EMERGENCY SEX and Other Desperate Measures: A true story from Hell on Earth.
By Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson (2004)
What a magificent book - the style, stories and perspectives were particuarly unique and effective for their means.
The book is set up in diary entry form, each dated and location marked. The authors all interchangeably wrote about their own experiences in certain parts of the world as UN peacekeeping workers: one a NZ doctor, another a Harvard lawyer and the other a NY secretary/social worker. They were sent to some of the most dangerous civil war conflict areas in the world during the 1990's - Cambodia, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, Yogoslavia and Liberia. They offer a young, fresh and up-close perspective on the horrors that went on in those countries. And it also provides insight into the role the UN played in these matters. Easy to read and historically very educational, I recommend this book to people interested in world affairs and recent history.
Chapter titles:
Alpha - all clear
Bravo - some caution warrented
Charlie - direct threat
Delta - substancial deterioration
Echo - end of the line
The above are UN Emergency Security Designations.
Quote: "I find myself envying the Iraqis and Israelis... there are none subtleties and nuances of everyday life; you're at the core of every feeling. Nothing else matters but to stay alive. And that is how I want to feel." (Heidi, p.13)
Quote: "...I grew up taking for granted that contentment in life comes from serving others and not oneself. Now I'm fulfilled by a callig of my own." (Andrew, p.23)
Quote: "I finally found my moment in history." (Ken, Leaving Cambodia, p.89)
Middle Eastern facts:
* Tel Aviv - city in West central Israel (large centre of Jewish immigration following WWII)
* Israelis - mix of North African, Levantine and Eastern Europe
* Baghdad - capital of Iraq
Cambodian facts:
* Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge - Cambodian Genocide in 1975
* The genocide - In the early 1970's, the Vietnam war spilled over its borders inot neighbouring Cambodia. In 1975, just before America evacuated Vietnam, a Communist guerilla group, The Khmer Rouge, marched into Cambodia's capital Phenom Penh and took power. They killed over a million civilians in the following 4 years. The Soviet Union and Vietnamese invaded in 1979 and chased Kmer Rouge into the jungle where they still continued sporatic operations. At the end of the Cold War, the 'West' sent 20,000 UN peacekeeping soldiers and 2000 civilians to Cambodia to restore democracy.
Somalia facts:
* Somalia dictator - Siad Barre (president 1969-91)
* Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid (president 1995-96) challenged the presence of UN and USA troops in the country
Haiti facts:
* Jean-Bertrand Aristide - Ist demoncratically elected present of Haiti (1991, 1994-6, 2001-04)
* General Raoul Cedras - leader of coup in 1991 that got rid of Aristide. Terrorized civilians, particularly pro-Aristide.
* Ton Tons Macoute - secret police that terrorized people.
* September 1994 - US sent 20000 troops. In October, Aristide returned and reclaimed presidency.
Yugoslavia facts:
* Bosnia - Muslims, Serbs, Croats
* At the end of the Cold War, Bosnian Serb forces conducted "ethnic cleansing against Muslims
* July 1995 - Serb forces executed 8000 and put them into unmarked graves
* UN created the first International Criminal Tribunal to prosecute war crimes
Rwanda facts:
* In the early 1990's, Rwandan Tutsi rebels (RPF) repeatedly attacted Hutu-dominated Rwandan government
* April 6th 1994, plane of Rwandan president shot down over Kigali. Massacres of Tutsis and moderate Hutus began 30mins later
* Radical Hutu militaria (interhamwe) began a mass killing over 90 days, 800 000 died.
* RPF broke out of Uganda, defeated the Rwandan army and interhamwe and occupied. country.
* Un created the 2nd war crimes tribunal
Liberia facts:
* founded by American slaves
* state collapse and civil war after the Cold War
* peacekeeping responsibility was relegated to the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG)
Status 2003:
* war spreads from Rwanda in the the DR of Congo and Bosnis into Kosovo
* Haiti festers
* Somalia hasn't had a government for over a decade
Vocabulary:
* apartheid - separation of people according to race, caste etc.
* Maoism - political, social, economic and military theorist policies advocated by Mao Zedong, as those concerning revolutionary movements and guerilla warfare.
* Guerilla warfare - irregular soldiers; harrasing the enermy by surprise raids, sabotaging communication and supply lines etc.
* Mao Zedong (1893-1976) - Chinese communist leader.
* Communism - system of social organisation based on the holding of all property in common, actual owenership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state; domination by a single and self perpetuating political party.
* Martial law - law imposed by military forces. E.g. Myanmar (official name of Burma) underwent martial law.
* Cold War - rivalry after World War II between the Soviet Union (union of 15 constituent republics in E Europe and W & N Asia, comprising the larger part of the the former Russian Empire. Dissolved in December 1991) and its satellites and the demoncratic countries of the Western world, under the leadership of the United States.
* NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) - formed in Washington 1949 comprising of 12 nations of the Atlantic Pact together with Greece, Turkey and the Fed Republic of Germany).
