That's What Grandmas Are For

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"If we want pizza and Grandma would rather have Chinese food, she will eat pizza. That's what grandmas are for."

"If I stop for gas and it's self-serve, my granddaughter will hold the nozzle.

If I'm washing my car, my grandson will help rinse it and wipe it dry. That's what grandchildren are for."

A grandmother and her grandkids tell what makes the other special. This exuberant celebration of the love between grandmothers and their grandchildren will warm your heart and make you smile.

That's What Grandmothers Are For
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That's What Grandmothers Are For
Jane Warnock McElyea
Manufacturer: Mc Elyea Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1930406002

Book Description

This is an entertaining and practical book for grandmothers today, written by an energetic, enthusiastic grandmother of 6, with an age span from a kindergartner to married attorneys! This grandmother is experienced in all ages!! The book includes poetry, stories, quotes, humor, and many practical, simple, fun ideas of things to do with grand children, from crib to college-aged. There is also a chapter on long-distance grandmothering! This book is easy to read and is a perfect gift for a new or seasoned grandmother.

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That's What Grandmothers Are For
Arlene Uslander
Manufacturer: Chicago Spectrum Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1886094136

A Bed for the Night; Humanitarianism in Crisis
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A must read for proponents of foreign aid/UN or otherwise

... my thoughts exactly.

Required reading

Asks the right questions

An important book about an important problem

A Bed for the Night; Humanitarianism in Crisis
David RIEFF
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B0001OOU60

Book Description

Timely and controversial, A Bed for the Night reveals how humanitarian organizations trying to bring relief in an ever more violent and dangerous world are often betrayed and misused, and have increasingly lost sight of their purpose.

Humanitarian relief workers, writes David Rieff, are the last of the just. And in the Bosnias, the Rwandas, and the Afghanistans of this world, humanitarianism remains the vocation of helping people when they most desperately need help, when they have lost or stand at risk of losing everything they have, including their lives.

Although humanitarianism's accomplishments have been tremendous, including saving countless lives, the lesson of the past ten years of civil wars and ethnic cleansing is that it can do only so much to alleviate suffering. Aid workers have discovered that while trying to do good, their efforts may also cause harm.

Drawing on firsthand reporting from hot war zones around the world -- Bosnia, Rwanda, Congo, Kosovo, Sudan, and most recently Afghanistan -- Rieff describes how the International Committee of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, the International Rescue Committee, CARE, Oxfam, and other humanitarian organizations have moved from their founding principle of political neutrality, which gave them access to victims of wars, to encouraging the international community to take action to stop civil wars and ethnic cleansing.

This advocacy has come at a high price. By calling for intervention -- whether by the United Nations or by "coalitions of the willing" -- humanitarian organizations risk being seen as taking sides in a conflict and thus jeopardizing their access to victims. And by overreaching, the humanitarian movement has allowed itself to be hijacked by the major powers, at times becoming a fig leaf for actions those powers wish to take for their own interests, or for the major powers' inaction. Rieff concludes that if humanitarian organizations are to do what they do best -- alleviate suffering -- they must reclaim their independence.

Except for relief workers themselves, no one has looked at humanitarian action as seriously or as unflinchingly, or has had such unparalleled access to its inner workings, as Rieff, who has traveled and lived with aid workers over many years and four continents.

A cogent, hard-hitting report from the front lines, A Bed for the Night shows what international aid organizations must do if they are to continue to care for the victims of humanitarian disasters.

Customer Reviews:

A must read for proponents of foreign aid/UN or otherwise.......2007-03-31

I read this book years ago and it opened my eyes about the realities of sending money and food aid and aid workers to countries in crisis. Not to say that we shouldn't but frankly many many times it isn't foreign aid that these countries really need it is government that isn't corrupt or even military action that will stop the immediate killing as in Rawanda. The author knows his stuff and the book is a thoughtful analysis of what works and what doesn't and what CAUSES MORE PROBLEMS even though the donors want to feel good by giving aid. All of these aid programs should be renewed or not renewed on a basis of 'change for the better'. But alas we just keep sending more money & aid and the corrupt people continue to benifit the most. And in the case of Rawanda, by mandating help without prejudice to either side we caused the killers to get aid so they could survive & kill more. A MUST read for proponents of foreign aid. FIRST DO NO HARM.
barb

... my thoughts exactly........2007-01-13

For me, disenchantment came in the form of Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General for the United Nations. When I was a child, on Halloween, I walked around with my happy little UNICEF box collecting money instead of candy, and through school I learned that the UN was this wonderful organisation that had the intention of creating a perfect utopia of a world in which there was peace and no famine. This, of course, was before Kosovo and Annan's Oil For Food scandal. True, Kosovo was but a blurred memory from middle school, but I was wide awake for the Oil For Food fiasco. The more I read about the United Nations in high school and college, the more I came to abhor the institution.

I'm no stranger to charity and humanitarianism -- I'm spending my summer in Ghana with an aid organisation, will be doing two years in the Peace Corps after getting my Nurse Practitioner license, and after that plan to work for Médecins Sans Frontières as a full-time job. Africa is my passion, one could say, and I'd like nothing more than to be there all the time.

That said, humanitarianism has become bogged down in the mire of politics and utopianism. In A Bed for the Night, author David Rieff not only outlines the beginnings of modern humanitarianism in Biafra in the late 1960s, but also highlights the key flaws in specific cases of humanitarianism in the last decade such as Bosnia and Rwanda. No Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is left untouched -- he explains the failings of every NGO from the umbrella of the UN to the seemingly infallible Red Cross to Oxfam. Both sides of the issue are covered through interviews with such varied people as Rony Brauman of Médecins Sans Frontières and Jean-François Vidal of Action Contre la Faim. His arguments are absolutely supported in every way; he leaves no stone left unturned, and every reference from his ten years of research in preparation for writing the book are listed in a bibliography for fact checking. Also added after the first publish date is an afterward on Iraq which I found very interesting because it was written before Saddam Hussein was captured -- Rieff even says things like "two weeks after the war was finished" when we all know now, three years later, that Iraq is nowhere near being finished.

Basically though, the book is about how NGOs have made themselves bitches to world governments, something which, you know, basically defeats the point of the 'N' in the front of the acronym. Through this inability to stand up for themselves and be independent organisations, they've lost the neutrality that once made it easy for them to go into war zones and help those who needed to be helped.

This book most definitely is for a limited audience. It reads much like a doctoral thesis, which is something that I love, but most people would probably tire of the vocabulary or perhaps even not know what words mean. I read some passages to my younger sister, a junior in high school with all As, and she had no idea what I was even saying a good chunk of the time. For one to understand this book, one must have experience in reading research papers and theses, I would say. It has a lot of information to delve through and one has to be able to absorb the information from it as if he or she were doing research for his or her own project. Knowledge of history is also very important, though Rieff does generally explain the history behind each humanitarian tragedy. Because I'm familiar with most of the organisations in the book, I'm not completely sure if it would be important to know them beforehand, though I did find it helpful, because Rieff does include a handy little reference in the back of all of the organisations mentioned.

If you have some sort of undying affection for the UN, I'd recommend you stay as far away from this book as possible, honestly. Because of my nearly psychotic hate of the UN, I enjoyed every poke and prod at both the organisation and Kofi Annan. On the other hand, if you're a big fan of Médecins Sans Frontières, dive right on in -- Rieff basically states that it's the only aid organisation that's worth a damn in this day and age. Additionally, if you're one of the people who thinks that humanitarianism is the panacea for all the world's problems, the thing that will bring utopia to earth, get away from this book and get the hell away from me.

There are two quotes from this book that I think basically sum it up, the first from Rory Brauman:

'It can not be an accident that the one thing tyrants and aid workers have in common is their liking for being posed next to children.'

And David Rieff on the topics of 'The Responsibility to Protect' and human rights getting mixed into humanitarianism:

'A few dissenting figures, notably in certain French humanitarian circles, have argued that humanitarianism as a vocation needs to separate itself from this project [The Responsibility to Protect], no matter how worthy the larger goals of human rights, conflict resolutions, and the creation of the conditions for peace and development in the poor world may seem to aid workers, and no matter how fervently, as citizens, they hope for the success of such efforts. Where other NGOs, particularly those issuing from the British and American aid traditions, often assume aid groups could play a useful role if only they could develop further their human rights and peace-building "capacities," many of the most influential figures within MSF [Médecins Sans Frontières] and like-minded agencies such as ACF [Action Contre la Faim] continue to insist that such projects take humanitarianism far beyond any role it is suited for.'

Basically, for humanitarianism to survive, aid workers have to realise that they can't change the world on a grand scale, they can't bring peace, they can't make utopia -- they need to accept that their aid is on a local scale and that despite the fact that the world isn't going to know each thing they do, it's going to make a diffence in someone's life. There must be a return to neutrality so that the work that needs to be done can be done one person at a time.

Required reading.......2005-04-12

A credible analysis of the fig-leaf for endless state inaction that these abused, heroic organizations have become. Credible because the author obviously reached his conclusions with great anguish at the fact. Credible because, Rieff is the same author who wrote the Nov NYT 2003 piece, "Blueprint for a Mess" excoriating the administration for its Iraq policy. This is not a Wilsonian / Wolfowitz interventionist itching to let the ship of state set sail, and because of that, his pained conclusions about the reasons for state inaction/ineffective action in the face of pressing needs to act are credible.

The West/America/Europe in recent decades, primarily through the mechanism of the UN, has made a great show of doing everything possible right up to but excluding actually doing anything. Compassion on the cheap. 'We're doing everything possible, the UN is on the job, and as long as all parties agree and have invited them, will show up and defend only themselves rudely in front of people desperately needing defense. The NGOs are on site. We're handing out the blankets and the coffee and the bandaids to rapist and victim alike, so nothing more can be done, and we can all go back to reading our papers and tsk-tsk-tsking and sipping our Capuccinos, comfortable in the knowledge that everything that can be done, is being done, short of actually doing soemthing.'

Find out why that's a fig leaf on the UN seal, not an olive branch. We are all the problem; we don't have the good sense our daddies taught us about when to and when not to lift a hand. Read this book.

Asks the right questions.......2004-12-05

The author does point out many of the problems with humanitarian non-governmental organizations. They do plenty of self-promotion. They make deals with a variety of thugs just to be permitted to operate in some regions. In other cases, they make deals with various nations, adopting their political causes. Worst of all, they can be misused by those with truly genocidal plans: they can be assigned to give food and lodging to intended victims, drawing them into camps. When armies show up to murder the victims, the humanitarians obviously get out of the way. But just what service does all this provide?

While I found myself disagreeing with the author on plenty of occasions, I think he's written a good book. He's clearly raised all the main issues with humanitarian aid. These include questions of whether whether neutrality, impartiality, outright support for victims, or none of the above is the most effective way to help people.

In the case of a genuine human rights organization, there's no doubt what the goal is. The charters of such organizations are clear: they never are to support outright opponents of human rights politically. Those charters are often violated, but at least we all know what they are supposed to do. But in the case of humanitarian organizations, there are no such goals. The idea is to provide day-to-day help to the needy, and being misused by people who intend to murder the needy may not even violate their charters.

In any case, Rieff shows how humanitarian efforts failed in a most disheartening way in Bosnia and Rwanda. And perhaps he's at his best when he explains how useless the United Nations has been in protecting anyone from aggressors. He quotes one person as explaining that had the UN existed in the 1930s, all of Europe would now be speaking German.

Rieff is pessimistic about the effectiveness of humanitarian aid in many areas. And I have to agree with him about this. Perhaps the worst aspect of it is that such failures, by giving humanitarianism a bad name, will encourage many people who truly want to help others to do something else instead.

An important book about an important problem.......2004-06-18

Pulling no punches, Rieff has written a damning insight into the current humanitarian care industry (and it has become an industry) has lost its way in the modern day. While showing great admiration for people who believe they are doing the right thing, Rieff exposes the problems with the current methods and thinking behind humanitarian intervention and aid, especially the loss of neutrality and the growth of advocacy for military intervention.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Ethics & International Affairs, published by Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs on April 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1039 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis.(Book Review)
Author: T.K. Vogel
Publication: Ethics & International Affairs (Refereed)
Date: April 1, 2003
Publisher: Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs
Volume: 17 Issue: 1 Page: 169(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis.(Book Review): An article from: Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal

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A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis.(Book Review): An article from: Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal
Nick Robinson
Manufacturer: Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, published by Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1816 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis.(Book Review)
Author: Nick Robinson
Publication: Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal
Volume: 7 Page: 184(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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What is the future of humanitarianism?(Book Review): An article from: Global Governance

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What is the future of humanitarianism?(Book Review): An article from: Global Governance
Michael Barnett
Manufacturer: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Global Governance, published by Lynne Rienner Publishers on July 1, 2003. The length of the article is 6425 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: What is the future of humanitarianism?(Book Review)
Author: Michael Barnett
Publication: Global Governance (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 2003
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Page: 401(16)

Article Type: Book Review

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A BED FOR THE NIGHT; HUMANITARIANISM IN CRISIS.

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A BED FOR THE NIGHT; HUMANITARIANISM IN CRISIS.
David. Rieff
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N74FE2

Book Description

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the First International Workshop on Spatial Coherence for Visual Motion Analysis, SCVMA 2004, held in Prague, Czech Republic in May 2004 in conjuction with the eighth European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV 2004 (see LNCS volumes 3021/3022/3023/3024).

The 11 revised full research papers presented went through two rounds of reviewing and improvement. The papers in this volume cover a wide range in the field of motion analysis that is a central problem in computer vision. The workshop examined techniques for integrating spatial coherence constraints during motion analysis of image sequences.

Decision Estimation and Classification: An Introduction to Pattern Recognition and Related Topics

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Decision Estimation and Classification: An Introduction to Pattern Recognition and Related Topics
Charles W. Therriern
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Decision Estimation & Classification - an Intro to Pattern Recognition & Related Topics Tm + Tr

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Decision Estimation & Classification - an Intro to Pattern Recognition & Related Topics Tm + Tr
THERRIEN
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Estimation and classification by sigmoids based on mutual information (SuDoc NAS 1.26:199486)

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Estimation and classification by sigmoids based on mutual information (SuDoc NAS 1.26:199486)
Yoram Baram
Manufacturer: National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Technical Information Service, distributor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00010QL4S

Estimation of travel time distribution and detection of incidents based on automatic vehicle classification (California PATH working paper)

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Estimation of travel time distribution and detection of incidents based on automatic vehicle classification (California PATH working paper)
V Anantharam
Manufacturer: California PATH Program, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California at Berkeley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006QY1Z8

From Statistics to Neural Networks: Theory and Pattern Recognition Applications (NATO ASI Series / Computer and Systems Sciences)

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From Statistics to Neural Networks: Theory and Pattern Recognition Applications (NATO ASI Series / Computer and Systems Sciences)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

This volume provides a unified approach to the study of predictive learning, i.e., generalization from examples. It contains an up-to-date review and in-depth treatment of major issues and methods related to predictive learning in statistics, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), and pattern recognition. Topics range from theoretical modeling and adaptive computational methods to empirical comparisons between statistical and ANN methods, and applications. Most contributions fall into one of the three themes: unified framework for the study of predictive learning in statistics and ANNs; similarities and differences between statistical and ANN methods for nonparametric estimation (learning); and fundamental connections between artificial and biological learning systems.

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