Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Miss Marple has a remarkable nose for danger. She is a rat, and she detects land-mines by smelling them. She was born in the training lab of the Belgian company, Apopo, in Tanzania. Here African Giant Rats - the size of a cat - are taught to sniff out explosives hidden in the ground.
After a year’s training she is sent on her first mission to neighbouring Mozambique, whose 30 years of war have left millions of mines hidden in the earth. A whole unit of rats walks delicately back and forth over the minefields, attached to lines. When they’ve finished, the fields are safe again. Hundreds of lives have been saved, thousands of crippling injuries avoided. Miss Marple is a true hero rat!.
Giant rats are clever and they learn fast. Their sense of smell is better than a dog’s, they have more stamina, and they’re a lot cheaper to train. Apopo’s founder Bert Weetjens makes use of their natural instincts. They are curious and always looking for food. They store whatever they find in their cheeks and bring it home. And because they constantly update the map in their brains, they never get lost. Perfect raw skills that can be honed to work with new scents.
First, trainer Niko Saroni must get the new-born Miss Marple accustomed to him. then he gradually acquaints her with the smell of explosives - in the labs, and then with defused mines in the fields. Even a talented rat needs a year to master the skills. Finally, it’s off to the former war zones.
Mines kill fifty people around the world every day. And there are a hundred million of them still to be found.
70 trainers and carers are employed at Apopo’s labs in Morogoro, Tanzania. Their first task is to overcome local prejudice. In East Africa rats are seen as crop-seating pests. But the rats will do anything for bananas, avocados or nuts - even find mines!
Bert Weetjens is a cofirmed rat fan. He’s even thought up other challenges for them: identiyfing tuberculosis bacteria in human saliva far faster than any human technician could. And if you fit a mini-camera on their back, they can even search for people trapped in collapsed buildings.
This film follows Miss Marple and Niko through the training course in the lab and the early tests. We are with Miss Marple each time she gets the hang of another part of her perilous work.
It’s a long and hard training, full of surprises, until the day comes when she can finally fulfil her mission.
