Friday, July 29, 2011
Al Jazeera TV - Qatar
Bravo Al Jazeera...the Middle East looks quite different than it did 3 years ago when this video was uploaded.....
A society that can critique itself can evolve and grow.....
An Evening with Dr. Louann Brizendine
Last year I wrote a paper on the pros and cons of single-sex education in schools, both high school and elementary school. It was for a Linguistic class with the fabulous instructor, Kate Smith at N.D.N.U. Take her class if you get a chance.
Anyway, without going into the paper, I referenced Dr. Louann Brizendine's book, The Male Brain. It challenges and fuels the debate over nurture vs nature in our popular culture. Are there hard-wiring differences between boys and girls?
20 years ago feminist dominated the debate and some female teachers in schools went out of their way to neutralize the testosterone of boys and their aggressive behavior. Convinced that gender neutral toys and games would yield more assertive women and sensitives males.
Any moms with boys at home knew there was nothing wrong with their little boys because they liked to wrestle and whack each other or engaged in some other "aggressive" behavior. Also, these moms knew that there was nothing wrong with girls that played with dolls.
Guess what? Those same girls have grown up to be policeman, lawyers and diplomats, and those boys grew up to be teachers and chef's, as well as strong sensitive husbands and loving father's too.....
Now there is science that corroborates what grandma's and mom's of boys have known all along....there are differences between the sexes, raise your girls with the love and the knowledge that they can be, or accomplish anything in life, and raise your boys to relish competition and physicality, though tempered by love, sensitivity and responsibility. The debate will continue I' m sure........
Hilarious rant about China....Jeff Wang
This essay, by Jeff, was written in response to satirist, David Sedaris's essay regarding his visit to China.
Check out Jeff Wang's other essays, oh and David's too.........
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Asian Pop
- Jeff Yang
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David Sedaris talks ugly about China
By Jeff Yang, Special to SF Gate
Friday, July 29, 2011
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David Sedaris, in a photo from 2007.
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Asian Pop
Red, white and who? 07.15.11
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All brown everything 06.17.11
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The satirist thinks Chinese people (and food) are repulsive, which makes former Sedaris-fan Jeff Yang sad
Here's a question: How should you respond when one of your literary idols decides to take a huge metaphorical dump on the culture and civilization from whence your ancestors emerged?
It's something I've been grappling with over the past few weeks, ever since I read the latest opus from master mock-and-droller David Sedaris -- the brilliant, best-selling author of "Naked," "Holidays on Ice," "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and the recent "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk."
The work I'm referring to isn't a book, but a lengthy if somewhat slapdash essay he penned for the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper, titled "Chicken Toenails, Anyone?" -- written after Sedaris's return from a brief and apparently unpleasant trip to China, where he was invited to speak at Beijing's Bookworm International Literary Festival.
As you might guess from its headline, Sedaris considered the prospect of visiting China itself as a less-than-appealing proposition: "'I have to go to China.' I told people this in the way I might say, 'I need to insulate my crawl space' or, 'I've got to get these moles looked at.' That's the way it felt, though. Like a chore."
The reason for Sedaris's disdain soon becomes clear: In his view, China is ugly and filthy, Chinese people are universally rude and hostile, and Chinese food is composed of vile ingredients prepared in the most unsanitary and grotesque fashion possible. This isn't an exaggeration: Sedaris's narrative is condescending, xenophobic and thoroughly venomous -- a sweeping 2,700-word dismissal of an entire culture and society based on a few singular anecdotal experiences.
When you are surrounded by turds
To be fair, this is a fair description of many of his genuinely funny essays as well. The difference is that in recounting his adventures in Paris, Tokyo and his hometown of Raleigh, N.C., he's usually as self-deprecating as he is misanthropic, styling his persona as an equal-opportunity hater in the classic Molierean vein (well, perhaps with a dash of added fabulousness). He aptly sums up his worldview as follows, in the book "When You Are Engulfed in Flames": "Though I wish it were otherwise, I'm actually a very intolerant person. When I see a drunk or drug addict begging for money, I don't think, There but for the grace of God go I, but, I quit and so can you. Now get that cup of nickels out of my face."
So yes, David Sedaris is not an author you go to for sympathetic portrayal of human foibles or sensitive examination of foreign cultures.
And yet, even at his harshest, his previous writings have always taken care to create real human characters out of the oddballs, eccentrics and exasperated normals he encounters, enlivening them with personality and often, native wit; rather than being mere ciphers or mute targets, they're his comic foils, or he theirs, in situations that illustrate the hidden absurdity of the defiantly mundane.
"Chicken Toenails" has no such nuance or balance; it's a screed, plain and simple, designed to make China look as ghastly as possible for exaggerated comic effect. Not that Sedaris tries to hide his agenda! He details how he arrived in China after a week traveling through vastly more civilized (but no less exotic) Japan -- which he extolls as being sublime, delicate and very, very sanitary. "In Tokyo, every subway station has a free public men's room," he writes. "The floors and counters are aggressively clean and beside each urinal is a hook for hanging your umbrella ... In Tokyo, I once saw a dog pee on the sidewalk," he writes. "Then its owner reached into a bag, pulled out a bottle of water and rinsed the urine off the pavement."
And then, by contrast, there's China, where "the supermarket cashier holds out your change and you take it thinking, 'This woman squats and spits on the floor while shitting and blowing snot out of her nose.' You think it of the cab driver, of the ticket taker and, finally, of the people who are cooking and serving your dinner."
As a result, he says, the landscape of China is virtually beslimed and encrusted with mucus -- "I saw wads of phlegm glistening like freshly shucked oysters on staircases and escalators. I saw them frozen into slicks on the sidewalk and oozing down the sides of walls."
But Chinese loogie-hawking at least has a purpose: "We Chinese think it's best just to get it out," a dinner companion explains, noting that Chinese find Western use of cloth handkerchiefs equally disgusting. No such rationale exists for the blithe comfort Chinese seem to display with their own shit -- according to Sedaris, the Chinese are a people who gleefully defecate everywhere, dropping trou and planting yams in bathroom sinks, on the sidewalk, in supermarket aisles and on the surface of skating rinks.
In fact, shit, in its many forms -- stacked, stinking, frozen, floating, free-range -- ends up being the closest thing Sedaris is able to find to a comic sounding-board on his voyage to the Middle Kingdom. Shit is the Costello to his Abbott, the Laurel to his Hardy, the Calvin to his Hobbes; shit is his nemesis and his obsession, his partner in a kind of capoiera-like martial ballet, bobbing, ducking and unexpectedly popping up again in every direction he turns. But unlike the language teachers and department store Santas and fruit-factory foremen and other human foils of his past canon, shit is inanimate and has very little to say, leaving Sedaris to talk shit all on his own.
Which means that, by the middle of the essay, Sedaris's copromania has become less shocking than annoying, and by its final throes, less annoying than tedious.
Naked lunch
But while Sedaris displays a sort of love-hate relationship with poo, he saves his most vitriolic language for its biological precursor, that is to say, Chinese food, which he describes as being composed of body parts that no ethical person would consume from animals that no sane person would consider, cooked in ways that would cause public health officials to blanch. In short, suggests Sedaris, digesting and excreting it probably improves its appearance, taste and sanitation. "I'll eat it if the alternative means starving," he writes.
It would likely be a tough call. Sedaris describes a meal he had at a mountain farmhouse, prepared by a local family, and it sounds like something out of a Wes Craven film: "The rooster was senselessly hacked, as if by a blind person, a really angry one with a thing against birds. Portions were reduced to shards, mostly bone, with maybe a scrap of meat attached. These were then combined with cabbage and some kind of hot sauce. Another dish was made entirely of organs, which again had been hacked beyond recognition. The heart was there, the lungs, probably the comb and intestines as well. I don't know why this so disgusted me."
Then there was the dish of xue doufu, that is to say, congealed blood, a further offense to Sedaris's sensibilities: "In clean, sophisticated Japan the rooster blood, arranged upon a handmade plate between the perfect, tempura snow pea and a radish carved to look like a first trimester fetus, would have seemed a fine idea ... Here, though, I thought of the sanitation grade, and of the rooster, pecking maggots out of human feces before being killed. Most of the restaurants in China to me smelled dirty, though what I was smelling was likely some unfamiliar ingredient, and I was allowing the things I'd seen earlier in the day -- the spitting and snot blowing, et cetera -- to fill in the blanks."
Now, talking shit about Chinese architecture, manners and sanitation is one thing: These are things that the Chinese people often critique themselves. But slandering Chinese food? Those are fighting words. Call a Chinese person's baby ugly and she might forgive you, but tell her that Chinese food is disgusting and you have crossed a line that cannot be un-crossed.
Given that, I will now address David directly, writer-person to writer-person, though the chance that he'll ever read this is as slim as the likelihood that he'll be asked to serve as a goodwill ambassador for the China National Tourism Office.
Here's the deal, David: Chinese people eat weird food. There is a saying that "Chinese will eat anything with its back to the sky," and another that says "Chinese will eat anything with legs but a table and anything with wings but an airplane." These are Chinese sayings, I might point out -- which should be a sign that Chinese aren't exactly unaware that the "delicacies" that send prim Westerners to their fainting couches are a little off the beaten path.
But Chinese are far from the only culture that eats weird food, and heck, given that you're from North Carolina, have you looked at what American Southerners traditionally eat? No? Chitlins! Possum! Muskrat! Bull testicles! Oh wait, you're from suburban Raleigh, so probably not, given that most of the more exotic dishes in Southern cuisine, like in many culinary traditions, were the offspring of necessity -- invention midwived by destitution.
The fact is, if you're hungry enough, rodents start to look tasty, as do chicken toenails, random innards and balls. And once you've eaten them long enough, all these things become a nostalgic part of your cultural identity -- especially after you've pulled yourself out of poverty. They go from things you have to eat all the time to things you chooseto eat once in a while, to remind yourself you no longer have to eat them all the time.
And that's what's truly ugly about your essay, David: For someone who's spent a lot of your career puncturing middle-class aspiration and self-delusion, your piece is painfully blind to the fact that all of China is just a few generations removed from dire, desperate want, and that many people, like the peasant family you had such a bad experience sharing a meal with, continue to subsist on an annual income that's a tiny fraction of what a sophisticated awesome American literary superstar like you loses in his sofa. And in a country of 1.3 billion people, even having braised pig's stomach to occasionally go with your daily rice is a freakin' luxury.
Meanwhile, you should note: Those 1.3 billion people have a standard of living that's skyrocketing upward. They're crawling up and out of the economic muck, while we seem determined to drag ourselves down into it. And more and more of them are learning English and traveling abroad and reading international newspapers like the Guardian. So, just sayin': The next time you're eating at a fancy New York restaurant near a table of tourists from Shanghai ... maybe you shouldn't turn your back on your Coke.
***
PopMail
As much as I'm irritated by the broad-brush disparagement of Chinese culture, society and people -- or any other culture, society and people, for that matter -- I also believe it's important that we not whitewash the bad and ugly in favor of the good: Unless we engage with the darker aspects of the places we've come from, we can't ensure that they change in the present, or that they won't recur in the future.
The hideous practice of footbinding -- folding and mutilating the toes and arches of young girls to create "perfect lotuses" the size and approximate shape of a clenched fist -- is one such element of Chinese history, and one of the most shameful chapters in the annals of humanity's abuse and repression of the female gender throughout recorded civilization.
The story of China's bound-foot women has rarely been recounted with as much richness, detail and color as in Lisa See's best-selling "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," which explores not just the practice itself, but the way it came to define Chinese society for generations. Footbinding was the rare thing that could allow a low-born woman to rise in society, so well-bound feet were simultaneously a great opportunity, a grand indulgence and a terrible handicap. At the same time, footbinding was only a part of the greater architecture of control and commodification of women in 17th through 19th century China: Ultimately, the transfer of women to the control of their husbands' families, where they were confined to separate "female quarters" and expected to do nothing but perform domestic chores and await impregnation and eventual birth of a (male) heir, meant that the fate of Chinese women of that era was not far removed from livestock.
Yet the very circumstances that oppressed them forged unique relationships among and between bound-foot sisters -- some of which were formally encouraged as a means to provide women relief given their harsh lot. Two young girls with similar backgrounds, complementary personalities and shared cosmological signs might be offered to one another as sworn sisters -- forming a relationship known as "laotong," or "old sames," considered to be as solemn a tie as marriage, and in many ways deeper and more emotionally rewarding. (Also more sensual: While the film's producers deny any sapphic subtext, the book's author, Lisa See, acknowledges that perhaps one out of 10 sworn sisters found comfort of a different kind with their female partners -- and other estimates suggest as many as 40 percent of lao tong relationships had an erotic component.)
The book "Snow Flower" is at its core the story of two such "old sames," and how their bond grows, twists, breaks and is reformed; it is a melodrama and a tragedy that resolves not with satisfaction but with sacrifice and survival. The book is now a movie, in theaters as we speak: The movie is a decidedly different thing from the book, taking the primal story of "Snow Flower" and weaving it together with a complementary one set in contemporary times, giving a tale that is wrenchingly sad in its original telling a rather more uplifting ending.
Some fans may be disappointed as a result, though See herself says that she loves the film, and that the "part that is true to the book is absolutely true to the book," while the modern scenes create a "continuum that brings the story right up to the present, a present in which China is now a global economic superpower."
It's also a present in which the role of women has evolved considerably, to the point where smart, educated and ambitious individuals -- like, for instance, "Snow Flower"'s Xuzhou-born co-producer Wendi Deng Murdoch -- are able to rise to the heights; though Murdoch has been subject to no small amount of vilification in her years of marriage to much-older media tycoon Rupert, her story is more extraordinary in many ways than the fictional one depicted in "Snow Flower." Even detractors acknowledge Wendi Murdoch's formidable will and nerve -- as demonstrated recently in the viral video of her literally leaping to defend her husband from assault by a pie-throwing prankster. The incident, which has now attained Internet meme status, is proof positive that the name she and producing partner Florence Sloan (the Malaysian Chinese wife of MGM chair Harry Sloan, and an impressive woman in her own right) chose for their production company is both apt and saucily ironic: Big Feet Productions.
"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" is currently playing at Century San Francisco (835 Market St.), the UA Stonestown Twin (501 Buckingham Way), and the Piedmont Theatre in Oakland (4186 Piedmont Avenue).
_
Jeff Yang is the author of "Once Upon a Time in China: A Guide to the Cinemas of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China," co-author of "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action" and "Eastern Standard Time," and editor of "Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology" (http://www.secretidentities.org/). He lives in New York City. Check out his blog at http://originalspin.posterous.com/ for updates on this column and alerts about politics, technology, and pop culture news. Connect with him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/originalspin. Follow him on Twitter: @originalspin and on Google Plus.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/07/29/apop072911.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1TW6dLWuj
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Norway massacre suspect 'had links to right-wing groups'
Back on Friday, July 8, I wrote a blog for my history class regarding the rise of Communism in Europe in the 1930's and 1940's. One of the vehicles to build fear and hate, was Nationalism. Taken to the extreme, Hitler was able to appeal to a debt weary, restless citizenry.
High unemployment and xenophobia further inflamed an already, increasingly vocal, nationalistic society, that Hitler exploited to unite Germans, and adopt his mantra of a blond haired, blue-eyed, pure race.
To introduce the essay, I referenced an article in the German blog, spiegal on line, that refered to the growing nationalism growing in Europe, thus straining the cohesion necessary for a united European Union. There was a discussion of re-using border crossings with passports, and a return to territorial integrity.
Additionally, other countries were grumbling about the financial bailout of Ireland and Greece, furthering the debate about NATIONALISM.
Additionally, other countries were grumbling about the financial bailout of Ireland and Greece, furthering the debate about NATIONALISM.
This past week's events in Norway are a troublesome sign of the times, of a struggling E.U. trying to shape a political future marked by unity and peace....................
If you get vertigo, beware..........
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Chomsky on Dershowitz' "jihad" against Finkelstein Part 1
The next several videos about Israel and Palestine are interesting.
It's always fun to listen to these two giants engage in intellectual jousting. The debate over a two state solution between Israel and Palestine has been going on for decades. With the recent events in the Middle East and North Africa, the world is witness to liberty and freedom trying to forge ahead despite the oppressive regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, etc.
It's difficult for the average citizen to rejoice along with the average Egyptian, as they mold their free society, and not feel sadness for Palestinians who are trying to do the same, and also sadness for Israel, who lives under the threat of Katusha missiles on any given day . The right wing in Israel, as well as the Hamas in the West Bank are holding their citizens hostage, doomed to continue the madness of violence.
Child Poverty in America - Marian Wright Edelman
As I was having my second cup of coffee and reading about what's happening today in the world, I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of life and how good it is at the same time. I guess it depends on which side of the fence you are on?
On the one hand you may look at that dog down the block as your next culinary dish, or anthropomorphize your canine and take him to the spa for a hot oil treatment....
On the one hand you may look at that dog down the block as your next culinary dish, or anthropomorphize your canine and take him to the spa for a hot oil treatment....
TEDGlobal: Interview with Niall Ferguson
One of the inescapable truism of studying history, is that all empires, societies and nations evolve, they grow and wane in their evolutionary life-cycle. It's time that America play nice with the rest of the kids on the block, er, world. Let's show leadership at the United Nations by sitting at the table of equality and not having the last word........there are older and wiser Cultures that much can be learned from.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Ancient Egyptian Life...
Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
My Research project deals with the daily life of an ancient Egyptian. Throughout the study of this class we have read about many civilizations and empires. We take notes regarding important milestones and battles, and in the study of ancient Egypt, it was no different.
Everyone who studies history knows learns about the great pyramids of Egypt and the infamous Pharaoh, King Tut. Even the average person on the street, who has no particular interest in history, probably has heard of these great structures. They defy the imagination due to their scale in size, and the engineering that obviously was used in their construction.
In American popular culture, Hollywood immortalized one of Egypt’s more colorful citizens, played by the actress Elizabeth Taylor, Cleopatra. I was interested in the daily Life of Egyptian citizens and all that it entails. For Examples: What was important to them? What was family like? How did they cook and carry water? How were legal affairs dealt with?
Did Egyptians like to wear Jewelry, and did the females wear make-up? How did they view children? Did women have any rights? What was the average home like of the middle class Egyptian?
All of these things were of interest to me. Since I could not fly to Egypt and see the country and talk to Egyptians, I did the next best thing and visited the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California.
Looking at pictures in Strayer’s book, of pots and jewelry or coffins and mummies, did not have the same impact as standing inches away from some artifact that was hand made, and actually used in the daily life of an Egyptian.
When you first approach the museum, you are immediately struck by the huge columns and large gold colored doors to the (1) Entrance. Of course these are replicas and I can only imagine what it must have been like to see the original temples and palaces of the pharaohs in their natural setting.
In Ancient Egypt 2(2) Women ran the household. She had the last word when it came to organizing the home including overseeing servants and /or slaves. Women without servants did the weaving, spinning and sewing of the households clothes. She gathered water using containers like the (3) ones seen in the picture provided.
The Egyptians worshiped both genders and had God’s and Goddesses. For example, Egyptian women prayed to the Goddess (4) Ishtar who, in addition to being a “household Goddess”, was also the goddess of love and beauty. Later in Roman times, Ishtar morphed into Venus Goddess of Love.
The citizens of Ancient Egypt valued family life; children were 5(5) treasured and considered a blessing from the Gods.
Many Egyptian households had a (6) birthing room where the expectant mother could be isolated so she could focus on the birthing process, and often assisted by midwives or female servants or slaves.
Egyptian (6) homes were made from bricks of sun dried mud because wood was scarce, they often were 2 or 3 stories high, where a business was located on the first floor and living quarters on the upper levels. This arrangement can be seen today in any city where you have ground floor commercial or retail space, and apartments on the 2nd floor. The picture of the clay model of the Egyptian house is a good example of the type and shape of a typical living space.
Both males and females, in ancient contemporary Egyptian society, liked to wear (7) jewelry. In the photo I have provided showing actual necklaces and bracelets, one can see the variety of colors and styles that Egyptians had to chose from.
While touring the museum I found the display of leather (8) sandals, worn by the average Egyptian, to be fascinating. Times have not changed much in 3000 years as the footwear could have been at the shoe department at Macy’s. The sandals look remarkably similar to those worn today. It was also interesting o find out that 9(9) priests wore sandals made of papyrus as leather was viewed as impure.
Another interesting fact was to learn that Egyptians enjoyed drinking 10(10) beer. It was the most popular beverage and was made from barley. In the photos, small figures of men are mashing and bottling the beer as a scribe looks on, counting the bottles for accounting purposes.
The scribes would often write their hieroglyphic notes on (11) slabs of stone or clay. This was their record keeping. In the photo marked #12, the museum has on display an actual loan contract etched on this tablet. It’s amazing to see how legal documents were written thousands of years ago. That was a modern and contemporary way of conducting business in ancient Egypt. In other examples of (12) record keeping the museum contains several other documents written on stone or clay tablets.
A scribe in ancient Egypt was a man who learned to read and write hieroglyphs. His two main duties were to read and write sacred texts on temples and tombs. His other function was record keeping as I have shown with the loan document in the previous pages. Scribes often used stamps or seals to validate an official document such as the ones shown in the pictures.
Another method of writing was on Papyrus. The Egyptians used the world’s first paper called papyrus, which were blades of a kind of palm tree. I have included several Museum photos showing actual (16) ink-wells used by an Egyptian of Ancient times: Figure # (17) shows us other examples of bushes and ink vessels that were common in Egyptian society.
I also wanted to highlight a medium sized boat model that the museum show cased. It is marked # (18), and depicts the social strata of Egyptian Life. For example, if you look closely at the picture of the model you will see several men on the boat. On either end you have a member of the upper-class who is in charge of the men. There are several slaves that are rowing the boat and two men on either side of the cargo that look to be guards of some sort.
It is impossible to talk about Egypt and not mention Egyptian’s obsession with the afterlife. Egyptians went to great lengths to mummify its rulers and send them off to the afterlife in elaborate tombs as their final, earthly resting place.
The Rosicrucian museum has on display in a glass case, an authentic Egyptian (19) figure of a mummified man that is absolutely incredible. It is amazing how well preserved it is for something thousands of years old. Egyptians were experts in preserving and preparing it’s pharaohs for their celestial journey.
They adorned their mummies with artwork, as you can see in the funeral (20) mask of a Ptolemak Egyptian women
I was also able to see a decent replica of an Egyptian Tomb at the museum. The photos numbers (21-25) that I have included do not reflect the feeling that I experienced as I walked about the tomb prompting spontaneous mummy behavior. Also, included at the museum are several large mummy statutes as well as an authentic (26, 27) coffin from around 2000 B.C.E.
Another fascinating statue is a cast of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon that is at least 12 feet tall.
One of the best known features of Egypt’s legacy is the Tower of Babel. The 28(28) story of the Tower of Babel is also found in the Bible’s book of Genesis 11; 1-9A, King James Version. See pictures numbered (#31-38). The model of the tower of Babel shows how huge a building it was, it must have been jaw dropping to see for the first time. The story in the Bible refers to the origins of different languages. God wanted to confuse man, impart because of the excess of man’s freedom and idleness, so he scattered man about the world, thus creating Languages.
The code of Hammurabi is another interesting and significant historical document that is shown on picture #(39, 40). This is an ancient law 41(41) Code of Hammurabi that spelled out penalties for specific acts of discretion, such as lying, stealing or murder. It’s one of the oldest documented Law Code in the world dating back to 1700 B.C.E.
On a Lighter note, the Egyptian family loved to play board (42) games. One of the most popular was called Senet, and the museum has on display several interesting and colorful board game pieces. Check out pictures # (42, 43).
In conclusion I felt like I accomplished my goal of seeing the home life of an Egyptian family some 5 thousand years ago. As we sit here in 2011 watching events unfold in Egypt after the Arab Spring, we can see how dynamic and alive Egyptian culture remains today. Family life in Ancient Egypt was very similar to families today. Egypt’s elegant and sophisticated culture still conjures up mysterious and exotic images of the once mighty Egyptian Pharaoh, even as we watch on TV the democratic process unfold in the shadow of the Great Pyramids of antiquity. I highly recommend a visit to the Rosicrucian Museum to get a peek into the daily life of our Egyptian friends as they walked on this planet over 4000 years ago.
Bibliography
9 Roscrusian Museum, Sandals Exhibit, Dynasty 18-Late Period split papyrus stalks, RL 1569, 122, 1 split papyrus stalks, RL 1569, 122, 1455
10 http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/Egyptcredit.4.2html plus 2 beer
Friday, July 8, 2011
The Big Picture........Ch-21, Ch-22
As I read chapter 21 in Strayer's book about the collapse and recovery of Europe between 1914 and the early 1970's, I am reminded of an article I read a few days ago in the German newspaper, Spiegel on-line.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,772517,00.html
The article describes the political instability rising from a feeling of "nationalism" growing throughout several E.U. countries like Denmark, France and Italy. This attempt by Europe, to unify and coalesce into a common economic entity, is going through it's growing pains, as it struggles to find political unity while maintaining their individual, cultural identity.
Two of it's hallmarks are under scrutiny. One is maintaining the use of the "euro". It's Europe's single currency used to replace 25 different kinds of money, like the franc, lire or Deutschmark for example. The other feature was the elimination of restrictions for border crossings which required a myriad of passports to travel about Europe.
Can you imagine us here in the U.S. driving to Boston, on a camping trip, and waiting at the local AAA for maps, and several passports that would be needed to drive through Nevada, Texas or Michigan?
However, in light of the economic bailout of Ireland earlier this year, and the current economic crisis in Greece, many of the E.U. countries don't want the financial burden of bailing out smaller economies.
Additionally, with the successes of the "Arab Spring" in North Africa and the Middle East, thousands of refugees fleeing the uncertainty of these fledgling democracies, find themselves on the doorsteps of European countries already reeling from the world wide recession. A feeling of "nationalism" and a "me first" attitude has led to some countries like Denmark, wanting to close it's borders, and a new kind of nationalistic sentiment is gaining political ground in several countries. Is History repeating itself?
Additionally, with the successes of the "Arab Spring" in North Africa and the Middle East, thousands of refugees fleeing the uncertainty of these fledgling democracies, find themselves on the doorsteps of European countries already reeling from the world wide recession. A feeling of "nationalism" and a "me first" attitude has led to some countries like Denmark, wanting to close it's borders, and a new kind of nationalistic sentiment is gaining political ground in several countries. Is History repeating itself?
Strayer highlights this common feature for the beginnings of W.W.1 and W.W.11. The initial, "nationalistic" grumblings of a discontented and unemployed population led in part to countries aligning themselves with one another in an effort to find a common enemy and mutual interest. For example, in WW1 you had the "Triple Alliance" of Germany, Austria and Italy vs. the "Triple Entente" of Russia, France and Britain.
In WW11, we see the grotesque extreme of nationalism, expressed by Hitler and his Nazi party, which believed their Aryan Superiority gave them the moral position to slaughter millions of Jews.
In Asia, Japan's leadership also felt compelled to counter, what it perceived, as European racism and Japan's imposed, marginal role on the world's geopolitical stage.
With China's own growing nationalism, along with it's growing feeling of global isolation, Japan invaded Manchuria. This prompted it's withdrawal from the "league of nations", Japan's ally, and aligning with Germany and Italy. Bad move for Japan, ala Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
With China's own growing nationalism, along with it's growing feeling of global isolation, Japan invaded Manchuria. This prompted it's withdrawal from the "league of nations", Japan's ally, and aligning with Germany and Italy. Bad move for Japan, ala Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
As a result of these two horrendous conflagrations, and the almost, unimaginable loss of millions of soldiers and civilians; in addition to the utter devastation of the geography of Europe, the geopolitical center of gravity shifted away from Europe, and across the Atlantic Ocean, to Pennsylvania Avenue.
The United States was now the lone superpower, with it's cities untouched by the bombs of war and the only country in possession of the "atom bomb".
The Rise and Fall of World Communism
The United States was now the lone superpower, with it's cities untouched by the bombs of war and the only country in possession of the "atom bomb".
The Rise and Fall of World Communism
In post-war Europe and Asia, Strayer tells us in the book that global communism's appeal was largely due to a "promise of liberation from inequality, oppression, exploitation and backwardness". Masses of people left homeless and disillusioned by the cumulative effect of two world wars, were eager for the rhetoric of Lenin, then Stalin in Russia and Mao Zedong, in China.
The Marxist ideology was a response to, and rejection of, western capitalistic culture, as well as a criticism of the inequality, and wealth imbalance of the elite and average Joe/Jane.
Stalin's hypocrisy, and blood soaked legacy, disillusioned many communist's. To them, Communism seemed just as corrupt as capitalism. Reformist, Mikael Gorbachev eventually steered the ship that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, symbolizing the end of global communism.
In China, the other Communist power, saw itself being transformed, and invented it's own hybrid of a capitalist style economy, with a central, authoritarian political hierarchy. It's own call for democracy by students and young people, was brutally crushed by Premier Deng in Tiananmen Sq., while the West was dancing to "funk" music. Today in 2011, the full privileges of a democratic society still elude the average Chinese citizen.
In retrospect, communism championed the injustices of workers, women and peasants of their societies. However, Communist's were also responsible for crimes against humanity; they murdered millions, mismanaged food resources causing famine, and violated human rights on a grand scale in Stalin's Gulags.
Is Capitalism the answer?
What will students say, in 2311, taking a World history class, about the American Empire's zenith. Will it be the same way we examine, in 2011, the rise and fall of, say, Colonial Europe or Ancient Mesopotamia?
Friday, July 1, 2011
In the world today..............
Africa over the centuries has seen more than its share of colonization and exploitation for it's material wealth. The world's classroom history books have documented the slave trade and the instability that has plagued the continent for decades.
Today in 2011 Africa's exploitation continues in a different, more insidious and sophisticated way through the World Bank and the I.M.F.(International Monetary Fund).
Africa's desire to form an African Unified Coalition, similar to the European Common Market, is needed more than ever to counterbalance the economic and political influence of Neo-Colonialists masquerading as altruistic countries.
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