consternation of most of the other students in my class who had graduated summa cud laude in medical school and wondering what this dumb guy was doing getting these awards. Well—a little background for that, too, is that the Long Island College of Medicine was in Brooklyn, and almost all of my classmates were Jewish. And I learned the lingo and I can spout a Yiddish phrase at the drop of a hat—which may have some relationship to the fact that Perry Swirsky and I got along so well. We used to exchange Yiddish aphorisms and so on. That being said—so all of my classmates—there was a Jewish quota—this is something else that is not known—during the early 19th century—in all medical schools, because the deans had their own association, and they—you may not want to record me—it's not well known, but there was a Jewish quota when I went to Long Island College of Medicine—and there were a lot of bright Jewish kids—as you can imagine—in New York City, which included Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, Bronx—and they were excluded from medical school. They would apply, be turned down, but—being the kinds of folks they were—would say, OK, well we'll go to CCNY or NYU or Queens College, and we'll get a masters degree in physiology, and they would reapply. And every member of my class at Long Island College of Medicine who was Jewish, had a long history of applying and being turned down by medical schools all over the United States. But the ones that got into my class were the ones who had the persistence and the credentials to get in. So, that put a guy like myself—from Norwich, with its very limited background—in zoology and comparative anatomy, dissecting frogs with guys who had PhDs in 25 biochemistry and so on. And, you know, it showed up. I mean, I was a struggling student all through my first two years where it's all classroom and very little clinical experience. Soon as I got into the clinical years, I was able to really play the game with all the rest of them. I could handle myself as well with patients as they could. And so, that was one of the reasons I was able to graduate. Not because of my academic record in my first two years. But—that having been said—it's important that—the senior year was the first year of something called the intern matching program. Up until that time, everybody had to have an internship if they were going to be licensed in a state in the United States. It didn't make any difference which state. They all required the fact that you had had an internship. In other words, that you had had some clinical experience. So, I listed in this first year of the matching program—a number of the hospitals that I knew in New York City—Bellevue and Roosevelt Hospital in Columbia, PNS—and the way things worked out, I had an opportunity to list one other out-of-city appointments that I would accept. And that turned out to be Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover, New Hampshire. The reason I did that was that my freshman year of medical school, a fellow at my autopsy table—there were four of us who dissected the same cadaver—was a Dartmouth graduate, and he and I became close friends. We did a lot of visiting and traveling together. And he said, I'm going to take a tour of the hospitals up in northern New England. Would you like to come with me? And I did. And he and I visited the medical school at Burlington, and the one over here in Hanover. And when I—you know, I had loved being in Vermont, and the years that I had spent there—although it wasn't all salubrious, the first three years. I did love Vermont and northern New England, and the idea—and I was married at the time—of just doing something different came to mind. And I said, oh, what the hell? So, the phone rang. Dartmouth called up the Mary Hitchcock hospital and said, would you accept an appointment as a rotating intern? There will be 11 other interns in your intern class. And I said, yeah, sure. Sign me up. And that's how come I didn't go to Bellevue or Roosevelt Hospital or Brooklyn hospital—I ended up going to Hitchcock hospital. From there, I went and finished my internship, did a year in internal 26 medicine—wanted to do what I went into medicine for in the first place. Be a family doctor. An emulation of my family doctor when I was growing up. JP: Really? RC: And so, a couple of Dartmouth medical school graduates were practicing over in Northfield, and they had a place called the Green Mountain Clinic. And they were looking for an associate, and they came to Dartmouth, and they made their needs known, and we got connected. And I said, what the hell? I'm not sure I want to be an internist. I'd like to see what it's really like to practice medicine. So that's how I got connected with being in practice—general practice for three years at Northfield. And, because of my Norwich background, Ernie Harmon—who was then the president—appointed me the university surgeon. Well, I wasn't going to do any surgery at the university. But the three of us who were the doctors in the town at Green Mountain Clinic took turns taking sick call. And what we were called was—you know, in the army, when you're the doctor, you're the surgeon. You go down to see the surgeon because that's what doctors did mostly in the army. So anyhow, that's how I became the university surgeon, and it was my relationship with Ernie Harmon—which is a whole other set of stories—that led to that. Ernie was actually one of my patients for minor illnesses. He got most of his care at the VA hospital down here. But, you know, when he had a sore throat or a boil or something like that, he'd come down to the Green Mountain Clinic and be one of my patients. As was Shorty Hamilton, of course. Perley Baker. So I was well connected later on with the faculty. But that's what my connection with Dartmouth reconnected me with Norwich. And when I got to Norwich, I was amongst a lot of Norwich alums—one of which was John Mazuzan, the fellow who had the printing office where I set type for the "Guidon", and who actually printed up the "Guidon". He was the one who did the Norwich record, and it was a very minor publication, I can assure you. And he asked me if I would work with him on the Norwich record. And so, I did, and before I knew it, I was a member of the Alumni Association. Because he was, in essence—because he was the publisher of the Norwich record of the Alumni Association. There was no association. 27 So he said, you know, I'm going to appoint you the Alumni Association president. So that's how I became president of the Norwich Alumni Association. Well, that led to a slot on the board of trustee. When I finished being a trustee for five years, with Bob Hallam—another Norwich graduate -- JP: The engineer? RC: Yeah. And a very successful one. We were approached after we finished out final year by Jake Shapiro, who was a war hero in the Africa corps—was badly wounded—shot up there—but a very dedicated Norwich alumnus. And he and I got to be good friends. And he used to visit me because he was a business man with business over in Maine, and when he was traveling from wherever he was living at the time, he would always drop in at the farm where I was living. And we would have a couple drinks together, and sometimes dinner together. So Jake was a good friend. But that came later. But Jake said to Bob Hallam and myself, you know, we've been thinking as the trustees that it's so damn sad that so many guys like yourselves, who have had all the experience in the Alumni Association—you're graduates—and so on. And you go become a trustee, and there's nothing beyond that for you to be involved with Norwich about—except maybe giving money. So Jake said, how would you guys like to start some kind of organization of fellows of Norwich University, who will sort of be in the background and be a means of continuity of active alums who have done a lot for the university, who have been connected in some way. And so, Bob Hallam and I—and the then commandant of cadets—got together and we set up the Board of Fellows, and I became the first president of the Board of Fellows, and was the president for—I don't know—five or eight years—and did that. And so, I've just been connected with everybody—all the presidents and whatever—right along the line—and that, of course, explains my deep relationship—and continued relationship—with Norwich. And I doubt that the many of my peers here at Kendal have the kind of relationship with their alma mater that I've had with mine. For all the reasons that I've been talking about here. Oh, here I've run on for more --28 JP: That's fine. I have to ask. If you've got a Harmon story -- RC: I do. Well, I have a couple of Harmon stories. JP: That's fine. RC: The first was at the time I graduated from Norwich, when we came back as seniors. Of course, we were in uniform. And we were sort of mentors to the cadets. When they wanted to know what it was like in the real military—what combat was like, all that stuff. You know, they'd—we'd have a beer together up at the tavern and—you know, we got an unofficial role—but anyhow, we were in uniform. The day I graduated, Ernie Harmon was on the stage. He was not the president at the time, but I think he might have given the graduation address. "Ol' Gravel Voice" he was called, and he gave a wonderful talk. And I—you know—he was the CG of the Second Armored Division in Africa and Sicily—not sure Africa, but I know in Sicily and Italy—and then he went to the ETO, and he was involved, as I was, in the Battle of the Bulge. So we had this loose relationship. Well, walking across the stage to get my diploma, Ernie sees my Third Armored Division patch on one shoulder of my uniform, and the Constabulary patch on the other. And of course, he had been the commanding general of the Constabulary—which my division had become, as I previously accounted as the kind of occupation police force in Germany. Well, I was the troop commander of my Constabulary troop in Ulm and the discipline was a little loose in my troop. I have to admit that. It wasn't that I didn't know what was right, or what should be done. But, you know, the war was over, I was waiting to go home, and I wasn't a spit and polish guy in my troop. It ran very well, everybody was happy, no suicides or anything like that. But anyhow, who should arrive on the scene in Goering's private train—which he had commandeered after the war. It was painted with a big Constabulary signature on the side—same as on the patch on my shoulder—and out of it stepped Ernie Harmon to inspect my troop, unannounced. Well, he came up to where we were, and he found a few things he didn't like. One was that a recent recruit was standing around doing nothing in particular when Ernie thought he should be doing something in particular. He didn't care what it was, but he should be 29 doing something. Well, unfortunately, a buck sergeant—recently over from the States, not part of the combat experience—was in charge of this group of other new recruits. And this guy, this buck sergeant, was sweeping off the steps of the mess hall. And when Ernie Harmon saw a buck sergeant sweeping the steps, with privates standing around doing nothing, he exploded. And he started to chew, and he started at the bottom, and he chewed right up through the privates, through the corporals, through the sergeants, through the top sergeant, through the lieutenants, through the captain—that was me—and he said, Christie, I don't want to have anything like this happen under your command. Understand that? Yes, sir. Well, things tightened up after that, of course. Although, he never did come back. And I came home a couple of months after that. But that was my first experience—face to face—with Ernie Harmon. Which is the prelude to what happened when I picked up my diploma from his hand. He looked at my patches and gave a kind of quizzical look, and he said, "I know you, you son of a bitch." I didn't know what to do. So like I said, pass gas or wind my watch—at that point. So anyhow, I said, "Yes, sir. I remember you, too, sir." And the next thing he said—well, of course people were lined up to walk across the stage—and not many of them would have a conversation with Ernie Harmon. So anyhow, he said, Christie, are you married? And I said, "No, sir." Well, he said, "Get married and be productive!" Yes, sir. And that was—the next time I saw him, he was the president of Norwich University, and he was one of my patients. JP: Oh my gosh. He had Goering's train car? RC: Oh, yeah. He captured it—you know—we had souvenirs. That was one of his souvenirs. He had to travel all over Germany on the railroad. He needed a private car, private engine—whatever. Goering had that in spades. Beautiful train, engine, and had two cars. It was Ernie Harmon's headquarters. JP: Oh my gosh. I've never heard that story. That is priceless. RC: So, that's my Ernie Harmon story. JP: Oh, thank you. That's a good one. Anything else?30 RC: I think I've kind of run out of anecdotes. I, you know, I could come up and talk all day and all night about things that I remember that have happened. But anyhow, that is just skipping on top of some of the highlights. JP: Thank you so much. END OF AUDIO FILE
This evaluation assesses the performance of the Community Officer (CO) project, a trial community policing mechanism initiated by the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) in late 2009, with assistance from the Participating Police Force (PPF) of the Regional Assistance to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). Current interest in community policing in Solomon Islands is occurring in the larger context of the rebuilding and reform of the RSIPF that has been taking place with the assistance of RAMSI. The Solomon Islands Government (SIG) and RSIPF are committed to introducing a viable form of community policing across the country.
In: Spajić-Vrkaš, Vedrana and Ilišin, Vlasta (2005) Youth in Croatia. Faculty of Humanites and Social Sciences University of Zagreb, Research and Training Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Citizenship, Zagreb. ISBN 953-175-242-7
The results of the research described above were obtained on a representative sample of Croatian youth from 15-24 years of age in the second half of 2002. The research was carried on in the context of a regional research project on youth under the auspices of the PRONI institute from Sweden. The main objective of the project was to provide empirical data on life, needs, attitudes and aspirations of young people as a means of assisting the process of youth policy review. The process was initiated by the Council of Europe with a view to strengthen youth participation in democratic changes of the countries in the region. This report is the most recent one in a long and well-established tradition of studying youth issues in Croatia. Therefore, it often includes comments and references to earlier research findings for the purpose of determining the changes in youth trends, as well as for the purpose of validity testing of our data. On the other side, the data presented in this report may, together with earlier studies, be used as a reference point in the process of reviewing the National Programme of Action for Youth, as well as in developing a comprehensive, efficient and youth-centred national youth policy. The core of the findings is probably that the criteria for determining the upper age-level of youth period should be reviewed and extended to include those who are 30 years of age. The fact that more and more young people remain longer in education, that they decide to marry and have children later in their life, that they consider changing their job and probably, if possible, enroll in re-training programmes for that purpose, as well as that they desire to reach full independence by relying on their own abilities and endeavour, speaks in favour of the need to redesign our traditional approaches to youth upper age-limits. Other findings that help us understand some important dimensions and trends of contemporary life of Croatian youth are summarised below. The most basic socio-demographic data demonstrate that very few young people from our research who are 24 and below are married and few think of having children before the age of 25. About half of them live in a two-child nuclear family in a house/apartment of their own that, averagely, comprises more than two rooms. Very few have an opportunity to live in an apartment of their own, although four fifths express desire to live separately. The aspiration towards such independence is mainly motivated by socio-economic and maturity factors: it is a prominent feature of young people who are university students, whose fathers have more education, and who are over 20. Since the chances of having their own apartment in a reasonable period of time are rather minimal, not only due to the difficulties in finding a job but due to extremely high prices in the housing sector, such prolonged co-habitation and dependency on parents and/or relatives is a frequent cause of young people' s frustrations and is probably related to, together with other factors such as poverty and limited capacity of pre-school child-care institutions, a constant decrease in the average number of children per family. On average, young people are satisfied with their present life and expect no change in the future. Despite a high unemployment rate especially among them, approximately three quarters assess their own present and future life, the life of their closest friends and their peers in Western Europe as good or excellent. Their optimism is somewhat even higher than it was found in the end of 1990s. When asked to imagine their life in 10 years ahead majority see it as a success, either in general terms or in specific terms of their professional advancement or family happiness. Dissatisfaction with present life grows with age and with opportunities to enter the world of work and become fully independent, since the young between 20-24 years of age, both employed and unemployed are more inclined to perceive their present life as unsatisfactory. Interestingly enough, the age does not have influence on the assessment of future, which means, in the context of this research, that young people in general, irrespective of age, equally believe that future brings better opportunities. In reference to their professional and educational aspirations, almost two thirds of the young want to continue education, while one fourth of them think of finding a job. The differences are mainly determined by residential, social, and age factors. Thus, a primary aspiration of pupils and university students, as well as of those who live in Zagreb or in families of higher socio-economic status, is to continue their education. Contrary to them, rural young people, those who live in low-income families, as well as those who are over 20 are more inclined to seek for a job or to continuing the job they currently hold. Over two fifths of young people plan to leave their present place of residence so as to be able to meet their professional and educational aspirations. Almost half of this group prefer to move somewhere inside the country, most often to a bigger city which is perceived as the place that offers better opportunities for career and social positioning, while other half think of going abroad. The percentage of the young planning to leave the country for good rose from 11% in 1986 and 18% in 1999 to 19% in 2002. Their migratory plans are connected to their residential status, i.e. to the conditions in the place or region where the young actually live. Young people from Zagreb are less willing to go somewhere else; rural youth and youth from Eastern Croatia wish to migrate to another place inside Croatia more than any other group, while all groups (except youth from Middle and Northern Croatia who want that somewhat more than others) equally (do not) want to settle abroad. Data on a desired place for living are quite similar to those on migratory plans. The number of youth preferring to remain in their present place of residence and the number of those having no migratory plans are almost identical. When compared to earlier studies, we see an increase in the number of young people preferring to live in large cities. In addition, almost one quarter express their preference for living abroad, majority of which opt for a Western European country. The fact that almost one fifth of all has plans and almost one fourth prefer to live abroad indicate the existence of two closely related but, nevertheless, separate dimensions of youth migratory thinking. While the preference for other counties may mean only an inclination, having plans on migrating abroad most certainly includes active search for such a possibility. In light of our findings it means that at least one fifth of Croatian youth not only dream of leaving the country but actually make plans how to make it a reality. Employed youth is far from being satisfied with their jobs. Every second confirms his or her disappointment. Approximately one fifth of both them and those that are still in the process of education desire jobs in the service or business sector; little less in number think of entering more creative and/or dynamic professions or professions related to education, health care and social services. This means that their professional aspirations are somehow higher that those of their parents, majority of whom have secondary school completed and are mainly employed as industrial, service and shop workers or clerks. Nevertheless, if their choices are compared to the structure of the employed force in Croatia and if we add to it a rapidly changing labour market in all transitional countries, their professional preferences seem rather realistic. This is probably why almost half of the young hold that their chances for getting a preferred job are high or very high. The data also confirm that their estimations are related to age and socio-professional status since pessimism increases with age (except for the university students) and is tightly linked to unemployment status. In any case, optimism prevails among the young and it, as well, may be linked to their strong motivation to succeed in life by relying on their own abilities despite unfavourable social and economic context in which they live. It is also possible, at least partly, that self-assurance of young people comes from positive educational experience. Over half of the young state they feel happy and satisfied when thinking of their schools or universities. However, it is not clear whether their satisfaction should be understood in terms of acquiring subject-matter knowledge and skills or in terms of developing certain personal qualities through participating in school life. Earlier studies on youth have proven that the young have complex relations towards education which are the outcomes of both institutional tasks and personal expectations. Moreover, our results document that feelings about school are correlated with sex and socio-professional status.Girls and university students, in general, are more satisfied with their education, while the unemployed are among the least satisfied. It is also possible that positive feelings about education also relate to school grades. Earlier studies have shown that female pupils receive somewhat better average scores than their male schoolmates, which may explain why girls have more positive feelings about school than boys. • On the other hand, it is clear that school is by no means a source of information about the events in the country and the world for young people since a great majority of them actually receive news through ordinary media (TV, radio, newspapers and magazines). Moreover, Internet has become an important source of information about the country and the world for approximately one fifth and over one fourth of them, respectively. This shift has to do with the fact that over two thirds of the young from our study are computer users and that more than half of them already have computer at home. It is, therefore, obvious that new information and communication technologies are becoming part and parcel of young people' s daily life what needs to be taken into account when policies and programmes of action for promoting their wellbeing are designed, especially in reference to underprivileged youth. Namely, our research confirms that the use of computer correlates with residence (urban environment), family background (parents with higher education and higher socio-economic status), age, and education factors (younger population and students). Nevertheless, young people are not enslaved by new information communication technologies. Most of them spend their free time associating with friends, engaging in sport activities, going to disco-clubs, watching TV or performing outdoor activities, while far less enjoy music, reading books or art exhibitions. In addition, many young people have no daily obligations, except in relation to school and spend their free time idling or sleeping. This means that the majority of youth either do nothing or engage almost solely in the so called passive and/or receptive activities for self-entertainment. Despite that fact, almost three fourths of them claim they are more or less satisfied with how they spend their free time what brings us to the conclusion that the main problem is not the quality of their free time activities but their lack of awareness that the quality itself is being at stake. However, it should be pointed out that their opinions are related to age and socio-professional status. Young people who belong to an upper age-cohort and who are unemployed exhibit far more dissatisfaction with their free time than the youngest. Overpronounced dissatisfaction among the unemployed seems to be an indicator of an overall discontent with one' s own life. For the unemployed, free time becomes a burden not only because they cannot perceive it in terms of an offduty activity but because they can not afford it financially. In reference to the use of psychoactive substances, it seems that tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption are the most widespread types of risk behaviour among the youth. Approximately one third of them smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol daily or weekly ; three fifths are non-smokers and one fifth never drink alcohol. Smoking increases with age and employment. Alcohol, on the other hand, is solely related to gender in a way that young women drink less than their male peers. Such trend may be the sign of a subtle male initiation rite de passage that has outlived its traditional context. Since the data on smoking are more favourable than those from earlier research it may be presumed that an anti-smoking media campaign, which has been going on rather aggressively throughout the country, has brought positive effect, whereas non-existence of similar anti-alcohol campaign may be the sign of a relatively high level of a social tolerance for alcohol consumption. As far as drug are concerned, Croatian youth is more inclined to the so-called 'soft' drugs. Over one third of the young have tried or used twice or more only marijuana ; hashish and ecstasy is mentioned by less than one tenth of them, whereas other 'hard' drugs have been only tried or are consumed by 1-3% of them. The consumption of marijuana is associated with a recognizable youth group, what confirms earlier studies. A group of highest risk is made of young people between 20 and 24, male, university students, the residents of Zagreb, Istria, Croatian Littoral and Dalmatia, and whose fathers have higher education level. A great majority of young people tend to see themselves in rather positive terms: they are self-assured, think they have a good number of personal qualities; believe in their capabilities when compared to other people and have no doubts that most people they know like them. This may be related to feeling of security they experience in the context of their immediate environment since a great majority of the young claim that they can almost always get warmth, care and support from their parents and support from their friends. On the other hand, only every second of them feel the same about their teachers. It seems that most Croatian families are characterised by an exercise of indirect and flexible control over their children in the course of their growing up. In over half of the cases parents or relatives hardly ever determine rules for their children' s behaviour although they do control the choice of their friends, as well as their evening outdoor activities. Moreover, young people claim that their parents are especially keen of their school progress since they almost regularly keep records on their children school situation. • When asked about the most serious problems of their generation, the majority of young people in Croatia mention socially unacceptable behaviour, such as drug abuse, alcohol consumption and violence, unemployment, low standard of living, the lack of life chances and mass migration of young experts abroad. Since unemployment was repeatedly displayed as the major problem of young generation in earlier studies, their present preoccupation with socially unacceptable behaviour may be related either to the sample structure (majority of them are students) or to a general social climate which is, due to predominance of media campaigns mainly geared against smoking and drug abuse (but not against alcohol consumption, except for safe driving), inducing an over-sensitisation to behavioural issues causing, on the other side, the lack of awareness of existentially important issues of young people that are of an utmost importance for their independence and self-satisfaction. Young people are inclined to attribute responsibility for solving these problems primarily to themselves, their parents and public authorities, i.e. firstly to those actors that function at the private level (personal and parents' responsibility), than to public sector (government, education system) and, finally, to the civil society (nongovernmental organizations, youth associations and religious institutions). This means that youth principally count on their personal strength and family support, as well as that they have explicit expectations of state institutions, whereas they think of receiving the assistance from the civil sector only exceptionally. Notwithstanding, since half of the young studied have failed to mention personal responsibility, it clearly demonstrates that both strong sense of self-responsibility and its avoidance stand side by side as two features of Croatian youth. Among the measures that Croatian youth see as the most efficient for solving their problems two are underlined: equal education and career opportunities, on the one hand, and strict punishment of drug dealers and restrictions on alcohol selling, on the other hand. Since the majority of youth consider socially unacceptable behaviour, including drug-addiction, to be the gravest problem of their generation, it is understandable that they see the way out in strict punishing of drug dealers, (rather than consumers), what is still inadequately determined by Croatian law. Other most frequently mentioned measure has to do with the youth quest for developing society of equal chances which is in line with their perception of unemployment as the second most frequently mentioned youth problem in Croatia. Although lesser in number, the young refer to their under-representation and require their participation in decision-making to be ensured at all levels. They also require better adapting of secondary and higher education to the needs of contemporary life, as well as better quality of education, in general; some speak in favour of establishing a ministry for youth affairs, developing national strategy for promoting youth well-being, setting up of funds for youth initiatives, better legal regulations of the places of youth entertainment, i.e., the issues majority of which have already been integrated into the recently adopted National Programme of Action for Youth that is seen as an initial step in developing a national youth policy. The values that the majority of young people hold personally important or very important are healthy environment, peace in the world, gender equality, and rights and freedoms of the individual. Second group of the most personally preferable values encompasses solidarity among people, social justice, economic security, respect for differences, rule of law, inalienability of property, civil society, free market, freedom of the media, protection of minorities, religion and democratic system. The bottom of the scale is occupied by social power, national sentiment, European integration, and high economic standard. The review of their preferences demonstrates a relatively respectable level of democratic potential of young people in Croatia. They are more oriented towards comfortable life based on key principles of democracy and civil society, which is in correspondence with earlier research that have documented the shift to a more individualistic value system, including youth' s preference for independence and their focus on self-realisation and material security. However, their relative devaluation of the importance of European integration may be, on the one hand, the sign of either their dissatisfaction with, or their criticism of the way new European order has been established, partly due to the fact that Croatia has been somehow unjustly left behind. On the other hand it may be the consequence of their perceiving the integration merely in terms of a political objective of which very little they experience in everyday life. This is not to say that they devaluate the importance of European integration for Croatia as such. It would be more accurate to say that Croatian young people are becoming more and more pragmatic in their social positioning of which many think not only in the context of Croatia but in the context of Europe and the world. Having in mind a long tradition of Croatian youth emigration to Europe and the fact that almost 20% of contemporary youth plan to leave the country for good (mostly for a European country), their relation toward European integration may mean that they see it only as an added value to an already established youth migratory pattern in Croatia. of young people about the determinants of upward social mobility in Croatia reflect their accurate perception of social anomalies that, if left unquestioned, threaten to deepen social inequalities and diminish democratic potential of the society. Namely, a great majority of the young see as important or highly important for social promotion in Croatia a combination of the following variables: adaptive behaviour, personal endeavour, knowledge and skills, and connections and acquaintances. University degree, money and wealth, and the obedience and submissiveness to the 'boss', are identified less but, nevertheless, reflect a combination of appropriate and inappropriate means of social promotion. Somehow more troublesome is the finding that one third to one half of the young consider belonging to certain nation or political party, as well as bribing and corruption as important determinants of one' s success in Croatia. These data present an index of youth's perception of Croatian society as the society of unequal chances since it, by allowing nondemocratic practice to play an important role in social promotion, actually discriminates against those who in this matter believe in, and rely on their own abilities and efforts. When compared to earlier studies, it is highly troublesome that almost the same factors of social promotion are estimated as important by both socialist and ' transitional' young people in Croatia. Overall examination of the above results may be seen as an indicator of a process of relative homogenisation of young people in today' s Croatia – certainly, within the issues here examined and at the present level of analysis. There is no doubt that young people here described have many characteristic in common, especially in reference to their marital status, family pattern, housing conditions, parent' s educational background, attitudes towards present and future life, professional and educational aspirations, desired accommodation, sources of information, satisfaction with free time, positive feelings about themselves, feeling of security in relation to their parents and friends, as well as in reference to their abuse of psychoactive substances. They also share their desire for autonomy and independence, and for the recognition by the society at large, as well as their dreams of a more just society in which life opportunities would match individual abilities and endeavour. When they differ, it is mostly due to their varied socio-professional status and age. Residential status, father' s educational background, gender, and regional background are less important. The tendencies that have been documented suggest that youth are divided primarily by their actual social status and stage of attained maturity, and only secondarily by socialization factors, such as social origin in a narrow and broad sense of the term, and a gender socialization patterns. However, further analysis of data should disclose youth dominating trends with more accuracy.
Die Inhalte der verlinkten Blogs und Blog Beiträge unterliegen in vielen Fällen keiner redaktionellen Kontrolle.
Warnung zur Verfügbarkeit
Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
Ambassadors from roughly 20 European countries are descending on the Republican National Convention this week, in an effort to win over leaders in the party who are skeptical of NATO and the European Union generally, but also of Washington's continued commitment to funding Ukraine's war effort. "It's our last-ditch pitch to the MAGA wing of the party," one unnamed European official told Foreign Policy. As the FP report notes, it is common for foreign diplomats to appear at both party's conventions in election years. But, the report says there is "new level of urgency" this year, a sign both of the conventional wisdom that Donald Trump is the favorite to win the election, and of fears in Europe about what a second Trump presidency would mean for the transatlantic relationship. The selection of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), a prominent Ukraine aid skeptic, as Trump's running mate earlier this week led to a series of headlines in major media outlets about growing "panic," "alarm," and "anxiety" in European capitals. The two combatants in the war are also apparently reading the tea leaves. Bloomberg reported last week that Kyiv was hoping to organize its next "peace summit" before November's election, and that, contrary to earlier meetings, Russia may be invited — perhaps conveying a new sense of urgency in preparation for the eventuality of a Trump victory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that he was prepared to work with Trump and "not afraid" of Republicans winning the White House. "We have bipartisan support and we have strong relations with the Republican part of the U.S. political system," Zelenaky said during a press conference. Russia, for its part, welcomed the news of a Trump-Vance ticket. "He's in favor of peace, in favor of ending the assistance that's being provided," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said of Vance on Wednesday. "And we can only welcome that because that's what we need — to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons. And then the war will end, and then we can look for solutions." Vance has been sharply critical of the Biden administration's Ukraine policy during his short Senate tenure, voting against aid packages and calling for negotiations. "By committing to a defensive strategy, Ukraine can preserve its precious military manpower, stop the bleeding and provide time for negotiations to commence," he wrote in an April op-ed in the New York Times. "The White House has said time and again that it can't negotiate with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. This is absurd. The Biden administration has no viable plan for the Ukrainians to win this war. The sooner Americans confront this truth, the sooner we can fix this mess and broker for peace." In other diplomatic news related to the war in Ukraine: — Moscow offered a cautious response to Kyiv's potential invitation to a future peace conference. After initially saying they would reject the offer, comments from the Kremlin spokesman this week suggest that the door is not completely closed. "The first peace summit was not a peace summit at all. So perhaps it is necessary to first understand what he means," Dmitry Peskov said during a television interview on Monday, according to The Moscow Times. — Trump would push for a rapid end to the war in Ukraine and has "well-founded plans" to accomplish this goal, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Orban, who has also urged a settlement to end the war and has opposed much of the EU's support for Kyiv, has used the beginning of his six-month rotation as EU president to visit Zelensky, Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Trump to discuss how to end the war. "Orbán's description of Trump's peace plan for Ukraine tallies with a policy paper on the conflict written by two allies for the former president who are expected to take senior national security roles in his administration if he wins November's US election." according to The Financial Times. That plan, authored by former Trump national security council staffers Keith Kellogg and Fred Fleitz said that Washington should only continue to send aid to Ukraine on the condition that they participate in negotiations, while also threatening to increase support for Kyiv if Moscow refused to take part in talks. — Almost 44% of Ukrainians believe that it is time for official negotiations with Russia to begin, according to a new poll from the Ukrainian online newspaper ZN.ua, compared to 35% who were opposed and 21% who remain undecided. This represented a significant uptick from a similar poll last year, in which only 23% indicated that they supported official talks, with 64% opposed. At the same time, a large majority (83%) of respondents opposed Putin's stated conditions for a ceasefire, while 61% said they were not prepared to make concessions to Russia in order to obtain a peace deal. U.S. State Department news: In a Tuesday press briefing, State Department spokesman Matt Miller was asked about the Trump ticket's stance on the Ukraine war. Miller said he "shouldn't respond to" what was happening on the campaign trail. "I will instead just speak about our record and our record of support for Ukraine. And ultimately I think the question really comes down to not just what we support and what anyone else in public life supports, but what the American people support, and what we have seen is when it comes to Ukraine, the American people strongly support continued assistance to Ukraine," he said. "They strongly support allowing Ukraine and helping Ukraine to defend itself against Russia's aggression."
Die Inhalte der verlinkten Blogs und Blog Beiträge unterliegen in vielen Fällen keiner redaktionellen Kontrolle.
Warnung zur Verfügbarkeit
Eine dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit ist nicht garantiert und liegt vollumfänglich in den Händen der Herausgeber:innen. Bitte erstellen Sie sich selbständig eine Kopie falls Sie diese Quelle zitieren möchten.
The arch-cliched question about who Henry Kissinger should call to talk to Europe seemed to have found, at long last, the answer in 2009 when the EU Lisbon Treaty enshrined the post of the European Union's high representative for foreign and security policy. Fifteen years on, the more appropriate question would be "why bother to call at all?"Last week, EU leaders agreed that Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas would succeed senior Spanish diplomat Josep Borrell as the bloc's foreign policy chief. The decision came, however, only as a consolation prize for quashing her ambitions to lead NATO.It's not difficult to see why it was considered safer to keep Kallas out of NATO: while there is a consensus in the EU that Russia is the bloc's main security threat, Kallas went much further than most leaders in her combative rhetoric. She said Russia's dismemberment into many smaller nation states would not be "a bad thing." She enthusiastically endorsed NAFO (so-called North Atlantic Fellas Association) that is infamous for organizing xenophobic online harassment campaigns against anyone — including former and possibly future high-ranking American defense officials — perceived as "soft on Russia."There is also more than a whiff of hypocrisy about Kallas: while she called for Russia's isolation, her husband continued profiting from his business ties with Russia well after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This, alongside some political missteps, has made her an unpopular figure in her native Estonia and led to calls for her resignation, which she ignored.The fact that Berlin and other major capitals saw it less risky for someone like Kallas to be appointed as the "EU Head of Earnest Communiques," in the words of British analyst David Blagden, rather than an actual military alliance like NATO, preferring the seasoned Dutch Prime Minister Marc Rutte for the latter job instead, speaks volumes about the regard held for the position of the high representative.That is because despite its lofty title, the post has no real power. The high representative is not the foreign minister of the EU. He or she is a vice president of the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, thus technically a subordinate to its president. The European External Action Service (EEAS), with its more than 5,000 officials both in Brussels and EU delegations abroad, is at his or her disposal, but all the budgetary levers are in the hands of the Commission. Thus, the high representative and his or her team are forced to spend an inordinate amount of time in turf battles with other branches of the Brussels machinery to get anything done.Most importantly, despite all the proclamations of a "geopolitical Europe," the EU has no competences over the member states' foreign and defense policies. It is the Council of the EU, i.e. the member states, who set the bloc's foreign policy, and every single one of them holds a veto power, thus capable, in principle, to block common policies.This is unlikely to change as national security is traditionally the most zealously guarded prerogative of a nation-state, and more so with the rise of sovereigntist political forces in Europe as attested by the results of the last elections to the European Parliament. In a way, the high representative's job is impossible.These structural limitations can be offset, to an extent, by the personality of the office holder. The most impactful EU top diplomat was Javier Solana who held the position from 1999 to 2009 — ironically before the Lisbon Treaty created the EEAS meant, in theory, to bolster the job. But Solana assumed the office after leading NATO which gave him extra clout, respect from the member states, and international visibility, all of which his successors lacked. Still, his successor, Federica Mogherini, can be credited with getting the Iran nuclear deal over the line, and Borrell with efforts to get that same deal revived after President Trump's withdrawal in 2018 and taking a principled stance on Gaza.Expectations are significantly lower with Kallas. Kristi Raik from the Tallinn-based International Centre for Defence and Security, while offering a sympathetic view of her candidacy, points to the challenge of being "a strong leader, while not being too radical for the taste of some member states, which could be counter-productive." Yet Kallas' consensus-building skills are yet to be tested.Kallas has yet to offer much evidence of her interest in or understanding of how much of the world works beyond her part of Europe. Yet she will have to deal with the crises in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, manage relations with China and Asia-Pacific. As the high representative, she will chair the joint commission on the implementation of the nuclear agreement with Iran, which her predecessors Mogherini and Borrell were strongly committed to. Her views on the subject are entirely unknown, as they are on the Israel/Palestine question. As a Brussels-based analyst Shada Islam noted, "the EU's standing is already low over double standards in Gaza. Eager to know how Kallas intends to learn about a complex world beyond Europe."An advent of a new Trump administration in Washington could pose additional challenges as some of its prospective officials appear to be decidedly less interested in countering Russia than China. Navigating this relationship will require diplomatic skill more than moralistic exhortations about the need for a continued U.S. involvement in the European security.In the end, however, none of that may matter too much. A high representative perceived as weak, a loose cannon, or both, will simply ensure that the EU external partners will gravitate even more explicitly towards the member states and the Commission, with the high representative and the EEAS mostly reduced to issuing statements of concern.
