Thank you all for coming today, my name is ******** and my topic is landmines. The reason that I chose this topic for my dude that’s wrong project is that my grandfather was a specialized bomb-removal worker in world war two. He was injured diffusing a landmine in France and had to go to a special hospital in England. He lived, though he was never the same again, and ended up dieing a couple of years before I was born. So, I chose my question to be how can we clean up the damage inflicted by un-detonated landmines in countries around the world?
2.
My research process was a little bit rough, however I managed to accumulate a perfect amount of research. I used a television show, a newspaper article, and quite a few websites for my research. I also contacted three different organizations that deal with the problems of landmines. I had a very tough time getting credible sources and I always had to double-check all of my sources. This was because most websites about landmines are a personal website that an individual owns, and the information often did not match up with other sites. Also many experts that are army based, not in the organizations do not release numbers about landmines because in the past a lot of landmines have been laid by the USA. IF the US army released numbers it could possibly tarnish or ruin its reputation as the people who swoop in and help, not destroy.
3.
What is a landmine? A landmine is an explosive device that can be implanted in or above the ground or the sea. It is very cheap to buy and very expensive to clear. According to Unicef, the cost of buying a common landmine is 3-30 dollars but the cost to clear it is $300-3,000. A landmine is usually detonated by a certain amount of pressure applied to it. A trip wire or a remote controller can also detonate a landmine. A landmine can be the bounding type, which jumps to about shoulder or head level, and then it explodes.
Inside of a landmine there is a plate that is held up by springs, called the pressure plate. This plate when stepped on is pushed down, and this pushes the firing pin into the detonator, which sparks and ignites the main charge. In bounding mine the flame goes to a charge that make it bound, then the delay charge in the main charge times out and it explodes.
4. The obvious problem with landmines is that they are “Hidden Killers” meaning that you do not know what has hit you until you are severely hurt or killed. Unfortunately landmines are easy to deploy. A popular way of distributing landmines is by helicopter or plane, in which the mines are dropped and they implant themselves into the soil. So that they don’t explode, they can be programmed to explode once armed by a remote control or manually. Most of the mines lain will not be kept track of because nobody has the time to keep track of the exact coordinates of landmines in a time of war. Because these landmines coordinates are unknown, it instills a culture of fear and uncertainty for the people that live there. This graph shows the number of landmines that infest a single square mile. These numbers are from the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs. These are shocking numbers, and that is the reason I chose to make a graph out of these numbers. Just think about it, roughly 10 roughly Menlo School and Menlo College Campuses is about a square mile. And on that square mile, in Cambodia’s case, 143 landmines could be anywhere within the limits of that mile. This can amount to almost 100 lives lost, if you consider that not many will survive the explosion and fewer will survive the aftermath of the explosion. That is the reason that I chose to show these numbers, is that they are so great. If someone steps on the landmine that person is subject to many diseases such as nasty and life-threatening infections that can be caught through an open wound. Most landmine survivors lose one or two legs. If that victim is a child, the likely hood of them getting a prosthetic is very low because they will keep growing and no prosthetic will fit for more than a couple of months. Many of the cultures that these landmines exist in a disabled person are usually considered a burden on the community; this can lead to depression and suicide in some cases. If the breadwinner dies the family is usually left dirt poor. The children will sometimes result to a life of crime and stealing.
6. There are many solutions to find and detonate landmines. Some are rollers and plows that can be put onto tanks or trucks that will either detonate or expose landmines. There are also special machines designed to detonate the landmine such as the Aardvark tank. This tank has chains attached to an axel that strike the ground and rip through it, detonating any landmine in its path. There is an also a machine called the Vulcan shoots a concentrated stream of white-hot magnesium into the landmine, which will melt the main charge and deactivate it.
7. There is also a huge unsolved problem called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is caused by an extremely dangerous situation, such as a landmine accident. The symptoms of PTSD are phobias of certain places or situations or people, recurring nightmares or flashbacks of the event, sleep problems, trouble concentrating, irritability, anger, poor concentration, difficulty remembering things, and severe anxiety. Many organizations can focus on the mental issues that landmine victims are subject to such as the ever-lasting fear, but they never focus on the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
8. These are all great solutions for clearing the landmines, however there is no solution to how we are going help the mental damage already inflicted by landmines. I will call organizations such as UNICEF and the JMU mine action center and have them focus on these needs. Hopefully I will be able to rally them to this cause and get the people that need help, help. I have also set up a website full of information to inform people about this problem, and hopefully people will join me in this cause. I will now accept any questions you have about this topic.
