Responses to memorials from the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade. ; "Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty" --t.p. ; Responses to memorials from the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade. ; Mode of access: Internet.
Opium poppies are a major source of traditional drugs, which are not only harmful to physical and mental health, but also threaten the economy and society. Monitoring poppy cultivation in key regions through remote sensing is therefore a crucial task ; the location coordinates of poppy parcels represent particularly important information for their eradication by local governments. We propose a new methodology based on deep learning target detection to identify the location of poppy parcels and map their spatial distribution. We first make six training datasets with different band combinations and slide window sizes using two ZiYuan3 (ZY3) remote sensing images and separately train the single shot multibox detector (SSD) model. Then, we choose the best model and test its performance using 225 km2 verification images from Lao People&rsquo ; s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), which exhibits a precision of 95% for a recall of 85%. The speed of our method is 4.5 km2/s on 1080TI Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). This study is the first attempt to monitor opium poppies with the deep learning method and achieve a high recognition rate. Our method does not require manual feature extraction and provides an alternative way to rapidly obtain the exact location coordinates of opium poppy cultivation patches.
Cultivation and production of opium in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since the Taliban were toppled in 2001such that Afghanistan now supplies 92 percent of the world's illicit opium. The expanding opium trade is threatening to destabilize the Afghan government and turn the conflict-ridden country back into a safe haven for drug traffickers and terrorists. This paper examines the nature of the opium problem in Afghanistan and analyzes the allied strategy to counter this growing crisis. In analyzing the current counternarcotics strategy, it points out pitfalls including the counterproductive aspects of opium eradication. Finally, changes to the strategy are proposed, which include increasing troop levels and eliminating national restrictions, substantially increasing financial aid, deemphasizing opium eradication, focusing on long-term alternative livelihoods, aggressively pursuing drug kingpins and corrupt government officials, and exploring the possibility of Afghanistan's entry to the licit opium market. ; "October 2007." ; Includes bibliographical references (p. 14-18). ; Background -- Afghanistan's opium economy -- Problems with Afghanistan's opium economy -- Renewed Taliban/insurgency -- Current counternarcotics strategy -- Problems with current counternarcotics strategy -- Recommendations -- Conclusion. ; Cultivation and production of opium in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since the Taliban were toppled in 2001such that Afghanistan now supplies 92 percent of the world's illicit opium. The expanding opium trade is threatening to destabilize the Afghan government and turn the conflict-ridden country back into a safe haven for drug traffickers and terrorists. This paper examines the nature of the opium problem in Afghanistan and analyzes the allied strategy to counter this growing crisis. In analyzing the current counternarcotics strategy, it points out pitfalls including the counterproductive aspects of opium eradication. Finally, changes to the strategy are proposed, which include increasing troop levels and eliminating national restrictions, substantially increasing financial aid, deemphasizing opium eradication, focusing on long-term alternative livelihoods, aggressively pursuing drug kingpins and corrupt government officials, and exploring the possibility of Afghanistan's entry to the licit opium market. ; Mode of access: Internet.
This qualitative research aims to describe the Chinese Government's effort to resolve opium trafficking through the Opium Substitution Program in North Myanmar from 2005 to 2010. The author perceives the problem of opium trafficking on the border of China and Myanmar has influenced the Chinese Government to make an effort through the implementation of alternative development models which is applied to the opium substitution program. The opium substitution program is implemented through bilateral cooperation in Shan and Kachin areas of Northern Myanmar. The author finds that the opium substitution program is a sustainable long-term program with the aim of building local people's economy in the territory of North Myanmar that is adjusted to the social, cultural, and economic characteristics of local communities. Opium substitution program has been implemented by the Chinese Government through the provision of training and agricultural assistance for former opium farmers, as well as the implementation of agricultural investment schemes in North Myanmar. Key words: opium trafficking, bilateral cooperation, alternative development, opium substitution program.
The objective of this article, which focuses on the Hall of Opium in Chiang Rai, is to analyze the different modes in which opium and its use may be presented to the public, and to explore in particular its overlapping socio-cultural and political dimensions. The study shows that this museum has sought to reconstruct the meaning of opium by creating a historical discourse that stresses the evolutionary changes in perceptions of opium from medical to narcotic usage. Simultaneously, the relationship between the history of opium and the politics of its production and distribution is presented in an integrated way in the exhibition. The Opium War in China and the history of opium in Thailand are used as examples to illustrate the change from legal to illegal status. The Hall of Opium was established with the aim of promoting tourism in Chiang Rai province. This form of cultural production of tourism makes an important contribution to the development of capitalism and to the modernization of Thai society. However, the museum's emphasis on the harmful effects of opium as a narcotic has the effect of undermining the real history of opium as an important tool in political conflict and in the nation-building legend of the peoples of the Golden Triangle.
CONTENT: Prescription using Ammonii, Opii & Camphor & Menthae Piperitae [peppermint] perhaps as a carminative. BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY: The Day Family were anglo Indian traders, on the Navajo Reservation in eastern Arizona. The collection includes the personal and business papers of Sam Day, Sr. (1845-1925) surveyor, Indian trader, legislator and United States Indian Commissioner; Anna Day, Sam Sr.'s wife (1872-1932); and of their children, Charles L. Day (1879-1918), Samuel Day, Jr. (1889-1944), United States deputy Marshall. The collection includes information on Navajo culture, stories and legends; the looting of Canyon del Muerta, and the Frank Dugan murder. The collection also contains 91 photographs depicting trading posts and eastern Arizona scenes.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the colonial authority turned 4 ports namelyMakassar, Ambon, Banda and Menado to become "free ports" while another, Timor-Kupang, an"international port." In the same period, opium imported from Bengal, Manila, and areas in India,became one of the most sought after commodities in Southeast Asia and especially in the DucthIndies. This paper discusses the opium trade in the five ports in the eastern part of what is nowIndonesia, between 1850-1870. The export and import data show that opium was highly soughtafter like a primary commodities (such as rice and textile). The farming system for opium traderegulated by the colonial government was dominated by Chinese traders.
This paper compares two of history's largest producers of opium - Afghanistan (2000-11) and China (1917-35) - to suggest that in both cases production was facilitated by: (1) A lack of central control over the national territory; (2) The existence of local power-holders; (3) Internal violent conflict; (4) The existence of a significant domestic opium consuming population. The initial analysis is extended by introducing a successful opium production suppression intervention, The People's Republic of China (1950s/1960s), to suggest that the control of opium in contemporary Afghanistan requires the Government to: (1) Extend the state into isolated and hostile areas; (2) Facilitate a sense of selfinterest in the Afghan Government and political elite towards opium suppression; (3) Facilitate a perception that suppression benefits opium farmers; (4) Strengthen the capacity to monitor opium farmers and enforce the law.
This paper reviews the history of counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan from 1950 to the present. Each chapter will specifically examine a program or strategy used to suppress the cultivation of opium. It will then derive both the successes and failures of each moment in history. Using these lessons, the essay will lastly examine saffron as an alternative to opium. Though saffron has a high start-up cost and sizeable time investment, as the essay argues, these costs are actually worth it. Moreover, that these costs are most likely to be fulled in areas cultivating opium as poverty is at its lowest in these provinces.
We show that the recent rise in Afghan opium production is caused by violent conflicts. Violence destroys roads and irrigation, crucial to alternative crops, and weakens local incentives to rebuild infrastructure and enforce law and order. Exploiting a unique data set, we show that Western hostile casualties, our proxy for conflict, have strong impact on subsequent local opium production. This proxy is shown to be exogenous to opium. We exploit the discontinuity at the end of the planting season: Conflicts have strong effects before and no effect after planting, assuring causality. Effects are strongest where government law enforcement is weak.
We show that the recent rise in Afghan opium production is caused by violent conflicts. Violence destroys roads and irrigation, crucial to alternative crops, and weakens local incentives to rebuild infrastructure and enforce law and order. Exploiting a unique data set, we show that Western hostile casualties, our proxy for conflict, have strong impact on subsequent local opium production. This proxy is shown to be exogenous to opium. We exploit the discontinuity at the end of the planting season: Conflicts have strong effects before and no effect after planting, assuring causality. Effects are strongest where government law enforcement is weak.
The United Nations O ce on Drugs and Crime and the US Government make extensive use of remote sensing to quantify and monitor trends in Afghanistans illicit opium production. Cultivation gures from their independent annual surveys can vary because of systematic di erences in survey methodologies relating to spectral strati cation and the addition of a pixel bu er to the agricultural area. We investigated the e ect of strati cation and bu ering on area estimates of opium poppy using SPOT5 imagery covering the main opium cultivation area of Helmand province and sample data of poppy elds interpreted from very high resolution satellite imagery. The e ect of resolution was investigated by resampling the original 10 m pixels to 20, 30 and 60 m, representing the range of available imagery. The number of strata (1, 4, 8, 13, 23, 40) and sample fraction (0.2 to 2%) used in the estimate were also investigated. Strati cation reduced the con dence interval by improving the precision of estimates. Cultivation estimates of poppy using 40 spectral strata and a sample fraction of 1.1% had a similar precision to direct expansion estimates using a 2% sample fraction. Strati ed estimates were more robust to changes in sample size and distribution. The mapping of the agricultural area had a signi cant e ect on poppy cultivation estimates in Afghanistan, where the area of total agricultural production can vary signi cantly between years. The ndings of this research explain di erences in cultivation gures of the opium monitoring programmes in Afghanistan and recommendations can be applied to improve resource monitoring in other geographic areas.
The Golden Crescent region of South Asia—comprising Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan—is a principal global site for opium production and distribution. Over the past few decades, war, terrorism, and a shifting political landscape have facilitated an active heroin trade throughout the region. Protracted conflict has exacerbated already dire socio-economic conditions and political strife within the region and contributed to a consequent rise in opiate trafficking and addiction among the region's inhabitants. The worsening epidemic of injection drug use has paralleled the rising incidence of HIV and other blood-borne infections in the region and drawn attention to the broader implications of the growing opiate trade in the Golden Crescent. The first step in addressing drug use is to recognize that it is not a character flaw but a form of mental illness, hence warranting humane treatment of drug users. It is also recommended that the governments of the Golden Crescent countries encourage substitution of opium with licit crops and raise awareness among the general public about the perils of opium use.
Yoko Tawada exponiert auf phantastisch poetischer wie auch gesellschaftskritischer Ebene den Zusammenhang von Körperbildern und Identitätskonstruktionen und ihr Wirken in und auf politische Handlungskonzepte. In der Arbeit wird untersucht, inwiefern Tawadas Postulat der Tradition eines der Psychoanalyse entlehnten Diskurses des Weiblichen Rechnung trägt. Julia Kristevas Die Revolution der poetischen Sprache und Luce Irigarays Speculum stellen dabei die theoretischen Grundlagen dar, wobei diesen die Thesen Jacques Lacans und Sigmund Freuds diesem Fundament voran gestellt werden. Kernpunkte der Analyse sind ausgewählte weibliche Figuren in Opium für Ovid und das triadisch konstruierte Figurengerüst im Kurzroman Das Bad. Die darin demonstrierte Prozesshaftigkeit und collagenartige Zusammensetzung weiblicher Kongruenzen repräsentiert ein hierarchisches Geschlechterverhältnis, das von Fremdbestimmungen geprägt ist. Die Identitätsbildungsprozesse außereuropäischer Frauen werden von Sozialisations- und Akkulturationserfahrungen bestimmt, die durch männlich orientierte Kultursysteme unterminiert und manipuliert werden. Weibliche Subjektidentität wird durch Körper und Körperhaftigkeit bestimmt, das exotisierte und bedrohliche, weibliche Subjekt wird als das das männliche Subjekt spiegelnde Andere konstruiert. In Hinblick auf Lacans Theorie des Spiegelstadiums knüpft hier der psychoanalytische Diskurs an Tawadas Konzept der weiblichen Identitätsfindung an. Die weibliche Identität im geschlechtlichen Schwellenraum, in der Beziehung zur Mutter, im kulturellen Spannungsfeld, als das dem Mann gegenüberstehenden, mangelhafte Andere inszeniert Tawada mit einem hohen Maß an Körperhaftigkeit und Selbstreflexivität. Der skizzierte Identitätsentwurf steht im Zeichen der Verwandlung, dabei ist die Frau, die Weiblichkeit, im Sinne Luce Irigarays nie eins, sie hat unzählige Schichten, die sie ablegt, verwandelt und wieder aufnimmt ? und die sie alle in sich vereint. ; This thesis is an attempt to investigate the representation of japanese and german writer Yoko Tawada?s concept of the (female) body and it?s construction in the gender discourse, and furthermore to detect to what extent her methods connect with the psychoanalytical idea of language and womenhood. Based on Julia Kristeva?s book Die Revolution der poetischen Sprache and Luce Irigaray?s Speculum, Tawada?s texts are scanned for signs of heteronomy and hierachy of power, aside from mechanisms of manipulation in speech and speech acquisition by a dominating male subject.In addition Jaqcues Lacan?s studies about the mirror stage and Sigmund Freuds understandig of the unknown and the surpressed (femininity) function as the theoretical basis of the proposed master?s thesis. Especially in her books Das Bad and Opium für Ovid Tawada designs a female identity, mobile and capable of multiple shapes, who is constantly challenged by physical changes whilst growing up and growing old and who copes with this changes by transforming into another person, changing the own sex or turning into an animal. The female protagonists are always foreigners, they explore and perform their own identities while trying to escape the stereotype of the exotic femme fatal. By illustrating the female as a mirror for patriachal prejudices Tawada reveals the otherness of the female body and language, as an embodiment of the fundamental opposite the female finds herself being designed by cultural and sexual images she can never life up to, where there is no space for flaws, variance or the in-between.In her surrealistic novels Tawada portrays the woman as permanently in process and shows that ? already expressed by Luce Irigaray ? the female never can be one in itself, it shows many different layers, which were created by a society dominated by men throughout a history of colonialism and discrimination. ; vorgelegt Catherine Therese Nicholls ; Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des Verfassers ; Zsfassung in dt. und engl. Sprache ; Graz, Univ., Masterarb., 2012 ; (VLID)222360
During most of the period from 1912 to 1936, Guangdong Province was independent from the central government. The local authorities there were facing a dilemma regarding opium, as others were elsewhere in China. On the one hand, opium was considered the symbol of China's weakness, and its suppression was a top priority; on the other hand, opium taxes represented an indispensable source of fiscal income. Some Guangdong power holders were truly committed to a suppression agenda, especially from 1913 to 1924. During this period, with the exception of a brief interlude from 1915 to 1916, opium laws were prohibition laws. Even if these laws were not always enforced with full vigor, the drug remained illegal in Guangdong. After 1924, opium was legalized, and the authorities openly ruled an opium monopoly. They came out with increasingly comprehensive regulations, which proved successful in increasing opium revenues. Yet, as this article makes clear, there was nothing like direct government control: traditional tax-farming arrangements with local opium merchants (though under stricter supervision) remained the backbone of the monopoly. The article also pays attention to the influence of the Six-Year Plan (1935–1940) launched by the Nanking government. As a credible set of suppression laws, it appealed to the Guangdong progressive elites who were hostile to opium. They urged the local autocrat Chen Jitang to take similar action. Chen made attempts to launch his own plans for suppressing opium, but they were unconvincing and nothing concrete came out of them. This article suggests that, in order to obtain a better understanding of how easily Chen Jitang was driven out of power in the summer of 1936, it is necessary to take into account the significant contribution of the Six-Year Plan in undermining his legitimacy.