03.01.10
Posted in Book Reviews, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History at 8:33 pm by Administrator
While we were in the Philippines we had the opportunity to visit some bookstores. One bookstore I particularly liked is called Fully Booked on Fort Bonafacio High Street. One thing I noticed there is that they seem to have a better selection of history books dealing with Asia than the bookstores I normally visit here in Los Angeles (which is understandable). There are several that I hope to be able to read, and so in the meantime, I copied the names of some titles that I want to look for later. One book, in particular, caught my attention which was called NHK-TV “Takaimura Criticality Accident” Crew, A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness.
Prior to my AA diagnosis, I was relatively oblivious to the toxins and other health hazards we are exposed to daily or as a matter of routine. As part of my quest to recover from AA, I tried to read up on various health and healing modalities. As a result, I learned about many hazards to the human body among them is radiation.
I have come to be staunchly against nuclear power because of the sheer dangers it poses to human health. What I’ve learned about radiation exposures is frightening. The power of radiation to literally destroy our bodies from the very cell structure is unbelievable. It wasn’t until I was diagnosed with AA and learned and experienced the “weird” and frightening things that can go wrong with the body did I appreciate the dangers of radiation. Unlike other toxins, our bodies don’t detox radiation. The damages radiation cause remain once it has inflicted its damage and continues to damage as it reduces the ability of healthy cells to replicate and changes healthy cells into free radicals that in turn damage more healthy cells. This is not to mention the nuclear wastes created that do not go away for centuries. Among the things I didn’t agree with Senator McCain during his Presidential run was his assertion that we should build “40″ more nuclear power plants! No way would I ever vote for someone like that. And I wasn’t too happy that Obama also didn’t want to rule out using nuclear energy and now recently even proposed a couple new plants in Georgia. Grrrrr.
Anyway, back to the purpose of my post. . . when I saw the title regarding “radiation sickness,” I wanted to read A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness. I got a copy of it last Saturday and finished reading it yesterday, Sunday. It was a quick read, but very informative. Basically, it’s the detailed story of the worst nuclear radiation accident in Japan’s history at a uranium processing facility in Takaimura. It was not a nuclear power plant like Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, which is dangerous enough, but a “processing” plant. I had wondered why I had never heard of it before, but it could have been because it happened around the same year and time I got diagnosed with AA and I was likely no longer keeping up with current events. Even so, it’s a wonder that I’ve only learned about it about 10 years after the fact. Makes me wonder about the quality of our news outlets when something so horrific is ignored or blacked out. Anyway, what happened was on September 30, 1999 two employees were filtering and pouring uranium solution into a tank when they inadvertently caused criticality. They heard a loud “smack” accompanied by a blue light known as the Cherenkov light. At that instant, neutron beams, the most powerful form of radioactive energy, pierced through their bodies. They didn’t know it at the time, but at that moment, in a matter of seconds, their days were numbered. They were dead men although they looked fine.
One might ask who in their right minds would work with such lethal substances? Well, sadly there are some, but even more disparaging is that others work with them because they do not fully understand or appreciate the dangers. Such was the case with Hisashi Ouchi, the employee who received the highest dosage of radiation that day. In the book it states that while in the hospital and still able to speak (during the first week), he was said to be very cheerful and calm. If that wasn’t enough of a tip that he didn’t quite understandwhat was in store for him he actually asked the nurse if it was possible for him to develop leukemia later. . . oye. . . In short, this guy didn’t have a clue and didn’t have time to develop leukemia. His body basically deteriorated from the inside out with each passing hour and day. The medical community did their best to deal with all the damage occurring in Ouchi’s body, but it wasn’t enough. Nothing in the medical arsenal could save Ouchi from the grueling fate he was dealt from that moment of radiation exposure. Organ after organ failed as the radiation damage ripped through his cells. When Ouchi finally died and the coroner first beheld his body, the coroner could not contain his astonishment. Here’s an excerpt from page 119:
“At first glance, Ouchi’s body was bright red, as if he had been scalded. But it differred from burnt corpses whose entire bodies were pitch black. The front side of his body, where he had apparently been irradiated, looked severely burnt. No skin remained on this side and it was smeared in blood. The back side was entirely uncolored and the skin appeared normal. There was a distinct border between the irradiated and untouched areas. Misawa had never seen such a body. . .
“. . . Organ alterations which he had never seen appeared before Misawa’s eyes.
“The intestines were swollen and looked like a writhing serpent. There was 2,040 g of blood in his stomach and 2,680 g in his intestines. It was obvious that the gastrointestines had not been functioning.
“Every mucus membrane in his body had disappeared. In addition to the mucus membranes in the intestines and other parts of the gastrointestinal tract, mucus membranes in the trachea had also disappeared.
“Hematopoietic stem cells that ought to be in the bone marrow could not be found either. [Neither Ouchi's or his sister's transplanted cells] Areas with active cell division are known to be sensitive to radiation and susceptible to damage. Tissue such as mucus membranes and bone marrow had been severely damaged.
“What most astonished Misawa was the muscle cells, normally thought to be the least susceptible to radiation damage. Ouchi’s muscle cells had lost most of their fiber and only the cell membrane remained.
“There was only one organ with vivid red muscle cells which had remained intact.
“It was the heart.
“Only the muscle cells of the heart had not been destroyed.”
Death by radiation exposure is no cake walk. There is much pain and suffering involved.
Shogo Misawa, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Tsukuba was the lead coroner who dissected Ouchi’s body. His philosophy regarding dissection is that no one wants to be dissected, but his job is to carry out forensic autopsies. So it’s up to him to listen to what each body is trying to tell them. As a coroner, his task is to observe and record what they see and lend their ears to that person’s voice. Misawa thought that from the pitiful condition of Ouchi’s body it appeared that Ouchi had lived with all his might. And from Ouchi’s heart, the only internal organ that remained vividly intact, Misawa said he received Ouchi’s message that he wanted to continue living. Another message the Misawa believes he received from dissecting Ouchi’s body is about radiation. Misawa is quoted on page 121:
“I think there was one other thing that Mr. Ouchi wanted to tell us. It was about radiation, something invisible and without smell that most people don’t consider a risk. But look at what it did to me. Why did I have to change so much? I was so young, why did I have to die? I want everyone to think about this. Looking at his heart I couldn’t help but think: That’s Mr. Ouchi’s message.
“As an expert witness, Misawa is usually not permitted to give the details of an autopsy. However, he felt compelled to transmit the message he heard from Ouchi’s body.
“Radiation damage destroys the human body from the inside out.
“The effect of radiation had extended to every corner of the body.”
I highly recommend reading A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness. Especially in light of the current push to revive nuclear energy we all must educate ourselves so that at least if we choose for or against nuclear power, it will be an educated choice. The consequences are too severe to remain willfully ignorant.
Marlakins
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09.04.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History, Uncategorized at 10:34 am by Administrator
The Skull Measurer’s Mistake by Sven Lindqvist is a short, but interesting book dealing with racism in history. Lindqvist writes that, “The history of racism is not only about racists. Throughout history there have also been people who have seen through the errors of racists and protested against their abuses. This book is about some of those people.” In keeping with Lindqvist’s writing style in Exterminate All the Brutes, Lindqvist writes in an easy to follow and straightforward narrative. He quotes many people in history including the references from where those quotes and ideas come in reference to the climate of the times. Once again, he has taught me much more about our history, particularly in light of racism. Understanding racism a bit better helps me to recognize it more easily when I see it. Many racist ideas and terminologies have continued to carry on in our world today and is more evident now that we currently have an African-American president.
I grew up hearing the terms “white people,” “black people,” “brown people,” “yellow people,” and “red people.” It was normal for me to hear that when referring to different people of different ethnicities. However, when I met Brian, he didn’t like it when I used those terms. He would tell me he didn’t know what I was talking about. He asked me how did I judge or know who was white or black? People can be mixed (and more often than not are), but it’s not always evident. But most of all, the reason he didn’t like those terms were because he believed they were racist terms used primarily for slavery. And it has only been relatively recent that I find that I’ve been somewhat confused about the term “racism,” too. And upon reading the news recently regarding issues dealing with Sotomayor and Obama, I’m seeing that many other people are also confused by the terms racist/racism and ethnic or ethnicity, etc. Sadly, I’ve only seriously examined racism more recently as I’ve been reading about Africa and our history of colonialization. And now after reading Sven Lindqvist’s books, The Skull Measurer’s Mistake and Exterminate All the Brutes, it has been made much more clear how those terms of skin color have been used throughout history to create a system by which anyone other than “white” aka the “superior class” naturally would and could be subjugated by inherent right. Terms separating the colors of people were fabricated to justify colonialization and subjugation by various Europeans. People other than white were considered less than human, less intellectual, barbaric and unfeeling, no different from animals. However, as Lindqvist (and even Brian) pointed out, it’s very subjective how one is deemed either white or “non-white.” This becomes more evident when we look at the history of how the Jews were looked upon as well as the Irish, the Egyptians, the Armenians and Turks, the Boers, and many other ethnic groups. It becomes much more difficult to determine who among them were white or black (non-white) solely by looking at their skin color, yet amongst the subjugators, they were not all looked upon as white, but rather inferior and even given labels such as “white negroes.” Today we see it termed “white trash,” and other names. The terms live on, and we use them today unwittingly further validating that such designations truly exist, and are even “neutral” to describe a people. They are not neutral and I see now, more than ever how it is a mistake for us to continue using those terms. We do not have a black president, we have an African-American president. Black is a racist term, African-American is the proper designation of his ethnic heritage. And for those who said during the election that Obama isn’t black, but Muslim when referring to his ethnicity, well that was really messed up because the term Muslim isn’t an ethnic term either, but a term used to denote religious affiliation, not ethnic affiliation. From reading comments online, I see that there is a lot of confusion out there.
In discussing the issue with the Jews in Germany, Lindqvist wrote,
“Those who captured Alsace-Lorraine from France in 1870 are now applying their racial theories to the French Jews there and calling them “Semites.” The Germans have always loved to give their hatred a veneer of science. But “semitic” is a linguistic term that describes a language group–that there should be a corresponding biological race is only an assumption. To want to found the nation on a common race, as the Germans do, is just as backward as the Russians wanting to found theirs on a common faith. ‘All modern nations are racially mixed. We are all half-breeds.’
So cultural fellowship is more important than biological. Let us quite simply admit, says Leroy-Beaulieu, that in disposition, abilities and intellectual habits, a French Jew, even if called a Semite, is far closer to us than an Indian Brahmin, even if he is called Aryan.”
From the viewpoint of the Christian, these separations of color should be ridiculous because if we believe the Bible, then we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. We are all essentially one blood despite the fact that many of us have been separated for generations and certain characteristics may have become dominant or recessive. Charles Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, the strong will eliminate and conquer the weak is contrary to the Bible in more than one way because not only is the theory of evolution contrary to the account of creation in Genesis, but it is also contrary to Jesus’s teaching that we are to care for the weak such as the orphans and widows. The king’s duty, according to the Bible is to advocate for the poor, not to subjugate them or take away their lands and rights and colonize.
Lindqvists quotes many people in history who have questioned racism which raised very thought provoking concepts. One such concept was that race was somehow aligned with the degree of primitiveness. That is, the African due to their inherent race was unable to build a sophisticated society as evidenced by their current cultural way of living. Lindqvist wrote:
“The white races have succeed in convincing themselves that God almighty has created them as lords over not only animals and plants, but also over the rest of mankind. Two hundred years ago, this doctrine was accepted quite uncritically and the subjugated races believed in their own inferiority. But today there is a constantly increasing number among them who accept nothing else except equality between the races.”
Lindqvist quotes Theophilus Scholes who challenged the notion that primitiveness was related to inferior races and thus reflected upon the color of one’s skin. Scholes uses the Egyptians as an example of how they were once considered white while they were admired; however, once they began to be despised, they were considered colored. The Greeks were thought to be the core of European identity, says Martin Bernal, and romanticism idolized the Greeks with their culture and asserted that only racially “pure” civilizations could be creative it followed that racial and cultural mixing in Ancient Greece had to be denied.
What it boiled down to was that only cultured civilizations could be born from the “superior white races.” Scholes challenged that “unless it can be proved that the Egyptians were white at the time when they were the most civilized people in the world, and the white races were black at the time when they were primitive tribes–unless that is proved, the theory that progress and greatness go together with whiteness, and inferiority with black skin, cannot be believed.
“Racial prejudice rests on delusions, much as slavery and the burning of witches do. . . ”
Among other historical events Lindqvist covers is the treatment of the American Indians in the U.S. He writes of the continued broken treaties with the Cherokee and their subsequent loss of land and rights as it relates to racism. Lindqvist’s book, The Skull Measurer’s Mistake has been very enlightening to me. It amazes me how much of history is obscured and not ordinarily taught to our children. We are taught that the importance of history is so that we don’t repeat our mistakes, but ironically we aren’t taught history effectively. I think this is evident with the current widespread continuance of racism and the general lack of understanding of it.
Two thumbs up for The Skull Measurer’s Mistake by Sven Linqvist. I’m going to try to get a hold of his other book called, A History of Bombings. I’m anxious to see his insight on that subject.
Marlakins
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08.25.09
Posted in Book Reviews, History, Uncategorized at 12:13 pm by Administrator
Before I move on to commenting on other books, I wanted to finish off my comments on Me Against My Brother. The last portion is on Rwanda. Again, Peterson shed a lot more light regarding the conflicts and subsequent 1994 Rwandan genocide and beyond. Evidently, the tensions leading to the 1994 genocide had been brewing for a long time. Many warning signs that something big was going to happen were ignored. It’s understandable, as Peterson writes, that the U.S. wanted to remain hands-off especially coming from the heels of the Somali disaster in late 1993, but I think that it is inexcusable that the U.S. went further to pressure other nations to remain hands off.
Some of the additional things I learned from Peterson’s book regarding Rwanda is that the French government was involved with allowing and even encouraging the 1994 genocide (which only makes sense because the massive scale by which the genocide took place had to have been helped along. Apparently it took “years” of planning for it to come to fruition). Before all hell broke loose, there were already incidences of kidnappings and murders. The bodies were disposed of in mass graves located right in the backyards of some government officials’ homes. The Catholic church were even aware of the dangerously escalating tension, yet did nothing and even encouraged it. I had known that the primary communications source to the murderers was the use of radio–RTLM, but I did not know that it was tied to the Rwandan president, Habyarimana’s own house. Peterson wrote that when he arrived in Rwanda some Hutus could be seen “walking to work(killings)” with machetes and other instruments. Once they even “waved” at him thinking that he was “French.” They were obviously friendly to the French as they were considered their allies in this massacre.
While from the first I had learned of the 1994 Rwandan genocide I was appalled at the shear numbers and methods by which the massacres took place, Peterson helps to put it into perspective as he writes:
“Beyond Alex Bizimungu’s neighborhood–indeed throughout the maze of roads that spread weblike across the steep hills of Kigali, and onto every corner of Rwanda–the killing was massive and unprecedented in scale and speed. The genocide that afflicted Rwanda for three months in 1994 was the bloodiest episode recorded in modern African history, and was more ruthlessly efficient in causing death than were Nazi Germany’s gas chambers. Some 800,000 died, most of them in the first month of the bloodletting, though some estimate the death toll at greater than 1 million. The nature of the killing, with so many thrown into pit latrines or buried and dissolving in dank mass graves, makes an accurate count impossible. They were murdered eyeball to eyeball by friends and neighbors. Often the only difference between killer and victim was the tribal distinction marked upon their identity cards.
A mathematical calculation of Rwanda’s national suicide makes the speed of any other recorded catastrophe or single act of war pale by comparison. The two atomic bombs dropped upon the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 200,000 people. The toll of the entire four-year war between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims in the former Yugoslavia during the early 1990s also just topped 200,000.
Previous genocides and mass killings this century–of Armenians by the young Turks of the Ottoman Empire in 1915, against 6 million European Jews by Germany’s Third Reich in the 1930s and 1940s, and by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s–though in the end taking far more lives than Rwanda’s killing, proceeded at a slower burn for several years. The mammoth death toll of 20 million Soviets achieved by Stalin stretched over two decades.
No system of genocide ever devised has been more efficient: the daily kill rate was five times that of the Nazi death camps. Extremist Hutu officials, army commanders, and militia thugs conspired to eliminate all Tutsis and moderate Hutus and to draw every Hutu into complicity. For years they had prepared for this moment of genocide, organized for it, and manipulated a political system that required total, unquestioning obedience to authority. So throughout the country, the heat of anti-Tutsi propaganda turned participation into a life-or death imperative. Hutus were programmed to kill.
And the result was specifically Rwandan, or “very Swiss,” as the French historian Gerard Prunier, notes: “Anarchy, rape, arson, and murder were all carried out according to plan and under supervised authority. People were throwing repression to the winds,; yet at the same time even the Apocalypse had to be in accordance with official guidelines.”
The daily death rate averaged well more than 11,500 for two months, with surges as high as 45,000. During this peak, one murder was committed every 2 seconds of every minute, of every hour, for days: and affliction befitting the Apocalypse. Transfixed and aghast, the rest of the world watched, fiddled, then hid its eyes and did nothing.
Unless you had been a very close observer of Rwanda before the genocide, in those first days it was not clear what was happening, nor how organized it was. . .”
Peterson goes on to reveal more details regarding the Rwandan genocide including the aftermath wherein the Hutu were forced to flee to refugee camps when the Tutsis started to get the upper hand. At this time, foreign involvement began to make their appearance to the dismay of the Tutsi, who felt that the U.S. wanted to now take the credit for their success after months of “hands-off” policy. At those refugee camps, the Hutu were feed and cared for with foreign aid. The murderers were actually unwittingly supported and cared for with humanitarian aid. . . Within the refugee camps, among the true refugees/victims, hid the Hutu murders who continued to threaten the Tutsi. In turn the Tutsi took matters into their own hands knowing that justice would not be carried out. Thus murders continued as Tutsis exacted revenge. Hutus disappeared and were likely murdered. Many more people continued to die long after the 1994 genocide reached the ears and eyes of the West. To this day many of the perpetrators have not been tried, and likely full justice is just impossible to attain.
On a quick side note, the effectiveness of radio propaganda was striking. To think that ordinary citizens were whipped into such a frenzy that they were not only willing to commit murder, but actually did it. It’s worrying to me when I see our current media where alarmists are spewing forth seeds of fear and dissension such as threats of “death panels,” “socialist takeovers,” or the most worrying is seeing the hints of racial unrest. We live in perilous times, with very impressionistic people who lack truth and lack the will to seek it out. I find people like Rush Limbaugh dangerous. And to think I used to listen to that man. . . I understand that we need to protect our freedoms and rights, but we need to do it responsibly, not carelessly by reactionary personalities.
But back to Me Against My Brother, I definitely give it a two thumbs up. I know I seem to give most of my book comments two thumbs up, likely because the only books I’m inclined to write about are the ones that I found interesting. This one is definitely enlightening, and I hope to be able to read more of the books or topics that it referenced.
Marlakins
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07.26.09
Posted in History, Movie commentary, Uncategorized at 12:28 am by Administrator
For anyone who likes stories of unsung heroes, I recommend the movie, The Children of Huang Shi. Many of us are all too familiar with the horrific results of war, but we should also know and remember the heroic actions of those who are or have been brave enough to preserve and value the lives of his fellow man in the face of eminent danger and even death. In the story of The Children of Huang Shi there are several unsung heroes who manage to save the lives of about 60 Chinese children during the Japanese occupation of China during the 1930s and 40s. While there were several heroes involved, the story focuses on one particular man, George Hogg.
Before I praise the movie too much, I do want to comment that like many other movies based on true stories, the “real” story was greatly altered. From reading an article at the Times Online titled, The Long March of a Forgotten English Hero, it is apparent that the movie embellished quite a lot while at the same time leaving out quite a lot. The main story, however, remained intact. And that story was of an Englishman named George Hogg who cared for about 60 Chinese school boys who, I gathered, were orphaned possibly as a result of the Japanese occupation of China. Hogg was able to develop discipline and order amongst the boys, and later, to keep them safe from the ravages of war (such as being recruited by the enemy), Hogg decided to move the whole school to a safer location about 700 miles away. He and his boys traveled 500 miles on foot and by carts, then were able to obtain a few old trucks to complete the next 200 miles to their new destination.
One of the interesting aspects of Hogg’s story is that according to the Scriptwriter, James MacManus, he discovered Hogg’s story just by accident. MacManus happened to be in a Beijing bar when he overheard a conversation wherein a man was complaining about a statue being errected of an Englishman in an remote town of Shandon on the Mongolian border. This statue was in memory of an Englishman who died in 1944. No one in the embassy had heard of George Hogg, but through a little research MacManus was finally able to locate someone who did know Hogg. From there Hogg’s story unfolded, and MacManus found that Hogg “was an outstanding Englishman who fell in love with a foreign people and devoted his life to their betterment. What he did made him deeply and widely loved.”
At the end of the movie is a segment wherein some of the real-life “Hogg’s boys” speak about him. These boys are now in their 80s, but remember Hogg very well and with much fondness. Two of the brothers said that they didn’t know when their birthdays were, so when Hogg died, they used the date of Hogg’s death as their birthday. This story reminds me of the documentary film I watch on Nanking because there were also a few other foreigners such as John Rabe, Robert O. Wilson, and Minnie Vautrin who risked their lives to help the Chinese. Through their bravery, they were able to save hundreds of lives. I still remember the readings from their diaries such as how they had to “bluff” their “braveness.” That is, when the soldiers would come, they would be so scared, but they had to “pretend” that they weren’t and would even shout down the soldiers to leave the premises. I can’t imagine doing that, but there are real live people who have done such things. I admire those who have the resolve to do what’s right in the face of danger. I am reminded of the Bible and how we are told to care for the helpless such as the orphans and widows and those in prison. I used to wonder about visiting “prisoners.” I’m seeing more and more that there are many who have been imprisoned for political or religious reasons, not because they were criminals or had committed any crimes. Just as John the Baptist, the Apostle Paul, and many others were imprisoned for their beliefs or just because they were foreigners, that type of thing still happens today. I am reminded of some of the stories I’ve read and heard from the Veterans Against the Iraq War. It shows me that even today there are still innocent prisoners who need comfort and brave people to help them out. And I am reminded of Matthew 25:34-40:
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
These heroes who helped these children and the hundreds of others have acted kindly towards God, as God said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” What an amazing thing. I’m sure God, who sees all, has not missed them.
Two thumbs up for The Children of Huang Shi. I know it’s quite embellished, however, artisticlly it blended the events of the day into the story to help give a feel of the climate of the time. Hogg and his boys lived during a very hard time in China where their people were being brutally massacred by the hundreds. To understand the situation in which Hogg lived and died helped to emphasize his devotion and the depth of his sacrifice.
Marlakins
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07.16.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History, Movie commentary, Uncategorized at 12:05 pm by Administrator
I’m currently in the middle of reading a book by Scott Peterson called, Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda. I recently finished the first section, which is on Somalia. Peterson devotes nine chapters to Somalia and starts off describing for his readers what it’s like in Somalia and then explains a little about their history, which helps to explain why they are the way they are–warlike and suffering from hunger. Peterson documents how the rest of the world came to know of the mass starvation that Somalia was experiencing as a result of the feuds between the warlords. The subsequent UN and US “aid” to Somalia, then the misunderstandings, which later resulted in a “worsening” of the situation in Somalia, to finally the departure of both the US and the UN from Somalia. Talk about an eye opener. This helped me to understand a little more of Africa that has been hard for me to comprehend when seeing all the starvation in the media.
Like the Congo and other parts of Africa, there were attempts to colonize and subjugate the Somalis. But unlike much of Africa, the Somalis have never been fully colonized or subjugated due to their resolve to be independent. Their cultural and religious beliefs are so deeply ingrained in the Somali tribes, which includes extreme loyalty to their respective clans and an extreme resolve for “revenge” that much in-fighting amongst Somalis resulted in the starvation of their own people. I am reminded of the importance of the Bible scripture to “not let the sun go down on your anger.” This is a problem that the Somalis have and which they carry for years and through “generations.” Their lust for revenge will never end until they learn to “not let the sun go down with their anger.” This coupled with man’s tendency for greed perpetuates warfare amongst them. The misunderstanding of Somali culture and religion by the UN and the US, according to Peterson, escalated the already existing conflict in Somalia during the early 1990. The early attempts to colonize Somalia by the Italians introduced the more modern and lethal weaponry that today allows the warlords free reign over the masses.
There is no such thing as “gun control” in Somalia, and weapons are sold in their market places like vegetables with rounds dangling in strips along their “storefronts,” various weapons lined up like candy, and grenades showcased by the wheelbarrows. There are no restrictions or limitations to weapons “demonstrations,” as machines guns are randomly fired right in the market place, no doubt one of the causes of injury and even deaths from stray bullets. All families are believed to be “armed” and even as the injured civilians are admitted to the hospitals for wound treatments, they bring along their guns for protection. The “Wild West” still exists in Somalia, but from the descriptions given by Peterson, is much more lethal. He may be right in that I have never heard that the old wild west villains ever caused mass starvation and didn’t cruise along the streets in “technicals,” trucks with mounted machine guns and other weaponry.
The original intent of the UN and US intervention in Somalia during the early 1990s was said to be relief and was prompted by the graphic images of the starving women and children through the media. In an effort to give the Somalis relief, the UN and the US sent in tons of food and other supplies. Unfortunately, and to the dismay of the UN and the US, just giving aid was not as simple as expected. The food and supplies were being intercepted and stolen by the truck loads by the various warlords before it could reach the needy civilians. As the UN and the US realized this, they tried to negotiate with the warlords, but as Peterson asserts, the misunderstandings of the Somali culture only fueled the fire as the US took sides with “one” of their warlords. Mistake after mistake culminated into what we know today as Bloody Monday. Several grave mistakes were made, one was siding with one of the warlords, then turning on him. Another, although done with “seemingly” good reason was not “equally” disarming the competing warlords. The explanation was that the UN and the US didn’t want to disarm them because they did not want to come across as a mission to colonize, but just relief. Which is a good reason, but backfired when the miscalculation was made of taking sides, then turning on one of their most powerful warlords, Mohammed Farah Aidid. An example of how the US sided with the warlord was by attempting to disarm rival warlords while leaving Aidid’s weapons intact and thus it became evident to the rival warlords that Aidid was immune and thus untouchable. This greatly strengthened Aidid and raised more strife amongst the clans. So while at first the US was warmly welcomed in Somalia, later the US became the target enemy of Somalia not only by the Somalia militia, but also the Somali citizens as was evident on Bloody Monday in October 1993. All this because of “misunderstandings” between the UN, the US, and Somalia.
As I read Peterson’s account of the events that lead to Bloody Monday (one of the 1993 conflict in Mogadishu), I recalled watching years ago the movie, Black Hawk Down. I thought it was an incredible story, but didn’t quite understand why things in the movie were happening. It was just crazy fighting. But now that I’ve read Peterson’s explanations, it made a lot of things fall into place and so I rented the movie, Black Hawk Down, again to see if the movie really did make sense and I just didn’t get it at the time. It was claimed to be based on a true story, which always grabs my attention. I think the movie Black Hawk Down was made based on a book called Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden. I will have to eventually read that book to see what Bowden’s take was on the Somali conflicts. Anyway, as I re-watched the movie, I felt that it really was misleading because there was not adequate explanation of the Somali culture and history to understand why the Somalis, both militia and civilians, were going ballistic. The movie portrayed their strife as incomprehensible. In Peterson’s book, Me Against My Brother, he makes evident that the UN and the US really were carelessly stepping on the Somali toes, so to speak. They encouraged peace talks, then inexplicably fired at their elders’ assembly. The UN and the US did not work in harmony, and even within the US military there was discord. That combined with Somalia’s long history of revenge and propensity to fight to the death was dynamite. Dozens of US soldiers’ lives were lost and many injuries also were sustained. Amongst the Somalis, hundreds of lives were lost as well as more injuries. The result of that conflict was the evacuation of the US forces. The Somalis, as in times past, once again repelled the foreigners.
There are quite a few noteworthy aspects to discuss regarding Peterson’s nine chapters on Somalia. One such aspect is the role of the media. We all know that our media is censored. While it’s true that there are some good reasons to censor parts of our media, the down side is that we never get the full coverage. For instance many images of war never make it in print because they are just too graphic. The result is that we often don’t fully appreciate the horrors of war and the destruction it causes. The US military casualties are often hidden or the numbers purposefully obscured to avoid demoralization of the folks back home. Likewise, any US military defeat is downplayed. The 1993 Somalia conflict is an example of that as the military often would not admit defeat, but rather claimed that operations were successful, completed as planned and expected. Civilian casualties were grouped and classified as combatants. Blunders were justified as “routine” tactics and/or ignored. Another form of censorship that became evident to me while reading Peterson’s book was not from the media, but from the military and government themselves by their “prepared” speeches. The information relayed to the press often were sprinkled with inconsistencies, omissions, and outright lies. It’s no wonder that so much misinformation is spread when not only is the media censored, but when misinformation is purposefully released to make certain issues, missions, and events look under control or with a different purpose. Even the Somalis quickly picked up on this.
There was another matter of personal conflicts and non-cooperation within the the UN, the US, and within the US military. According to Peterson, there were issues with the unwillingness to share intelligence information. A good reason for that was to avoid leaks to the enemy, while bad reasons also existed that involved jealousies and arrogance. As a result, the mission carried out by the Delta Rangers called the Battle of the Black Sea, and what the Somalis call the Day of the Rangers was shrouded in secrecy. When the mission went awry, and the Delta Rangers needed help, the military back at base didn’t even know what was going on. This resulted in taking half an hour to assemble rescue teams to go out and retrieve their men. A mission that was supposed to only last one hour lasted over 15 hours of heavy artillery fire. By this time the Somalis were so angry at Americans that not only were the Somali militia after “any” Americans, so were the civilians who were armed and also itching to take a crack at the downed Americans. The scene reminded me of the movie, Escape from New York, but worse.
The mission and events were so complicated that it’s impossible to write all about it in one blog entry. I do realize that I should also read other books from other perspectives, but so far, I do recommend Scott Peterson’s book, Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda. I’ve just barely started reading the portion on Sudan. . . oh my. . . It certainly gives me more food for thought and encourages me to be more considerate of others and situations that I’m not ordinarily familiar with. It also gives me more insight into the role of religion in our world, the differences and similarities of religions, and the benefits and the disadvantages of religions. It highlights for me the dangers of arrogance, and as usual, it magnifies to me the importance of Jesus’ teaching that we must love one another as He has loved us. Not as anyone loves, but as “Christ” loves.
Marlakins
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07.11.09
Posted in Book Reviews, History, Uncategorized at 1:12 am by Administrator
A couple weeks ago I finished reading Sven Lindqvist’s book, “Exterminate All the Brutes” One Man’s Odyssey into the Heart of Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide. I had stumbled across his book while looking for other books related to Africa. I had just finished reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, so seeing that Lindqvist found inspiration to write his book due in part to Conrad’s book, I decided to read it.
I found Lindqvist’s writing style interesting in that he actually traveled to Africa, retracing areas related to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness while at the same time writing and researching African and European history through historical records, scientific research of the day, and popular literature to get a feel of the social climate during the turn of the century. The primary focus was on European colonialization and how it was viewed and justified in society. At first Lindqvist focuses on colonialization of parts of Africa like the Congo and describes how the development of more powerful and efficient weapons resulted in the ability of Europeans to more fully subjugate and exploit the Africans. For centuries, the Europeans had been trying to exploit parts of Africa’s rich natural resources, but were unable to fully penetrate the interiors due to the harsh environment and the ability of the natives to fight back. As European weapons evolved, they were able to wipe out the natives at safe distances, where the natives wouldn’t even see the attack coming. The superior firepower of the Europeans allowed them to decimated the populations of the Africans such as the Congolese. As Lindqvist examines the colonialization of parts of Africa, he also takes into account the history of colonialization overall. The result of colonialization, whether in the Americas, Australia, India, or Africa, often amounts to mass killings and even genocide of the native inhabitants of the new colony. Examples cited were the Tazmanians, the Gaunches, and the Hereros who were completely exterminated, while other examples given were parts of Latin America: West Indies, Central America, Mexico, and the Andes. Lindqvist writes:
“In Mexico alone there may have been 25 million people when the Europeans arrived in 1519. Fifty years later, the number had fallen to 2.7 million. Fifty more years later there were 1.5 million Indians left. Over 90 percent of the original population had been wiped out in a hundred years.
“The great majority of those people did not die in battle. They died quite peacefully of disease, hunger, and inhuman labor conditions. The social organization of the Indians had been wrecked by the white conquerors, and in the new society only a small fraction of the Indians was as yet usable, for, as a labor force for the whites, the Indians were of low quality. And there were may more Indians than the few whites could exploit with existing methods.”
Lindqvist also comments on the history of the indigenous American population of the U.S. He writes:
“About five million of the indigenous American population lived in what is now the United States. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, half a million still remained. In 1891, at the time of Wounded Knee–the last great massacre of Indians in the United States–the native population reached rock bottom: a quarter of a million, or 5 percent of the original number of Indians.”
The pattern Lindqvist outlines is that genocide is a common component or result of colonialization. Yet, although that fact was known, the loss of lives were always justified by one explanation or another such as the greater good of “civilizing the savages.” Later, with the popularization of Darwin’s ideas of evolution and the survival of the fittest, the genocides resulting from colonizations were more easily rationalized that the natives were just inferior and thus inevitable that their inferior races would die out.
More recently there have been debates or assertions as presented by Ben Stein’s movie, “Expelled,” that the Darwinian theory of evolution promoted the extermination of the Jews during WWII by instilling the idea that there were inferior races. However, Lindqvist asserts that mass murders and genocides were already being committed throughout various parts of the world throughout history, and that Darwin’s theory of evolution did not cause those murders and genocides, but rather gave it a comfortable explanation which more easily justified them. As such, Lindqvist asserts that the Jewish Holocaust was actually a result of German colonialization and not really unique. Germany had joined the bandwagon of colonialization too late in the game, and there was less land to be “grabbed.” With their growing population, there was becoming less and less elbow room. In order to make more room for the Germans, the “unwanted” needed to be eliminated or cleared away. This is what was done in other colonies, but since they were far away from Europe, many atrocities could be commited unchecked. But since Hiltler’s expansion or “colonization” was in Europe, his actions were more easily seen and scrutinized and thus viewed more harshly. Lindqvists explanation does seem to answer my questions of why so many massacres can and have happened throughout many parts of the world, but we mostly only hear about the Jewish Holocaust. In the older days of colonialization there was more uncharted land to grab and those lands were thousands of miles away from public scrutiny. Any atrocity could be committed unchecked, unlike in the close scope in Europe. Lindqvist uses not only the current literature of the day, but also the scientific literature being promulgated to show the prevailing thoughts of the day. He quotes such works as Anthropoligie der Naturevolker, The Decent of Man, Origin of Species, Anthropogeographie, Politische Geographie, Volksdienst, Alldeutsche Blatter, etc. to show the rational that was becoming pervasive in their society and helped promote the idea of colonializtion as a “natural outcome” and even a necessity. To support this even further, I recall reading in “When Medicine Went Mad,” there were claims the Germans admired the United States and tried to emulate Americans by exterminating the weak (there was a movement in the U.S. at one point to exterminate the mentally retarded and some cases were followed through). The Germans also cited the black slavery and sequestration of the blacks in the U.S. and as a result, the United States of America was in a sense a roll model for them. When one looks at all these angles, what Lindqvist asserts makes a lot of sense.
But Lindqvist doesn’t stop there. He goes on to point out that much of all this is plain to see by anyone who is honest and willing to see. That is, there is so much documentation of all this that it really is quite plain. Lindqvist gives a story of Voulet and Chanoine as an example. Their bloody rampage across Chad, which resulted in the murder of innocent villagers and the French Lieutenant-Colonel Klobb, was very well documented with “boxes” of testimonies but was soon forgotten and left without justice. As are many of histories massacres, not because we do not have the facts, but rather because in has been profitable to deny and suppress such knowledge.
I’m sure there is much more that can be discussed from Lindqvist’s book. This is definitely an important contribution to our society and I highly recommend anyone to read this book. Definitely two thumbs up for “Exterminate All the Brutes” One Man’s Odyssey into the Heart of Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide by Sven Lindqvist. While it was originally written in Sweden, the English translation is quite good.
Marlakins
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06.30.09
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Playing the Tourist, Uncategorized at 12:39 am by Administrator
I realized that I almost forgot that I wanted to continue my post on “The Apostles Were Here.” I have a few more pictures of places where the Bible indicates that the Apostle Paul visited or were at least mentioned in the NT. Here’s a picture of Pergamum, which is also known today as Bergama.
Notice the white portion at the base of the columns. They believe that all of the structure was white like that, with the under portions being the stones that are currently shown. Not much of the ruins are left here. Actually a lot of it is now on display in Germany at the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin. I think they took the whole Great Alter of Pergamom during the time when there were no restrictions on taking artifacts out of various countries. Wiki has a picture of it. It’s believed that this is the alter that was dedicated to Zeus and which John referred to in Revelation as “Satan’s Throne.” I don’t know how accurate that really is, but that’s what wiki claims. . .
Here’s another angle of it on the other side with Andrew standing there.
This is the walkway from the library going to the theater.
About three kilometers from here is Asklepion. It was a famous hospital in ancient times and is believed to be the first psychiatric hospital. Here’s a picture of one of the columns which depicts the “medical symbol.”
The treatments included were not quite like today’s modern hospitals and is believed to have included treatments like psychotherapy, massage, herbal treatments, bathing treatments which included mud, dream interpretations, and drinking of special waters. It’s said to be more like a spa today. Here’s another shot of the “facility.”
Some of the famous people who were believed to have been treated here were Marcus Aurelius and Hadrian.
The famous Galen, who was born in Pergamum in 129 A.D., trained at Asklepion and later became an attendant for the Gladiators.
Then moving along to Hieropolis near Pamukkale is the city that is supposed to have been frequented by the citizens of Laodicea. This area has the natural thermal spas, so this location had baths, a library, and a gymnasium.
My boys and I are standing under the archway. Off to the left of the picture are some columns. Here’s another shot showing what’s behind those colums more.
This is one of the locations where the Apostle Paul started an early church. Philip the Apostle is thought to have spent the last years of his life in Hieropolis with his daughters before he was martyred by crucifixion and buried there. I’ve got some pictures of Necropolis, which is a short distance from here. I’m not sure if he was buried there, but that is a burial ground for the people at the time.
Then finally, I have some pictures of a place that is “mentioned” in the Bible, but not necessarily a place where the Apostles visited. This place is mentioned in the Book of Acts when the holy spirit comes upon the Apostles and they start to speak in tongues. It says that there were people from different places who heard the Apostles speaking in their own languages. One of those peoples mentioned were “Cappadocians.” Acts seems to indicate that they were God-fearing Jews. Cappadocia is located more centrally in Turkey and the dwelling are mostly carved into the rocks. Here’s a picture of one location.
It’s a little hard to see it in this picture as it’s shrunken down to fit the blog, but the little dark spots on the rocks are entrances to the rocks.
Here’s another shot.
And another.
And another with Aaron and me off to the side.
Those pokey rock structures are carved into and made into dwellings. Apparently the type of stone is easily carved. These particular structures are known as the “fairy chimneys.”
There was another more extensive visitor area for Cappadocia, which they did not allow photography inside, but we were able to tour inside. Here’s a pic of Brian coming down from one of the structures. If memory serves me correctly, the area Brian was coming down from was one of the communal dining areas.
And I think that’s all the pictures this one blog post will stand for, so good night for now.
Marlakins
P.S. I almost forgot to mention that the name Cappadocia means something like “land of beautiful horses.” And we did see some wild horses still roaming about there. . . Oh, and it was also here in Cappadocia where we saw camels just walking along the roads, heheh. Well, they weren’t unattended, but still was different to see camels out like you would see horses out. Eh, well yeah, camels are supposed to be out, but I’m more used to seeing horses. . .
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06.27.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History, Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 6:32 pm by Administrator
The weather is great here in Los Angeles today! After running errands I got a chance to finish reading Sven Lindqvist’s book “Exterminate All the Brutes” One Man’s Odyssey Into the Heart of Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide. Talk about brilliant! I liked Lindqvist’s writing style, and the information he presents and the subsequent conclusions he draws is definitely food for thought. When I first started to read Adam Hochschild’s book King Leopold’s Ghost, I was amazed because like the author, I was completely unaware of any major killing grounds in Africa (aside from the more recent 1994 Rwandan genocide). Hochschild wrote how he first came to learn about this in his introduction. This is what he writes:
“I knew almost nothing about the history of the Congo until a few years ago[Hochschild's book was published in 1998], when I noticed a footnote in a book I happened to be reading. Often, when you come across something particularly striking, you remember just where you were when you read it. On this occasion I was sitting, stiff and tired, late at night, in one of the far rear seats of an airliner crossing the United States from east to west.
“The footnote was to a quotation by Mark Twain, written, the note said, when he was part of the worldwide movement against slave labor in the Congo, a practice that had taken eight to ten million lives. Worldwide movement? Eight to ten million lives? I was startled.
“Statistics about mass murder are often hard to prove. But if this number turned out to be even half as high, I thought, the Congo would have been one of the major killing grounds of modern times. Why were these deaths not mentioned in the standard litany of our century’s horrors? And why had I never before heard of them? I had been writing about human rights for years, and once, in the course of half a dozen trips to Africa, I had been to the Congo.”
When I read Hochschild’s book, I was amazed. It really made a lot of sense out of the little bit I knew of Africa and the little bits and pieces I would see through our media (which was hard to make any sense of). If reading his book blew my mind, the added revelations Lindqvist makes in his book, “Exterminate All the Brutes,” has left me flabbergasted. Lindqvist asserts that it’s not more information we need as we have plenty of that. What we need is “the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions.” And Oh my God, it suddenly starts to bring more meaning to me when Jesus gave us a new commandment to “love God with all our hearts and minds, and to love one another as He has loved us.” If only Christians would truly understand what that means and do it. And I can also understand now what the ramifications of Israel asking God for their own nations lead by a “human” king would lead to and why God was so displeased with that request. I want to study the wars and the genocides mentioned in the Bible and see if what I’ve been learning helps me to understand that more.
I don’t feel ready to write all my comments on Lindqvist’s book yet. All I know is I got to the last page and thought, “Wow. I need to let this info soak in a bit.” What a powerful revelation it is to me, and while I do have another book sitting here ready for me to start into, I think I have to let Lindqvist’s book settle first. I will definitely be looking into his other books. One in particular that looks interesting is called, A History of Bombing. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start on Scott Peterson’s book Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda.
But. . . before I log out, I also managed to finish Brian’s gansey. Here’s a pic of it as it looked just last week.
Here it is completed with Brian modeling it for me, heheh.
And this is just a side shot to show the sleeve and the shoulder strap.
Okay, dinner’s ready, so I’m off!
Marlakins
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06.18.09
Posted in History, Uncategorized, museums at 8:14 pm by Administrator
It’s been a while since I’ve visited the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), but since they are currently holding a Pompeii exhibit, we decided to go take a peek. There seems to be constant construction somewhere on the LACMA grounds. Funny how in the midst of a recession, the museum seems to be “growing.” Here’s a picture of one of their new buildings. Not sure what’s in there, yet, but maybe I’ll head back there and check it out.
The Pompeii exhibit was not housed in the above building, but rather across the way. Here’s a pic of the “other” parts of the LACMA. The Pompeii exhibit was housed in the white building in the center behind the palm trees .
For anyone who hasn’t visited the LACMA, this is what part of the entrance looks like.
I found the exhibit very nice and enlightening, however, was disappointed that they did not allow photography in this exhibit. So like my post on the Terra Cotta Army exhibit at the Bowers, the few shots I was able to get were the murals of the Pompeii archaelogical sites such as these.
And this.
Like many others, I’ve always found the story of Pompeii fascinating. I remember the stories my history teacher spoke of regarding how during the excavation they found “holes” in the ground and didn’t know why they were there or what they were for. So they decided to pour plaster down the holes, which they later dug up after the plaster hardened. What they found was that the holes were where people had been buried in the ash from the Vesuvius eruption. Apparently, the people died there and then got covered in ash. Later as their bodies decomposed, cavities in the earth were left in the shapes of their bodies. When years later the achaeologists poured plaster down into those holes, the plaster filled those spaces and reformed the shapes of the bodies of the fallen. Wiki has some pictures of these plaster casts under their “rediscovery” section. Knowing that I might never visit the “real” Pompeii, I really looked forward to visiting this exhibit. This tour included an audio tour, which I thought was a nice touch. Aaron snuck a picture of me here at the very end of the tour just before I returned the headsets.
Fortunately, the boys seemed to enjoy this exhibit, too. The exhibit consisted of many sculptures, paintings, frescos, some jewelry, home furnishings like miniature figurines and ribbon glass (a type of mosaic glass). They also had many herm-heads on display including one of Gaius Julius Cesar and Nero. I always find it a treat to be able to “see” what these people may have looked like. I realize that these sculptures aren’t always very accurate to real life, but some do give their likeness. And so I found it interesting to see Nero’s herm-head, which was kinda chunckier than I had imagined he might have really been like. Well, I never thought what he might have really looked like, but still it was interesting. There was a fresco depiciting food, which my boys all noticed. I think they got a kick seeing the seafood array which included “squid.” I think that caught their eye because it showed them that squid isn’t just a Filipino food, heheheh. The placard read that the Greeks and Romans liked seafoods so they raised their own right in their villas. Some of their figurines are believed to have come from visiting other cities and used to decorated their houses much like we decorate our houses today with vacation souvenirs. It’s such a shame that they didn’t allow photography to share. That’s one thing I liked about Turkey and the London Museum–they allowed lots of photography.
Evidently, after Vesuvius erupted, Pompeii was one of the cities that got completely buried under the ash. It is believed that the city was buried about 60 feet under ash and due to that, many relics were well preserved. It’s amazing to me to think that Pompeii was buried and forgotten for about 1700 years until it was accidentally re-discovered. Fortunately, writings from people like Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger document much information on Pompeii and the Vesuvius eruption. Thus it is recorded that the Vesuvius eruption occurred around 79AD. That made me think of the Bible and how the NT was written around that time. Welll, actually it’s believed that the NT writings were written around 70AD, so the Vesuvuis eruption would have occurred about 10 years afterwards. But even so, that made me think that much of their living conditions would have been something the Apostles were familiar with. The people of Pompeii may have been contemporaries of the Apostles. Just that thought makes it a double shame that no pictures were allowed. . . wah. BUT now that I think of it, I do have some pictures I took in Turkey of some places where the Apostles likely visited, including Ephesus where Paul definitely walked the roads. Hmmmm. I’ll try to dig up some of my Turkey trip pictures and post that in my next post. . .
Okay, Andrew and I have a program to watch, so I’ll hunt those pictures down later and make another blog post to continue my thoughts on some areas that the Apostles must have seen during their lives here on earth. Thank God the museums in Turkey were generous enough to allow unlimited photography. . . at least I can share those.
So toodles for now.
Marlakins
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06.14.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia, History, Uncategorized at 7:29 pm by Administrator
Today wasn’t as gloomy, thank God! Yesterday was very gloomy and even rained a little. Actually our yard really could use the rain, so I really should be thankful. I guess I’ve just been really looking forward to sunny days.
Today we headed out to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market to grab some veggies and some herb starters. So this afternoon I did a little transplanting, and hopefully they take well and I didn’t kill any. So far I have some sage, chamomile, peppermint, and chives. Brian picked out a couple other plants, but I’m letting him figure out what he wants to do with those, so those are still in the plastic containers. I took some cuttings from the rosemary bush out in front and am now propagating some of those for the backyard, which unfortunately is a big mess right now, so needs lots of work. Our string bean vines and crook neck squash are already bearing fruit. We have already eaten several pickings from them. We have more picked today for tonight, too. And since we went to the Farmer’s Market today we have some Chinese broccoli to add to that, too, yum.
Okay, so I finished reading two more books–Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and A Fist Full of Diamonds by John B. Robinson. I enjoyed both books. As usual, I don’t intend to write what the stories are all about. Anyone can read the storyline on any book review, so I basically just write “my” comments and what stood out to me.
While the stories of both books are very different, there are some similarities in that they are both situated in Africa. Particularly, both of them touch upon central Africa–the Congo. Robinson even refers back to “Conrad’s nightmare” when a view of the Congo River was seen from the air. Both stories are fictional, but apparently drawn from personal experiences from each author. It’s interesting so see the similarities since both books were written about 100 years apart. Not to say that the storylines were similar, because they weren’t. They were very different in tone, characters, and plot. But the corruption and evil, and downright disregard for life is still the same. It’s amazing. During Conrad’s time (1890’s), ivory was the prime commodity, but in Robinson’s time (while the book was published in 2008, the story was situated in 2001) the prime commodity was diamonds for the purpose of buying weapons. That reminded me of the movie Lord of Wars starring Nicholas Cage. It all just blows my mind, and I don’t think I’ll ever look at weapons and diamonds/jewels the same again.
As I mentioned, the plots and styles of both books are very different. Conrad’s story delved into the mind and psyche more than Robinson’s book did. But the graphic details of what they “saw” is very similar–lots of death. Another odd “slightly” similar aspect of the two books is the view of the “female.” Conrad actually doesn’t mention females much in his book, but the two areas where they do come up, I found the scenes interesting. And that is the difference between men and women and how we view life. Robinson’s book also touched on this. Now I know that these are generalizations, but still I found it interesting. I was left with the impression that they thought that women don’t see reality the way men do. Here’s a excerpt from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Marlow’s aunt is discussing her expectations of Marlow’s trip to the Congo with him. (Marlow is Conrad’s lead character and alter ego).
“. . . She talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,’ till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit.
“‘You forget, dear Charlie, that the labourer is worthy of his hire,’ she said, brightly. It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it world go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.”
At the end of Heart of Darkness the second female character is introduced. She was Kurtz’s “intended.” Marlow was delivering letters from the late Kurtz to her after a year since his passing. She is still dressed in mourning clothes and the conversation had turned to how well connected she was to Kurtz. That she knew Kurtz better than anyone even himself. She then commented how Marlow was with Kurtz to the very moment he died, and so she wanted to know what his last words were. Marlow didn’t have the heart to tell her what his real last words were, and instead said that Kurtz’s last words were her name. . . In reality his last words were “The horror! The horror!” And it didn’t appear to have anything to do with his “intended,” but perhaps more to do with the store of ivory he had for himself that he didn’t want to give to the “Company.” It’s not completely clear what the “horror” was all about, but it could have been “how” his ivory was collected as well. Anyway, what I saw in that was the “female” again was “out of touch with reality.” Somehow I think she would have been horrified to know what Kurtz was capable of doing and had been doing down in the Congo. Whether Conrad meant it to be that way or not, I don’t know, but that’s what it essentially boiled down to.
In Robinson’s book, the character Alice also seemed to have a degree of naivete as well. She didn’t seem to believe or grasp how evil people can be. And the main character’s (Lonny) soon to be ex-wife, Cass, also had a strange view of reality in that she didn’t even care what it took for her comforts. I liken it to a mafioso’s wife, who doesn’t care and doesn’t want to know where the money is coming from so long as she can continue living luxuriously. Who cares attitude of how many people have to die or what people have to do so that you can have that diamond ring.
Now I know that may not be the view of all men about women, but there is an interesting trend. This reminds me of past conversations I’ve had with Brian where he feels that men are sometimes more evil than women are because they “know” they are doing things wrong, and continue to do them, while women tend to “think” they’re doing right, so inadvertently do things wrong. Eh, again, I know that’s a generality since I’m sure there are a lot of evil women out there who know exactly what they are doing! But I’m just thinking this in line of what the Bible says about women and why men should lead because the woman (Eve) was deceived, but the man (Adam) was not. Even though Adam was not deceived, he sinned anyway. . . And interesting how the “woman” can influence men to sin. . . Anyway, I thought it interesting.
So that was sort of a “detour” from the main plots of the two books. . . so back to the books. There is another part in Robinson’s book that stood out to me, and that was when he was describing the “tour” of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The pictures on his “map guide” were said to be very graphic of the murders during the genocide. At the sites skulls and bones were piled up in heaps six feet high. Other sites had the bodies still in the same place where they fell six years prior. In one location Lonny couldn’t bear it anymore. They were touring a church where hundreds of people who were trying to take refuge in the church were massacred. This is an excerpt from that scene as Lonny imagined the phantom figures of those massacred:
“. . . He waded through the phantoms, imploring, “Pardon,” until he reached the light. The sugary, sickly odor of the church filled his nostrils. His throat was tight and dry. His temples throbbed with sharp spiders of pain.
“He burst though the door and past the pyramids of skulls. The spirits did not follow him. It was only then he understood the odd smell that had saturated his clothing from the moment he stepped off the plane in Kigali: death. The odor of decomposed flesh, rotten blood, drying marrow. It hung over the entire country like a mist. Millions of souls fertilized the red dirt with their bodies. Even when their rib cages and pelvises were carted to landfills, the enormity of the crime could not be erased.”
This scene reminded me of Cain and Abel when after Cain had murdered his brother Abel, the Lord came to him and asked him where Abel was. The Lord said, “His blood cries out to me from the ground.” I never really thought about how blood could “cry out,” but it’s true that there is a smell to it. I remember when I was in the hospital for aplastic anemia. I was in one of the BMT wards, and one of the BMT nurses was telling me how she didn’t like the smell of marrow. She said it had a distinct odor. And that seems to fall in line with blood sacrifices. Animals were sacrificed to the Lord in the OT. For instance after the flood, Noah built an altar and made animal sacrifices to God. It was described as a “sweet aroma to the Lord.” And from that God said that he would not curse the ground for man’s sake.
One last comment, is that in addition to Robinson’s book being interesting and entertaining (it was like a modern-day action, thriller movie, which I wouldn’t be surprise to see come out on the big screen one day), I learned something I didn’t know. And that is that after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, it didn’t end there. I knew that many more people died afterwards after being displaced. But I thought it was due to unsanitary conditions and lack of food and all. But according to Robinson, after the 100 days of Hutus murdering the Tutsi, the Tutsi’s got the upper hand and chased the Hutu out towards Uganda. But it didn’t stop there because the tables just got turned and the Tutsi started to take revenge and massacre the Hutus. This second genocide of the Hutus we don’t normally hear about. So not only was Robinson’s book entertaining (the inner workings of diamond trading was interesting), but I found Robinson’s book enlightening. I will never look at diamonds and weapons the same again. I don’t ever plan to ever buy another diamond in my life. I can see why the Bible tells us not to adorn ourselves with costly goods. And little by little I think I’m starting to get a better understanding of the mysteries of Central Africa. That is “mysteries” to me. There have been so much that I didn’t understand, so Robinson’s book is another piece of the puzzle for me.
I give two thumbs up for both Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and A Fist Full of Diamonds by John B. Robinson.
Marlakins
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