A View From The Cave

Why Trump and other anti-immigration supporters are completely wrong

2016-09-13T09:29:00.002-04:00

Michael Clemens describes the opportunity that immigration presents for the U.S. and why it is an effective anti-poverty tool. Yes, it requires some upfront costs that come in the form of social programs, but the long term benefits are too big to ignore.

Friedman goes to Africa, does his thing, and the results are as bad as expected

2016-04-27T10:36:00.001-04:00

This is seriously how an OpEd columnist for the New York Times started his latest piece:

You can learn everything you need to know about the main challenges facing Africa today by talking to just two people in Senegal: the rapper and the weatherman. They’ve never met, but I could imagine them doing an amazing duet one day — words and weather predictions — on the future of Africa.

And the rest of Tom Friedman's column writes itself. It is as if he dug deep into the deepest tropes about his own writing for this piece. Or maybe he is trolling all of us by using the Friedman OpEd Generator to produce this piece. It does kind of get better, but then Friedman writes this:

Matador is torn between understanding his generation’s need to find work and money to send home and his gut instinct that it is better to be poor in one’s home than a stranger in a strange land — so stay and build Senegal.

Worse yet, this is the third piece in a series titled "Out of Africa." Yes, the same title as the colonialist book made famous by the movie adaptation featuring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Go here if you want to read the other pieces, but I think it would be best to save the time.

Better yet, cleanse yourself of Friedman and enjoy this song by South African singer Nakhane Touré.

HT Rachel Strohm for the song

Mom complains she can't shield her son from slave-owning past of U.S. founders

2016-04-26T20:32:00.003-04:00

In a recent story for the American Conservative, Suzanne Sherman describes her recent cross-country trip to visit historic sites related to the founding fathers. She hoped for a trip steeped in political theory and history about the philosophies that shaped the founding of the U.S. What she got was tours of the homes and lessons on the importance of slaves to the lives of these great white men.

She didn't like it.

The docent leading the tour of [Monticello] never missed an opportunity: as we moved from one floor to another, we were instructed to imagine how difficult it was for the “enslaved servants to carry meal trays up and down this narrow stairway.” At every hearth: “imagine enslaved servants having to carry wood up to these fireplaces…” It just went on and on.

Jefferson’s philosophical and political viewpoints were omitted to leave time for an explanation of how difficult life was for his servants. Not once did the guide omit the adjective “enslaved”—his demeanor was patronizing and condescending to those who made the journey to see Monticello, for anyone vaguely familiar with Thomas Jefferson would know that he owned slaves.

The point is not that the issue of slavery is unworthy of recognition; it is that slavery is dominating the theme of these places to the detriment of the discussion and sharing of the ideals, philosophies and political goals upon which the American republic was founded. The Montpelier Foundation and The Thomas Jefferson Foundation have lost sight of the ideals these men stood for. Both Jefferson and Madison are buried on their respective properties, and if you go to their places of rest and sit quietly, you can hear them rolling over in their graves.

V.R. Bradley at the Negro Subversive blog has a nice response to all the "issues" raised by Sherman and concludes saying:

This is the history of the American South, which you, not being from this region, might find it convenient to avoid, but which you have no right to expect the nation as a whole to avoid so that you might miss it while starting it square in the face. Moreover, as it is the history of the material foundations of the United States of America, it is the only history you have this side of the Atlantic.

Comparing the politics of the leading U.S. presidential candidates

2016-02-03T21:19:00.000-05:00

That is according to politicalcompus.org. The scale is global, for those who think it looks too extreme. What is interesting is the fact that Clinton's position in 2016 is about the same as where Bush is located in the 2004 electoral chart.

American healthcare so expensive, Biden had to consider selling house to cover costs

2016-01-12T16:43:00.002-05:00

Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama look at an app on an iPhone in the Outer Oval Office, Saturday, July 16, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The New York Times reports the touching story of President Obama offering financial help for Vice President Biden when his son Beau fell ill. Concerned about the financial burden on his son's family, Biden told Obama he and his wife would sell their house, if necessary, to help out.

“He got up, and he said: ‘Don’t sell that house. Promise me you won’t sell the house,’” Mr. Biden remembered. “He said: ‘I’ll give you the money. Whatever you need, I’ll give you the money. Don’t, Joe. Promise me. Promise me.’ I said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to have to anyway.’ He said, ‘Promise me.’”

The story is a neat look into the relationship between Obama and Biden. But that is not the real story.

Biden's experience is U.S. healthcare in a nutshell. Costs are so high that even the most powerful people have to consider extraordinary steps to get by. That ain't right.

HT Melody

India may have a malaria problem on its hands

2016-01-11T15:31:00.001-05:00

It is no secret that global health data has its problems. They matter particularly when trying to understand disease burden trends and how to respond. As Ankita Rao & Vivekananda Nemana find in India, the issue may lead to some major problems. Take malaria in India for example:

The Indian government has spent billions of dollars — about $500 million from 2000 to 2013 — in its fight against malaria, a mosquito-borne disease. International agencies such as the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a big funder of global public health efforts, have provided major support. The country’s revamped national malaria program is on par with the standard of global care. But its recordkeeping has few admirers. Last year the government recorded only 561 deaths due to malaria, while an independent estimate earlier in the decade shows that the real toll could be as high as 200,000 each year. The disease is especially prevalent among the poor and in India’s vast rural areas, where about two-thirds of the population lives but is served by just 20 percent of the country’s health care infrastructure.

The staggering gap between official data and reality means that thousands of people die without an accurate diagnosis, according to a study by the British medical journal The Lancet. And the government is able to tout the malaria program’s success without a clear picture of how many people are dying. Malaria costs the country nearly $2 billion each year, and the impact of lost earnings and treatment bills falls disproportionately on rural, poor families. An extensive investigation by Al Jazeera America unearthed routine manipulation of malaria data, crippling shortages of essential supplies, chronic understaffing of hospitals and enduring dysfunction in World Bank–funded projects, which led to the Indian government’s returning millions of dollars in aid.

I wonder how many fill-in-the-blank combinations there are for disease/health issue (TB, dengue, maternal morality, stunting) and country (Kenya, Vietnam, Brazil) that can fit into the above paragraphs. Recent reports from major health bodies now include a section talking about the importance of data. Is this an issue that deserves more attention?

I am starting to think the answer is "yes."

The 2015 #DevelopmentDictonary translates aid-speak for the masses

2015-12-09T16:08:00.001-05:00

Which expert does Hillary Clinton consult about global poverty?

2015-11-06T11:30:00.001-05:00

Hint: It's not an expert, government official, or people actually living in poverty.

Man asks Clinton about global poverty, she replies: "I've had many conversations with Bono on this."
— Ken Thomas (@KThomasDC) November 4, 2015

HT +Africa is a Country

A cynical view of news?

2015-11-06T10:12:00.003-05:00

Photo shared by Independent Liverpool on Facebook reads: "News: Rich people paying rich people to tell middle class people to blame poor people."

Can't say I share the sentiment, but I can see why some people feel this way. There are certainly examples of that happening.

Powerful.
Posted by Independent Liverpool on Saturday, October 10, 2015

Map of the day: In which Chinese province will you live longest?

2015-11-03T14:20:00.002-05:00

As is the case for nearly everywhere in the world, all parts of a country are not created equal. This map from The Economist shows the varying outcomes in each province.

More info:

The study* shows that a baby born in China in 1990 would live on average to the age of 68. One born in 2013 could expect to reach 76, beyond the age at which Confucius said “one can follow one’s heart’s desires—without crossing the line.” There is a large disparity between provinces, but the gap is narrowing. In Shanghai life expectancy is now 83—as good as Switzerland. People in six areas live longer than Americans. The most impressive progress has taken place in the most benighted regions: a child in Tibet born in 1990 had a life expectancy of 56, akin to one of the poorest African countries. This has risen to 70, roughly the same as Moldova, one of Europe’s poorer countries.

HT The Intrepreter

Finally, some national attention about the heroin epidemic

2015-11-03T09:47:00.003-05:00

Chris Christie Makes Emotional Plea To Rethink Drug Addiction ...
"Somehow, if it's heroin or cocaine or alcohol, we say, 'They decided it, they're getting what they deserved.'"
Posted by HuffPost Politics on Friday, October 30, 2015

Getting a little local today, but I was glad to see my hometown get a mention in a New York Times article about the growing problem of heroin in the US. It is the top issue for New Hampshire voters and Hillary Clinton stopped by a few months ago to participate in a forum on drugs here in Laconia. The room was filled with national press.

Reporters from NPR, Boston Globe and even Andrea Mitchell were milling about to interview people. The next day, reports focused on earlier comments Clinton made on the Democratic primary debate. At least one reporter was paying attention to the issue and the event:

New Hampshire is typical of the hardest-hit states. Last year, 325 people here died of opioid overdoses, a 68 percent increase from 2013. Potentially hundreds more deaths were averted by emergency medical workers, who last year administered naloxone, a medication that reverses the effects of opioid overdoses, in more than 1,900 cases.

Adding to the anxiety among parents, the state also ranks second to last, ahead only of Texas, in access to treatment programs; New Hampshire has about 100,000 people in need of treatment, state officials say, but the state’s publicly financed system can serve just 4 percent of them.

Since New Hampshire holds the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, residents have repeatedly raised the issue of heroin with the 2016 candidates.

Mrs. Clinton still recalls her surprise that the first question she was asked in April, at her first open meeting in New Hampshire as a candidate, was not about the economy or health care, but heroin. Last month, she laid out a $10 billion plan to combat and treat drug addiction over the next decade.

She has also led discussions on the topic around the country, including packed forums like the one in Laconia, N.H., where hundreds of politically engaged, mostly white middle-class men and women, stayed for two hours in a sweltering meeting hall to talk and listen. One woman told of the difficulties of getting her son into a good treatment program, and said he eventually took his own life. Another told Mrs. Clinton of the searing pain of losing her beloved son to heroin.

The story is important because it highlights the shift in ways that people are talking about addiction in drugs. When the crack epidemic struck, the policies honed in on jail sentences and the war on drugs. With heroin being a problem that strikes mostly white middle-class Americans, the solutions now focus on treatment for addicts, not jail.

But today, with heroin ravaging largely white communities in the Northeast and Midwest, and with violent crime largely down, the mood is more forgiving.

“Both the image and reality is that this is a white and often middle-class problem,” said Mr. Mauer of the Sentencing Project. “And appropriately so, we’re having a much broader conversation about prevention and treatment, and trying to be constructive in responding to this problem. This is good. I don’t think we should lock up white kids to show we’re being equal.”

So officers like Eric Adams, a white former undercover narcotics detective in Laconia, are finding new ways to respond. He is deployed full time now by the Police Department to reach out to people who have overdosed and help them get treatment.

“The way I look at addiction now is completely different,” Mr. Adams said. “I can’t tell you what changed inside of me, but these are people and they have a purpose in life and we can’t as law enforcement look at them any other way. They are committing crimes to feed their addiction, plain and simple. They need help.”

Often working with the police, rather than against them, parents are driving these kinds of individual conversions.

I was not aware of the gravity of the problem until moving here this summer. But seeing drug busts and young people dying from heroin overdoses in the past few months has brought the issue to the forefront. As the article points out, the candidates are responding. It may still not get a lot of attention, but this is a growing problem that I am willing to bet will get more attention during the presidential primaries and campaign.

The article and video at the top of Gov Chris Christie shows just how mush the conversation about addiction is changing.

This thing is not a silver bullet: cookstoves edition

2015-11-02T14:12:00.001-05:00

Because we as people like to over hype technical solutions, fads take off with plenty of fanfare that set up expectations well beyond what is possible. Cookstoves are a good example.

Indoor smoke inhalation is a major killer. Getting people who cook using open fires to change their methods can save a lot of lives and reduce illness. Enter the clean cookstove - an endeavor that dates back more than a half century. The idea is straightforward, come up with a device that does not give off much smoke, replace existing cooking methods with said device, et viola problem solved.

A recent piece by Marc Gunther in the Washington Post describes how the formula for suceess has not panned out as planned. He writes:

Of those 28 million cookstoves, only 8.2 million — the ones that run on electricity or burn liquid fuels including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), ethanol and biogas — meet the health guidelines for indoor emissions set by the WHO. The vast majority of the stoves burn wood, charcoal, animal dung or agricultural waste — and aren’t, therefore, nearly as healthy as promised. Although these cookstoves produce fewer emissions than open fires, burning biomass fuels in them still releases plenty of toxins. “As yet, no biomass stove in the world is clean enough to be truly health protective in household use,” says Kirk Smith, a professor of global environmental health at the University of California at Berkeley and the leading health researcher on cookstoves.

That’s not the only problem with the stoves. Some perform well in the lab but not in the field. Others crack or break under constant heat. The best cookstoves burning clean fuels won’t protect poor families from disease if those who use them continue to cook over open fires as well — which many do. “They’re not the big solution, unfortunately, that we thought they were going to be,” says Rema Hanna, a Harvard economist who led “Up in Smoke,”the most extensive field study to date on this subject. Perhaps more research could apprehend what actually works, but for now it makes no sense to “push more stoves into the world that people aren’t going to use.”

To be clear, cookstoves are not bad. Nor is the effort to come up with better ways for people to cook and not endanger their health. Anyone who has spent even a few seconds in an enclosed space while an open fire heats food knows just how overwhelming all the smoke can be.

It is a whole different matter when it comes to getting people to change habits and even pay for a new household item. Challenges include generating enough heat and change in flavor when there is less smoke. Gunther's piece is worth a read as it explains further the history of cookstoves and more of the struggles to get the widespread initiative to have lasting impact.

MSF continues pressing for accountability in Kunduz attack

2015-10-23T11:00:00.000-04:00

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is continuing to apply pressure on the United States to determine what happened when it bombed an MSF-run hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan this month. An OpEd from MSF USA executive director Jason Cone in the New York Times makes the case for an independent investigation.

Our call for an independent international investigation is not a political gesture, pursued solely because the United States was so prominently involved in the Kunduz attack. Just as our medical ethics and commitment to international humanitarian law mandate that we treat all wounded persons in a conflict zone — regardless of affiliation, race or religion, and regardless of how or why they were injured — our founding principles compel us to highlight encroachments on the medical facilities through which we deliver care. We have done so recently in Yemen, Syria, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and other places.

But if international humanitarian law is flouted, if violations on this scale can be dismissed as a “mistake,” “the fog of war” or even just “a terrible tragedy,” then all of our medical staff, projects and patients in conflict zones could be jeopardized.

In the case of Kunduz, it is not our responsibility to prove that the United States military violated the laws of war or its own rules of engagement. It is the responsibility of the party that destroyed a fully functioning hospital, with some 200 staff members and patients inside, to prove that it did not.

I find it hard not to see the case for an independent investigation made by Cone and MSF as compelling. At the very least, the families of the 22 people killed and MSF deserve to know what happened and for people to be held accountable. But, I am not holding my breath that the U.S. will condone such an investigation. The best bet is that the internal investigation is transparent and honest about its findings.

Does this Gates-commissioned cartoon criticize the foundation?

2015-10-23T09:13:00.001-04:00

Bill Gates shared a cartoon yesterday by Randall Munroe, better known as the genius behind XKCD. It marks World Polio Day by describing how close the world is to eradication and the fact that the solutions (aka vaccines) are already known. True to form, Munroe uses conversation between two characters to assail the tendency to overlook the obvious.

But does the character who continues to propose innovative solutions, many using new technologies, also serve as satire for Gates and his foundation? The drive for innovation is a leading criticisms of the Gates approach to global health.

Regardless, Gates is a fan of the comic writing, "anything that combines Randall and polio eradication is great in my book....I got a kick out of it and thought I'd share it with you."

What do you think? Even if it is not about Gates, it does a good job criticizing some of the worst tendencies in global health.

To see MDG shortcomings, look no further than Addis

2015-10-13T08:19:00.002-04:00

The distribution of income and wealth are aspects of economic progress that are most relevant to the MDGs. The widening gulf between the haves and have-nots in Ethiopia does not require a journalist or any analyst to leave Addis Ababa. The alarming increase in the number of beggars in the streets and the exodus of unemployed youth across deserts and high seas are sufficient to inform any observer interested in arriving at a balanced assessment. But such a story may not generate enough clicks in donor countries. It may also undercut the Western narrative of saviordom that’s driven by the aid-industrial complex.

That is J. Bonsa in Opride, an online site covering Ethopia and Africa. It is in response to recent reporting by the BBC holding up Ethiopia as an MDG success story - a place where many MDGs were achieved prior to 2015. Bonsa cuts through some of the claims that government programs succeeded, such as major reductions in birth rates. The desire to see Ethiopia, or anywhere, as a success story ultimately renders some analysts blind to major problems faced by the country, he argues.

It is also abundantly clear that there is a tacit understanding between the Ethiopian government and the donor agencies not to scrutinize Ethiopia’s record on MDGs to a required extent. Donors need a foreign aid success story. Besides, for fear of political backlash from the general public, Western leaders would not object to the success story lines. It is in this scheme of things that the Western media appear to be given the role of generating the “Ethiopia rising” or “Africa Rising” storylines to enhance the “feel good factor” in donor countries. The increasingly muzzled Ethiopian public can do little more than helplessly watching this drama being played out in the name of poverty reduction.

HT Mo Keita

SDG related humor: "The word 'sustainable' is unsustainable."

2015-10-08T08:20:00.001-04:00

The pace might be a bit faster over the next few years now that the sustainable development goals are around through 2030.

via XKCD

The terribly high rate of U.S. child gun deaths in one gif

2015-10-04T18:52:00.001-04:00

Guns kill too many kids in the U.S. The problem is stark when seeing how few countries have a higher fatality rate.

It is well-documented that firearm fatalities in the U.S. are far higher than other wealthy countries. The rate of 3.55 deaths per 100,000 people in 2013 is more than six times greater than our neighbor to the north, Canada (0.49 per 100,000). But it is the fact that the difference extends to children. In the gif below, you will see how all countries compare for 2013 firearm deaths for children between the ages of 5 and 14 years old. The second image removes all the countries that perform better than the U.S. The few that are left show just how poorly the U.S. performs.

The color grade throws things off a bit because countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Honduras are particularly dangerous for children. It may look like the U.S. is not all that much worse than Algeria. But if you go look at the data, visualized by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, you will see that the U.S. rate of 0.32 child deaths per 100,000 people is significantly higher than Libya (0.056), China (0.019), and Indonesia (0.029).

There is no way around the fact that gun deaths are a major problem in the United States. There are lessons to be learned from elsewhere. A piece published in Humanosphere last year goes deeper into comparing the U.S. and the world on gun deaths. It also features the example of Cali, Colombia, a city that managed to reduce its homicide rate through gun bans.

I will defer to the experts for the answers, but the gun violence must be addressed immediately. That status quo is not OK.

Good video explaining the #WormWars

2015-10-02T09:10:00.001-04:00

via Healthcare Triage

Map of the Day: The most common job held by migrants for each US state

2015-09-01T12:24:00.002-04:00

HT Duncan Green

Let's talk some more about the Worm Wars

2015-08-20T16:52:00.000-04:00

A fierce debate broke out on social media when a re-analysis of a landmark study on deworming raised major questions about the original research. Researchers said a study from western Kenya demonstrating that giving children deworming medication improved school attendance had flaws that inflated the actual impact. But there were also concerns with the re-analysis itself and whether it made incorrect changes to reach such a conclusion.

Barbs were thrown by journalists, academics, aid workers, and others on blogs and Twitter. I've spent the past few weeks speaking with the people involved in the research and debate to try and understand what happened and what this means for mass deworming campaigns.

That story should publish next week. However, I emerged from my cave of research to chat with Mark Goldberg about the Worm Wars, as they were dubbed, on his Global Dispatches Podcast. It is not entirely new information for those who are already familiar with the discussions, but it touches on some of the important aspects that should interest those of you just learning about the debate.

Our conversation treads lightly on parts of the story. My written piece, due out next week for Humanosphere, will go much further into the debate and its implications going forward. Have a listen:

Come out to MIT for a panel on innovation and development I am moderating

2015-03-10T17:36:00.001-04:00

I am dusting off the blog to promote an event I am moderating this week at MIT. It should be an interesting conversation about efforts to actually evaluate innovations and see how well they work. Details below and sign up here.

Finding What Works in Global Development

Where: The Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation at MIT - E14-674, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - 75 Amherst Street - Cambridge, MA 02139
When: Thursday, March 12, 2015 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)

Description: When a person lives on less than $2 a day — as some 2.7 billion people around the world do — there isn’t room for a product like a solar lantern or a water filter to fail.

It’s a challenge development agencies, NGOs, and consumers themselves face every day: With so many products on the market, how do you choose the right one?

Join us for a panel on the growing need for product evaluation in global development. Panelists will share insights from their work with MIT’s Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE), which released its first-ever report evaluating solar lanterns this spring.

Refreshments will be served.

The Panel

David Ferguson, Director of the Center for Development Innovation at USAID
Jarrod Goentzel, CITE Scalability Research Lead & Director of the MIT Humanitarian Response Lab
Jennifer Green, CITE Sustainability Research Lead & Research Scientist at the MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center
Dan Frey, CITE Suitability Research Lead and Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Amit Gandhi, CITE Research Assistant and MIT Doctoral Candidate in Mechanical Engineering

Introductions: Bishwapriya Sanyal, CITE Director & MIT Professor of Urban Development and Planning

Special Moderator: Tom Murphy, Global Development Reporter at Humanosphere & Founder of A View from the Cave

Map of the day: the rise of military spending in Africa

2014-12-22T11:03:00.002-05:00

Global military spending is on the decline (largely thanks to the massive US budget falling). While spending in Europe flat-lined and the US goes down, the rest of the world is spending more each year. The map from the Economist shows changes in spending in African countries over the past decade.

I will allow smarter people than I to analyze what is happening and what it means. There are a few unexpected countries that are dark, at least to me.

Should I still support/watch the NFL?

2014-12-19T14:33:00.002-05:00

Andrew Forbes explains why he gave up on the NFL this year. This essay captures a lot of my feelings about the state of NFL and football as a sport. I have not forsaken it quite yet, but draw closer.

It’s a small, unimportant thing, the game of football, but for a long, long time, it was a large part of my life. Which inherently means that this exercise has been an inquiry into self, too; an effort to eliminate something dear from my life and gauge the results of its absence. Piecemeal self-negation, if you will. A slow removal of certain Jenga blocks in order to see how many can be taken away before I topple altogether.

But maybe it’s even more than that. Maybe I’m asking the question: Is it right for me to watch the NFL? Maybe it’s just reassuring to know that it’s okay to ask such questions.

There is no clear answer here, and that doesn’t much concern me; some things can’t or shouldn’t be clear, or definite. I can’t adequately define love, but I couldn’t live in a universe devoid of it. Perhaps the point of such self-inquiry is to silently arrive at greater awareness, and then to assimilate that knowledge without proselytizing to our fellow citizens. For each of us to arrive at these things independently, in our own private darknesses. I guess that’s possible. If so, I have to accept the possibility that by broadcasting my journey into self-discovery here, you might deem my inquiry to have been a futile one.

And that’s fine by me.

Weigh in: UNICEF's South Sudan campaign and videogamers

2014-12-15T22:50:00.000-05:00

UNICEF has a new campaign video showing it presenting a "game" about a South Sudanese refugee girl at a big gamer conference. People get upset, some walk out and new people learn about the hardship faced by people displaced due to conflict. It is an interesting idea, but does it work? My feelings are mixed, but take a look and tweet at me (@viewfromthecave) with your thoughts.

Provocative visuals touch on the humanitarian sector

2014-12-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

A series of rather provocative images by Spanish artist Luis Quiles were recently featured on Elite Daily (a new site to me, too). They offer various social commentary, with a fair bit of sexuality in many of the prints. Two of the ones highlighted stood out for crossing over into depictions of Africa. Here they are and the accompanying descriptions from Quiles:

Do not give me a holy book give me a holy sandwich

This work is a critic about religious establishment who use religion all around they find misery to get more believers. This people don't need a holy book, don't need a fake God, don't need a fake hope. This people need a real hope, a real education, they need schools, FOOD, medicines, preservatives...They need a real future, not a fake truth.

Kid soldier (no description included)