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Manumitany100 karma

In addition to /u/yankee-white 's list:

  • Eritrea in 1993, independence from Ethiopia.
  • Namibia in 1990, independence from South Africa.
  • Depending on interpretation, Cambodia breaking free from Vietnamese control.
  • Montenegro in 2003.
  • Slovakia in 1993 (dissolution of Czechoslovakia).
  • Montenegro perhaps is the tail end of the breakup of Yugoslavia, but you've also got Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and FYROM (Macedonia, or whatever they've compromised with Greece on calling themselves these days).

I think you've already recognized that many countries were formed in the wake of the Soviet Union breaking up, but also consider that the entire process of decolonization occurred post-WWII. That's something like 75% of the nations of the world -- nearly all of Africa, India and Pakistan theirselves, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines, and so on and so forth.

Then you've also got some edge cases, like Kosovo, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Kurdistan, the formation and subsequent break-up of the United Arab Republic, the Marshall Islands, Western Sahara, Palestine, etc.

And while not directly responsive to "secessionist" movements, the identity of states is also clearly not as constant as you think when it comes to examples like East and West Germany uniting, or the two Yemens uniting, and so on.

International relations are not completely based upon hard power. Soft power -- negotiation, compromise, political pressure both from other states and from civic organizations, and so on do a lot more work than many people realize.

EDIT: Let's craft one pretty plausible hypothetical about why India might want to let Kashmir go. China is a rising power in Asia. It may quickly turn aggressive if U.S. power or willingness to be engaged in foreign conflict wanes even further. India has a historically strong relationship with Russia, but Russia is more or less on friendly terms with China -- or in any event is not a likely partner in balancing China's power. Indian leadership, as the most populous proximate nation, as a counter to Chinese power is entirely possible in the next 50 years -- India may want to resolve hostile relations with its neighbor Pakistan, which could face the same threat of China and would serve as an effective ally to preventing complete domination by China.

Manumitany79 karma

You should link to your campaign website! I googled it, and here it is for others in case some rule prevents you from doing so: https://www.joneswrightforda.com/

On your website, you discuss a culture of political retaliation in the current DA's office..

A change in policy at the top is valuable and welcome, but it can stumble in the implementation -- you won't be able to inspect every single decision that your individual prosecutors make, for example. From my own experience, being an agent of change can be extremely difficult when faced with an entrenched culture that sees nothing wrong with what it does, or has decided that that is "just how it works." From a managerial standpoint, how will you go about trying to bring change to an office that is in such a state? Have you faced this sort of challenge before, and how did you deal with it?

Manumitany65 karma

Bear in mind they were smaller books (though excellent by all means!) Less than 200 pages, all of them, I think... and fewer words per page than in some other mass-market paperbacks.

Average Animorphs book had 22-25 lines of text (27 total, but partial lines at ends of paragraphs brings down average) per page, about 8-10 words per line. So about 200 words per page.

The books at the height of the series - when they were coming out every month, you know - were 150-170 pages. And each chapter dropped half a page of words for the title, plus the previous chapter usually dropped half a page as well. I think # of chapters was in the high-teens? So deduct 15 pages, you're looking at 135-155 pages overall. 27-31k words per book would be my estimate. Still seems high, though, so I'd probably figure on the low end of that. So, around 27k words per book.

At three weeks per book, that's 9k words per week. If she wrote daily, that's only about 1,300 words per day. Of course there are days off... but even just assuming a 40-hour writing week, you've got 120 hours in three weeks. To hit 27k words, that's just 225 words per hour, which is about half of a double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman, letter-sized paged. Not sure if Katherine (is it okay to call you by your first name? :) did all her own copyediting, but I'm guessing she gave Scholastic a raw manuscript that they copyedited and typeset, so things didn't have to be absolutely perfect.

In other words, biyabo... take heart, it's do-able!

By the way, K.A., I'm curious as to how your contracts were based - payment per word? Per book? Royalty-based, at all? I understand if any of that is confidential. How accurate are my estimates above? Thinking of reading your books in elementary school brought me back to the other things I learned... like how to estimate how many pieces of candy are in a jar, for example (winner gets all the candy, woooohooo!)

Manumitany29 karma

Another useful explanation would be to discuss some of the principles of command responsibility. If soldiers under command commit war crimes, that does not automatically mean that the commander or political leader is responsible.

If the commander is not directing the actions (which would be aiding-and-abetting liability for the commander), and takes appropriate steps within their authority to prevent atrocities when possible, and to discipline their own soldiers that perpetrate war crimes, then the commander is not going to be held criminally responsible for the war crime.

Manumitany25 karma

Dear COOKIE MONSTER,

There is big fight over SANDWICH: what is sandwich? What is not sandwich?

Can COOKIE SANDWICH solve problem, bring peace to world?