Waging Humanitarian War: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Humanitarian Intervention by Eric Heinze
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In addition to being extremely repetitive, this book has one major problem, and that is that it never even mentions the "willingness" of states to intervene. In a book that deals with Humanitarian Intervention, even though he limits himself to ethical, legal and political aspects, is unforgivable.
Another tiny problem is that the last part of the book, entitled "Conclusion" has a segment entitled "Conclusion". This returns us to the problem of his repeating himself all the time.
All in all a poor work.

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Annabel - Kathleen Winter

Annabel by Kathleen Winter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A very difficult book. The theme it deals with makes it a bit difficult to read in one go, or fast in any case.
But all in all a good book.

"Why would any of us break from the herd? Break, apart, separate, these are hard words. The only reason any of us would become one, and not part of the herd, is if she was lost."

"How much of his body image was accurate and how much was a construct he had come to believe? He tried to see his body objectively."

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Rudyard Kipling - White Man's Burden

TAKE up the White Man’s burden - 
Send forth the best ye breed - 
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild -
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man’s burden - 
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain.

Take up the White Man’s burden -
The savage wars of peace -
Fill full the mouth of famine
And bid the sickness cease; 
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man’s burden -
No tawdry rule of kings, 
But toil of serf and sweeper - 
The tale of common things. 
The ports ye shall not enter, 
The roads ye shall not tread, 
Go make them with your living, 
And mark them with your dead !

Take up the White Man’s burden -
And reap his old reward, 
The blame of those ye better, 
The hate of those ye guard - 
The cry of hosts ye humour 
(Ah slowly !) towards the light:- 
“Why brought ye us from bondage, 
“Our loved Egyptian night ?”

Take up the White Man’s burden -
Ye dare not stoop to less - 
Nor call too loud on Freedom 
To cloak your weariness; 
By all ye cry or whisper, 
By all ye leave or do, 
The silent sullen peoples 
Shall weigh your Gods and you.

Take up the White Man’s burden -
Have done with childish days - 
The lightly proffered laurel, 
The easy, ungrudged praise. 
Comes now, to search your manhood 
Through all the thankless years, 
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom, 
The judgement of your peers.

”

Incompetency of people in the publishing business

The Use of Force in Humanitarian Intervention: Morality and Practicalities by John Janzekovic


Why will I never read this book:
The first two pages of chapter 2 of this book contain so many grammatical errors that even a person who is not a GramamrNazi would be angry.
here are some examples:

1)
"Other important considerations such as; risk...."
- this is not a situation where one uses a semicolon! there should be a colon, or even nothing at all!

2)
"The CDR and the Impuzamugambi orchestrated a violent campaign against any Hutus who supporting the sharing of power with the Tutsi-dominated rebel RPF."
- Really?! This is a subordinate clause standing on its own! Oh God, either finish the thought or put the right form of the verb in the sentence!

There is a reason why publishers use editors and other staff! This should not happen and the publisher in question should be ashamed to put this on the market.
As an English major I am constantly disappointed by the fact that, even though there are hundreds of unemployed English majors, publishers obviously give the job of checking the language of books to people who really don't know what they are doing.




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Research is really getting to me

So
in the past couple of weeks I've been doing research for my MA thesis - "Humanitarian Interventions in the last 20 years - Where it all went wrong?"
and I've come across some very interesting things, and some very hilarious things too
one of the best ones being "[they] were creative with the truth"
talk about beating around the bush!

and now, while reading about the NATO intervention in Kosovo I come across a sentence that goes like this:
" [Rugova's] idea that they (the Kosovar) would be rewarded for their good behaviour by Western countries had been just plain wrong." (all this before the intervention)

Well, first off - What? that surprised you? Western states forgetting about the small players! What else is knew in the world?
and the second question I would ask myself (and at this late hour, my asking was in the form of colouring that passage with a colouring pen very firmly with three interrobangs next to it) would be - Why Wait for the West? and WHO, I repeat again WHO gave the West the right, the legitimacy to dispense with "gifts" like the independence!
this makes even more sense when you realize that the accords that came AFTER the intervention Serbia ended up with a better deal than in the plans of accords the West attempted them to sign BEFORE the intervention?

Who else, besides me, is completely not caught off guard by this sequence of events?