{"id":125,"date":"2012-04-18T22:16:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T22:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=125"},"modified":"2013-09-18T22:16:33","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T22:16:33","slug":"mag-helps-civilians-reclaim-their-fields-in-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/?p=125","title":{"rendered":"MAG Helps Civilians Reclaim Their Fields in Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAG Helps Civilians Reclaim Their Fields in Vietnam<\/strong><\/p>\n

MAG (Mines Advisory Group), a non-political Nobel-Prize winning organization, has been clearing unexploded ordnance left from the Vietnam War (what SE Asians call the \u201cAmerican War\u201d) for a dozen years.\u00a0 Since the cessation of hostilities in 1974, more than 100,000 innocent Vietnamese people, about half of whom are children, have been killed or injured by leftover bomblets (small cluster bombs spread by the hundreds by larger casing-shells that \u201ccarpet-bomb\u201d acres at a time). \u00a0 About 30% of these bomblets (some 30,000,000 bomblets!) did not explode upon impact and now lay dormant in the soil – until they are hit by a plow or found by a metal recycler, or a child.\u00a0 In small Quang Nam Province alone, over 1,000 people have been killed or maimed since 2004 by these bomblets.\u00a0 The innocent lives lost, the real impact on how one can farm or develop, and the pervasive fear that permeates daily family life are all unintended consequences of decisions made two generations ago.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A MAG team digs for a metal item that set off the metal detector in a gridded field next to a village as a child passes by.<\/p><\/div>\n

Clearing farmland to increase field-size, putting in a new water line, excavating to build a home or road or school – these desired community improvements are made far more complicated because of the risk to life and machinery.\u00a0 Such dangers significantly impact daily life and economic progress in much of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.<\/p>\n

Clearing the UXOs is dangerous, tedious and expensive.\u00a0 Metal detector-trained technicians (with two on-site medical personnel per team – in case one is injured) are required to search every square foot of soil with detectors – up to 10 meters deep, thanks to soft soils and wartime cratering.\u00a0 The cost for such clearance is well beyond what any village can afford – thousands of dollars per acre.\u00a0 Organization like MAG are essential for training, organizing and clearing, as well as educating locals about what to do when such an object is found (kids are particularly attracted to some of the small, colorful, ball-shaped explosives).\u00a0 In the twelve years that MAG has been involved in Vietnam, they have cleared over 167,000 UXOs, 2500 land mines, and decontaminated 7.5 square km of land for farms and development. At that rate, it will still take over 100 years to complete the task.<\/p>\n

Learn more about MAG\u2019s Vietnam effort in MAG\u2019s Spring newsletter, found at:\u00a0www.maginternational.org\/silo\/files\/spring-2012-newsletter–focus-on-vietnam.pdf<\/p>\n

Information about MAG\u2019s efforts around the world can be found at: www.maginternational.org<\/a>.\u00a0 Donations, of course, are tax-deductible.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAG Helps Civilians Reclaim Their Fields in Vietnam MAG (Mines Advisory Group), a non-political Nobel-Prize winning organization, has been clearing unexploded ordnance left from the Vietnam War (what SE Asians call the \u201cAmerican War\u201d) for a dozen years.\u00a0 Since the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hilltribeart.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}