Taliban crack down against Valentine’s Day in Kabul

Online News EditorFebruary 14, 2022

 

Kabul, Feb 14 (EFE).- The Taliban security forces on Monday forced markets in Kabul to shut down and destroyed some shops which had been decorated to mark the Valentine’s day, which the regime considers to be against Islam and Afghan traditions.

“Today we prepared our shops inside the market for Valentine’s Day to attract customers and the day started with a rush of couples and youth, but the Taliban security forces came and closed the main gate our market,” Naseeb, a shopkeeper at the capital’s Park shopping mall, told EFE.

Several members of the all-powerful ministry of propagation of virtue and prevention of vice also visited Koche Golfroshi, the main market selling gifts, artificial flowers and Afghan clothes in Kabul, to warn the traders to not mark Valentine’s Day.

“Today morning a member of the ministry of propagation of virtue and prevention of vice visited all the shops and told us to not follow this prohibited culture which is imposed by foreign countries,” a shopkeeper at the market told EFE on the condition of anonymity.

The security forces of the Taliban government also destroyed some decorated shops in the Kart-e-Se area, and blocked access to it for Afghan citizens who wanted to buy presents or do special shopping for the day of love.

A Taliban security official was deployed to keep the main door of the Park mall, who told EFE that “In the morning a lot of rash girls come without veils for celebrating this haram and banned day,” so “we come here to not allow people inside the market.”

However, some youth argued that Valentine’s Day was an occasion to celebrate the happiness in life and express mutual love between lovers, and did not go against Islamic values or Afghan culture.

“This is only a motive to celebrate the happiness of life, and show our love to each other and make ourselves happy, which does not mean we are adding something to our religious and culture”, Pari, a young Afghan woman, told EFE outside the closed door of the Park shopping complex.

Although Valentine’s Day is not part of the Islamic calendar or Afghan culture, during the rule of the recently-ousted government it was celebrated normally in Afghanistan.

This year, the first day of love since the Taliban seized power in mid-August was celebrated in Kabul despite being disrupted in parts. EFE

lk-mvg/ia

Pakistani Islamists hold ‘modesty day’ to counter Valentine’s celebrations

Online News Editor February 14, 2022

 

Islamabad, Feb 14 (EFE).- Pakistani Islamist groups on Monday celebrated a conservative “Modesty Day” to counter Valentine’s Day, a festival which they oppose as a “western propaganda,” although it refuses to go away in a country whose name literally means “land of the pure.”

The largest religious political group on the country, Jamaat-e-Islami, and its unofficial student wing Islami Jamiat Talaba (students’ unions are banned in the country), held events in schools and universities across the country to dissuade the youth from celebrating the day of love.

“Islam is the religion of Haya (modesty) and we, being Muslims, reject all other ideas that contradict the idea,” Niaz Ahmed, a spokesperson of the IJT, told EFE.

He said that thousands of students participated in programs ranging from marches to seminars in different cities across Pakistan.

Ahmed said that other students’ groups had also joined events linked to the Modesty Day, created by the IJT years ago, adding that elders also needed to come together to stop “western propaganda like the Valentine’s Day.”

“Muslim students must be conscious and proactive to preserve the tenets of Islam, and alien ideas of liberality of the West must be thwarted,” he added.

The spokesperson said that Modesty Day participants paid tribute to the Indian Muslim student, Muskan Khan, who recently faced off a mob of Hindu students opposing her for wearing the hijab by shouting “Allah-o-akbar” (Allah is great), amid a controversy over wearing the Islamic veil in Indian educational institutions which has ended up in courts.

“On this Day, we pay salute to Muskan Khan, who demonstrated that modesty is the ultimate strength of Muslims,” Niaz said.

Secular activists have opposed such religious campaigns, with counter-protests such as the one organized by human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud in 2013.

However, Mahmud was assassinated two years later precisely for this initiative, according to the confession of one of the accused. EFE

aa-daa/ia

TO COUNTER THIS SEE THE WRITINGS OF A SUFI MASTER

“Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.”

― Omar Khayyám, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

https://www.poetspress.org/archives/Roycroft-Omar-Khayyam.pdf

Flee animation documentary humanizes refugee crisis

Online News EditorFebruary 17, 2022

 

Madrid, Feb 17 (EFE).- Nine years ago, when Danish director Jonas Poher Rasmussen finally convinced his Afghan friend Amin Nawabi to make a record of his life in a documentary, he could never have imagined it would be nominated for three Oscars.

The animated documentary Flee, which delves deep into Nawabi’s personal life story, his past and his escape from Afghanistan, has been nominated for Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Animated Feature.

It is the first time a documentary of its kind has been nominated in all three categories.

“It’s crazy because it is really something that grew up from a conversation with a friend of mine nine years ago and at the beginning we thought it could be a short animated documentary and since it’s just been growing and growing and to suddenly stand here with three Oscar nominations, we had never seen that coming, it is really amazing and surprising and surreal,” Rasmussen tells Efe.

The director, who grew up in a small Danish town, met Amin when he first arrived in Denmark some 25 years ago.

“Already back then I was of course curious about how and why he came but he didn’t want to talk about it and I of course respected that,” says Rasmussen.

Amin had fled Afghanistan with his mother and brother to spend a few difficult years in Moscow, before being able to travel, by paying an illegal organization, to Scandinavia.

“Fifteen years ago I asked him if i could do a radio documentary, (…) he again said no but he said that he knew that he would have to share his story at some point and that when he would be ready to do it he would like to share it with me.”

It was only after attending a workshop on animated film and documentary that Rasmussen came up with the idea to tell his friend’s story through animation.

“He (Amin) was really intrigued by the fact that he could be anonymous behind animation because what you hear in the film and what you see is the very first time he talks about his story,” the director says.

Rasmussen said he wanted the film to be “as authentic as possible” while depicting Afghanistan in the 80s and Moscow in the 90s.

“It was really trying to find a style of animation that would support the testimony, (…) his voice telling the story.”

Through abstract visual realism, Flee portrays Amin’s journey, from fleeing Afghanistan to facing Russian police and his arrival to an unfamiliar country with a language completely foreign to him.

“At times when he would start to talk about things that were really hard for him to talk about, his way of talking would also change, (…) we need to see the visual side of this, it is not about what things look like but an emotion that he has inside and so with the animation it enables us to be much more expressive,” Rasmussen says.

For the director, this documentary goes beyond winning an Oscar.

“To me it is really about giving a human face to refugees. We call it a refugee crisis but really what it is is a humanitarian crisis, I think we need to treat it as such and see the human face to it and see that all these people at our borders are human beings like the rest of us with the same kind of complex stories, hopes, dreams and feelings.

“What I am really hoping for is to be able to humanize these stories.” EFE

agf/mp/jt

MEXICO

10 Migrants Sew Their Lips Closed in Protest Against Immigration

Rafael FigueroaFebruary 17, 2022

 

Ten Central American migrants in Chiapas took a two-week protest against immigration authorities to a new extreme on Tuesday: they sewed their lips together while demonstrating in Tapachula.

Some 400 undocumented migrants are demanding humanitarian visas which would legalize their status in Mexico.

Tuesday’s drastic action came after demonstrations by hundreds of migrants over 14 days. Some complained immigration authorities had mocked and deceived them, the newspaper El Orbe reported.

Illegal migrants crossing the southern border are generally arrested and sent to prison-like migrant detention centers for an indeterminate period, or are told to go to Tapachula’s Olympic Stadium, a refugee camp where they are provided no humanitarian services and there are no immigration officials.

The legal status of migrants in Tapachula is increasingly clouded: they have been banned from leaving while they await the outcome of their applications to the refugee agency COMAR and the INM. However, both agencies have collapsed under the pressure of migrant influxes, leaving undocumented migrants waiting for responses to applications without any reliable time frame.

Many opt to join migrant caravans, in defiance of the authorities. It can be their best bet: some who left in a caravan on October 18 are in the United States with asylum applications pending.

 

Mexico Daily News

Global trade growth in 2021 surpassed pre-pandemic levels: UN

Online News EditorFebruary 17, 2022

 

Geneva, Feb 17 (EFE).- Global trade in goods and services reached a record of $28.5 trillion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 25 percent and a 13 percent jump over the figures for 2019, the year before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the United Nations said in a report Thursday.

“The positive trend for international trade in 2021 was largely the result of increases in commodity prices, subsiding pandemic restrictions and a strong recovery in demand due to economic stimulus packages,” the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said.

In the last quarter of 2021, trade in goods rose to a record $5.8 trillion while services, whose recovery has been slower, grew to $1.6 trillion, slightly above pre-pandemic levels.

UNCTAD expects international trade trends to normalize in 2022 but also predicts a lower-than-expected growth in trade amid continued pressure on global supply chains and record levels of global debt.

“A significant tightening of financial conditions would heighten pressure on the most highly indebted governments, amplifying vulnerabilities and negatively affecting investments and international trade flows,” the report warns.

Slower-than-expected economic growth – the International Monetary Fund has revised its world economic growth forecast downward by 0.5 points due to inflation in the United States and concerns related to China’s real estate sector – also likely to affect trade, according to UNCTAD’s report.

Another factor that is expected to impact trade trends in 2022 is increasing global demand for environmentally sustainable products amid a transition towards a greener world economy.

Among the trade figures for the world’s major economies, the UN agency highlighted the 43 percent rise in China’s exports compared to pre-pandemic levels, while in the United States, the European Union, and Japan the increase was more modest (12 percent, 10 percent, and 6 percent respectively).

Chinese exports between October and December continued to rise – 6 percent year-on-year – compared to the same quarter of the previous year, while those of Japan fell by 2 percent compared to the last quarter of 2020, and those of the US grew by 4 percent and of the European Union by 1 percent.

In general, the expansion of exports in the last quarter of 2021 was more notable in developing countries with a year-on-year increase of 35 percent compared to 2019 than in developed economies, where the increase was 19 percent.

Trade in the energy sector practically doubled in the last quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.

Compared to pre-pandemic figures, metal trade was up 59 percent, the biggest increase among all the sectors studied, while chemicals rose 43 percent and pharmaceuticals 35 percent. EFE

abc/pd/ssk

Ecuador congress backs limited right to abortion in case of rape

Online News EditorFebruary 17, 2022

 

Quito, Feb 17 (EFE).- Ecuador’s National Assembly voted Thursday to allow abortion when a pregnancy is the result of rape, but with restrictions opposed by feminists.

After the original text failed to garner the 70 votes needed to pass, the draft was modified to permit abortion up to the 12th week for most adult women, with an extension to the 18th week for minors and women in rural areas.

President Guillermo Lasso, a political conservative and member of the predominantly lay Catholic organization Opus Dei, has 30 days to either sign the measure into law or veto it.

Lawmakers acted on an April 2021 ruling from Ecuadorian Constitutional Court mandating decriminalization of abortion in cases of rape.

Lasso, who has held that life begins at conception, vowed to respect the court decision.

“Today the congress made a majority decision after a wide, participative, lay and democratic debate about a bill of great importance for the present and future of the girls, adolescents and women of this country,” Assembly speaker Guadalupe Llori said after the legislation passed.

Activists on both sides of the abortion issue gathered outside the capitol early Thursday ahead of the vote.

Some of the abortion-rights protesters sat partially undressed holding up signs describing the plight of women forced to bear children resulting from rape.

“Kelly should be playing with her friends, but she is taking care of her rapist’s son,” read one message. “Paty is 11 years old and needs an emergency caesarian after a pregnancy caused by rape. The doctors say her body is very small and she could die.”

Abortion opponents, meanwhile, insisted that termination should never be permitted.

“Whatever the circumstance of conception, it is a life!,” was the sentiment displayed on a poster carried by members of a group identifying themselves as pro-life residents of Quito.

Feminist campaigner Veronica Vera told Efe before the vote in congress that the National Assembly had already failed women.

Going forward, she said, activists will fill suits in “international and domestic courts for every death of a raped girl or woman, for every woman and girl forced into maternity.” EFE fgg-sm/dr

Rescued condors nurtured to health – and flight – in Chile’s Patagonia region

Online News EditorFebruary 17, 2022

By Maria M.Mur

Patagonia region, Chile, Feb 17 (EFE).- Pumalin, an Andean condor found as a baby with signs of frostbite and on the verge of death in southern Chile, is believed to have fallen out of his nest during a powerful storm.

Named after the Douglas Tompkins Pumalin National Park where he was discovered, he has been given a second chance and recently was freed from captivity along with Liquiñe, a female condor who was rescued in the country’s central region.

“Losing a condor is a tragedy. The species is vulnerable and could soon be in danger of extinction,” Cristian Saucedo, wildlife director at Fundacion Rewilding Chile, told Efe.

Pumalin and Liquiñe spent the first stage of their rehabilitation at a raptor center in Santiago before being transferred to a large cage in the heart of Chile’s portion of southern South America’s Patagonia region, a section of Patagonian steppe near the Argentine border and in the shadow of Monte San Lorenzo.

Since their arrival, they have become accustomed to the Patagonian winds and low temperatures, learned to dismember the carcass of a guanaco (close cousin of the llama) and even received visits from other condors that perched for hours on the roof of their cage.

The most emblematic species of the Andes region, the condor is “very social and gregarious, and its survival depends on its ability to interact with its peers. They need the group to find flight paths or places to rest,” Saucedo said.

Last weekend, the condors’ handlers decided the time had come for them to “fly the nest.”

They had reached the necessary weight of between eight and 10 kilograms (18-22 pounds), had a wingspan of nearly 2.7 meters (nine feet), their plumage was in good condition and they showed fear of humans, a sign they had not become domesticated.

The doors of the cage were opened, and surprisingly Liquiñe was the first to venture out. Pumalin was hesitant for a while.

“This was her second attempt. We released her a few months ago, but we had to rescue her shortly afterward because she wasn’t used to being free,” Proyecto Manku Director Dominique Duran, whose organization has worked with Rewilding and Fundacion Meri on this condor conservation project since its inception in 2021, told Efe.

“The condor signified the connection between the sky and the earth” for pre-Columbian cultures, Mateo Barrenengoa, a videographer who filmed the condor release for a documentary he is preparing on that Andean scavenger, the world’s largest flying bird, told Efe.

“It’s an animal that gives you amazing moments. Sometimes it passes very close by, and you can even hear the movement of its wings,” he added.

Chile accounts for South America’s largest Andean condor population, and some 70 percent of those raptors are found in Patagonia, a frigid, rugged region that is shared by Chile and Argentina and also is home to other emblematic Andean species like guanacos, huemuls (an endangered deer species) and rheas (a large flightless bird).

The condors in the northern extent of their range, particularly those in Ecuador and Colombia, are the most vulnerable, Saucedo explained, adding that the plan is to bolster the population in Patagonia before carrying out reinsertion programs elsewhere.

Duran said the release of the birds into the wild is “only the beginning of a long reinsertion process,” noting that two radio and satellite transmitters implanted in the condors will allow their movements to be studied and expand knowledge about this very vulnerable species.

Illegal hunting, poorly managed landfills, a lack of guanacos to eat and “toxic carrion” – animal carcasses that livestock producers deliberately poison to kill foxes and pumas – are the biggest threats to the Andean condor’s survival.

“These condors have returned to nature post-captivity, and we should learn from them and return to nature, to our roots, become more connected,” Barrenengoa said. EFE

mmm/mc

Argentine environmentalists sound the alarm on climate change

Online News EditorFebruary 17, 2022

 

By Augusto Morel

Buenos Aires, Feb 17 (EFE).- Pointing to the wildfires, drought and heat waves that have marked the start of 2022 in Argentina, environmental organizations call for adaptation, mitigation and effective laws to protect the ecosystem.

Eighty percent of the tree-cutting that destroyed 110,180 hectares (272,049 acres) of forest last year was illegal, according to a report from Greenpeace Argentina.

“There is a law that protects the forests, but it doesn’t work is each (provincial) governor permits changes in the demarcation of zones that should not be deforested,” the group’s climate campaign coordinator, Bruno Giambelluca, told Efe.

Indiscriminate destruction of flora deprives the atmosphere of the humidity needed to form rain clouds and dries out the soil, creating the conditions to transform any random spark into a conflagration.

Data from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology show that as of Feb. 7, wildfires had consumed 519,000 hectares in Corrientes province.

And all but two of Argentina’s 23 provinces have been enduring temperatures of 40 C (104 F) for days on end.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups have shifted the emphasis of their campaigning from preventing climate change to dealing with its effects.

“There has to be adaptation because we are already living it,” Giambelluca said. “If a city floods every time it rains, more infrastructure is necessary.”

“The government must stop emissions. It’s a gradual situation where we have to convert dirty energy to renewables,” he said.

Environmentalists’ chief demand is that Argentina live up to its commitments under the 2015 Paris Accord on climate change, which have been largely set aside in pursuit of an economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

President Alberto Fernandez’s administration is appealing a court decision that blocked plans for oil exploration in the Argentine Sea just 300 km (186 mi) off the coast of Mar del Plata, a city that subsists on tourism and fishing.

Andres Napoli, an attorney who runs the Environment and National Resources Foundation (FARN), wants to see a greater sense of urgency from the government.

“The weather wasn’t perceived as a threat, but the climate question is increasingly bearing down on us. We don’t have decades to convince people and we will have to accelerate,” he told Efe.

EFE

aam/dr

Tennessee Lawmakers Push for Legalization of Medical Marijuana

Rafael FigueroaFebruary 15, 2022

 

 Legisladores de Tennessee presionan para legalizar la marihuana medicinal Photo: beqbe.com

KNOXVILLE, TN (WVLT) — Some Tennessee lawmakers said this is the year the state needs to legalize medical marijuana. Democratic Rep. Jason Powell presented a resolution to the General Assembly to give the voters the final says.

Rep. Powell said, “We’ve seen a record number of cannabis’ legislation.”

If approved, voters would get the final say on medical marijuana which could change the state’s constitution.

“It’s time for Tennesseans especially those who are suffering and would benefit from medical cannabis,” Rep. Powell said.

His proposal would allow the growth, process and sale of medical cannabis. Only people with approved medical conditions including cancer, epilepsy and MS could use it.

This resolution would need 2/3 approval in both the Tennessee House and Senate to go to the November ballot.

Rep. Powell said, “I think it’s extremely popular and if it’s on the ballot it will pass.”

Some Republican East Tennessee lawmakers are split on the matter. For Sen. Becky Massey, the matter is personal for her.

“Watching my brother-in-law pass away from ALS, watching my sister die; when nothing else works, I don’t see how we can deny it to people,” Sen. Massey said.

Sen. Massey supported legislation for medical marijuana in years past.

Doctor and Sen. Richard Briggs, pointed to science. He said because medical marijuana is not approved by the FDA, he couldn’t approve it either.

“Marijuana is a plant and not a medicine and I just don’t like unregulated things being prescribed by people with no medical training,” Sen. Briggs said.

Rep. Powell has proposed a 4% tax in his legislation. A portion would go to veteran health care.

Kuwait overturns law criminalising 'imitation of opposite sex'

Amnesty International says decision marks 'a major breakthrough' for transgender rights in the region

Jailed Kuwaiti transgender woman Maha al-Mutairi 

(Photo courtesy of change.org)

By MEE and agencies
Published date: 16 February 2022 

Kuwait's constitutional court on Wednesday overturned a law that criminalises "imitation of the opposite sex", in a move Amnesty International said was a breakthrough for transgender rights in the region.

Kuwaiti lawyer Ali al-Aryan, who filed a lawsuit to overturn article 198 of the penal code two years ago, confirmed that the law had been repealed, and said it had violated personal freedoms, which are enshrined in the constitution.

"The law was overly vague and broad, and we based our defence on the existence of medical and constitutional foundations, as there are hormonal as well as psychological contributors," he told AFP.

Parliamentarian Osama al-Munawer said in a Twitter post after Wednesday's ruling that another amendment would be sought to address "shortcomings in the legislative drafting", according to Reuters.

Kuwait: Video of transgender woman alleging police abuse goes viral

Read More »

Amnesty International welcomed the court's decision, saying it marked "a major breakthrough" for transgender rights in the region.

"Article 198 was deeply discriminatory, overly vague and never should have been accepted into law in the first place," its Middle East and North Africa deputy director Lynn Maalouf said in a statement.

She said the Kuwaiti authorities "must also immediately halt arbitrary arrests of transgender people and drop all charges and convictions brought against them under this transphobic law".

Maalouf also called for the release of those "unjustly imprisoned", including Maha al-Mutairi, who was sentenced last year to two years in prison for being transgender, among other charges.

Mutairi, 40, had been arrested several times before on the same grounds, her lawyer, Ibtissam al-Enezi, told AFP at the time, but added that the latest conviction - which included "misusing phone communication" - had been by far "the harshest".

Degrading and humiliating treatment

In 2012, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented the negative effects of article 198 on the lives of transgender women in Kuwait, who reported multiple forms of abuse at the hands of the police while in detention.

They described degrading and humiliating treatment, such as being forced to strip and parade around police stations, being forced to dance for officers, sexual humiliation, verbal taunts and intimidation, solitary confinement, and emotional and physical abuse that could amount to torture.

Calling for Mutairi's release last year, HRW cited article 36 of Kuwait’s constitution, arguing that it guaranteed freedom of opinion and expression.

'Mutairi’s story is one of many horrific accounts by transgender Kuwaitis whose only crime is expressing themselves publicly'

- Rasha Younes, Human Rights Watch

"The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Kuwait has ratified, also guarantees the right to freedom of expression and requires that any restrictions 'must be constructed with care', ensure that they do not stifle freedom of expression in practice and should not provide for 'excessively punitive measures and penalties',” HRW said.

"The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the ICCPR, has made clear that the covenant prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in upholding any of the rights protected by the treaty. As a state party to the ICCPR and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, Kuwait is required to protect the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, including for transgender people."

“Mutairi’s story is one of many horrific accounts by transgender Kuwaitis whose only crime is expressing themselves publicly,” said Rasha Younes, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights researcher at HRW. “Kuwait should immediately release Mutairi, investigate her allegations of sexual violence in detention and end its criminalisation and harassment of transgender people.”

In 2018, Oman amended its penal code to punish a man who "publicly appears in the likeness of women in his dress or guise" with imprisonment of between one month and a year, along with a fine.

THIRD WORLD USA
National Guard deploys for new emergency: Teacher shortages

SEE;ANYONE CAN TEACH
By CEDAR ATTANASIO

1 of 4

New Mexico Army National Guard specialist Michael Stockwell kneels while helping Alamogordo High School freshman Aiden Cruz with a geology assignment, at Alamogordo High School,Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, in Alamogordo, N.M. Dozens of National Guard Army and Air Force troops in New Mexico have been stepping in for an emergency unlike others they have responded to before: the shortage of teachers and school staff members that have tested the ability of schools nationwide to continue operating during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)


ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — On past deployments Army National Guard Spc. Michael Stockwell surveilled a desolate section of the U.S.-Mexico border during a migrant surge, and guarded a ring of checkpoints and fences around New Mexico’s state Capitol after the January 2021 insurrection in Washington.

On his current mission, Stockwell helps students with assignments as a substitute science teacher at Alamogordo High School.

“You can’t act Army with these kids. You can’t speak the same way you would with another soldier with these kids. You can’t treat them the same way. You have to be careful with corrective actions,” he said with a laugh.

Dozens of National Guard Army and Air Force troops in New Mexico have been stepping in for an emergency unlike others they have responded to before: the shortage of teachers and school staff members that has tested the ability of schools nationwide to continue operating during the coronavirus pandemic.

While many other states and school districts issued pleas for substitute teachers amid omicron-driven surges in infections, New Mexico has been alone in calling out its National Guard members. In 36 of the state’s 89 school districts, guard members have traded in mission briefs for lesson plans to work for school systems.

When Stockwell first walked into the freshman science class, wearing camouflage fatigues and combat boots, some students thought he was just visiting, like a recruiter. Then he took a seat in the teacher’s chair.

“When he started taking attendance, I was like, ‘whoa,’” said Lilli Terrazas, 15, of Alamogordo. “I was kind of nervous because, like, you know — a man in a uniform. But it was cool. He helped me.”

Roughly 80 service members have volunteered to work in schools. The troops have gone through background checks and taken brief courses required for substitute teachers. As substitutes, they don’t have to learn much about curriculum, but they need to be attentive to students.

Stockwell has been filling in since late January when his students’ teacher moved to an administrative role in another school. One recent day, he shuffled through the rows of school desks, kneeling to meet students eye-to-eye as he helped them with assignments calculating the depth of the earth’s crust, and other layers of the planet.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, called out the guard to help with the acute shortages in a state that like several others has struggled to find enough educators. At least 100 schools had reported closing down for at least one day this school year.

New Mexico saw a surge of teacher retirements last fall, and there are currently around 1,000 open teaching positions in a state with about 20,000 teachers. Grisham stressed the guard deployment is a temporary measure and state officials are working to bolster the teaching force and school staff through increased pay and other strategies.

At Alamogordo High School, the teacher shortage peaked on Jan. 13, when 30 teachers, about a third of the teaching staff, were out due to illness, professional training, or family emergencies.

“Everybody was enjoying their holiday and things like that, and then they came back and were sick,” said Raeh Burns, one of two Alamogordo High School secretaries tasked with filling teaching slots each morning. “I know I’m going to have Mr. Stockwell every morning and that he’s OK to go where I need him to go.”

In some communities, there have been concerns raised about soldiers going in classrooms. In Santa Fe, the school district was asked if soldiers would wear uniforms and carry guns, school district spokesperson Cody Dynarski said. Guns were always out of the question. The district decided that soldiers would wear civilian clothing.

Ultimately, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, two of the largest urban school districts, did not receive any soldiers despite their requests as the deployments have prioritized smaller and more rural school districts.

Elsewhere, when given the choice, some soldiers have opted for military fatigues over civilian clothes to command respect in the classroom, particularly if they’re not much older than their students.

“I think I look like an 18-year-old out of uniform,” said Cassandra Sierra, 22, of Roswell, N.M., who has served as a substitute teacher in a high school in Hobbs.

Sierra already works with kids in her day job as a student coordinator at a military boarding school in Roswell, which has given her an edge as a substitute.

“Kids just need patience,” she said. “I think I just have a lot of patience.”

At a middle school on Alamogordo’s Holloman Air Force Base, students are used to seeing people in uniform, but not in classrooms.

“I was like, ‘Oh, we have somebody in the uniform that’s going to teach us. That’s kinda awkward.’ It was weird,” said Andrew George, 12, of his computer classes led by a woman trained in combat and with experience leading a platoon overseas. “Once she introduced herself I was like ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be fun.’”

The substitute, Lt. Amanda Zollo, works in the 911 dispatch center in Albuquerque when she’s not training or serving with the guard. She kept students on task during a lesson about cybersecurity, as they created and then attempted to break each other’s passwords.

She was subbing for a teacher who was having trouble finding childcare. The principal, Whitney Anderson, said that having Zollo’s services meant that for the first time that week she didn’t have to take over a classroom herself.

Zollo doesn’t talk about her work as an infantry officer with her students, which, after a nervous laugh, she describes as “engaging with and destroying the enemies of the U.S. in close-quarter combat.”

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that it was the high school missing a third of teachers, not the entire district.

___

Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.