freespaceminespace

I had this email sent to me last week.

With all the information out there, all the work that has been done and the fact that it takes a lot more resources to remove a landmine than to put it in, wouldn’t it make sense to just stop making them?

Good question, I wish I knew the answer. I attempted to answer through discussion.

Of course the obvious answer would be money. But that doesn’t really make sense to me, as the value of land without landmines must outweigh the amount of money that is made by selling landmines?

Then the next thought would be security. No military or force wants to give an edge to their enemy. No one wants to give up a weapon. To me landmines are a desperation weapon. Powerful nations wouldn’t need them. Landmines are used by a force when they are doing whatever they can not to lose. So why would powerful nations feel the need to have landmines? Wouldn’t mines be used against them more than they would use them themselves?

Our email conversation continued and it led to a disturbing thought for me.

Landmines are often used to scare away political support. Typically in a guerilla war it is a way to scare supporters out of an area to weaken a local government. Landmines are laid so that people don’t want to return to their homes. It is a form of terrorism. If enough supporters are forced to move, the local government has less support and is less likely to maintain control or have influence over a decreasing population. This is a known tactic used with landmines.

Could the same concept be used for the same purpose on a much larger scale? If a much more powerful nation or company can impoverish a weaker nation or government party, it makes it dependent on others for everything from food to national security. What better way to ensure control of another nation. It is ugly politics and I make no accusations, other than it makes sense, ugly sense.

I am open to the answer on the matter, but the thing is, if you are fighting for a piece of land, why would you desecrate that land to never be used again? Even if you win, you just won the right to live on minespace.

This is a high impact video aimed at putting the problem into your own backyard.

Watch the movie, then read further.

www.stopmines.org

The impact of the video is clear mines are insanely nasty. The perspective that the movie does not convey is the terror that accompanies a mine until the area is expertly cleared. Anyone not standing still is at risk, rescuers are at risk, unless they are trained and equipped to deal with mines

What we miss is the terror that ensues with the knowledge that mines are present. Consider the scene after the movie stops. This whole field is no longer freespace, the area all around is now minespace. People running for their lives are at more risk than those standing idly by in terror. With 70 000 000+ mines in the ground it says to me we need more people to be trained to clear mines.

Before starting this blog, and even still mind you, people ask me. Why are you doing that are you crazy? Whats the point? You want to start a program that helps demine the world? No one is ever ready for the reality of the impact of landmines. After some initial statistics that most feel overwhelmed I simply say, if you were living under those conditions wouldn’t you want someone to help? Of course everyone agrees.

I felt the first thing to do is to create awareness. If few are asking questions then few are thinking of answers.

People know mines are bad, but most don’t know what makes up a landmine. The most complete library of landmines I have encountered on the web is from CAMEO. They have a pretty comprehensive list of whats in the ground. Please comment if you know of others.

The problem with mines is that that are indifferent to their victims. This is a link to Adopt a minefield section on crisis. The photo is an incredibly compelling one. There is no way there is a child on the planet who deserves this.

http://www.landmines.org/crisis/