Statistics put to practical use

This is how statistics can be interpreted and put to practical use: Take the case of statistician Abraham Wald. He looked at war planes during WWII and figured out where extra armor should be added to planes by looking at the bullet holes in war planes. He figured the extra armor should go in the places there were no bullet holes. Why? because “that’s where bullets hit the planes that didn’t make it back.” Kind of a smart guy.

Source: The Basic Practice of Statistics by David S. Moore

Notes of understanding

Notes of understanding

By Denise Scammon

In What is History?, author Edward Hallett Carr explains that the answer to the title question will be different for each person depending on whether or not they believe that history is solely based on facts, solely based on a historian’s interpretation of the facts, or a combination of the two – facts and interpretation. If recording history was merely the recording of facts, then history would be objective. When a historian interprets history, he/she selects historical facts, places them in a certain order, and uses them in a context based on his judgments – that is subjective. In the selection of facts to include in historical accounts, it is noted that not all facts about the past are included as historical facts. It is an impossible feat. For example, written ancient and medieval historical accounts are the only evidence of the history of those eras as there are no eye witnesses who can add to the historical accounts today. Thus, if the recorders of ancient historical facts did not record something or some event at the time it occurred, then centuries later, those facts remain unknown to later generations. Historians use historical facts as “the backbone of history” and in addition, use information from other “sciences of history: archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, chronology, etc.” to arrive at a thorough interpretation.

In Quebec and the American Dream, by Eric Chodos and Robert Hamovitch, the authors explain the two sides of living as an immigrant in America – from the immigrant’s and the American’s viewpoints. Three viewpoints are explained: assimilation, nativism and cultural pluralism. A play titled “The Melting Pot” lent its title to describe America and her immigrant population. For years, Americans assumed that immigrants to America knew America was a superior country and that immigrants wanted to change their ways of living to become like native Americans. But during the war in Europe in 1914, Americans became aware of the large German population in this country and realized that assimilation was not working. Immigrants “remained hyphenated even after Americanization efforts.” In addition to the immigrant German population, the French Canadians, Spanish-speaking groups, Creoles and Cajuns, Poles, Czechs, and other immigrant groups believed in cultural pluralism. Chodos and Hamovitch state that the French Canadians believed in the “value of their language and religion” and were “determined to retain them.” After Americans became aware of the lack of assimilation on the part of the immigrant, “repressive measures were directed at non-English speaking Americans.” Congress imposed immigration restrictions and the quota system was established in 1924. Horace Kallen is quoted as stating that some believed cultural pluralism was a “freedom guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution … ‘equal’ meant the right to be different.’” Those who believed in nativism included the anti-Catholicism groups, anti-radicalism believers, and those who believed in racial purity. The first two groups wanted to “keep the U.S. Safe from foreign ideologies and conspiracies” and the third group believed in the superiority of some races over others. Immigrants were not entirely unwelcome in the U.S. because the Declaration of Independence and other documents and sentiments present America as a land which offers humanitarian aid and equality to all. Also, immigrants were an economic boon to the U.S. in its early days “providing pioneers for the frontier … and low-cost labor.” Franco-Americans were fortunate in that they did not appear to be considered as real immigrants by Americans, since the Franco-Americans had always been in this country and the border between Canada and the U.S. was just “an imaginary line.”

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Personal branding

How does one go about defining personal brand?

A personal brand is what you share of yourself in interactions with others. Those interactions may include your visual, verbal and written presentations. Your visual and written presentations are similar to a book jacket. Verbal presentations account for part of your brand, even though some relationships are conducted strictly online – how well you express in writing the conversation you would have in person. Some of our online conversations are managed in 140 characters such as posts on the microblog site Twitter. Written conversations can be tricky as the reader may not grasp the tone in which the message was intended. Some of our online conversations are held via e-mail, skype, videos and podcasts. These conversations and interactions accomplish an important part of branding: the sharing of knowledge, services and skills. What you reveal in these conversations may label you with adjectives which are either flattering or not: close-minded/opinionated versus open-minded/critical thinker; negative/pessimist versus positive/optimist; etc.

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Existence and function of human life in the universe

Global Past, Global Present

December 17, 2009

The existence and function of human life in the universe

My vision of my role in the universe is that I am here to share knowledge with others and work toward formulating creative solutions to global issues. My role is also to participate in activities that benefit and perpetuate human life. The existence and function of human life is to provide catalysts that contribute to the health of other humans, our planet and, on a larger scale, the universe. Our contributions to the state of health of each other and the universe may have positive or negative consequences – cause and effect – which makes knowledge and prediction two important human characteristics. With my participation in the Global Past, Global Present course, I have broken through the surface – of my complacency in not-knowing – to the information that is being gathered by scholars in the study known as Big History. This course has revealed an amazing amount of information regarding the big picture of human and natural history that I may otherwise not have known. I have absorbed academic and practical information from this course regarding the modern creation story which I am analyzing and assimilating in the hopes of understanding the vocabulary of, and sharing the knowledge gleaned from, this multi-disciplined field of study.

Are creative thinkers stewards of the human race and universe?

Some of the information covered in this course includes biographies about some very creative thinkers – Albert Einstein, David Christian, Fred Spier, Alan Lightman, and Lise Meitner – as well as their discoveries and theories. I have learned that it is helpful to study the past – to understand what has worked or not worked in the past – in relation to taking care of life and the world we inhabit. About human behavior, in “How Big History Works: Energy Flows and the Rise and Demise of Complexity,” Fred Spier argues “that for most, if not all of human history, the quest for sufficient matter and energy to survive and, if possible, reproduce has been the overriding theme” (12). As self-proclaimed stewards of the human race, this planet and the universe, our purpose as humans is to continue the existence of our race. Perpetuating life is a pattern that has occurred since the beginning of life’s existence. As David Christian explains in Maps of Time, living organisms, including humans, did not appear immediately after the big bang which created the universe 13 billion years ago.

Why do we need to know about time-space, quantum physics, gravity?

Whatever created that big bang is marked as a point in time in which there is a before and an after. Alan Lightman writes in Einstein’s Dreams that time is a human perception and that it may exist in 30 formats other than the linear format we know on Earth. In Lightman’s novel, the various creative time format possibilities affected humans differently depending on the format. If time was circular, then humans acted differently because they knew they would be in the same time-space whenever the cycle started over again. The three NOVA films in “The Elegant Universe” series describe Einstein’s theories of string energy, the 11th dimension, and time-space. I think Einstein was special – he shared his knowledge about the universe, matter, energy, and gravity – important information for the human race. He was a creative, forward-thinking person who developed a Quantum theory which explained light as photon particles and later as waves. He explained that our universe is constructed of energy and matter. He also devised mathematical formulas that included computations for atom/molecule size. Einstein contributed the theories of E=mc2 and relativity / gravity. The significance of Einstein’s contributions include acknowledgment of cause and effect and the dualities of nature.

The time-space frame that came after the big bang is what scientists are able to study; presently, there is no evidence of time and space prior to the big bang, but opinions on time-space and the creation of the universe are altered with new scientific discoveries. Technological innovations, along with creative thinking, provide humans with tools such as the Hubble telescope with which to study the

universe. There are no eye witnesses to the big bang, yet theorists have outlined a creation theory which states that shortly after the big bang the universe started to expand, which it still does to this day. The early expansion altered the mass of matter and energy that resulted from the big bang into different masses influenced by gravity. Some masses formed stars which then formed galaxies. Earth appeared around our sun about 4.6 billion years ago and complicated, complex flows of energy formed and eventually life appeared 3.5 billion years ago. Modern humans appeared 250,000 years ago at which time began a process known as collective learning. I think it is important to know about the creation

of the universe and the appearance of life in order to learn what purpose humans have in the universe.

What can we learn about our purpose in the universe from looking at patterns and evolution?

Global Past, Global Present has introduced concepts on the patterns and evolution of human existence and the universe. Eric Chaisson, in “Follow the Energy,” describes these concepts as the study of cosmic evolution and that Big History “is a grand evolutionary synthesis bridging a wide variety of scientific specialties-physics, astronomy, geology, chemistry, biology, and anthropology, among others – a genuine narrative of epic proportions extending from the beginning of time to the present, from big bang to humankind, from formless simplicity to organized complexity” (1). The complexity of living organisms, both plant and animal, are more complex than stars. Brains are the most complex systems in the universe.

As complexity increases, so does the flow of energy in that system. We also have to consider evolution in terms of society and culture. The energy consumption of humans has increased as society has increased in complexity, from the energy-rate density of hunter-gatherers to agriculturists to industrialists. Spier states that the survival of living organisms – human, plant and animal – “will depend directly on the ways humans will handle the available matter and energy flows, both in a biological and cultural sense, while preserving complexity on the Earth to the extent that it will provide sufficient room for us to survive and, if possible, reproduce” (20). The survival instinct in humans has continued through the evolution process. Bruce Bower writes about John Hawks who is one of those forward-thinking people who have shed new light on earlier evolutionary beliefs, “His findings challenge the influential idea that the way humans now talk emerged full-blown about 50,000 years ago thanks to a single genetic mutation that improved vocal articulation. Hawks’ results instead play into a growing appreciation that rapid population growth toward the end of the Stone Age, followed by the rise of agriculture and village life around 10,000 years ago, triggered cultural changes that prompted genetic accommodations” (25).

How have humans affected the environment in the agrarian, industrial and modern eras?

From agriculture to industrial to the modern era, humans have learned to extract energy from the environment. Jaman Matthew writes about integrated farming and the importance of replenishing the resources we use: “In its simplest form, the integrated system is a simple circle beginning and ending with grass (or similar feed). The grass feeds the dairy cow, which in turn provides milk and manure. The milk is a source of nutrition and income for the family. The farmer returns the manure to the field to fertilize the grass” (2007). I think that studying the patterns of energy may help scientists invent or discover a new source of energy to replace the depleted fossil energy sources of this planet. Finding new sources of energy is an example of how humans use creative thinking and technology to uncover or create solutions to life threatening problems. Without a source of energy to run our machinery, much of our way of life would cease to exist. If there were no fuels in existence to run our cars, we would need to come up with a new fuel source. Likewise, as stewards of each other and the planet, we need to protect our water and food sources.

How does the planet’s structure affect human existence?

Scientists have collected supporting evidence about life’s mysteries for hundreds of years using the tools available to them and then shared that knowledge. Scientific information shared may or may not be helpful, or even seem relevant, to human survival. The study of plate tectonics is a great example of how information can be gathered and shared in our quest to better understand our planet. The Paleomap Project offers interactive lessons about plate tectonics on its Web site. I’ve mentioned plate tectonics here because of its role in our planet’s biodiversity, climate differences and human survival. If I hadn’t taken this course I may not have known the relevance of or connected plate tectonics to human survival. It is this type of discovery that excites me and that I feel is worthy of sharing with others.

What can we learn about our purpose from comparing humans and animals?

It is important to acknowledge that scientific facts are subject to change as new tools find new ways of exploring our existence. In “One World, Many Minds: Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom,” Paul Patton writes about research, evolution and the complexity of human brains: “Over the past 30 years… research in comparative neuroanatomy clearly has shown that complex brains—and sophisticated cognition—have evolved from simpler brains multiple times independently in separate lineages, or evolutionarily related groups” (72). I feel that the distinction between living organisms becomes blurred when looking at them on a large scale. Our DNA comes from stardust. Stardust created our planet from which we draw sustenance into our bodies. In “No Brainer Behavior,” Susan Milius personifies plants and their survival instincts that are programmed into their DNA. This course has shown me that we can study things up close – on a small scale – or zoom outward and look at things on a large scale. DNA is on a small scale. The time has come to look at each other as one human race and not at our different skin colors, languages, religions, geography. The distance between geographic locations has shrunk due to technological advances in communication and travel and thus the human race belongs to a global village. The challenge to discovering the purpose of life is like playing a game of chess as in the film The Seventh Seal. The movements of the playing pieces represent the masculine/feminine, yin/yang, and other dualities found in the universe. I think that like knowing how to play chess, it is important to know the cause and effect of our actions for survival.

Does it matter from where our sources of enlightenment come?

The survival-themed movies that come out of Hollywood, such as The Day After Tomorrow, are not classified as scientific documentaries; however, it is my opinion that movies like this have the potential for putting important issues in front of a large mainstream audience. By using movies to dramatize catastrophic issues such as global warming, people who otherwise would not get this knowledge through reading or in a classroom, have opportunities to learn what’s happening or could happen to our world. In addition to movies, the Internet is another element of new media that offers a channel of information. This course was taught online and many of the course assignments were articles or videos obtained online. The NOVA film, Einstein’s Big Idea, about physicist Lise Meitner, and which I viewed online, highlights the struggles – and perseverance – one person went through in regards to ethics in the scientific process. People who have devoted their lives to a cause have established models for others to follow or from which to learn. Edward Wilson spoke of the accumulation and sharing of information in his speech that was excerpted in the article “Protect biodiversity hot spots and the rest will follow.” Wilson states that it is important to record every living organism in a computer-based resource such as Encyclopedia of Life because “This will open research everywhere in the world, even in developing countries and so on, by giving access to what otherwise you would not have been able to get without visiting the museums, without getting the specimens, without going through the libraries, and working laboriously alone.”

Do grassroots efforts make a difference?

Through this course, I have learned the importance of grassroots activism as well as the benefits of joining the organization of a good cause. The World Social Forum’s Charter of Principles includes this statement: “The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth.” When I read The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire by Khassan Baiev, the heinous images of war described by Baiev caused me to wonder how the DNA of the human race could evolve and become embodied in such savages as he described. I felt the same about the people responsible for human rights violations as described in “ Chechnya, the Caucasus, & World Justice” by Barry Rodrigue et al. I wonder if, as written about by Harvey Pekar and Heather Roberson in the graphic novel, Macedonia, the world will see other nations and organizations use peace as a war-preventative as the U.N. and NATO did in the early days of conflict between different ethnic groups in Macedonia.

In conclusion, my plan is to continue to be aware of information like that found in the course Global Past, Global Present – the theories behind the creation of the universe, studies on the elements, time-space, gravity, living organisms – so as to stay up-to-date on the newest discoveries. It is important to look at the world at both small and large scales to see patterns and possible solutions to global issues among the human race and the environment. It is important to know about time-space, quantum physics, gravity and the elements to further understand cause and effect between humans in the agrarian, industrial and modern eras. This knowledge will give us clues as to how we can replenish our living planet. Any source of information is better than not knowing; upon learning about a new discovery that will affect our universe and/or the human race, it is our responsibility to take a critical look at scholarly resources for more information. It is up to each one of us to contribute to the health of this planet and grassroots efforts can produce results. Creative solutions sometimes come about from using technology for purposes other than the original intention. Like the creative, forward-thinking people who have shared their knowledge and thoughts about issues relevant to Big History, I want to steward the human race in the same manner.

References

Baiev, K. (2003). The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire. New York: Walker.

Bergman, I. (1957). The Seventh Seal. Sweden.

Bower, B. (2008). Evolution’s Ear [Electronic version]. Science News 174 (5). 22-25.

Chaisson, E. (2005). Follow the Energy: Relevance of Cosmic Evolution for Human History [Electronic version]. Historically Speaking 6 (5).

Christian, D. (2004). Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Ellis, G. (2005). Physics, Complexity and Causality [Electronic version]. Nature, 435. 743.

Encyclopedia of Life at http://www.eol.org/

Harper, A. (Director). (2004). Parts 1-3: Origins: Earth is Born. Origins: How Life Began [Television broadcast]. NOVA: PBS.

Johnstone, G. (2005). Einstein’s Big Idea [Television broadcast]. NOVA: PBS.

Lightman, A. (1993). Einstein’s Dreams. New York: Random House.

Matthew, J. (2007). Coming Full Circle: Integrated Farming in Vietnam [Electronic version]. World Ark. 6-19. http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.2877337/#

McMaster, J. (2003). The Elegant Universe, Part 1. Einstein’s Dream [Television broadcast]. NOVA: PBS.

Milius, S. (2009). No Brainer Behavior [Electronic version]. Science News, 175 (13). 16-19.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2009). Hubble Space Telescope. Retrieved October 5, 2009 from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html.

PALEOMAP Project. (2002). Retrieved September 17, 2009 from http://www.scotese.com/climate.htm.

Patton, P. (2008). One World, Many Minds [Electronic version]. Scientific American, 19 (6). 72- 79 (e-reserve).

Pekar, H., Roberson, H., & Piskor, E. (2007). Macedonia. New York: Villard.

Rodrigue, B., Lawless, G., et al. (2008). Chechnya, the Caucasus, & World Justice. Lewiston: International Student Organization of Lewiston-Auburn.

Russell, C. (2009). First wave. 175(5), Science News. Retrieved from

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/40789/title/First_wave

Spier, F. (2005). “How Big History Works: Energy Flows and the Rise and Demise of Complexity.” Social Evolution & History 4 (1). 1-23. http://usm.maine.edu/lac/global/bighistory/

Wilson, E. (2008). Protect biodiversity hot spots and the rest will follow [Electronic version]. Science News. 32.

World Social Forum at http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/index.php?cd_language=2&id_menu=

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Human rights violations

I wrote the following commentary for an assignment, but I want to stress that whether or not human rights violations occur in Chechnya or Mexico or Macedonia, the point of this assignment was to come up with global solutions, if at all possible. I am very interested in your comments. You can post them here or e-mail me at DeniseScammon@gmail.com. Thanks for your time.

I chose Adam to interview about his thoughts and opinions on The Oath by K. Baiev, the film “Crying Sun,” and Dr. Rodrigue’s booklet on Chechnya because Adam has either suggested books to read that we read in class – before I even took this course – or when I told him what I was reading or what film/video I was watching for this course, he had already read/watched the same (Einstein’s Dreams, The Seventh Seal). He’s an entrepreneur from New York, living in Freeport, working in Falmouth. His work is about creating computer programs that take into account the way people will get their news in the future. He is forward-thinking and a solution-driven person.

We first talked about human rights violations in Chechnya as documented in the film, “Crying Sun.” About the forced disappearances of people in Chechnya, Adam notes that what is reported is only the tip of the iceberg and we may never see accurate figures or actual figures will only be revealed in the far future. When no one can be held accountable for these disappearances, when trials come to nothing, no charges, then a sense of futility grows along with the fear of retribution. It seems as though the changes that need to take place are in the laws holding people accountable for their actions and providing protection for the people who bring charges against the groups responsible for the disappearances.

My opinion on a solution to prevent future forced disappearances lies in the checkpoints that Dr. Baiev wrote about in The Oath. The people working at those checkpoints are either legally working for the government or they are not. The checkpoints should be scrutinized. I realize the need for checkpoints, but it appears that this is one of the major locations for forced disappearances. Also, documents can be forged to make the checkpoint guards seem like legal representatives of the government, but perhaps there is a technological solution to discovering forged documents, like eye scans or something similarly innovative.

A few of my favorite quotes from The Oath: “Everyone worried about the kind of world our children would grow up in” and “War is a terrible thing” (90-91). One of my favorite passages is when Baiev comes up with a solution to help the poor receive needed medical treatments. Baiev’s idea is to give “a well-off patient a list of hospital supplies for his or her treatment, followed by a request to triple the amount” (92). This is the same idea as providing equal access to resources for everyone.

I described to Adam the theme of the booklet, “Chechnya, the Caucasus, & World Justice,” by Barry Rodrigue et al: human rights abuses caused by the forceable confiscation, for profit, of another’s resources. Russia became dependent on the income generated by the commercial oil wells in the Grozny area. Only through war and oppression has Russia managed to keep control of that revenue. About a solution, Rodrigue wrote that what is needed to restore peace is “The empowerment of common people by grassroots activism and democratic reform, establishment of an impartial court system, civic oversight and regulation of the economy, and international cooperation, especially in the area of human rights” (11).

We discussed grassroots activism and the need for transparency in where funding comes from for the projects of activists. There’s an independent group with the acronym FEWER (Forum on Early Warning and Early Response http://www.fewer-international.org/pages/eurasia/ ) which “has identified six directions for promoting economic development, dismantling the war economy, and promoting security. These are: to initiate and coordinate reconstruction efforts, to initiate efforts for a political settlement, to promote the transparency of efforts for a political settlement with media participation, to ensure Chechnya’s autonomy, to protect and meet the basic needs of Chechen refugees and displaced persons, and to strengthen law enforcement and the protection of rights in the republic” (FPIF). All six directions are equally important.

The latest news just 11 days ago is that terrorism is still striking fear in Chechnya and the Caucasus region: “Across Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan and Karabino-Balkaria, Islamist fighters are waging a violent struggle to overthrow their local and federal rulers” (Guardian News). What can the global community do to restore peace in Chechnya and the Caucasus region? I think an international group should oversee Russian security in the region and help Chechens establish a political voice.

Baiev, K. (2004). The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire. New York: Walker Publishing.

Foreign Policy in Focus. http://www.fpif.org/selfdetermination/conflicts/chechen.html

Guardian News. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/29/north-caucasus-chechnya-russia- muslims

Mukusheva, S. (dir.). (2007). Crying Sun: The Impact of War in the Mountains of Chechnya. Witness. New York.

Rodrigue, B. and others. (2008). Chechnya, the Caucasus & World Justice. Lewiston:

International Student Organizations of Lewiston-Auburn and others.

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Government: Big brother control

Government: Big brother control

By Denise Scammon

According to Christian (2004) in Maps of Time, Malthusian cycles, in which population growth outpaced agricultural production, were followed by the appearance of capitalism in exchange networks; however, the tributary system remained dominant. Technological innovations increased agricultural production and steam engines in factories increased industrial production. The use of fossil fuels was an outcome of industrial growth which came with a transformation in government to protect wealth, “resources and political support” (437). Since the 18th century, “government began reaching into the daily lives of a majority of its subjects, concerning itself with their education, health, and attitudes” (438). I think the government has become too invasive and controlling in some aspects and that we are losing personal freedom. For example, government doesn’t want populations wiped out by disease such as we saw in the film, The Seventh Seal, and so government mandates vaccinations. However, the validity of some vaccinations is questionable.

Science has been an important factor since the 18th century as the foundation on which technological innovations are based. Access to science/technology separates the affluent from the poor and quality of life. The Modern Revolution in the 20th century brought the greatest changes to human history, including living standards in industrialized, capitalist regions. Not all progress is positive – destructive changes took place in other regions of the world, such as Communist nations, that “destroyed traditional lifeways” (463). In the early days of technological innovation, who could have known that disasters, such as the Bhopal gas leak, lay ahead in the future? Twenty-five years after the Union Carbide homicides of innocent people, have we learned how to prevent similar disasters from happening again?

No one can predict the future with 100% certainty because of unknown factors, but historians can look at patterns and discover future probabilities. Humans continue to increase their impact on the biosphere – “humans began to live beyond sustainable limits… and [this century] will stand out on the scale of planetary history” (463). Trends from the big bang theory and the expansion of the universe show, “The Sun and solar system will die within 4 billion years, but the universe will survive much longer” (491). If humans continue to abuse the planet, and each other, future generations will inherit a barbaric wasteland. We need to be aware of “global sustainability of the environment” and a global economy “to raise the living conditions of the poor” (490). Technological trends point to a future of humans living on planets other than Earth and greater use of genetics. Does that mean human clones will inhabit our future living space? Will humans become a disease-free race?

In “Globalization From Below,” the discussion is about resistance and solidarity. The overall image is of a huge discrepancy in the quality of life among humans. On planet Earth live people at one end of the scale who have access to more resources than they could ever use and on the other end of the scale we have poor, impoverished people who die because they lack access to food, shelter, water and other basic human needs. There are many other important problems discussed, but equal access to resources for all of humanity should be top priority. Some of the other problems discussed included “environmental destruction, warfare, animal rights” (213), all of which have aroused grassroots efforts to find solutions to these global problems. The chapter also describes levels of activism and the value of participating in forums and organizations – or watching the actions of those organizations – such as the World Social Forum.

After reading the assigned articles in New Internationalist (a magazine which strikes a chord with me because the writers get at the gist of problems in lay terms with researched information that can be easily shared with others) on “Cotton: The Peril and the Promise,” “Crisis! Crisis!,” “State of the World’s Oceans,” and Cristine Russell’s “First Wave,” regarding cotton, food, ocean/water, global warming, I then watched Crying Sun, Missing Lives, and finished reading The Oath. I think that the human rights violations – taking care of humans – should be our top priority. The same people who are enforcing the disappearances of Chechens are also hoarders of resources that should be available to all people no matter what their affluence. Take away the power of the politicians and government bodies that allow atrocities against humanity to continue and replace them with a democracy that values human life. Statistics from PRB show that the estimated population growth in 2050 will increase in developing countries while developed countries will see a drop in growth. I wonder if we can use our collective learning, our knowledge of cycles, hierarchies, politics and economics to benefit developing countries – and mankind.

References

(2007). Cotton: The Peril and the Promise. New Internationalist 399. 2–21.

(2007). State of the World’s Oceans. New Internationalist 397. 2–27.

(2008). Crisis! Crisis! New Internationalist 418. 4–31.

(2008). World Population Data Sheet. Population Reference Bureau.

(2009). Students for Bhopal. International Coalition for Justice in Bhopal. Http://www.studentsforbhopal.org.

Baiev, K. (2003). The oath: A surgeon under fire. New York: Walker & Co.

Bergman, I. (dir.) (1957). The seventh seal. Sweden: Svensk Filmindustrie.

Christian, D. (2004). Maps of Time. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Conway, D. & Heynen, N., eds. (2006). Globalization From Below. Globalization’s Contradictions: Geographies of Discipline, Destruction and Transformation. London: Routledge. 212-225.

Mukusheva, R. (dir.). Crying sun: the impact of war in the mountains of Chechnya. (2007). New York: Witness. http://video.google.com/videoplaydocid=7461310615958353648&ei= m28IS4GYLYydlAeW84W6Dg&q=crying+sun&client=firefox-a

Russell, C. (2009). First wave. Science News. 175(5). Retrieved 28 Nov. 2009 from http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/40789/title/First_wave

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Choosing: Passing or Resistance

Choosing: Passing or resistance

By Denise Scammon

While living in America with her light-skinned father, protagonist Clare Savage, of Michelle Cliff’s novel, No Telephone to Heaven, comes to the realization that for her to pass as white means to denounce her mother’s black heritage. The reader gets glimpses of the slowly building solidarity between Savage and her mother’s heritage, such as when her father declares her as white when enrolling her in school in America. On another occasion, she becomes engrossed with why people can not understand that the differences between classes, races and religions often lead to violence, such as church bombings. Instances of differences such as these reveal the dual identities that Savage harbors – one of her father’s whiteness and one of her mother’s creole Caribbean heritage. Savage’s choice to ultimately join the resistance movement as a black woman is foreshadowed midway through the novel when the reader learns that her father is fearful of her attachment to her mother’s heritage and “Should a newscast refer to the ‘burgeoning civil rights movement,’ her father took care to distract her…. Not realizing his daughter could hold two things in her mind at once” (103). Woven throughout the novel are bits and pieces of background information that link Savage to both her mother and her grandmother. The mother’s reminders, in letters to Savage, that she “never forget who your people are” (103). The inheritance of her grandmother’s land. Both of these instances offer Savage the opportunity to return to Jamaica to live as a creole hybrid among people oppressed by a postcolonial culture in which skin color means the difference between power and servitude. The novel opens in medias res leaving the reader to piece together the importance of the opening scene which is revealed at the end of the novel.

Question: What are Clare Savage’s objectives in joining the guerrilla group? From the information given to the reader, is joining the guerrilla group a believable move for Savage to make?

Relating The Seventh Seal to Big History

Image via Wikipedia

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhm54zt9_84g8ff2wd6

Plague mentality through the centuries

* The symbolism and representations of reality found in the film, The Seventh Seal, offer insight into human history and make this an apt film for Global Past, Global Present studies. For example, in the film, the Plague in the Middle Ages was greatly feared because there was no known cure and the best course of action was to avoid people who had the disease. This was true in life.

* Because of the Plague, travelers and traders avoided contact in diseased areas which caused a shift in demographics. Populations became decimated in some areas, thus reducing the strength of those civilizations – economics, government, religions.

* Also found in the film are symbols in the form of characters: Death, Antonius Block as a seeker of Truth, Jof as the Soul of Man, Karin as the Lamb who opens the Seventh Seal, and others.

* There is much we can learn from the symbols of our Global Past to make our Global Future a safe and secure one. Whether we use this symbolic information to benefit all of mankind remains to be seen.

“When regions previously isolated from each other came into regular contact, they swapped diseases. And this exchange could prove devastating in regions that lacked the necessary immunities. For a time, plagues and epidemics could reverse or slow population growth on both sides of the old epidemiological frontier” (Christian, 2004, p. 315).

The above quote from Christian is used as a blanket statement to represent the individual countries and civilizations that were affected by the diseases which they came into contact with due to increased trade and travel to: Afro-Eurasia, China, India, and the Mediterranean.

POWER, ECONOMICS, INTELLECTUALISM, RELIGION

Demographics changed, followed by the loss of power of some states due to reduced economics. Powerful, intellectual civilizations, such as the Roman Empire, were adversely affected by diseases. Religions were also affected.

From the film, “The Seventh Seal”

Scene between the two male actors. JOF wondered if their play should be bawdy instead of about death to which SKAT replied: “Idiot. There’s a rumor going around that there’s a terrible pestilence in the land, and now the priests are prophesying sudden death and all sorts of spiritual agonies.”

Scene between Squire Jons and a mural painter at the church.

JONS: “The plague. That sounds horrible.”

PAINTER: “You should see the boils on a diseased man’s throat. You should see how his body shrivels up so that his legs look like knotted strings — like the man I’ve painted over there. (a small human form writhing in the grass, its eyes turned upwards in a frenzied look of horror and pain.) He tries to rip out the boil, he bites his hands, tears his veins open with his fingernails and his screams can be heard everywhere…. The remarkable thing is that the poor creatures think the pestilence is the Lord’s punishment. Mobs of people who call themselves Slaves of Sin are swarming over the country, flagellating themselves and others, all for the glory of God.”

KEY POINTS: These scenes represent increased contact between civilizations due to the expansion of trade routes resulting in the exchange of information… and rumors. It is interesting to note that, due to superstitions, people blamed the cause of the plague on their own sinfulness.

Sanitation problems. Bacteria carried by global fleas and rats. Public health policies created.

“Plague first appeared in Roman Europe in the sixth century under the Emperor Justinian as sanitation systems of the ancient world decayed. Later, as the caravans made their way along the Silk Routes of Asia in the 14th century they took with them yerisnsa pestis, a plague-causing bacteria carried by fleas and the rats on which they lived. Yet another theory puts the fleas on ships and sailors entering Black Sea ports from the East…. these first tentacles of globalization were the source of the ‘Black Death’ that swept the then-known world from Indochina to Northern Europe. Millions died, particularly in the crowded, unsanitary conditions of the newly chartered towns. In response, the first rudimentary measures of public health were created: ship inspections, quarantine, leprosariums, mass burials. In the following centuries, as global commerce and conquest spread, infectious diseases hitchhiked along, with devastating consequences for the indigenous populations of the Americas and the South Pacific. A radical change in people’s circumstances – contact with outsiders, changing climate, expulsion from land, altered diet, hard wage labour or urbanization – added stress factors and increased vulnerability to disease” (Health Hazard, 2001).

(2001). Health Hazard [Electronic Version]. New Internationalist, 331. http://www.newint.org/issue331/history.htm

* “‘UNCLEAN, unclean,’ the leper mumbled and rang his bell. The cowled figure tapped out a tattoo to accompany the cry that rang through the Dark Ages of Europe. Society demanded this warning, on pain of death. And both peasant and lord shrank back, ostracizing an illness they didn’t understand and couldn’t cure.

* “The mysticism, xenophobia and prejudice of the Middle Ages are well-known. They define the plague mentality. Quarantine, historically a part of this mentality, is still appealing in some quarters as a draconian way of limiting AIDS transmission. In its late 14th-century form it decreed isolation of the plague victims for quaranta giorni (40 days) from which our modem word comes.

* “During the Great Plague of London in 1665, a red cross and the words ‘May God have mercy on us,’ marked the houses of plague victims forcibly imprisoned. This solution was not universally admired. The courageous apothecary William Boghurst (who stayed tending the sick while others, including Charles II, fled the city) wrote, ‘As soon as any house is infected all the sound people should be had out of it, and not shut up therein to be murdered’” (Gregg, 1987).

Book of Revelations 8:1

“And when the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of the trees was burnt up and all the green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and a third part of the sea became blood…. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood …”

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Battered agriculture

Battered agriculture: Complexities of food production

By Denise Scammon

 

The rise of agriculture parallels the growth of complexity in the social organization of human civilization. In Maps of Time (2004), David Christian details a timeline that states early forms of agriculture appeared between 10,000-5,000 years ago, during the Holocene era, and that “there are early signs of complexity and hierarchy, as large communities require new, more complex forms of organization” (p. 501). State systems and social hierarchies developed in the early agrarian era for agrarian communities to exchange farming products with nomadic foragers who survived as hunter-gatherers, and, later, with traders. The transition from a nomadic existence to agrarian occurred over several thousand years. As agrarian communities spread and took over fertile lands for crops, foragers were squeezed into smaller parcels of lands, and social hierarchies became more complex and multi-layered with the top layers extracting resources from the labor of workers in the bottom layers.

 

Those farmers who were able to extract more resources from their environments stood a better chance of surviving than did foragers. About 5,000 years ago, according to Christian, “powerful elites [controlled] resources through tribute-taking” (2004, p. 501). Over time, the power within agrarian communities became lopsided as farmers with a good harvest reinvested their profits by expanding their control over more farm land and implementing the latest farm technology to garner even better yields. Farmers with a poor crop harvest dropped from the top layers of the social hierarchy to one of the bottom layers – they became employees rather than employers – in order to survive. As this cycle repeated, there were fewer small-scale farmers in the top layers. Christian states that “for most of the agrarian era, the balance of power between agrarian civilizations and other communities was much less uneven than it has been in the modern era… casualties of the Modern Revolution” (2004, pp. 341-342).

 

The Modern Revolution brought with it accelerated population growth and yet more complexity to the organizational layers of human civilization. Christian explains that, “Instead of living on the land and producing their own food… typical modern households live in urban environments where they earn incomes through some form of wage work and buy food produced by others” (2004, p. 348). Industrialization became part of the global economy and offered new sources of income for non-farmers. As the global economy fluctuates, farmers are often forced to sell out to greedy biotechnology companies. These companies have a stronghold on the agricultural community because these companies not only sell the crop seeds, but they also sell fertilizers and weed killers. Often these three products – the seeds, fertilizers and weed killers – are patented; purchasing the seeds means you must purchase the fertilizers and weed killers for the seeds to germinate and grow. Legislation has been impotent in protecting the farmer against the constricting power of the monopoly created by these giant biotechnology companies. Giant corporations – the top layer – can easily invest millions of dollars in the research and development of their own products, making it harder for the small-scale farmers – bottom layer – to compete. Christian states, “Productivity in agriculture has crossed the decisive threshold beyond which a minority on the land can support a majority off the land” (2004, p. 346). These companies hold the power over the foods that make it to market.

 

As a member of society who purchases food produced by others, the power of a few companies to determine what foods are available for my consumption worries me. Permaculture may be a simple solution in the future to the complex problems associated with the state of agriculture today. According to David Ransom in his essay, “Edible Earth,” the production of farm crops today uses “a third of all the vanishing, non-renewable energy” found on this planet. Not only that, but Ransom also states that the food produced is partially wasted and whole regions of society are starving to death (2007, p. 4). By incorporating permaculture into every aspect of technologies that sustain life, it stands to reason that humans can create sustainable, efficient methods of farming. In Jaman Matthew’s article, “Coming Full Circle: Integrated Farming in Vietnam,” the theme of efficiency continues – every inch of land and water is used, and nothing goes to waste in integrated agriculture. Farmers “reduce expenses and increase productivity by finding multiple uses for everything including fields, crops, animals and water.” Unlike industrial agriculture which is linear, integrated agriculture connects the inputs and outputs inherent in agriculture.

 

Oil is an agricultural input. An emerging crisis in agricultural production is the looming oil crisis as outlined in the film, A Crude Awakening, directed by Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack. The oil crisis threatens agricultural production because of the industry’s dependence on oil-run machinery. The film explores the worldwide catastrophe and collapse facing industries that run on oil and that includes agriculture. According to experts interviewed for the film, there is nothing – not a single resource – presently available to replace oil in the quantities needed to run our modern, industrialized world. Permaculture and integrated farming may be solutions that start on a small-scale and, according to experts, it is important to start making changes in our oil-dependency now before the world’s oil supplies are depleted.

 

From the film, A Crude Awakening, we learned that oil is a magnet for war. The authors of Chechnya, the Caucasus & World Justice (2008) write that “Chechens provide produce from their warm and fertile homelands for public markets… with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and petroleum use, the Caucasus became an important part of the modern world.” In a region that bases its prosperity on commercial oil, Grozny became linked by a “network of pipelines and highways” to all areas of the Middle East, Russia and Central Asia. As an example of complex social organization, countries dependent on the resources of Chechnya – particularly oil – were opposed to its declaration of sovereignty. “In order to fund their newly proclaimed nation, the Chechens began selling their oil outside of the Russian market. All this contributed to the Russian invasion of Chechnya in 1994” (pp. 7-10). In The Oath: Surgeon Under Fire, Khassan Baiev writes about the Russian bombs that decimated Grozny, “The first ones had been directed at strategic targets on the outskirts of the city such as factories, bridges, and oil refineries” (2003, p. 95). Macedonia, after its secession from Yugoslavia, accepted help from NATO and the United Nations to prevent civil war. In Macedonia: What does it take to stop a war? the authors write that after giving up its army, Macedonia “took a leap of faith that the international community would help protect its fragile peace” (p. 153). The complexities of social structures dictate control over resources and, where there is a lack of trust among the countries involved in that control, an outside entity forcing cooperation is what is needed to keep the peace, as NATO/UN did for Macedonia. Great benefits to mankind would be the result of peaceful relations among nations and working together to solve global problems that result from unequal access to, overuse and mismanagement of our resources by a few.

 

There are many examples of the abuse of our natural resources including that of two groups: the World Bank and IMF, which are pushing deregulation and privatization of water services so as to put control of the access to water in the hands of transnational companies looking to make a profit from water services, according to the series of articles found in Water: Every Drop Counts. The film Flow: For Love of Water, describes threats to the global water supplies: overuse, drought, pollution, privatization and unequal access. Pollutants find their way into our drinking water in the U.S. where we have the technology, money and intelligence to know the effects of these chemicals in our water. According to Fred Spier in “How Big History Works: Energy Flows and the Rise and Demise of Complexity,” humans have always used resources found in the environment, but today’s humans also create waste matter that is not biodegradable; the low levels of radiation energy created by humans has always been dispersed in the “cosmic trash can,” but the “material entropy” created by humans today cannot be disposed of in the same manner (p. 12).

 

The film, The Future of Food, has examples of the misuse of resources that destroy complexity in nature including the implementation of new agricultural technologies – genetically engineered foods. The biotechnology companies, particularly Monsanto, have been destructive forces against nature because their GE seeds and pesticides have created a loss of complexity, increased costs, polluted environments and destroyed an American way of life – farming. We once thought that Earth was at the center of the Universe, that humans were specially created by God and that human history notes our progress, such as the development of agriculture. Jared Diamond’s essay, “The Worst Mistake in Human History,” points out that some beliefs held by humans have been proven false. Diamond’s position is that agriculture is actually the cause of “gross social and sexual inequality, disease and despotism” rather than a sign of positive progress (p. 64).

 

Unrestrained consumption of the resources on Earth has raised global concern about its impact on human survival and our ability to find alternate sources of energy. In “Protect biodiversity hot spots and the rest will follow,” Edward Wilson states that focusing on saving our physical world will not save the living organisms, but if we first focus on saving living organisms, the physical world gets saved at the same time (2008, p. 32). I think that idea stresses the precarious balance we experience through the misuse, and overuse, of our natural resources. Agriculture gave early humans food for survival, which led to population growth, which led to the development of states and complexities of social organization. The social organization is flawed in that the top layers – the most affluent – exert their power over natural resources, not for the protection of those resources, but for profit. The first losers are the bottom layers – the poor who do not have access to resources needed to survive. There is a resource imbalance among people, the affluent versus the poor, with poor people losing out, even though there are enough resources to save everyone: “The poor … have little chance to improve their lives in a devastated environment. Conversely, the natural environment where most of the biodiversity hangs on cannot survive the press of land-hungry people who have nowhere else to go.…” (Wilson, 2008, p. 32). That’s an excellent point to remember – that there are enough resources to go around.

 

 

References

Amenga-Etego, R., Godrej, D., Narain, S., Seitz, C., Stronell, J., et al. (2003). Water: Every Drop Counts [Electronic version]. New Internationalist, 354, 9–28.

Baiev, K. (2003). The Oath: Surgeon Under Fire. New York: Walker.

Christian, D. (2004). Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Diamond, J. (1987). The Worst Mistake in Human History [Electronic version]. Discover, 64–66.

Gelpke, B., McCormack, R. (Directors). (2006). A Crude Awakening [Electronic film]. Switzerland: Lava Productions.

Koons, D. (Director). (2004). The Future of Food [Electronic film]. California: Lily Films.

Matthew, J. (2007). Coming Full Circle: Integrated Farming in Vietnam [Electronic version]. World Ark, 6–19.

Pekar, H., Roberson, H., & Piskor, E. (2007). Macedonia: What does it take to stop a war? New York: Random House.

Ransom, D. (2007). Edible Earth. New Internationalist, (402), 4-5. http://search.ebscohost.com.prxy3.ursus.maine.edu

Rodrigue, B., Lawless, G., et al. (2008). Chechnya, the Caucasus, & World Justice. Lewiston: International Student Organization of Lewiston-Auburn.

Spier, F. (2005). How Big History Works: Energy Flows and the Rise and Demise of Complexity. Social Evolution & History, 4(1), 1-23.

Wilson, E. (2008). Protect biodiversity hot spots and the rest will follow [Electronic version]. Science News. 32.

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