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typehaider · 4 years ago

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Cultural Diversity in Pakistan: A Sociological Perspective

The world is made up of over seven billion people who belong to different kinds of cultures. From the Native Americans in the US to the Mongols in Mongolia, every ethnic group has its own culture. And the coexistence of these cultures within a society without homogenization or cultural hegemony is cultural diversity.

What is culture?

Culture is the lifestyle - a way of being – for ethnic groups. For every ethnic group in a race, there are certain aspects of their culture that define their identity. For example, Muslims in the sub-continent make halwa on Shab-e-Baraat and dress in shalwar kameez on Fridays; Mursi women from southwestern Ethiopia have lip plates; the Chinese deep-clean their homes on New Year’s eve; members of the Māori culture in New Zealand greet each other by pressing their noses and foreheads together.

Culture is a set of unwritten but lasting rules passed down through language from generation to generation. Sometimes there are certain reasons that support a ritual, but there are also times when people cannot explain why members of their ethnicity perform that action. This is because people are inclined to accept their culture as simply the way to exist. Anything else to them is strange and jarring, as evident in the concept of ‘culture shock’.

Where do cultural practices come from?

A society’s religion and geographical territory (including climate and environment) are what make its cultures. For example, the culture in Middle-eastern regions involves both men and women dressing in long, loose garments made with light fabric (tawb for men; abaya for women) because of the desert climate. They have also been covering their heads even before Islam spread its influence due to the harsh daylight and cold nights (climate).

Using the example of the Arabs again, their culture includes cooking that uses dates, olives, and lamb a lot. This is because the most common livestock in that region were sheep and camels and date and olive trees grew in abundance (environment).

Vegetarian cuisine is extremely popular in India, being an essential part of its culture. This comes from the Hindu religion, in which meat and some other ingredients are forbidden. And, it is the norm to greet each other with Salam in Pakistan because it’s a part of Islam. These parts of the culture come from religion rather than the climate or environment.

Cultural Diversity

The heterogeneity and independence of cultures existing within a single society and/or social group is cultural diversity. For instance, if a society’s members include African Americans, Indians, Mexicans, Europeans, Arabs, and East-Asians, as they practice their respective cultures, it will be considered a culturally diverse society.

The inclusion of members of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds without social prejudice and racism is cultural diversity. If a society has members from different ethnic and cultural groups but they do not/are not allowed to practice their culture, it is not culturally diverse. Instead, such societies are monocultural due to ethnocentrism. Examples of such societies may include certain communities in the USA – especially historically – and even the Pakistani society, to an extent.

Cultural Diversity in Pakistan

Pakistan is a heterogeneous country, comprising of many cultures and religions. The ethnic groups in Pakistan include Baloch, Hazaras, Pashtuns, Punjabis, Pothwaris, Sindhis, Saraikis, Kashmiris, Makranis, Baltis, Burusho, and Muhajirs, out of many others.

Pakistan’s dominant religion is Islam, however, and that influences the cultures in the country in an essential manner. From greeting styles to food, weddings, funerals, and naming, the Pakistani society follows Islam – the Sharia laws and Sunnah – very closely.

And, by association, a considerable part of the Middle-eastern culture (especially Saudi-Arabian), has been integrated into Pakistan’s culture. The concept of wearing an abaya and naming children with ‘Ibne’ and ‘Binte’ suffixes are examples of Arabic culture being infused in Pakistani society.

There is also significant Western influence integrated into the lifestyles of the pre-Independence urban societies, such as the ones in Karachi and Lahore, from the era of the British rule in the sub-continent. Now, due to globalization, there’s also an American influence on Pakistan’s urban societies.

Aside from external influences, there is a significant amount of xenocentrism amongst several cultural groups in Pakistan. There is also a deep sense of religious exclusivism in the Muslim majority that – either directly or indirectly – suppresses other religious groups, such as the Hindus and Christians.

Although Pakistan appears to be a culturally diverse state, it’s actually an amalgamation of different cultural and religious groups suppressing others. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, but many urban Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun, etc. groups fall into two extremes with the language: they either hate it and refuse to speak it unless necessary, or they abandon their native languages in favor of blending in with the historically-urbanized groups in major cities. The same applies to their culture, which results in cultural attrition (or acculturation).

Now, the majority of the bourgeoisie classes are more attuned to Western cultures instead of their native identities. The adoption of the American lifestyle - in regards to social relationships, religion, and values - is evident in nearly all urban groups.

Thus, it can be said that Pakistani society is actually consisting of various pseudo-cultures, set apart only in physical attire and the ‘secular vs. religious’ differences. There is almost no ethnic group in Pakistan that is entirely subscribing to its original culture; instead, these groups have been reshaped by Middle-eastern influences and then Western ideologies.

The cultural diversity that is celebrated in Pakistan is not an acceptance of cultural differences; instead, it’s surface-level momentary cooperation that’s represented through a superflux of Pashtun pakuls, Punjabi bhangras, Sindhi ajraks, and Urdu poetry. There is still ethnocentrism that flips into xenocentrism upon exposure to different cultures prevalent in Pakistan.

Introducing Cultural Diversity in Pakistan

Ethnic groups in Pakistan can celebrate their cultures by accepting them in a way that does not imply they’re superior over others.

1. Acceptance of one’s own culture: The first step that should be taken in order to make the Pakistani society culturally diverse would be to accept one’s own culture and values. There is no shame in being belonging to a culture that’s vastly different from the ones shown in popular (mostly American) TV shows, or having a mother who’s unable to communicate in English or Urdu.

2. Respect for differences: Ethnic accents or dressing styles should not be subjected to ridicule, a pakul is not merely a hat to be worn in cultural festivals, and a saree is not a symbol of Bollywood influence or Hinduism, it’s a traditional garment worn by the women of many cultures. The association of cultural pride with daily attires and preferences should be put an end to. If a person prefers to wear jeans over shalwars on regular days, it does not mean they are ashamed of their culture. And, similarly, if a person feels comfortable listening to music in their native language, it does not mean they harbor animosity towards those who prefer Western music.

3. Recognition of other cultures: An Urdu-speaking family in Karachi is not Hindustani or Sindhi – they’re Muhajirs, and they are allowed to take pride in the customs of their ancestors that were practiced in the region that is now India instead of Pakistan. Gilgitis are not the same as Kashmiris or Baltis or Pashtuns – they have their own identity and culture. Pashtuns are not a carbon-copy of Afghans, Saraikis are not “hybrid Sindhi and Punjabi”, and not all Muhajirs are from Dehli or Lucknow.

4. Empowering all cultures: The Pakistani entertainment industry and media should be used to spread acceptance, through movies, dramas, and children’s programs. A new wave in Urdu, Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, etc. literature and art should be encouraged, creating stories and poetry that would attract the modern generation and keep the languages alive.

5. Acceptance through languages: A multilingual society should be promoted instead of suppressed through Westernized-conditioning. Language clubs and competitions should be inclusive of all the native languages of Pakistan and not just English and Urdu.

6. Acceptance and diversity from family institutions: Couples that belong to different ethnic groups should cultivate a culturally diverse environment for their children to grow in. Marriages between members of different cultures should not be shameful; instead, they should be encouraged.

7. Valuing cultural heterogeneity: most importantly, it should be established that no culture is flawless. And that is because culture is not an innately flawless institution. Certain aspects of it may become redundant, but that does not mean the entire culture should be abandoned. Modifying a culture is not mutilating it; it’s a progression that should not be fueled by globalization.

No change can be brought without the active participation and consent of all ethnic, gender, religious, and age groups. Comfort with one’s own identity will allow the acceptance of other cultures, so it’s important to be aware of one’s ethnic and religious values along with a deep respect for those who are different.

#Essay #Cultural Diversity #Sociology #Criticism

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keen19thcenturygoatsstudent · 4 years ago

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With references to different approaches over the past century, identify what good local history should do and why.

Defining local history is a topic that has undergone a transformation over the past century. British History Online gives the definition of local history as ‘All history is about people. Local historians […] spend most of their time investigating ordinary people in ordinary places��.[1] The antiquarians of the past would be likened to fact gatherers, who would not seek to draw out any further information than what was found on the surface. This is a habit that it is important to draw away from in order to compile good local history.[2] Several historians have sought to make their own impressions of what makes local history good, including Kate Tiller, W. G. Hoskins, John Beckett and John Tosh. Within this essay, there will be common themes that will be deliberated upon with references to work completed by Barry Reay, Kate Tiller and John Tosh. These themes are to define local history, how to combine the local events with regional and nationwide events, how to treat sources and the questions to ask of them.

Defining local history is a task that commonly seems to be noted as ‘hard to do well’.[3] The local historian must be able to establish what they intend to study and define what they will call local for the extent of their work.[4] Local history is traditionally not a topic that has been encompassed in a professional capacity, instead amateur groups were established during the Victorian era. This stemmed from a concern over loss of heritage due to the rapid changes brought on to society via the Industrial Revolution.[5] Due to the founding of local history interests in amateur groups, there is an ongoing general perspective at the academic level that local history is relevant only in relation to supporting national agendas and themes.[6] Linking the events on a national and transnational scale can make local history be classified as good, since it places the small area on the global map.[7] No village, town or city exists on its own, it is always part of the larger area even when places were more distanced than they are in the present day. A settlement would be connected to others in the locality, and there would be a focal place in the area where large markets would be held, and all manners of essential goods could be traded. However, the changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution can be viewed as a threat to this known existence. The changes were felt at the ground level by those who had no say in the technology brought in which could threaten their livelihoods, however if the customs were not being challenged too greatly, then the changes would be viewed as progressive by the local history societies.[8] The early societies were rarely involved with local history alone, they would also have wider interests such as archaeology and antiquities.[9] The local societies would also have a middle-class membership rather than an elite-class, therefore they were seen as not as highly educated in the eyes of the universities which founded the academics of history.

The sources used in local history can often formulate a strong basis for a thesis. Historians are highly trained to analyse and interpret sources, and they are also aware of how to test a source for its ‘authenticity’.[10] This is done by knowing the circumstances in which sources are made, along with external knowledge of language changes, author bias and events occurring around them.[11] The sources should be interpreted, and they should come from a wider area than from just the traditional aspects such as census records, written documents and artifacts.[12] By using a broader range of sources, it gives a stronger explanation to the thesis proposed. A historian should also be fully aware that one can rarely find all of the sources that would make the argument for a thesis in one place, thus it is important to search different areas for new sources so one can be able to examine society from all angles as it was then.[13] It can also showcase that it was not only one part of society that experienced the event, nor that it was only the marginalised fringes who felt the aftereffects. Though the historian should be wary of examining the morality of the event or its outcomes, instead of focusing on explaining the changes.[14] It is also necessary to maintain accuracy when examining sources, since historians can succumb to the wishes to ‘explain or justify the present’ while examining the past through the evidence left behind.[15] The use of title deeds and wills can establish how a family would run a farm after the death of the male head of household.[16] While then examining census records, one can also potentially uncover how a family made their living.[17] Though one does also then have to acknowledge that women and children were also hidden labour behind census records under an informal economy.[18] As a list, this brings together the training of the historian to read into what is left behind since Reay draws up possibilities where dual occupations were hidden by the census records. It must be acknowledged that informal economies were the backbone during the Victorian era for the lower-class families, where work which was not necessarily paid but it was essential to the running of the household. Historians have learnt about it by interpreting their sources thoroughly from a variety of origins. A historian must also be thoroughly aware that the bias of the author of the sources can influence exactly what was left behind, and that they must know that it is just as important about what has not been said as what was said.[19] Good local history will extract information from sources, while maintaining the customs and beliefs of the time and not looking to colour it with modern values. This is an idea which can only be further enhanced by bringing together a wide combination of sources, and thus building the most accurate representation of the past that the skills of a historian will allow. Statistics and data are also an important factor to consider, although it must be noted that the context in how the data was gathered is an essential factor to be aware of.[20]

Local history was formed on the idea that it was only important in relation to explaining national events at a local level.[21] The Victoria County History (VCH) was founded in 1899 with the expectation of being able to document every parish in England upon completion.[22] Though the founding of the VCH may have been misguided, since local history is now often referred to as a history of people, rather than place. It focuses on the day-to-day ordinary citizen instead of the original top down history.[23] If changes at a local level can be linked to national events then it was relevant for traditional historical study. For example, the food riots in the eighteenth century in East and South England and the corn laws set by parliament.[24] The food riots were only focused on certain towns and areas, but it contributed towards a wider response to move to a free market and to enforce the idea that a free market should establish the cost of the corn and flour that many people depended on to make their bread for the week. However, the local area is where the people would feel the change the most. It was the local people who would band together to make the drive to not buy the corn for the price set by the seller, instead they would bargain to pay a fair price. Thus, by studying the local area, you are uncovering the history of the ordinary person. Ordinary people who would remain hidden in history if studies were not undertaken to extract them and expose them to the present.[25] By explaining how the changes at a local level relate to the national events, then a historian is incorporating the understanding they have gained from their sources and integrating it with their knowledge of the wider locality.[26] They are also acknowledging that not every place had the same reaction to events, and that sometimes, the common belief about what happened in the past is misguided.[27] The investigation of the evidence should present the changes without adhering to expectation of how the local area was affected and it should not seek to romanticise the past.[28] A good study will place the local area in relation to the regional, national and global issues.[29] This will draw out the idea that no village or town exists entirely on its own. One parish or locality will not support itself; it is always connected to others and it will have a purpose there.[30] The sources used by the historian should be relatable to others, the sources like the parish, cannot stand alone.[31]

Writing history should be a blend of perspective, understanding people and place, and maintaining a distance which will enable an ability to interpret the evidence critically.[32] By uncovering the customs of a locality, then a historian can seek to exploit further understanding of why people lived their lives in certain ways. This knowledge can usually only be uncovered due to the extensive training that a historian undergoes. One should be able to lift the source from the era and examine it with the knowledge of customs, beliefs and a willingness to learn more about what other studies could have missed.[33]

History must be written well for it to be considered good, even going as far as that a good historian must be able to write creatively to engage with readers and other historians.[34] Imagination is required for good history writing, as sources will often only show a glimpse instead of showing the whole story behind its creation in the past.[35] To be able to engage with your audience, then one must be able to recreate the past in vivid detail. Word choice is essential and can make the difference, whilst paying attention to details that have been taught as a historian’s tool. The poorest were often the type to leave behind no footsteps in the past, thus imagination enables the historian to bring them back to life through their analysis of a source.[36] It is also important that while answering the issues and questions, the place itself is not forgotten otherwise the results could be compared to the earlier antiquarian fact gathering expeditions.[37] A properly thought out argument that is written well can distinguish the professional historian from the enthusiastic amateur who compiles facts that they have found interesting.[38] It should also be written in a way that can demonstrate emotions in the face of what is viewed as change for the worse by the people of the time.[39] However, the historian should be wary of presenting the past as static in their writings since attitudes and events have a habit of constantly changing and evolving.[40] When badly written, history can hide the majority of people from view. It can hide many problems that are placed on the poorest, who a historian can deduct from sources is already highly unlikely to leave their mark on society.[41] It can also produce a flat image which, when not done correctly, leaves the audience misguided on events. Events are not stand-alone features, so the historian should be able to write them as such with cause and effect lain out for the reader to learn from.[42]

Writing local history is a task that is not easy to define. The Victoria County History is still aiming to complete all the parishes in England and its work is ongoing over 120 years on from its formation. The historian must be aware when they begin, the task before them is an arduous one. Sources will not speak plainly; the historian must be able to extract information and data from them to form evidence to support their thesis. They must also be able to write creatively, fluently and engage with their audience to bring the past to life. A well written local history will be able to define its own area of study and will have used a wide variety of sources in order to engage the past in its truest form. Historians should be able to link events from the local reaction to the national event and place the locality in the wider globe. Local events do not happen on their own, there is a complex web of cause and effect to examine and the historian can only bring this issue to life with extensive training, knowledge of how to examine the sources and the ability to write well.

[1] Adam Chapman, ‘Subject guide: local history on British History Online’ British History Online <https://www.british-history.ac.uk/using-bho/local-guide> [accessed 20 October 2020] (para 1 of 12).

[2] Ian Willis, ‘Academic Snobbery: local historians need more support’ The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/academic-snobbery-local-historians-need-more-support-5710> [accessed 20 October 2020] (para 10 of 26).

[3] Annette Atkins, ‘Reviewed work: Writing Local History Today: A Guide to Researching, Publishing, and Marketing Your Book by Thomas A Mason and J. Kent Calder’, The Public Historian, 37 (2015), 144-146 (p. 145).

[4] David Hey, ‘Local and Regional History: Modern Approaches’ Oxford Reference <https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199532988.001.0001/acref-9780199532988-e-2004> [accessed 18 October 2020] (para 2 of 23).

[5] John Beckett, Writing Local History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007) p. 73.

[6] Beckett, Writing Local History, p. 3.

[7] Ian Willis, ‘Local History: a view from the bottom’ History Workshop <https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/local-history-a-view-from-the-bottom/> [accessed 20 October 2020] (para 12 of 13).

[8] Rebecca Wheeler, ‘Local history as productive nostalgia? Change, continuity and sense of place in rural England’, Social & Cultural Geography, 18 (2017), 466-486 (p. 469).

[9] Beckett, Writing Local History, p. 71.

[10] John Tosh, The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of History (Oxon: Routledge, 2015) pp. 98-102.

[11] K. D. M. Snell, ‘Gravestones, Belonging and Local Attachment in England 1700-2000’, Past and Present, 179 (2003), 97-134 (p. 108).

[12] Kate Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century: An Overview and Suggested Agenda’, The International Journal of Regional and Local Studies, 6 (2010), 16-47 (p. 16-18).

[13] W. G. Hoskins, The Midland Peasant: The Economic and Social History of a Leicestershire Village (Chichester: Macmillan, 1963), p. xvii.

[14] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 22.

[15] Tosh, p. 3.

[16] Barry Reay, Microhistories: demography, society and culture in rural England, 1800-1930 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 18.

[17] Reay, p. 20.

[18] Reay, p. 30.

[19] Rosemary Sweet, ‘The production of urban histories in eighteenth-century England’, Urban History, 23 (1996), 171-188 (p.182).

[20] Tosh, p. 113.

[21] Beckett, Writing Local History, p.82.

[22] [Anon.], ‘What is Victoria County History?’ British History Online <https://www.history.ac.uk/research/victoria-county-history/about-victoria-county-history> [accessed 10 November 2020] (para 1 of 5).

[23] Reay, p. 13.

[24] E. P. Thompson, ‘The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century’ in Customs in Common ed. by E. P. Thompson (London: Merlin Press, 1991), pp.185-258 (p.189).

[25] Jan Broadway, ‘No Historie So Meete’: Gentry Culture and the Development of Local History in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006) p. 3.

[26] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 33.

[27] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 39.

[28] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 23.

[29] Pierre Goubert, ‘Local History’, Daedalus, 100 (1971) 113-127 (p.124).

[30] M. Aston, Interpreting the Landscape: Landscape, archaeology and local history (London: Batsford, 1985) p. 151.

[31] Tosh, p. 122.

[32] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 16.

[33] Tosh, p. 27.

[34] Tosh, p. 123.

[35] Tosh, p. 142.

[36] Snell, p. 122-3.

[37] John Beckett, ‘W. G. Hoskins, the Victoria County History, and the Study of English Local History’, Midland History, 36 (2011), 115-127 (p.126).

[38] Beckett, Writing Local History, p. 197.

[39] Wheeler, p. 469.

[40] Wheeler, p. 470.

[41] Wheeler, p. 482.

[42] Tosh, p. 125.

#social history #local history masters degree #defining good local history #local history #first essay #essay

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southeastasianists · 5 years ago

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Though 10-year-old Vira Rama didn’t understand what his family’s secrets were, he knew that they had to be kept hidden. At first glance, they seemed innocuous enough: a stash of family photos of trips to the beach and Siem Reap, a photo of Rama in a youth scout uniform, all wrapped up in a bag made of cut tarp.

When the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country in April 1975, Rama’s mother, Kim Pean Ky, had insisted on taking this bundle of photos with her as her family was forcibly relocated from their home in the northwestern city of Battambang. She kept them concealed as soldiers marched them into the country on dusty roads congested with people fleeing in three-wheeled tuk-tuks, on ox-driven carts, and even on foot. As soon as the family was resettled in a village called O’ Srarlao, located in what the military regime called Zone 4, Rama watched as his mother dug a hole under their small wooden hut just large enough for the bag of photos. He didn’t ask questions as she hid the traces of their middle-class life under a pile of banana leaves. Though the family would travel to several other zones during the rule of the Khmer Rouge, from 1975 to 1979, Rama’s mother never forgot about the photos. Each time they moved, she quietly and dutifully excavated the bag and then buried again, and again, and again. If the severe, unpredictable, paranoid Khmer Rouge had found it, their lives would be forfeit.

Now, 44 years later, the archive Rama’s mother risked her life to preserve has been published in a book, aptly named Buried. The book is a collaboration between the family and British photographer Charles Fox, who has worked in Cambodia since 2005 running Found Cambodia, an archive of photos of life before, during, and after the reign of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s. Of all the photos Fox has encountered in Found Cambodia, he says the Rama’s archive is by far the most complete. “Their story is one of thousands of stories,” he says. “But their collection is unique. Vira tried to record as much of his family history as possible.”

“I feel lucky to have these photos,” says Rama, who held on to Ky’s archive long after the family relocated to the United States (both now live in Southern California). “It gives me something to go back to. Many people who survive the Khmer Rouge have nothing at all.”

Rama was born in 1965 in Battambang. The second-eldest of seven siblings, he lived a charmed early life that was assiduously documented by his father. “I liked being photographed. I was always the goofy one,” he says, adding that many of his childhood photobombs did not make the cut for Buried. In Battambang, before their forced relocation, the photos lay behind plastic in albums and hung on the walls in frames. The tarp bag provided less protection, and many of the photos were damaged. Rama’s mother also altered some of the photos that would have been impossible to explain her way out of, had they been found. For example, she cut King Norodom Sihanouk—who had a complicated and fraught relationship with the Khmer Rouge—out of a photo of her husband.

In the camps, the photos had to be buried because Khmer Rouge soldiers conducted random searches of people’s huts to purge any evidence of city life. Other families also concealed treasures that could get them killed, such as jewelry or medicine, which indicated you were wealthy enough to have seen a doctor. O’ Srarlao’s Zone 4 became one of the most brutal areas controlled by the Khmer Rouge. In addition to executions, the villages were rife with starvation and disease made worse by forced labor.

At O’ Srarlao, the family slowly splintered as children were sent to perform forced labor at different camps, some planting rice and others constructing irrigation systems. Despite the family’s best efforts to conceal their history, Rama’s father stood out as a target for the Khmer Rouge, which actively persecuted and murdered intellectuals. A former math and French language teacher who worked as a banker for the Banque Khmere Pour Le Commerce, he was a member the class that the new regime saw as an existential threat. In 1977, he was executed.

Shortly after, the Ramas knew they had to leave the country. The family members remaining at Zone 4 split into three groups, Ky dug up the photos and fled with some of her seven children to the less violent Zone 3, reburying the photos in each village they stayed in. “My mom valued these photos even though it was risky evidence,” Rama says. “If they searched us, they would kill us.”

When Vietnamese forces liberated the country in 1979, the Ramas reunited in Battambang. But Khmer Rouge soldiers still lurked, and so they fled once more through jungles and minefields to the Thai border. They arrived in 1980 and settled in the Khao-I-Dang refugee camp. After 18 months there, they found a sponsor in the United States. After a few months in the Philippines to learn English, the Ramas moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1981. Rama had just turned 16. Buried contains photos of these unsettled but peaceful times, both at the refugee camp and during the family’s first few years in America.

In Louisiana, Ky worked various jobs—as a seamstress, in a spice factory, at restaurants. Her seven children went to school. Rama attended Warren Easton High School, the first time he’d been in school for six years, and graduated in 1985. With the help of his math and science teacher Mr. Blanchard, Rama became a civil engineer.

Around a year after Rama’s family arrived, his sponsor gave him a cheap camera. It was the first time Rama had held a one since before the Khmer Rouge took over. Later in life, he upgraded to a series of fancy digital cameras, including a Nikon DSLR he used to snap photos of his children in soccer and basketball games. Taking photos had become an everyday luxury, and Rama errs on the side of over-documentation.

Rama’s love of photography made him the family’s photokeeper. He kept all his family’s photos in a safety deposit box and scanned many to upload to Flickr—glimpses of life before and after the Khmer Rouge. He also kept artifacts of his family’s immigration, such as the Pan Am tickets they used to fly to America. In 2015, he stumbled upon Found Cambodia, Fox’s project. “I sent Charles an email with a link to my Flickr, saying he was more than welcome to take any photos to add to his collection,” Rama says. “The very next day he emailed me back.”

Fox had dozens of questions. Who were the people in the photos? Where were they taken? Who did the photos belong to? Fox recognized that Rama possessed an incredible document of a time mostly lost to history. “Other family’s photos are so fragmented, which have their own importance,” Fox says. “But what the Ramas managed to save and how they managed to survive is quite remarkable.”

The horrors of the Khmer Rouge are hard to imagine, in part because there are almost no surviving photos of what life was like under the military regime due to the regime’s eschewal of modern life. The most known pictures of that period consist of 7,000 portraits taken by Nhem Ein, a young photographer working in the Tuol Sleng prison, according to The New York Times. It is a grim collection, as every portrait is of a person about to be executed.

When Fox saw all of Rama’s archive, he was struck by its narrative cohesion—a family’s story. He proposed the photos be arranged in a simple booklet, and all members of the Rama family were game. “He consulted with me every step, from the color to the title,” Rama says. The book’s design is intentional: The inside covers are decorated with rumdul flowers, the national flower of Cambodia, and pages that separate life before and after the Khmer Rouge are blank and red.

When Fox sent Rama the first draft of the book, the photos were arranged without any identifying details. Fox asked if Rama’s family could jot down quick captions noting who was in each photo and what occasion, if any, it captured. Rama passed the manuscript to his relatives, who each wrote a few lines in blue pen under the photos that were most meaningful to them. Those handwritten captions appear in the final book—occasionally illegible and deeply human. “That’s how close the family is,” Fox says. “And that’s one of the things that made the book possible.”

Now, each year, the family—Ky, Vira Rama, his six siblings and their families—go camping. Sometimes it’s Mammoth Lakes, sometimes it’s Yosemite. Rama says his relatives often jokingly complain. “They say, ‘We escaped all this hardship, why are we going to spend a week in a tent?’ But maybe that’s part of the healing.” On these trips, the family cooks what Rama calls their native food: cajun and creole cuisine—gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice. Unsurprisingly, Rama takes photos of everything. Now that he’s older, he’s traded his fancy DSLR for a lighter antique Fujifilm.

In Rama’s eyes, Buried is a historical document with very modern echoes. Over the past year, he can’t help but spot the parallels between his own family’s harrowing escape and the current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. He says images of caravans attempting to cross into America bring flashbacks to the fear and violence he experienced as a child. “These people just want a better life for themselves and their children,” he says. “Here in America we’re supposed to be the most generous country but we treat refugees like criminals.”

Cambodia is struggling as well, in particular with its history, according to The Nation. “A lot of millennials in Cambodia don’t know what happened under the Khmer Rouge,” Rama says. “They think it’s fake news.” He hopes Buried will continue to open up new conversations both in the United States and Cambodia about this violent chapter of history. He understands that his family’s journey is not unique, but their records are, and he hopes other Cambodian families will continue to learn their history and break cycles of trauma that afflict generations.

Rama has worked for the city of Los Angeles for 29 years now, and he says he’s five years away from retirement. Recently, he’s noticed more and more people telling him to go back where he came from. “I ask them, which way should I take?” Rama says. “The road I just built, or the other road I built?”

#Southeast Asia #Cambodia #History #Khmer Rouge #Photography #People

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msclaritea · 6 years ago

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The Consequences of Jean Paul and Food For Thought, an excerpt from Aurora's Feather: The Queer Decoding of The Sign of Four.

"Some things should not be hidden behind glass. They were made to be touched."

“How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of nature! Are you well up in your Jean Paul?"

"Fairly so. I worked back to him through Carlyle."

"That was like following the brook to the parent lake. He makes one curious but profound remark. It is that the chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness. It argues, you see, a power of comparison and of appreciation which is in itself a proof of nobility. There is much food for thought in Richter.”

Now, this was odd. Jean Paul Richter never became friends with Von Goethe, who disliked some of his literary methods. Goethe even dubbed him 'A Chinese in Rome' due to his perceived overuse of Orientalism in his writings..."but in Weimar, as elsewhere, his remarkable conversational powers and his genial manners made him a favorite in general society.” Carlyle liked him.

Goethe spoke often of, especially in his play about striving and strife, itself, but so had other Romantics, so why use a quote from another author, already so close to the thoughts of the original muse it seems ACD has been using so far, especially if Goethe didn’t even like the guy?

You know something I have finally picked up on, is when having to look into historical figures, there is the official version...and then there is the rest that gets left out, which is a theme that seems to be peeking out from this story; that of an incomplete tale, searching for wholeness; the same theme that was used in BBC Sherlock.

Enter Warm Brothers: Queer Theory In The Age of Goethe by Robert Tobin, which contributed to most of the following information.

Jean Paul

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter at one point changed his name from it’s more German sound to Jean Paul, which was French and what German society considered effeminate.

While most Romantic novelists wrote in the positive about Marriage, he usually wrote the experience as a negative; a deadly trap.

When he decide to marry, J.P. was quoted as saying “what he wanted was a woman to cook for him”.

18th century blurred the lines between homosexuality and heterosexuality. A person could have several ‘friends’ of different sexes, but could only love one person. Under the guise of friendship, people could say and write things that sound incredibly queer. Some men did not want their spouses to know about their letters, but others who were more pro-feminine, shared their lifestyle with their wives.

He coined the term “love of friends” used as a term among German homosexuals in the 20th century.

Jean was upset with the Christian faith, in part because he could not engage in health, fun horseplay with his male friends.

He once wrote to a friend, "Love must have something physical, a twig, down to which it flies. Send me a twig!”

(Seriously, these German dudes are killing me!)

Jean Paul is...or should be...considered an important voice in Love, Romance, and Homosexuality in German literature.

His novel Siebenkas is about Same Sex Desire, Orientalism, and a Love Triangle. From Transcendental Masturbators: Jean Paul's Siebenkas:

"Siebenkäs found Jean Paul leveling a more general critique at the Romantics and at Fichtean Idealism. This novel has been called “the first German marriage novel.” It appeared at a time in which the theory of marriage and the theory of self-consciousness were curiously intertwined. Jean Paul's critique of philosophical language threatened the self-understanding of German Idealism, construing it as a radicalization rather than a partial repudiation of the Enlightenment. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wahlverwandtschaften showed that a married couple has sex while committing imaginary adultery. The erotics in the Wahlverwandtschafte imagined the four partners (real and imaginary) in four different sexual arrangements."

Orientalism

The Orient had a reputation of an ‘excess of intercourse’ and that it ‘exuded dangerous sex’. It is probably not a coincidence that increase in colonization to parts of the Orient run parallel to the popularity of it’s ‘Sexual Exoticism’ in widespread European literature. Germany reinforced cliches about Sex and the Orient, codified and promoted them in literature and philosophy.

The 19th century British explorer Richard Burton mapped out what he called the SOTADIC ZONE; an area outside of Europe that seemed more prevalent to Homosexuality and Pederasty. (For Burton, pederasty and homosexuality were "geographical and climatic, not racial," meaning it could be found in all the red bits.)

The countries included Morocco, Tahiti, Siam, the West Indies, Northwest America, India, Arabia, Algiers, Egypt, Turkey, China, Siberia, Italy, Constantinople and more within this zone.

Many Europeans, including Wilde, regarded North Africa as ‘a playground full of potential partners’. Italy was well known for its male prostitutes. Hans Christian Anderson was quite ‘distracted’ by them.

Goethe penned an Orientalist novel The East-Western Divan. It turns out that among Goethe’s many interests, it included Eastern Religion and Literature. In an amenable nod to Jean Paul, he stated that “A man who has 'penetrated' the breadth, height, and depth of the Orient, will find that no author had approached the Eastern poets and other authors more than Jean Paul.”

From Holmes quoting Jean Paul, if one were to assume that he wasn't merely referring to Paul's general philosophies, but his other 'foods for thought', then that would have to point to the German novelist being an advent for same sex male friendship AND desire, his use of Orientalism, in Paul's case, BOTH of very close male-male friendships, and Exotic male bodies. He wrote novels, poetry, and papers on the subject, particularly about the acceptance of close male friendships, be they homo-social, homosexual, or otherwise.

(Incidentally, the story within the story of Small, and his exotic adventures...where is it set, again?)

"In response to an ongoing public feud between a local Gay poet and a known homophobe, Goethe took up the cause of homosexuality when it was under massive attack. The attacks had begun in earnest in 1807, not only in response to Goethe’s championing of Winkelmann in his essay of 1805, but in a politically charged campaign against the supposedly treasonous Homosexual Johannes Muller...the attacks on Muller, one of the most celebrated historians of his day, were venomous, for the first time, bringing Nationalism to bear on the interpretation of Homosexuality (at the same time, incidentally, when anti-semitism took on a particularly modern virulence)”

“Man, esthetically is after all much more beautiful, superior, more complete than woman. Once it had arisen, such a feeling then can veer off easily into the animalistic, brutishly physical. Pedarastry is as old as Humanity, and we can therefore say that it is found In nature, even as it is AGAINST nature.”

At this point in the meta, I was almost finished, and had saved Jean Paul for one of the last pieces. I almost stopped here, but I kept having a thought: WHAT IF 'FOOD FOR THOUGHT' REFERRED TO SOMETHING ELSE? A POEM OR OTHER BOOK BY PAUL?

From Amazon: "Life of Jean Paul F. Richter Volume 2", by Eliza Buckminster Lee and William Howitt, is a replication of a book originally published before 1845. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible."

This book includes a quote, from a critic, on a piece of work:

Only...the critic above was not speaking about Jean Paul, but Fredrich Schiller, and his highly praised piece of work,

The Philosophical and Aesthetic Letter and Essays of Schiller.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) is best known for his immense influence on German literature. In his relatively short life, he authored an extraordinary series of dramas, including The Robbers, Maria Stuart, and the trilogy Wallenstein. He was also a prodigious poet, composing perhaps most famously the “Ode to Joy” featured in the culmination of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and enshrined, some two centuries later, in the European Hymn.[1] In part through his celebrated friendship with Goethe, he edited epoch-defining literary journals and exerted lasting influence on German stage production. He is sometimes referred to as the German Shakespeare; his are still among the most widely produced German plays both in Germany and internationally.

In addition to his literary accomplishments, Schiller was a formidable philosophical thinker. Between 1791 and 1796, he authored a range of theoretical works that are both sophisticated and original. These writings primarily concern aesthetics, but they stake out notable positions on ethics, metaphysics, ontology, and political theory as well. Together, his essays helped shape one of the most prolific periods of German philosophizing; since then, they have served as a significant source of philosophical insight from an aesthetic practitioner of the highest standing.

"As we shall see, Schiller’s solution to Kant’s belief that morality can only be achieved by negating man’s negative sensuous impulses, is to educate the emotions of man, in order to bring them into harmony with reason. For Schiller, a human being who has achieved such harmony, by transforming his selfish, infantile erotic emotions into agape of truth, justice, and beauty, is a “beautiful soul.” Moreover, since only such a person is truly free, durable political freedom can only be achieved by deliberately fostering such an aesthetical education of man’s emotions among the population. Because Schiller’s writings are such a devastating critique of the philosophical basis for continuing oligarchical oppression of humanity, academic agents of the oligarchy, taking advantage of the abstraction of Schiller’s argument, have gone so far as to attempt to deny his opposition to Kant, even to the point of lyingly portraying him as a Kantian".

Thomas Mann did a life-long study of Schiller in Queer terms for decades, and asserted in his last work Essay on Schiller, that the philosopher had an intense love for Goethe:

"The great adventure of his life, his experience of passion, of passionate attraction and repulsion, of deep friendship, deep desire and admiration; of give and take, of jealousy, of melancholy, envy and proud self-assertion, of lasting, affective tension...was an event between man and a man. It was his relationship with Goethe." Mann asserts that Schiller was the completely 'masculine' writer, that wanted to attribute to Goethe a 'feminine manner'.

The intense male friendships in many of Schiller's works have resulted in the inclusion of his works in various compilations of 'Gay Literature', including Bullough's Bibliography of Homosexuality. His piece Wallenstein is a known source for Gay Male History. During Schiller's time and beyond, his work was considered so Queered, that it seems 'The Appropriation of Schiller' actually became a thing. You will find his influence in plays, essays, adaptations, cinema.

So prominent was the talk about Schiller's perceived Homosexuality in Queer circles, that a Satirical magazine, Jugend, featured in one issue a drawing of two boys, resting, and overlooking a bridge and a tower, complete with a quote from Schiller. Sascha Schneider, untitled, 1897, Queer Schiller?

From Warm Brothers: "Let us leave the realm of psychoanalysis and return to Schiller . As Jane Bennett points out, confining Schiller to the purely abstract, to concepts like humanity and liberty vitiates his most heartfelt beliefs. Schiller was quite capable of writing abstract theses but chose instead, to write dramatic plays. In the abstract thesis, he went to bat for Aesthetics...for that realm of experience that attempted to bridge the gap between the mind and body; that attempted to connect sensual pleasure with thought. Schiller's hope, in the Letters of Aesthetic Education on Humanity, was that people could will to do what they ought to do. 'The 'willing' is often a sensual, physical, bodily act. The drama attempts as to flesh out the moral problems that Schiller confronts by giving these problems to people with actual bodies. By ignoring the sensual, physical, bodily in Schiller's dramas, readers have tended to turn him into an intellectual, concept artist, which is at odds with his philosophy of art. Schiller had begun his career with writings on the mind/body problem, inspired by the medical models that denied the separation."

Faust is academically seen as a treatise on Schiller's Letters. And the skull that Faust has is based on the actual skull of Schiller's that Johann kept for a short time.

If HoImes sees himself in this story, as Goethe and Watson as Schiller, he may have just hinted to Watson that he is a man of faults, but that he yearns to have a more human existence; a friendship that goes beyond the platonic, and to be made whole, through a sensual, physical act.

After all of this, everything just seemed to go quiet. I stopped working for a while, and started to cry.

@sarahthecoat @possiblyimbiassed @holmezyan @theconsultinglinguist @iamsherlockedbyholmes @impossibleleaf @raggedyblue @elldotsee @gosherlocked @elwinglyre @consulting-nerd-of-many-things @bluebluenova @devoursjohnlock @may-shepard

#i think this is what might be called a love confession #aurora's feather #happy 29 anniversay #johnlock #johann von goethe #faust #schiller

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loretranscripts · 6 years ago

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Lore Episode 18: Hunger Pains (Transcript) - 12th October 2015

tw: cannibalism, gore

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

Today’s episode is the second of four that will be released during the month of October. It’s a month known for its focus on folklore, legend and superstition. We’ll be back to a biweekly schedule in November, but October calls for something special. No tricks, but I do hope that you’ll enjoy the extra treats. And now, on with the show.

One of the most chilling historical events of the last 200 years, one that has fascinated me for most of my life, is the 1846 pioneer journey of the families and employees of James Reed and George Donner. I can’t think of a last name that evokes as much emotion, as much fear, and as much instant visual imagery, as the Donner name. In the years since that fateful winter, the name has become synonymous with mountain passes, frozen bodies huddled around dead campfires, and of course, cannibalism. The Donner party has a way of stopping us in our tracks. We are morbidly fascinated with their tragic journey, but even more so, we’re amazed at how far they went to stay alive. Their story forces us to look straight into the face of a fear that most people bury deep beneath the surface: people eating other people. We can look for justification. We can research the reasons behind their situation and write sterile and safe papers about the horrible plight they found themselves in. But at the end of the day, we are simply and powerfully horrified. From the story of Hansel and Gretel to the modern TV show Hannibal, we have always maintained a repulsive fascination with those who cross the line. We can’t stand to think about it, and yet we can’t look away, either. Maybe it has to do with the morbid symbolism of one body within another. Perhaps it’s the realization that, like cattle or wild game, humans can sometimes become food for something, or someone, else. Or perhaps, deep down, we’re fascinated with cannibalism because we believe that maybe, just maybe, it could turn us into monsters. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

Humans have been confronted with cannibalism for a very long time. Archaeologists have discovered signs of the act that date back tens of thousands of years. In some instances, the reasons have clearly been ritualistic, while others have been driven by food shortages. There’s a lot we still don’t know, but what we do understand has highlighted the fact that, long ago, it was far more common than it is today. In the realm of ancient history, Greek and Roman historians recorded instances related to war and conquering. The Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70AD, for example, resulted in scattered reports of cannibalism. Decades later, when the Romans attacked Numantia, historians in Alexandria recorded similar stories. One interesting observation is that, over the centuries, the accusation of cannibalism has been a political and colonial tool. The ancient Greeks assumed that all non-Hellenistic peoples were simply barbarians and cannibals and used it to justify their hostility toward them. For many empires, even up through the British Empire of the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a way to demonise a people group, and to give themselves permission to come in and take over – to bring civilization, so to speak, which led to deep prejudice against these people groups. One example from 1820 stands out: that was the year a whaling ship called the Essex was rammed and sunk by one of the whales it was pursuing. If that plot sounds familiar at all, it’s because that story went on to inspire the novel Moby Dick. After the accident, the captain and crew of 21 boarded three of their whale boats. They had two choices for a route to safety: they could sail 3000 miles against the wind to Chile, or half the distance with the wind to the Marquesas Islands. But the Marquesans were rumoured to be cannibals, so they took the longer route. As a result, the crew spent months at sea, and eventually resorted to cannibalism themselves to survive. Reality can be cruel – and ironic, apparently. But something darker sits at the centre of many cannibalism stories.

At the core of almost all Native American cultures, across Canada and the northern part of what is now the United States, there are stories of the supernatural effects that eating other humans can have on a person. Each tribe seems to refer to the stories with different terms, but they’re all eerily similar. Wabanaki legend speaks of the man-eating snow giant, Giwakwa. The Cree tell tales of the Witiko, also a giant and also a man-eater. The Micmac tribes of northern Maine up through Nova Scotia tell stories of the Chenoo, creatures that were once human but had been transformed through some horrible crime that was usually cannibalism. The most common name for these creatures among Native Americans, however, is one we already know from popular culture. They are the Wendigo, a creature that was once human, but had been transformed by their hunger for human flesh into a monster that can’t ever be satisfied. One Native American description of the creature claims that a Wendigo is taller than a grown man, with a gaunt body and dead skin that seems to be pulled too tightly over its bones. Tales speak of the tangle of antlers upon its head, and the deep eye sockets that seem to be dead inside, and it smelled of death and decay. In Cree mythology, though, the Wendigo was simply a human who had become possessed by an evil spirit. It would take over, and then turn its hunger and hatred toward the people around it. To the Cree, the Wendigo was most often just another person: a neighbour, a friend, a sister, a son. There was no hope for those who were transformed into man-eating creatures. There was only one solution available: these creatures must be hunted and killed. It’s fantasy; it’s a cultural meta-narrative about something else, something deeper – at least, that’s what the anthropologists tell us. But some have taken those legends at face value.

Swift Runner was a Native American from the Cree tribe that lived in the western portion of Canada. He was born in the early 1800s and worked as a hunter and trapper in the north country, near Fort Edmonton, as well as a guide for the north-west mounted police. He was a big man, standing over 6ft tall, and according to the reports, he was well-liked and respected among his people. He and his wife had six children; it was said that he was a loving father who cared deeply for his family, which is why the winter of 1878 will be remembered as a tragedy. According to the reports, Swift Runner stumbled into a Catholic mission in St. Albert, sometime in the spring of 1879. He was distraught and unfocused; he told the priest that the winter had been harsh, and that his entire family had starved to death. He was, in fact, the only one to make it out alive. But something didn’t sit right with the priest. For one thing, Swift Runner didn’t look like a man who had endured starvation throughout the winter months – he was a solid 200lb and seemed healthy and strong. Another hint that all was not well were his nightmares, which often ended with him screaming in the night. In the end, the priests reached out to the mounted police. A group of investigators were dispatched to look into the matter, and they took Swift Runner back to his winter camp. To his credit, Swift Runner was helpful – he immediately showed the men a small grave near the campsite, and explained that it was the grave of one of his boys. They even went as far as to open the grave, and everything lined up with his story. They were the bones of a child, and it was safe to assume the child was Swift Runner’s. But then the police found other clues that began to paint a darker picture. Around the camp in scattered locations, they began to uncover more bones and a skull. Not just a few, either. There were bones everywhere. Some of the larger bones were hollow and snapped in half, clearly the result of someone sucking the marrow out. They also found bits of flesh and hair. The evidence began to pile up, and they looked to Swift Runner for an explanation, and that’s when he told them the truth. According to him, a Wendigo spirit came into their camp during the winter. It spoke to him and told him to eat his family. At first, he resisted, ignoring the voice. But slowly, over time, the Wendigo took control, and then it took action. Swift Runner’s wife was the first to die, then one of the younger boys, and one by one his family was killed and eaten. Then the creature moved on to his mother-in-law, and his own brother. To Swift Runner, it was cold fact – a monster had eaten his family, and the police agreed. They simply disagreed on the identity of that monster. The mutilated human remains were collected and transported to Fort Saskatchewan, along with Swift Runner himself. His trial began on August 8th of 1879, and it was about as cut and dried as it could be. Both the judge and jury refused to accept the story of the Wendigo. They saw the man as a murderer and sentenced him to be hanged. Over 60 people gathered at the fort on December 20th to watch the hanging. One witness to the execution, a man who had reportedly seen several hangings in his life, was said to have slapped his thigh and declared “Boys, that was the prettiest hanging I’ve ever seen”.

The Severn river in Ontario winds through the homeland of the Sandy Lake first nation. This area of Canada is so isolated that it wasn’t until the early decades of the 20th century that the western world really made an effort and reach out and connect with the people who lived there. It’s way up in the far western corner of Ontario, in the kind of territory where lakes have islands that have their own lakes. By the late 1800s, the Hudson Bay Company had closed down enough of its trading posts that the closest one to Sandy Lake was over 140 miles away. That was a 50 hour walk across rough terrain. I’m not really sure that “isolated” is a strong enough word to use here, the place was practically alien. Jack Fiddler was born in the 1830s - or maybe it was the 1840s, most people aren’t sure, but we know that he was a Cree Indian, and he worked as a trader. He made the trek between the villages and the trading post for a living, and in the process, he met lots of people. He was also the son of the Sandy Lake people’s shaman, and over his lifetime he had five wives and many, many children. When Jack’s father died in 1891, he took over as the leader of the Sandy Lake people. Now, that sounds fancy, but in reality, there were only roughly 120 people living in this community. He had influence over the wider geographical area as well, but his real power came from his role as the tribal shaman. A shaman’s powers were a vital part of his leadership – when Jack became the spiritual leader of his people, he became the keeper of their ancient traditions and their guardian against the approaching darkness that was western civilization. There are even legends that tell of Jack Fiddler curing illnesses. But most importantly, Jack became their first and only defence against the Wendigo, often called upon to hunt down and kill them. I know, this sounds like the stuff of comic books or Hollywood movies, but Jack Fiddler lives up to the hype. In fact, over his lifetime, he claimed to have defeated 14 of the monsters. But Jack didn’t go looking for tall, monstrous creatures with antlers and bony bodies. No, he understood the Wendigo to be more subtle. Some Wendigos, Jack said, had been sent to attack his people by other shamans. Others had been members of his own tribe, who seemed to have been overtaken with an unstoppable urge to eat human flesh. When it was his own people, Jack said that he and his brother, Joseph, were the ones called upon to do the hard thing and kill the individuals. And not just kill them, no, that wasn’t enough to stop the possession. You see, it was believed that the Wendigo’s spirit could actually hop from one body to the next, so those who died as a result of their possession were often burned to stop the infection from spreading. For the Sandy Lake people, and many of the other Native American tribes that cover much of the northern half of North America, the Wendigo stories were more than just here say. It was an idea that was rooted in ancient tradition. Ceremonies were built around the legend. People were warned and educated constantly about the danger this creature posed to the community, and then suddenly, all of that tradition and history ran headlong into the modern world, and the results were disastrous.

Some time in 1905, Joseph Fiddler’s daughter-in-law was brought to Jack’s village. She was very sick, according to multiple first-hand accounts. She was in deep pain that often drove her to cry out and moan and constantly make noise. Some of the women tending to her would even have to hold her down to keep her under control. Jack and his brother, Joseph, were brought in. They were old men by then, both in their 80s and very frail, but they knew what was causing her illness, and they knew how to stop it. They had done it many times before, and so they did what they did best: they took a thin rope and looped it over her head, and then, slowly, they tightened it. It wasn’t done in cold blood - it was a calculated decision that these men came to only after deep discussion, but it was driven by fear. If the Wendigo spirit inside her had been allowed to take control, there was no telling how destructive it might have become. To them, this was preventative, it was mercy, a form of euthanasia that protected the entire community. The Fiddlers were mere instruments in the hands of a culture driven by superstition. Witnesses testify to their quiet, dignified nature, but it didn’t help; the men were brought before a six-man jury later that year. The Toronto newspapers printed sensational headlines about the trial, crying out against devil worship and murder, and in response, people around the country cried out for a conviction. And they were guilty, without question. These men had killed a member of their family – it might not have been a crime of passion, but they were still murderers, so when they final verdict came down, it was far from a surprise: guilty. The Cree people of Sandy Lake lost their leader, they lost two of the most respected elders of their tiny community, and most frightening to them, they lost their last remaining Wendigo hunters. Real or not, these men had been a wall that kept the darkness and fear at bay, and now that wall was gone.

Superstition has often served to answer our questions and calm our fears. From the Changelings of Ireland to the vampires of New England, the stories we tell have helped us explain the mysteries we don’t understand. That’s not all superstition does, I know, but it makes up a lot of the examples we find. We fear the unknown and we come up with anything to explain it away. Cannibalism is something that humans have feared for a very, very long time, not because we’re actually convinced it could change us into supernatural monsters. No, at the root of it all, cannibalism is just a line that we don’t think we should cross, and rightly so. History is littered with examples of people who have crossed the line, not because their life was at risk or because they had no choice, but because of something darker. Deep belief in the folklore of their upbringing, mental instability, premeditated violence… whatever the reason, every example reveals humans to be the true monsters, capable of anything, even the things we fear the most. Maybe Jack Fiddler understood this; perhaps he knew that he represented the final entry in a vital, ancient lineage. He saw a world ill-equipped to defend itself against the evils he had fought all his life. I have to imagine that the idea of it simply exhausted him. On September 30th, 1907, while on a walk outside with a police constable, Jack escaped into the woods, where he strangled himself with the sash he wore. His brother would later die in prison from tuberculosis. On July 30th, 2008, a man named Tim Mclean was riding a greyhound bus along the trans-Canadian highway in Manitoba, when one of the other passengers attacked and killed him. The man, Vince Weiguang, did more than just kill Mclean, though. He stabbed him, beheaded him, and then proceeded to cannibalise the body. Was the killer just insane, or did he perhaps meet an evil spirit there, on his trip through Wendigo territory? That’s a question that would be impossible to answer for certain, but the courts ruled in favour of insanity. In the end, he was held in a high security mental institute in Manitoba, but he stayed there for less than a decade. Earlier this year, in May of 2015, he was released back into society.

This episode of Lore was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke. Learn more about me and this show over at lorepodcast.com, and be sure to follow along on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, @lorepodcast. You can back the show over at Patreon.com/lorepodcast, and get some sweet rewards in return, like extra episodes, premium transcripts, and so much more. This episode of Lore was made possible by you, listeners who are always hungry for more. [Insert ad break]. And one final note: the recent live show in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was an insanely good time. The theatre sold out, and I got to meet so, so many of you – it was awesome. If you missed it and you wish you’d been there, I’ve added an audio bootleg to the shop on the website. $5 will get you all three live episodes, plus a healthy dose of my witty banter, so be sure to check that out. And as always, thanks for listening.

#lore podcast #podcasts #aaron mahnke #wendigo #cannibalism #swift runner #jack fiddler #canada #folklore #transcripts #18

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engrosstyro · 4 years ago

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Travel to India- Know Everything in One Place

TRAVEL INDIA- EXPLORE THE THING

This sub-continent covers each and every independently wonder, from snowy sands island shores and tropical woods to elevated slopes and towering mountain ranges. Uncover 5,000 decades of history, you start with a few of those earliest civilizations of the Indus River Valley who united using Aryan reefs about 1500 B.C.E. to generate the most traditional Indian civilization which still thrives now. Together with 26 globe Heritage internet sites sprinkled across the nation, it isn't hard to become immersed within the intricacies of neighborhood civilization in virtually all one of those 28 countries and seven lands.

Flourishing Shops and Clashing Cultures: The Great Thing about this North

The northern location of India can be a various mixture of cultures, customs and arts, and languages. The exposure with the spot to external lands all through history was a boon and a curse, bringing using the chaos unique outside influences and inspirations. The capital town of New Delhi, having its own mix of 4 big religions,'' 7 reigns of electrical power along with 2500 decades of history,'' is a prime instance of co-existing realities. New Delhi is nearly an alternative world having its own royal design and extensive open boulevards. Colonial sway is ample as the British announced Delhi the funding within his or her own rule. Even the Taj Mahal is additionally from the northwest, approximately 200 km from Delhi. This really could be definitely the absolute most iconic presentation of self-improvement structure and ought not to be missed.

A light to the Heartland: Journey India's South

Traveling towards the culturally homogenous south of India and watch tens and thousands of many years from this caste system in the clinic even though the modern arrangement of India's govt. Having its alluring tales of commerce and liberty, Goa is now perhaps one among the absolute most well-known destinations over the coastline. One of Goa's historical destroys stands that the Vittala Temple, a massive tribute into the capital of this ancient Vijayanagara Empire. Most noteworthy would be the Maya's musical columns that signify distinct musical instruments. Goa's complicated structure and separate civilizations are additional services and products of 450 decades of Portuguese rule. From the southwest, the traveller may even strike plenty of biodiversity and secure coastal locations. The Western Ghats assortment is labeled among the world's most biodiversity hotspots exactly where Quiet Valley National Park shields India's very last tract of virgin tropical evergreen woods.

Regardless of the huge magnitude with this subcontinent, you can find different seasons throughout which traveling anyplace inside the united kingdom might be exceedingly stressful and uncomfortable. October also marks the finish of the monsoon year throughout the southern and southern coastal locations are all plagued by a torrential downpour. The remaining part of the season is incredibly agreeable and light using always the sunshine from the southwest and very cold evenings in the north between December and February.

For extra details on global traveling and low-cost airfare to India, see www.cfares.com.

To begin with, because of its challenge of out you there, India is situated in South Asia. It's 7000 km of shore around the Indian Ocean and also the next biggest system of water on earth. About three islands are located close to India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and also the Maldives. It also ought to be noted that there's additionally a contested border with Afghanistan, but that is yet another issue for yet another report.

Various civilizations, habits, wallpapers, languages, landscapes, noises, scents and cuisine, outfits, goods, perspectives, and anticipate the planet traveler. You will find a lot of what to have, it truly is tough to settle on which part of one's trip has been that the sensational or educational. Travel the planet can improve your own life in a lot of means to characterize within no more than 1 essay, therefore here we'll concentrate on part of the entire world named India.

The Karnataka people Museum at Bangalore contains exhibits of masks that are rare artifacts, and also pendants which are a part of all India's prosperous historical past, in addition to a selection of those folk videos and music of all folks dances cited earlier in the day within this specific report.

There are a number of spiritual festivals and festivals held public in India you must not overlook for the duration of your excursion. Harvest festivals for a lot of different religions of India have been appreciated by everybody, even people with diverse faiths. Throughout the Buddhist New Year (the very first full moon in might )the Tibetan Buddhist local community at Sikkim plays the mysterious Gumpa Dance and is still just a have to see in the event that you're planning to go to India throughout this moment; point. From the Fall weeks, among the absolute most obvious harvest festivals would be the Ganesh Chaturthi as well as also the Maharastra are terrific adventures to enhance your destination in case you'd love to undergo religious festivals, that can be the main portion of Indian civilization.

Similar to the united states of America, India has 28 countries, which every one possesses their personal chosen authorities. You can find a number of differences although, India includes got the countrywide Territory of both Dehli and 6 Union Territories. China now has a bigger population compared to India, but by 2030, India is predicted to transcend Chain and eventually become the very populated nation on earth.

New Delhi can be actually a gorgeous metropolis whose structures possess composed courtyards and therefore are decidedly among the greatest attractions together with a number of the best museums in the nation. New Dehli additionally sporting lots of boutiques and shops which contain the most useful crafts India offers. New Dehli is definitely somewhere to move throughout your journeys to India.

The Pandavas Caves Temple at Goa has been dedicated to God Shiva and dates right back into the First Century.

India has become a region for decades also it has a rich tradition and legacy was maintained for its part. While travel from India, then you are going to be vulnerable to a number of the absolute most beautiful cultural monuments on the planet. India's civilization has been partially made from reptiles and immigrants who've come here through the recent many years. Even the Taj Mahal and other types of Islamic Architecture are abandoned from your Mughal Dynasty that ruled between 1526 and 1857.

A fast glance at a number of the sights you might need to see while vacationing to India earlier I complete this report. India is really a gorgeous nation and its particular doubtful you're able to enjoy all of the great sights on no more than 1 excursion.

Additionally, there are 3 archipelagos in India. Back in West Bengal, you locate that the Sunderbans, Lakshadweep around the southwest coast, plus a series of submerged islands from the shore known as the Nicobar and Andaman Islands.

The mountain array you will notice since the northern countries are popularly named the Himalayas. Central along with also the remainder of the northern and southern elements of India contain rather fertile flatlands referred to as the Indo-Gangetic basic. Southern India is a peninsula and composed largely by the Deccan Plateau using just two scenic regions Termed the Eastern and Western Ghats. Last, but at the least, close India's border with Pakistan establishes the Thar Desert.

There's additionally a great deal of pure and silk cotton apparel, however a few knock-offs too, thus the warning to get somebody from your neighborhood area direct one into the very most useful retailers and niches. Leather merchandise could be obtained in India to get a small percent of the fee, Thus in case you enjoy leather, then buy!

Irrespective of popular belief, you can find vegetarian and non-vegetarian delights to be consumed within India. Bhel puri, a puffed rice dish, often using sweeteners inserted and functioned to deep-fried puris, a wheat germ, has been a well-known snack usually sold to the roadside. The basic foods of India are just ones made out of wheat or rice, however, a broad range of cuisine can be found for your requirements since you journey by means of different places. Various varieties of sweets and spices are all accessible and found from the meals that they get ready in each individual space. Sweets and hot meals are quite popular in India.

There are a number of lovely lakes in India. Even the Ganges River, (Ganga or even Holy Ganga, at India) may be the biggest & most well-known of these and can be positioned in Northern India. The Ganga Basin comes with an enormous public. The property is incredibly abundant which is supposed this you out of every 12 persons on earth dwell there. You may even view Irrawaddy Dolphin from the lake, in addition to the other species termed the Ganga River Dolphin. Still another intriguing thing is there is just an uncommon freshwater shark seen from the lake that's maybe not a lot is understood concerning.

Still another huge portion of Indian civilization is how that their own music genre. You'll find several kinds of new music available throughout your journeys to India. One of the absolute most intriguing music could be that the folk music genre that you will notice because of your journey via different elements of India. In addition, there are interpretive dances that can be achieved with most folks there. They educate epic tales predicated on Indian legends and therefore are rather religious and so forth. That clearly was a whole lot of common audio too, for example, Filmi new music and also two well famous types of classical new music that you might notice are Hindustani and Carnatic tunes.

We expect We've additional any Helpful Info and Suggestions for the Visit to India

The Taj Mahal at Agra is obviously among those must Observe sights from India. It required 20,000 laborers to construct the Taj Mahal from the 1600s and it has come to be a famous milestone across the entire world. By the prison, into the terrace, into the backyard, the great thing about the developing of the Islamic and Hindu design may not be justified with phrases independently.

Whilst looking for antique clothing, garments, cloths, along with other objects, at alleyways and available markets equally, 1 part of the information, decide to try to have a neighborhood citizen or direct for one to be certain to are acquiring pieces that are authentic. You may locate hand-carved timber artifacts along with sandalwood carvings A-Mazing. Even the woodcarvers are extremely proficient. India is of course too well-known because of its hand-rolled incense. You might desire to create back some together with you personally. The perfumes are exceptional and also the incense consists made of fantastic quality should you locate the most suitable retailers.

The Rajabai Tower at Bombay can be really a clocktower of gothic layouts which is 260 ft elevated. One among those curiosities with the ancient tower is it is adorned with oriental characters. It chimes on every single quarter-hour sounds like Big Ben in London. The college library, also located underneath the tower, which comprises newly renovated blot glass windows which can be glorious to check at and regarded as absolutely the absolute most delightful in each Asia.

India is composed of a wide assortment of people today. There really are a substantial quantity of distinct languages, religions, and cultures. Instruction in India continues to be advancing radically in the past few years and now is still a real resource of fantastic delight for those categories of younger men and women that attend to the universities. Traditions who've lived for countless decades have been kept sacred by households and need to be admired if travel.

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tamboradventure · 5 years ago

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Cape Town Itinerary: What to See and Do in 4 (or More) Days

Posted: 2/13/2020 | February 13th, 2020

Cape Town is one of those places I can never get enough of. Its natural beauty, climate, people, chill atmosphere, and delicious food scene always make my visits memorable.

Backed by Table Mountain, Cape Town is really one of the most beautiful cityscapes in the world.

There’s a lot to see and do in the city, so to help you make the most of your trip, here is my suggested itinerary for four (or more) days.

Suggested Itinerary Overview

Day 1: Table Mountain, City Center, Walking Tour, & more!

Day 2: Robben Island, Kirstenbosch Gardens, Lion’s Head, & more!

Day 3: Cape of Good Hope, Boulders Beach, Penguins, & more!

Day 4: District Six Museum, Muizenberg Beach, Hout Bay, & more!

Day 5 (or more): Kalk Bay, Signal Hill, Slave Lodge, & more!

Cape Town Itinerary: Day 1

Take a Free Walking Tour For a thorough introduction to Cape Town, I recommend taking at least one free walking tour. As you know, I always do that when I arrive in a new city, to help me get a sense of the destination’s culture and history and orient myself. Some of my favorite walking tours are:

Free Walking Tours Cape Town

Ashanti Free Walking Tours

City Sightseeing

Just be sure to tip your guide at the end, as that’s how they make their living.

Explore the City Center Your next stop should be Cape Town’s city center. You’ll find all kinds of shopping, cafés, restaurants, and markets along Long Street. Take several hours to explore and see it all. To see more of Cape Town’s eclectic neighborhoods and get a feel for the local pace of life, here are some specific areas worth exploring:

Green Market Square – Right off Long Street, this is a perfect place to find local handicrafts and souvenirs. There are all sorts of crafts and gifts here. Don’t be afraid to haggle for a good deal!

Victoria and Alfred’s Waterfront – This is another impressive shopping locale, with a large variety of shops and entertainment. It’s on the historic working harbor, the architecture is quite charming, and it’s extremely popular with both tourists and locals alike. Grab a seat on a waterfront restaurant’s balcony, have a drink, and soak up the atmosphere.

Bo-Kaap – Not far from the city center is Bo-Kaap, a colorful Muslim neighborhood. This area, previously the home of Cape Town’s slave population, is known to be quite Instagram friendly (you’ve likely seen it on IG already!). Each home is painted a different color and you can tour the area on your own (although you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more if you take a free walking tour). If you don’t tour with a group, be sure to get a overview of the area’s history at the Bo-Kaap Museum. It’s small, but the staff is quite friendly and super knowledgeable. Admission is 20 ZAR ($1.36 USD) per person.

De Waterkant – A nice place to spend the evening is the De Waterkant neighborhood. Not far from Bo-Kaap, this trendy area (think NYC’s Greenwich Village) is the perfect place to stroll, window-shop, and enjoy an upscale dinner. The architecture is quite stylish in what is Cape Town’s “pink” (gay-friendly) district. The Cape Quarter shopping mall is here as well.

Woodstock – This is one of the coolest neighborhoods in Cape Town. In recent years, it’s become a hub for art galleries, co-working spaces, breweries, and hip restaurants. What was once an old, rundown industrial area is now one of the coolest places in town.

Visit Table Mountain A visit to Cape Town isn’t complete without taking in the view from Table Mountain. It’s a bit of a walk up there, but it’s totally worth it. The shortest trail takes about two hours, but if you’re short on time, you can take the cable car, which takes about five minutes each way (it’s a bit pricey at 330 ZAR ($22 USD) for a round-trip ticket, though). Up top, you’ll have a 360-degree view of Cape Town, the harbor, the mountains, and the beaches. Try to come up during sunset, or if you can, bring some food and drink and have a picnic!

Keep in mind that the clouds can move in really fast here, so be sure to check the weather before you hike up.

I suggest hiking up and then taking the cable car down if you’re short on time. If you want to extend your stay, hike both ways and spend some time relaxing and taking in the view. If you pack some water and snacks, you can easily make this a full-day activity. There are shops at the summit as well as several other hiking trails to explore if you’re looking to work up a sweat.

Note: I put this at the end of the day so you can do the walking tours in the morning, but you can also make this a full-day activity if you want! It’s worth taking it slow here if you have the time.

Cape Town Itinerary: Day 2

Visit Robben Island Hop on a ferry from the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and head to Robben Island, located about 8km from shore, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years behind bars. Declared a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1999, the museum is an important symbol in South Africa, representing the triumph of democracy over apartheid. The tour guides are former prison inmates, and you can to sit in the cells where the political prisoners once lived.

No visit to Cape Town is complete without coming here. Do not skip this!

Ferries operate three times a day, starting at 9am (a fourth ferry operates during the summer season). Admission is 320 ZAR ($22 USD) for adults and 200 ZAR ($13.50 USD) for anyone under 18, which includes the ferry ride. Expect the entire trip to take at least four hours.

Visit Kirstenbosch Garden Located in the southern suburbs, these gardens were established over 300 years ago and have more than 22,000 types of plants found on the African continent. Spanning over 1,300 acres, this is unlike any other botanical garden you’ve seen! Be sure to do the tree canopy walkway. There are restaurants and cafés on-site, but they are expensive, so I’d bring your own food and have a picnic on the grounds.

Rhodes Drive, Newlands, +27 0800-434-373, sanbi.org/gardens/Kirstenbosch. Open daily 8am-6pm (7pm in the summer). Admission is 70 ZAR ($5 USD) per person (discounts available for students and children).

Watch the Sunset from Lion’s Head Table Mountain’s little sister, Lion’s Head, is perfect for an evening hike. It takes just 45 minutes to hike to the top, so time your trek so you’re at the peak for sunset. It’s one of the most scenic spots in town. Also, remember a flashlight for the trek back down.

Cape Town Itinerary: Day 3

See the Penguins While you’re in Cape Town, you won’t want to pass up seeing the area’s cutest inhabitants: African penguins! This colony is home to over 3,000 penguins. They live at Boulders Beach Park, and you can view them from a raised boardwalk (further down the beach you can swim with them if you’re really bold — expect freezing water!). Just keep in mind that they are wild animals. The beach is their home, not yours — so keep your distance and don’t try to feed or pet them. They are wild animals after all.

Visit Slave Lodge Built in 1679, this is one of the oldest remaining buildings in Cape Town. It is where the Dutch East India Company housed their slaves until 1811. Over 60,000 African and Asian slaves were brought to the city, and almost 300 men and women were forced to reside in the lodge at a time. Today, the lodge is a museum where you can learn about the hardships slaves faced in their daily lives in Cape Town.

Corner of Adderley Street and Wale St, +27 2- 467-7229, slavery.iziko.org.za/slavelodge.

Tour Parliament Take a tour of the parliament of South Africa and learn about South African politics — including how the country was governed during the apartheid era. Dating back to 1884, the Houses of Parliament are National Heritage Sites; the original building was granted approval by Queen Victoria when Cape Town was a British colony.

Today, they host daily hour-long tours during the week, and you can even book a spot (at least one week in advance) to watch debates if you’re interested.

120 Plein St, +27 (021) 403 2266, parliament.gov.za/visiting-parliament. Tours are held daily, but advance booking is required. Admission is free.

Hike Signal Hill For some beautiful sunset views, hike up to the top of Signal Hill. The climb is tiring and takes around 90 minutes, but the views are worth it (you can also drive or take a taxi up to the top). You’ll get a sweeping vista of Cape Town, including a view overlooking Table Mountain too. Just be sure to give yourself lots of time, so that you don’t miss the sunset.

Cape Town Itinerary: Day 4

Visit the District Six Museum In 1867, District Six was established for freed slaves, immigrants, and marginalized individuals. Under apartheid (1948–1994), the district was declared a “white area” and the existing residents were forced out. Over 60,000 people were forced from their homes, and this museum highlights their struggles and stories. It provides important context to the city’s modern history and ongoing struggles.

25A Albertus St, +27 21-466-7200, districtsix.co.za. Open Monday-Saturday 9am-4pm. Admission is 45 ZAR ($3 USD) or 60 ZAR ($4 USD) for a guided tour.

Hit the Beach Cape Town has some incredible beaches, so make sure you spend at least part of a day on one of them. Clifton Beach is probably the most popular. The sand is super white and the water a bright blue. Unfortunately, it’s cold pretty much year-round, so don’t expect warm tropical waters. The scenery is gorgeous though, with the mountains behind you and mansions and upscale restaurants lining the beach road.

Another option is Muizenberg Beach, which is a 30-minute drive from the city center. This beach has a famous boardwalk and is great for surfing.

Check Out the Wildlife If you head down Muizenberg Beach, be sure to stop at Hout Bay. This harbor is home to tons of seals and seabirds. If you’re visiting between June and November, keep your eyes peeled for the migrating whales. Right whales, humpback whales, Bryde’s whales, and dolphins can all be found here.

If you’re looking for a meal, the fish and chips in this area of town are to die for. And don’t miss the Bay Harbour Market on the weekend: vendors sell everything from fresh fish to jewelry to local art, and there are often live bands too.

Explore the South African National Gallery The Iziko South African National Gallery is home to an extensive collection of both South African and African art, as well as English, Dutch, and French pieces. The collection focuses on works from the 17th to 19th centuries, including paintings, sculptures, sketches, and lithographs.

They also facilitate an ever-changing rotation of contemporary artwork from both locals, as well as visiting exhibitions from across Africa and around the world (visit the website to see what temporary exhibitions are available during your visit).

Additionally, the gallery has a lot of insightful information about art and censorship during apartheid.

Government Ave, +27 21 481 3970, iziko.org.za. Open daily 9am-5pm. Admission is 30 ZAR ($2 USD).

Cape Town Itinerary: Day 5 (or More!)

If you have more than four days in Cape Town, here are some other fun things to see and do during your trip. Most of these will take you out of the city, so you can see more of this beautiful region of the country. Consider renting a car to make things easier!

Visit Kalk Bay This fishing village makes for a nice spot to go window-shopping (or actual shopping if you want some souvenirs). There are plenty of seaside cafés you can relax in for a few hours, away from the busy city center.

Journey to the Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, and the drive there from Cape Town is one of the best on the continent. You’ll want to take the route along Chapman’s Peak, a winding and scenic road along the Atlantic coast. It’s a toll road, but the views are very much worth the price.

The Cape of Good Hope is located in Table Mountain National Park, which stretches all the way from Table Mountain in Cape Town to the tip of the continent. This nature reserve is home to numerous birds and animals, including antelope, Cape mountain zebra, eland, and baboons. Keep in mind that, while the baboons may look cute, they are still wild animals, so be careful around them and keep your food secured and out of sight.

There is a lot to see, so plan for a full-day excursion. If you don’t have your own car, you can book a tour with the Cape Point Explorer for 740 ZAR ($50 USD).

Enjoy Some Wine If you love wine, head to the Stellenbosch area. If you have a car, it’s just 45 minutes outside of the city and is home to hundreds of vineyards. The wine from this region is world-famous, and the scenery is breathtaking, offering towering mountains and lush valleys. Tastings typically run about 60-75 ZAR ($4-5 USD), and food pairings are available as well. Some suggested wineries to check out are:

Spier Wine Farm (one of the oldest in the region)

Marianne Wine Estate (offers a classic French winery experience)

Waterford Wine Estate (they pair their wines with decadent local chocolates)

If you don’t have a vehicle and want to take a tour, expect to pay at around 1,000 ZAR ($68 USD) per person for a half-day tour of the region and its wineries. Many hostels run their own tours to the region or have partnerships with local tour guides who can take you as well. Be sure to shop around!

Learn to Surf Cape Town is a super place to learn how to surf (though it’s also terrific for experienced surfers). Surfer’s Corner at Muizenberg Beach is known for its beginner waves, and there are plenty of surfing schools around where you can rent a board and take lessons. Expect to pay around 500 ZAR ($34 USD) per person for a 2-3-hour lesson.

***

Cape Town is one of my favorite cities on the African continent. With its terrific hikes, beautiful scenery, and important history, Cape Town has something for everyone. And, thanks the rand’s value, it’s affordable enough, so it’s easy to visit without breaking the bank.

Let this Cape Town itinerary help you make the most of your visit there.

Map of Activities

P.S. – Want to meet other travelers in real life? This year we launched The Nomadic Network, a platform created to help travelers connect, learn, and get inspired in real life! Here are our upcoming events if you want to take part: Seattle (2/17), Austin (2/18), Fort Lauderdale (2/19), Portland (2/19), San Francisco (2/20), Los Angeles (2/23), Detroit (2/24), Boston (2/24), Dublin (2/24), San Diego (2/24), London (2/25), Chicago (2/25), and NYC (3/10).

Book Your Trip to Cape Town: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines, because they search websites and airlines around the globe, so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the most comprehensive inventory. If you want to stay somewhere else, use Booking.com, as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels. My favorite places to stay in Cape Town are:

The Backpack Cape Town – A fair-trade hostel with a swimming pool and garden, as well as activities most nights. They do a lot of good work for social change!

Ashanti Lodge Gardens – You can hang out at the pool or the landscaped gardens here, or in the awesome Kumasi Bar, with its views of Table Mountain. They have a great bar menu too!

91 Loop – When you stay here, you get a free breakfast, free city walking tours, the opportunity to take part in organized activities, and discounts on the Honey Badger restobar.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those 70 and up)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all those I use to save money — and I think they will help you too!

Looking for more travel tips for South Africa? Check out my in-depth South Africa travel guide for more ways to save money, tips on what to see and do, suggested itineraries, informational reading, packing lists, and much, much more!

The post Cape Town Itinerary: What to See and Do in 4 (or More) Days appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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vacationsoup · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/25-free-things-to-do-in-edinburgh/

25 Free Things to Do in Edinburgh

Group Accommodation in Edinburgh

An architectural and cultural gem, Edinburgh should definitely be on your bucket list of places to visit. The city may have a reputation for not being easy on the pocket – it is a western capital city, after all – but there are plenty of activities that you can do for free. Here is a list of 25 things to do for free in Edinburgh.

Places of Interest Scottish Parliament Building Located in Holyrood within Edinburgh’s central UNESCO World Heritage Site is the Scottish Parliament Building, which is open to the public six days a week for the majority of the year. The building itself, completed in 2004, is worth a look, having won numerous architecture awards. If you are interested in what goes on inside, it is possible to join a free guided tour of the building on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. The tour lasts about one hour and you will learn about many aspects of the Parliament Building, including how the Parliament works, the building’s architecture and design, and pieces from the art collection.

Greyfriars Kirkyard and Greyfriars Bobby One of the most well-known cemeteries in the world, in recent years owing to a certain writer who penned seven novels about a boy wizard who stole names from the tombstones to use in her books, Greyfriars Kirkyard is the resting place of a few well-known Scots. Possibly the most visited of the graves is that of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye terrier who died in 1872. A familiar figure in 19th century Edinburgh, Greyfriars Bobby reportedly guarded his owner’s grave for fourteen years and stole the hearts of the Lord Provost William Chambers and the public, who would bring him food. Chambers even organised a dog licence for him, thereby saving him from being put down by the local authorities. Greyfriars Bobby himself is buried just outside the kirkyard, close to his memorial statue. Edinburgh Central Library Opened in 1890, Edinburgh Central Library was the first public library to open in the city. As well as being a beautiful building to walk around, the library organise a number of events throughout the year. Some are ticketed even though they are free so it is best to check the library’s website for details. As for the collections, the library has several floors and has books, periodicals, maps and newspapers going back many years in six different departments. Outdoor Spaces and Activities Arthur’s Seat and Holyrood Park Edinburgh is built on seven hills which form Holyrood Park, and the highest of these is Arthur’s Seat, named allegedly after the eponymous King Arthur of British legend and supposedly the location of Arthur’s Camelot. In reality, the hill is an ancient, now extinct, volcano which erupted around 350 million years ago. It makes for a pleasant walk and is also the location of a well-preserved fort dating back approximately 2000 years. Holyrood Park is the park surrounding Holyrood Palace and is home to a wide range of flora and fauna as well as a 15th century chapel and a fresh water loch. Dr Neil’s Garden One of the most impressive gardens in the country, Dr Neil’s Garden – also known as Edinburgh’s Secret Garden – is the result of the hard work of two medical doctors, Nancy and Andrew Neil. Situated next to Duddingston Loch, the garden has long been a source of inspiration for writers, musicians and artists. It is a space used for meditation and contemplation, and also makes for a lovely setting for a romantic walk.

The Royal Mile and the Grassmarket Possibly the most famous place in Edinburgh, the Royal Mile connects Holyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle. A good percentage of the city’s museums, sights and galleries are located on the Royal Mile. You also have the opportunity to see an abundance of Scottish crafts, including the national tartan fabric. Just a short walk away is the Grassmarket. During the medieval ages, the Grassmarket was the city’s market place and execution site. It is now one of the most vibrant areas of the city with lots of shops and pubs, but you can still discover its past by following the Greater Grassmarket Historic Trail. Royal Botanic Garden Set in an amazing 72 acres of land, the Royal Botanic Garden is easily one of the most stunning botanic gardens in the world. There is much to explore in the garden, including: the arboretum, a tree collection containing over 730 species; the rock garden with plants from Asia, Europe and the Americas; the Chinese Hillside which highlights the strong links between the garden and China; the Queen Mother’s Memorial Garden with plants from around the world to symbolise her love of travelling; and the demonstration garden, focusing on encouraging people to grow their own food.

Portobello Beach Perfect in the summer months, the seaside district of Portobello Beach is located just a few miles from the centre of Edinburgh. It is the ideal spot for sunbathing and swimming when the weather is fine and the beach is also host to a number of events, such as the Big Beach Busk, a huge busking event and sporting competitions for volleyball and triathlon. Archivists’ Garden Archivists’ Garden is located in the open courtyard between General Register House and New Register House and houses 57 species of plant, all of which are connected to Scottish history and culture in some way. These associations are divided into five categories: Events (Birth, Marriage and Death); Famous Scots; Heraldry; Homecoming; and Tartan. The garden layout is a physical representation of the human mind and memory; the flora are planted in a flowing pattern to mimic the randomness of the human brain. The Potter Trail It is a well-known fact now that JK Rowling wrote a lot of her best-selling series of Harry Potter in Edinburgh, with a lot of local locations inspiring names, places and characters in the books. On this free walking tour, you will discover these locations, including the real-life street that Diagon Alley is based on, where Professor McGonagall and Lord Voldemort are buried, and the school which was the inspiration for Hogwarts. You will also visit the Elephant House, the cafe where Rowling wrote the first book. Calton Hill A designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, Calton Hill offers wonderful views over Edinburgh, especially at sunset. It is also home to a number of monuments: the National Monument of Scotland, which is dedicated to Scottish soldiers and sailors who perished during the Napoleonic Wars; Nelson’s Monument; and the Robert Burns Monument. Museums and Art Galleries Scottish National Gallery Housing an astonishing amount of art from around the world, the Scottish National Gallery is a must for every visitor to Edinburgh. Opened in 1859, the collections here span all the way from the Renaissance to the 20th century, and include works by Botticelli, Vermeer, Constable, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Turner, Monet, Raphael, and Rembrandt, among many others. There are actually two buildings of the gallery, the National Gallery Building and the Royal Scottish Academy Building, which are now connected by the underground Gardens Level.

The Writers’ Museum Located on the Royal Mile in Lady Stair’s House, the Writers’ Museum details and celebrates the lives of three of Scotland’s most revered writers – Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. It is not necessary to have read the works of these writers in order to enjoy the museum as there is plenty of information given throughout. The museum houses a number of portraits, personal effects and rare books belonging to the three. Highlights of these include: original drafts of Burns’; a plaster cast of Burns’ skull, one of only three made; and Stevenson’s riding boots and a ring given to him by a Samoan chief. Outside the museum is Makars’ Court where you will find flagstones inscribed with the names of Scottish writers from the 14th century up to the modern day. National Museum of Scotland History buffs will be in heaven during a visit to the National Museum of Scotland. Detailing the country’s history, the museum looks into various facets, such as art, design and fashion, science and technology, and nature. In the Grand Gallery – one of the most beautiful spaces in Scotland with its high windows and tall pillars – there are a number of wondrous objects on display, such as a 19th century lighthouse lens and a 12-foot long South Pacific feast bowl. In the Natural World galleries you will come face to face with a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex and discover the wide variety of the animal world. Other galleries to check out are the World Cultures galleries, the Scottish History and Archaeological galleries, and the science and technology galleries. City Art Centre One of the most interesting galleries in Edinburgh, City Art Centre offer a wide range of exhibitions from the historic to the modern. They primarily concentrate on photography, architecture and contemporary art. As well as the exhibitions, they also have a hands-on ArtSpace where you can try your hand at different art projects such as portraits, landscapes and collages. They even have facilitated art sessions on Saturday afternoons. Museum of Edinburgh If you are particularly interested in the history of the city itself then the Museum of Edinburgh is for you. Situated in the 16th century Huntly House, the building is a maze of collections relating to the city’s origins and history. One of its most impressive collections is its decorative art. Examples include silver, glass, pottery and porcelain, showing the diversity of Scottish craftsmanship. Other interesting items are the collar and bowl of Greyfriars Bobby and the National Covenant of 1638. Fans of the TV show Outlander will be interested to know that some scenes from series three were filmed at Huntly House. Museum of Childhood The first museum in the world completely dedicated to the history of childhood, the Museum of Childhood has an impressive collection of toys and games dating back to the 18th century. The ground floor has recently been refurbished and now includes a number of new items, including a retro Buzz Lightyear from the year 2000. As well as toys and games, the museum also showcases costumes and fashion and details the home, nursery and school lives of children throughout the ages. Scottish National Portrait Gallery The Scottish National Portrait Gallery was the world’s first portrait gallery, opened in 1889. It’s an impressive building in itself, built in the Spanish Gothic Style, making it distinct from other buildings in the area. Designed specifically to showcase pictures of Scotland’s heroes and heroines, the gallery now houses a vast array of paintings, photographs and sketches, beginning in the Renaissance and leading up to the present day. Some of the more famous portraits include Mary Queen of Scots, Robert Burns and James IV as well as some modern names like Billy Connolly and Robbie Coltrane.

Museum on the Mound If you’re interested in the story of money, the Museum on the Mound, located in the Bank of Scotland’s head office, tells it in a fascinating way. It looks at the way in which money has evolved over 4,000 years, from using objects such as shells and tea as currency to our present day coins and banknotes. It has exhibitions on the rise of building societies in Victorian Britain and the changing face of banking throughout the centuries. The museum also has some interactive activities to take part in, such as trying to crack open a safe and applying for a 19th century life assurance policy. Churches and Chapels St Giles’ Cathedral Founded in 1124, St Giles’ Cathedral, the High Kirk of Scotland, is located at the heart of the city and was the focal point of the Scottish Reformation during the 16th century. It is the most important place of worship in the city and named after the patron saint of Edinburgh, who was extremely popular during the Middle Ages. Unusual for a Presbyterian church, it has some stunning stained glass depicting several figures, including Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. Magdalen Chapel It would be very easy to miss Magdalen Chapel – it’s hidden away in the Cowgate – but it is well worth seeking out due to the fact that it has the oldest stained glass in Scotland. Built in the 16th century, it was initially partly established as a hospital for the poor as well as the sick. Its stained glass was the only ones to survive the Scottish Reformation. The central window feature four shields including the arms of Mary Guise, the mother of Mary Queen of Scots. The chapel is now used as the Scottish Reformation Society’s headquarters. St Cuthbert’s Parish Church Built on the foundations of at least six previous churches, St Cuthbert’s Parish Church is hidden away at the west end of Princes Street. The current church was built in the late 19th century but also includes an 18th century memorial chapel to those who died in the World War I. This chapel is the location where Agatha Christie married her second husband in 1930. Other notable features of the church include the Byzantine-inspired apse and rounded vault with its exquisite ceiling paintings and marble and alabaster pulpit, and its stained glass window of David on his way to defeat the giant Goliath, made from Tiffany glass. Entertainment Live Music at Whistle Binkies Although many venues offer free music in Edinburgh, Whistle Binkies gets the nod for offering up to four bands on any given night during the week. They are free to enter from Sundays to Thursdays, and up to midnight at the weekends. In addition to regular gigs from both signed and unsigned artists, they also hold open mic nights. Live Music at Sandy Bell’s If folk music is your thing, Sandy Bell’s is where you should head. With evening sessions every day and afternoon ones on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays – with the exception of the month of August during the Edinburgh Festival, when afternoon sessions take place every day – you can catch a wide variety of acts performing different folk genres, including Scottish reels and American bluegrass. The Stand Comedy Club Edinburgh has a great culture of comedy and the Stand Comedy Club is one of the most popular venues in the city. Although you need to pay for most of their gigs, they do have a free improv show at Sunday lunchtimes led by resident comics Stu and Garry. They also serve food so it makes an ideal place to go after a big Saturday night out. Edinburgh is a stunning city with plenty to keep you occupied for days. And with all these free attractions, there really is no reason not to visit.

Travel Tip created by Helen Thomas in association with Vacation Soup

#Edinburgh #GroupAccommodationEdinburgh #HolidayInEdinburgh #LargeHolidayHomesinEDinburgh #NewTown #Scotland #VacationInEdinburgh #VacationSoup #whatson #whattodo

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michaeljtraylor · 6 years ago

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Anarchy in the GDR | The Nation

German punks, Nov. 29, 1984. (AP Photo / Andreas Pechar)

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Burning Down the Haus, a new book by journalist Tim Mohr, details how a small group of East German teens kickstarted a movement that contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The 1970s were oppressive years in the German Democratic Republic; there was no space, literal or philosophical, to live outside the system, let alone criticize it. Upon hearing The Clash and the Sex Pistols via forbidden British military radio broadcasts, a handful of young people began to embrace punk mentality, dressing differently, and shaking the foundations upon which the authority had been built. And despite the East German secret police, or the Stasi’s best efforts, the movement grew throughout the 1980s as punks developed their own little world, disconnected from society. Punk was the soundtrack to the million-person demonstration on November 4, 1989. A few days later, the Wall came down.

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Mohr, who arrived in Berlin in 1992 and now lives in Brooklyn, learned about this history and has spent 10 years documenting it in as much detail as possible, recognizing, too, the parallels with modern society.

William Ralston: You write that your initial belief in this story was reinforced after you returned to the USA and “recognized an ominous echo in developments in your own country.” Can you elaborate on these parallels?

TM: The book went from a story that was just fascinating to something that was actually disturbingly relevant because of the parallels I began to see in our own society—the revelations from Snowden about the scale of mass surveillance here in the US, the militarization of our police forces, and the treatment of peaceful protesters here. I think we can’t dismiss comparisons between what’s happening in the West to what happened in the Eastern bloc; when our own mass surveillance was revealed, people were quick to say, “but you can’t compare this to the Stasi”—but you can!

I’m not suggesting our situation is completely analogous, and I don’t think the solution to whatever needs to be remedied in today’s society is the same as what’s described in the book—it won’t be solved by passing out a bunch of guitars to teenage rebels and telling them to make anti-government music—but I think this story shows what is possible. It offers a concrete historical example of a grassroots youth movement that made significant changes in its society. Maybe the lesson to be learned is something they used to spray as graffiti: “Don’t die in the waiting room of the future.” Meaning, you can’t sit around hoping for change to happen; you have to make change happen.

WR: The GDR in the late 1970s was not a stable state. It was struggling with a generational transition and the economy was ceasing to function. Why was it vulnerable?

TM: One of the reasons the hardliners of the GDR were able to stay in power for so long was because the GDR didn’t have the type of conditions that we associated with the Soviet Union. There were no food shortages; everybody had modern conveniences, televisions, refrigerators; jobs; booze. I think this created a level of complacency that allowed the regime to stay in power longer. Given halfway decent conditions, the majority of people seem to just go along with the system, regardless of what the system is. The punks were among the first to challenge it in a direct way. They did so by addressing the regime’s failure to practically implement its ideology, an ideology, incidentally, that most of them shared—they were critics of the dictatorship from the left. Punks were among the loudest in making these points, and I think one of the most important roles they played was steeling the resolve of other opposition groups.

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One of the great unknowns in opposition circles was what would happen if you ran afoul of the security apparatus and the punks learned exactly what happened. They showed other opposition-minded people that it was possible to resist and survive the Stasi. They were subject to the harshest crackdown of any opposition group, including serving the longest jail terms. To then come out and keep fighting encouraged everyone else.

WR: They conquered their fears.

TM: Yes, and as a result they were a big component of the early street protests, and these protests created a boomerang effect. In the GDR, as in most societies, conformity ruled the day. But when the protests started to spill out onto the street and into the public eye, ordinary people—who might otherwise be inclined to go along—were confronted with state-sanctioned violence that made many of them cringe. It just snowballed from there. You have the early activists who take things out on the street and they have to convince other opposition groups, and then it’s a matter of converting a significant enough part of the population to your cause. It took the 1989 mass demonstrations for the Wall to fall—but the seeds were planted several years prior in street protests in which punks were indeed central.

WR: And it was in the Protestant churches—which opened their doors to offer shelter—that punks began to rub elbows with other opposition groups.

TM: Yes, the churches were important. Though as an institution, the church didn’t necessarily wish to nurture these groups; many leaders were actually opposed. But individual clergymen took in these so-called enemies of the state. Once they were under the roof of the church, the punks began interacting with different activist groups, who began to take the punks more seriously.

WR: You write in the book that the Stasi were “paranoid” about the punk scene from early on. What made punks such a threat?

TM: From a western perspective, it’s not easy to see why a bunch of kids with bad haircuts could be so threatening. The deeper I dug into this, it became clear to me that the Stasi were correct in their fear. They were trying to keep people on a pre-ordained path and people, like the punks, who were influencing youths to stray off that path, were threatening. It’s also important to remember that punks expressed their opposition whenever they were in public. Other forms of protest were often done behind closed doors, whereas the punks were so in your face; their music was loud and even just their appearance on the street was a form of opposition. That’s how the movement grew so quickly: teenagers saw punks and they seemed cool because it was so daring and exciting that many people joined them. Many of these kids, as with the first generation of punks, originally joined for non-political reasons; it was just cool.

WR: You write in the book that the state’s paranoid behavior “backfired.” Can you explain this?

TM: I think this is true all through this battle. To begin with, the punks just wanted to wear these clothes and cut their hair this way, and then suddenly they were being hassled by the police on a daily basis, being kicked out of schools or apprenticeships, having their IDs confiscated. This turned the movement political. And even the smallest signs of rebellion were so impactful; every time people stepped off the path, it was a political act, even if, like the early punks, they themselves didn’t conceive of it to be so. Then, later on, ordinary citizens began to recoil at the level of violence against protestors, significant parts of whom were punks. The security forces kept making the same mistake.

WR: It feels that there was absolutely nothing that the Stasi could have done to stop this. They tried threats, locking up, even removing people.

TM: I think part of this is that the punks had such a fundamental criticism. A lot of the other groups were nitpicking over this or that policy, focusing on specific issues like military training in schools, and they fancied themselves negotiating with the government. They wanted to try to change the government whereas punks wanted to cast off the system, to destroy it. During the fight itself, this was certainly a strength.

I think it’s also important to note that while the Stasi saw the punks as a significant threat, they also tried to blame it on the West. As late as 1989, they listed punk as the top youth problem and yet, in the same report, they say that the scene is being manipulated from the west by punks who had been expatriated, which was completely false. They seemed to overlook that it had become an organic eastern phenomenon.

WR: Do you perceive punk music to have inspired punk’s dissidence, or was it just a vehicle for it?

TM: I think it’s a bit of both. Almost everyone spoke of feeling as if a switch had been thrown inside them when they first heard punk. For the majority of them, I think the thrill was musical: the bassist in Planlos told me that he loved The Ramones because it was the only record he’d ever heard with no slow songs. Only a few of them immediately connected it with anarchist philosophy. But the music also offered an avenue of self-expression that they had never really thought of before and became a soundtrack to rebellion.

WR: The mass protests grew in the late ‘80s. Why do you think law-abiding citizens, who violently opposed the punks to begin with, went on to join the movement?

TM: If we knew the mechanism then we could recreate it elsewhere. Conformity is natural and most people abide by the system and don’t like people who make trouble. I think a lot of people had the feeling that there were things wrong with society but once the protests began to reach a certain mass, when they were in open view on the street in the second half of the ‘80s, then more of the general public joined because the state-sanctioned violence gave credence to their own misgivings about how things were run.

WR: What started off as a resistance eventually cast off the dictatorship. Do you think this the movement exceeded punk’s ambitions?

TM: Even though the Stasi were paranoid about the punk scene, I don’t think anyone felt it was the start of a type of opposition that would bring down the dictatorship. One of the things that the punks were brilliant at was carving out space, both physical and philosophical. They took over all these empty buildings and by the late 1980s untethered themselves from the economy, when some were able to operate in the grey areas by selling homemade jewelry and clothing. At that point they were no longer dependent on being part of society. As opposed to British punks, who railed against “No future,” the East German punks had seen their problem as “Too Much Future.”

Their whole lives were planned out for them almost from birth and it felt stifling. Once they were able to at least partially wrestle control of their futures, they had probably already gotten farther than many of them realistically expected. Though of course there were some who were always quite convinced they’d succeed in toppling the regime.

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lauramalchowblog · 5 years ago

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Fresh Versus Frozen Food: Which Is More Nutritious?

In the hierarchy of vegetables, the best choices are fresh, in-season, and local.

Realistically, though, that’s not always going to happen. For one thing, you might live in a climate where access to a variety of local and in-season vegetables just isn’t a thing. It’s also well established that lower income areas have fewer supermarkets, so fresh produce is less available.

Although home-grown is the best of the best, I know that saying, “Just grow your own!” is presumptuous on a lot of levels. Assuming that you have the space and resources to plant a garden, time is a big consideration. Plus, once they’re grown, preparing fresh vegetables takes more time than preparing frozen or canned, which are already washed and chopped for you.

All this is to say, I’m sure many of you find yourself turning to frozen and canned vegetables—as well as fruit, seafood, and meat—for reasons of availability and convenience. You might wonder if you are sacrificing any health benefits or if I’m giving you the side-eye for eating vegetables that aren’t farm-fresh.

Are Frozen and Canned Foods Inherently Less Primal?

Let me put that concern to rest immediately.

True, Grok would not have frozen or canned foods. Food preservation as a concept is nothing new, though. Just because a technology is new does not mean it’s “un-Primal.” I am not now, nor have I ever been, opposed to using modern methods of food preservation and storage that make it safer or more convenient to eat healthy foods. I like safety and convenience.

So, if you’ve been avoiding frozen or canned foods because you think you’ll have to turn in your Primal card, rest assured that isn’t the case. That said, I have historically avoided canned vegetables in the store due to concerns over BPA in the can linings. (Home-canned in jars is different, of course. I’m all for home canning.)

Since people sounded the alarm about BPA in the past decade, industry reports suggest a significant number of manufacturers have moved away from BPA-lined cans, but not all of them. I still strongly favor frozen over industrially canned vegetables. If nothing else, the taste and texture is usually superior. Nutritionally, though, the data show that frozen and canned are comparable overall.

Frozen Vegetables and Fruit: As Good As Fresh?

The frozen food industry dates back to 1925, when Clarence Birdseye began quick-freezing fish. It really took off after WWII as more homes had freezers. Since then, food scientists have worked to improve freezing, packaging, and transporting methods so that today (spoiler alert!) frozen foods are nutritionally comparable to their fresh counterparts. They also taste better and maintain a more pleasing texture and appearance compared to our grandparents’ frozen options.

Factors that affect nutrients in the produce you buy, whether fresh or frozen, include:

the particular nutrient in question,

the type of vegetable, including cultivar (what specific type of bean, apple, etc.),

growing conditions (soil, weather, and so on),

post-harvest handling and storage,

how you cook them.

Frozen vegetables are typically blanched before freezing to halt enzymatic reactions. This step cleans the vegetables and preserves flavor and texture, but the heat also reduces the levels of some nutrients, notably vitamin C.

On the other hand, fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A and E and carotenoids are released from their cellular matrices by heat. This might make them more bioavailable in frozen foods. The jury is still out on the bioavailability question according to Dr. Diane Barrett of the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology. Fiber is relatively impervious to processing and so isn’t affected by freezing.

From Farm to Table

Although there is an initial loss of some nutrients in the freezing process, this seems to even out by the time the vegetables make it to your plate.

At the very top of the nutritional hierarchy are vegetables that go from dirt to plate with the fewest stops in between. The best option is picking vegetables out of your garden and eating them more or less right away. That’s not usually how it works, though.

Supermarket produce might have been in the supply chain for several weeks before you even purchase it (and it was almost certainly not allowed to fully ripen before harvesting). Even if you buy your produce at a local farmer’s market, several days to a week might pass before you consume it.

During that time between farm and plate, nutrients are oxidizing and degrading. On the other hand, frozen vegetables are usually picked at the peak of ripeness and frozen as quickly as possible to preserve the nutrients.

Show Me the Data

Li and colleagues measured vitamin C, beta-carotene, and folate in broccoli, cauliflower, corn, green beans, green peas, spinach, blueberries, and strawberries that were fresh, “fresh-stored” (refrigerated for five days to mimic what happens when we actually buy produce), or frozen. They found a high degree of nutritional similarity overall and further concluded, “In the cases of significant differences, frozen produce outperformed ‘fresh-stored’ more frequently than ‘fresh-stored’ outperformed frozen.”

These findings are typical. Compared to fresh vegetables, frozen compare favorably in study after study. For example:

Two studies from Bouzari and colleagues at UC Davis compared eight common fruits and vegetables that were either stored in a refrigerator for 3 or 10 days, or frozen up to 90 days. For vitamin C, riboflavin, alpha-tocopherol (a form of vitamin E), calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, fiber, and total phenolics, the researchers concluded that fresh and frozen were highly similar, with frozen sometimes outperforming fresh.

British researchers measured vitamin C, total polyphenols, total anthocyanins, and carotenoids (beta-carotene and lutein) in six common fruits and vegetables. Immediately after purchase from the grocery store, fresh and frozen were mostly similar. Levels of nutrients tended to decrease in the fresh vegetables over three days of storage.

Researchers from Virginia Tech and the USDA found that 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the most bioavailable form of folate, did not decline in seven common vegetables over 12 months in frozen storage.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Note that across all the studies, results varied somewhat between different types of produce and nutrients. Dr. Barrett also points out that there is little research beyond that looking at key vitamins. More is needed to examine other nutritive compounds, as well as to explore the bioavailability question.

Don’t get caught up in the minutiae, though. Looking at the big picture, researchers consistently agree that taking everything into consideration, frozen is on par with fresh-stored. Frozen vegetables also have favorable nutrient-to-price ratios.

Go Ahead and Hit Up the Freezer Section

The fact is, you can’t stand in a grocery store with a head of fresh cauliflower in one hand and a bag of frozen florets in the other and know for sure which has more nutrients. There’s no reason to feel bad about choosing frozen over fresh, especially when fresh seasonal and local options are lacking.

Consider, too, that if convenience is key, and your choice is between a frozen meal containing vegetables, or grabbing a drive-thru meal, the frozen food is often the better choice.

Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) longitudinal study, researchers compared adults who reported eating frozen meals or “restaurant fast food/pizza.” Using the standardized Healthy Eating Index, the frozen meal eaters scored higher overall and specifically for total vegetable intake and total protein food. They also had lower intake of refined grains and empty calories.

A separate analysis of NHANES data showed that people who eat frozen vegetables eat more total vegetables and get more fiber, potassium, calcium and vitamin D, than those who don’t.

In terms of covering your nutrient bases, your best option is to choose a wide variety of produce, fresh and local when possible, and frozen when needed. If you can grow some fresh herbs and a tomato plant outside your window, all the better.

What About Meat and Seafood?

The expert consensus is that frozen meat and seafood is also nutritionally on par with fresh.

For fish in particular, freezing is the only viable way besides canning for many consumers to access safe products. According to the Seafood Storage Guide from the National Fisheries Institute, most fresh fish (not shellfish) should be eaten within 36 hours of catching.

As a final note, if you opt for frozen food products, check out the USDA Freezing and Food Safety fact sheet and USDA guide to Safe Defrosting Methods to make sure you are maximizing safety and quality.

References

Composition of Foods Raw, Processed, Prepared. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 28 (2015) – Documentation and User Guide.

Kmiecik W, Lisiewska Z, Korus A. Retention of mineral constituents in frozen brassicas depending on the method of preliminary processing of the raw material and preparation of frozen products for consumption. Eur. Food Res. Technol. 2007; 224:573–79.

Li, M. Ho, K., Hayes, M. Ferruzzi, M. G. The Roles of Food Processing in Translation of Dietary Guidance for Whole Grains, Fruits, and Vegetables. Annual Review of Food Science and Technology. 2019; 10:569-596.

MacTavish-West, H. Vegetables: is fresh best? The Journal of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. 2014.

Miller SR, Knudson WA. 2014. Nutrition and cost comparisons of select canned, frozen, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Am. J. Lifestyle Med. 2014; 8:430–37.

Produce for Better Health Foundation. State of the Plate: 2015 Study on America’s Consumption of Fruit & Vegetables.

Rickman JC, Barrett DM, Bruhn CM. Nutritional comparison of fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables. Part 1. Vitamins C and B and phenolic compounds. 2007; J. Sci. Food Agric. 87:930–44.

Rickman JC, Bruhn CM, Barrett DM. Nutritional comparison of fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables. II. Vitamin A and carotenoids, vitamin E, minerals and fiber. J. Sci. Food Agric. 2007; 87:1185–96.

Villa-Rodriguez, J.A., et al. Maintaining antioxidant potential of fresh fruits and vegetables after harvest. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 2015; 55: 806–822.

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jesseneufeld · 5 years ago

Text

Fresh Versus Frozen Food: Which Is More Nutritious?

In the hierarchy of vegetables, the best choices are fresh, in-season, and local.

Are Frozen and Canned Foods Inherently Less Primal?

Let me put that concern to rest immediately.

Frozen Vegetables and Fruit: As Good As Fresh?

Factors that affect nutrients in the produce you buy, whether fresh or frozen, include:

the particular nutrient in question,

the type of vegetable, including cultivar (what specific type of bean, apple, etc.),

growing conditions (soil, weather, and so on),

post-harvest handling and storage,

how you cook them.

From Farm to Table

Although there is an initial loss of some nutrients in the freezing process, this seems to even out by the time the vegetables make it to your plate.

Show Me the Data

These findings are typical. Compared to fresh vegetables, frozen compare favorably in study after study. For example:

Researchers from Virginia Tech and the USDA found that 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the most bioavailable form of folate, did not decline in seven common vegetables over 12 months in frozen storage.

Go Ahead and Hit Up the Freezer Section

Consider, too, that if convenience is key, and your choice is between a frozen meal containing vegetables, or grabbing a drive-thru meal, the frozen food is often the better choice.

A separate analysis of NHANES data showed that people who eat frozen vegetables eat more total vegetables and get more fiber, potassium, calcium and vitamin D, than those who don’t.

What About Meat and Seafood?

The expert consensus is that frozen meat and seafood is also nutritionally on par with fresh.

References

Composition of Foods Raw, Processed, Prepared. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 28 (2015) – Documentation and User Guide.

MacTavish-West, H. Vegetables: is fresh best? The Journal of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. 2014.

Miller SR, Knudson WA. 2014. Nutrition and cost comparisons of select canned, frozen, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Am. J. Lifestyle Med. 2014; 8:430–37.

Produce for Better Health Foundation. State of the Plate: 2015 Study on America’s Consumption of Fruit & Vegetables.

Rickman JC, Barrett DM, Bruhn CM. Nutritional comparison of fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables. Part 1. Vitamins C and B and phenolic compounds. 2007; J. Sci. Food Agric. 87:930–44.

Villa-Rodriguez, J.A., et al. Maintaining antioxidant potential of fresh fruits and vegetables after harvest. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 2015; 55: 806–822.

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aumolc · 5 years ago

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Source : Google photo of Prayagraj Kumbha Mela fair.

Synopsis : The home town has a special place in the heart of all who claim it as their own even if they do not live there anymore. My home town is also special to me after all these years although I now live in another country that has no resemblance to it in any possible way. I share with you what makes my home town so special that makes me nostalgic even today.

I always get a bit nostalgic when I think of my home town where I was born, raised and went to high school and later college. I believe that everybody has a special feeling for his or her home town because we all spent so much time there , played with our childhood playmates, went to school together and proudly attended college together. It is where all of our childhood and early memories were made and registered, never to be forgotten no matter where in the world we live now.

We knew all the different parts, all its landmarks, played in its parks and went shopping in various markets. It is where we bought our books and got our clothes made by our favorite tailors. It is where we knew where to buy our favorite snacks and where to look for the best bargain. But most of all we remember our home town for its unique character, aroma of its food and fruits, its festivals, its circus , its museums and its numerous charms.

Source : Google photo of the hospital in Prayag where I was born

Source : Google photo of Minto Park where I played as a child

Source : Google photo of the college I attended. Our campus is a beautiful one and has been made more so by plantings trees everywhere and now with numerous new buildings and departments.

Source : Google photo of the library of our college where I used to spend a lot of time.

But like everything else in life , I also notice the inevitable changes that have taken place since I left it so long ago. Change is the law of nature so my placid and sleepy hometown that I loved and reminisce on has undergone tremendous changes that are hard to believe. It now has a modern airport where jet planes land, wide boulevards illuminated by neon lights, numerous circular parks in cross sections where many statues of national heroes are placed. There are elevated roadways, overpasses, 6 new bridges on the river, newly refurbished railway stations, new fancy malls, restaurants and 4 star hotels in large numbers. Soon it will have a new metro crisscrossing the city.

My home town is so old that it was mentioned in our scriptures that were written thousands of years ago. It was then known as Prayag where a great sage called Varadwaj rishi lived near the banks of the sacred river Ganga. Lord Ram stayed with him in his ashram for a while as well as Buddha and many such historic people but a thousand years ago Prayag was really not a city as it is now but full of trees and wild animals . Only a few people lived here then.

When Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Mohamed Akbar came to visit Prayag, he decided to build a massive fort and laid the foundation of a city nearby that came to be known as Allahabad or the city of Gods in the 1600s. Only recently that name has been changed and the old name of PrayagRaj has been restored.

But the city grew slowly along the old Grand Trunk Road that runs through it and remained a poorly planned place with narrow irregular streets and blind alleys until the British came to rule India and laid out a grand city with strictly grid patterned wide roads and a huge central park where they with their ladies strolled in the evenings. This meticulous planning of the British has given the beautiful character that the city enjoys but even they will not recognize it now.

They built the railway bridge on the Yamuna river to bring the railway lines to the city and beyond, built the university that is still called the Oxford of the East, built a great church in 1871 that is a jewel of Gothic architecture and established numerous English schools that provide excellent education to all. They set up the High court, a grand public library that is another example of superb Gothic style, numerous other churches, a grand memorial for the Queen Victoria in the Alfred park , numerous colleges of higher learning, posh areas in the newly planned part of the city called the Civil Lines where they all lived in fabulous mansions of Indo European designs.

But mainly they built very large cantonment areas where they kept their troops and made the fort their main military outpost from where they controlled the state. The fort still remains a military fort today where it is difficult to visit but once I obtained a pass to do so to see many grand palaces of kings and queens and the pillar of Ashoka.

Source : Google photo of the old Railway bridge on Yamuna that I used to cross everyday to go to college on the other side.

Source: Google photo of the old Railway bridge on Yamuna that was brought from England and assembled here long ago. It is a very busy bridge carrying railway traffic above and heavy vehicular traffic below. The river level is high during the rainy season.

Source : Google photo of the modern bridge that now graces the river while the old bridge is seen in the distant background.

Source : Google photo of Sangam meaning the confluence of two rivers Yamuna and Ganga in Prayagraj where the blue waters of Yamuna and whitish water of Ganga do not mix and where the Hindus take a dip to obtain Nirvana so it is a very Holy place.

Source : Google photo of Hindu pilgrims taking bath in Sangam in Prayagraj

My home town is famous for its Kumbha mela that is held here every 12th year when millions of pilgrims come here to bathe in the Sangam. It is the largest congregation of pilgrims in the world so Prayagraj sets up a huge temporary city to accommodate them.

Source : Google photo of Kumbha Mela in Prayagraj held every 12th year

The massive fort of Prayagraj is still a military outpost but some pilgrims are given access to its limited area where there is an underground temple. The dolphins used to play here just near the fort when I was a kid but they are now extinct due to poaching.

Source : Google photo of the massive fort in Prayagraj built by Emperor Akbar in 1600s

Source : Google photo of the mausoleum of Khusro in Khusro Bag who was the son of Emperor Jehangir. The park has several other mausoleums of Mughal royalty.

Source : Google photo of the interior of the mausoleum of Khusro in Prayagraj

Source : Google photo of the Church built by the British in 1871 in Prayagraj that is a classic example of finest Gothic design

Source : Google photo of the Public Library built by the British in Gothic style of the past century that has over 600000 books and documents.

Source : Google photo of the place where the statue of Queen Victoria used to be when I was a kid but now the name of the park has been changed to Shahid Chandra Shekhar Ajaad memorial park . The statue of Victoria now collects dust somewhere.

Source : Google photo of Chandra Shekhar Ajaad who died here fighting the British. My father heard the gun shots while going to his office that day.

Source : Google photo of the University of Prayagraj also known as the Oxford of the East was set up by the British as the second such university in India in the past century. It has produced many great leaders of India. On its gate reads the inscription Quot Rami Tot Arbores in Latin meaning as many trees as the branches.

Source : Google photo of the museum famous for its large collection of artifacts found in Kaushambi among many other objects.

My home town is no longer a small town but a large city with modern jet port, rail hub and a very busy business center as well as the education center of the entire state. There are medical colleges, agricultural universities, main university, printing technology college, Institute of technology, Institute of management, Sanskrit academy, head office of the board of high school and intermediate colleges and numerous other educational institutes that are too numerous to mention here.

My home town is known for many things but one thing that stands out is the food. The variety of food available will boggle your mind so I will give you just a few examples here to make you salivate.

Source : Google photo of famous food in Prayagraj

Source : Google photo of street food in Prayagraj where lassi tops the list.

One fruit that has made my home town famous for its sweetness and size is guava.

Source : Google photo of guava from Prayagraj that is very sweet and famous.

I wish I could include many more photos here showing the beauty of my home town so I will post a power point here that will show you all the rest .

My home town does not look the same and feel the same as it did so long ago because of many changes that have taken place since I left. The transformation continues at a breakneck speed the way all of India is changing. My childhood playmates are as old as I and some of them have died while others have moved to other parts of India. Many have sold their houses to relocate elsewhere. Our family home has also been sold and we the siblings have scattered to all parts of the country so there is nothing that ties me to my home town anymore. Although I have decided to live in a country far from my own and die here ,there is still this pang in my heart when I remember it the way I used to remember it.

A friend once said that we can all leave but never go back. How true!

Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.

Mes blogs en français.

Mis blogs en espagnol

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch

Blogs in Japanese

My blogs at Wix site

tumblr posts

Blogger.com

Medium.com

Anil’s biography in English.

Biographie d’Anil en français

La biografía de anil en español.

Anil’s Biografie auf Deutsch

Anil’s biography in Japanese

Биография Анила по-русскиu

My home town Source : Google photo of Prayagraj Kumbha Mela fair. Synopsis : The home town has a special place in the heart of all who claim it as their own even if they do not live there anymore.

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racingtoaredlight · 5 years ago

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Opening Bell: September 27, 2019

One consistent hallmark of the Trump presidency, just under 1,000 days in, is its ability to foment scandals that would have hobbled any previous administration and just as easily avoid any serious consequences for them. This ability of the Trump administration, actively aided and abetted by Republicans in Congress and several sympathetic media outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News Network, is so well-established that a tweet framing the situation in 2016, is often retweeted again with each new scandal, reflecting the utter inability, it would appear, for anyone to hold Donald Trump responsible for any of his actions. But less than a week ago, news reports of a whistleblower report to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and evidence that this report was triggered by an intelligence official’s disturbed reaction to a series of telephone conversations that Trump had held with the leader of a foreign government—later revealed to be the President of Ukraine—a scandal unlike any of the previous scandals, seems to have gained traction among congressional Democrats, spurred a previously reluctant Speaker Nancy Pelosi to endorse impeachment inquiries, and caused Republicans to quietly hedge their bets on Trump’s future. During testimony before the House Intelligence Committee yesterday, Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire was steadfast in his assertions that he acted correctly in handling the whistleblower’s complaint—which landed on his desk on his fourth day as Acting DNI—but also refused to confirm any conversations with the president about the whistleblower and also announced his belief that both the whistleblower and ODNI Inspector General Michael Atkinson had acted in good faith. The question on everyone’s lips is whether this scandal, a completely different animal from those that have previously dogged Trump, most of which originated in his days as a candidate or president-elect, can actually harm Trump at all, let alone enough to merit removal from office or defeat in the 2020 election.

Jacques Chirac, former Prime Minister and President of France from 1995-2007, one of the titans of European, indeed of global politics, died yesterday at the age of 86. Chirac, who was Mayor of Paris for 18 years, became well-known for his opposition to many aspects of American foreign policy, especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq and his disinclination to include the French military in any American military endeavors. This was in marked contrast to his British contemporary, Prime Minister Tony Blair, who stood steadfast with American foreign policy even while it eroded his own popularity. Chirac’s positions stoked intense criticism in both the Britain and the U.S., but he did not flinch, instead forming a cornerstone of European defiance to American foreign policy adventures. Chirac was, in many ways, the ultimate expression of Gaullism in France; representing the independence of action which France craved under de Gaulle when he withdrew France from NATO’s command structure. But Chirac, while in some ways a conservative, was also a populist, but not a leader who based his governing principles on either end of the spectrum. In this sense, 12 years of Chirac was president was a fitting bookend to 12 years of Francois Mitterrand—a devoted socialist, but also an internationalist—as president. Chirac enjoyed drinking beer, dining on calf’s head, and maintaining numerous relationships outside his marriage. May we all have such a long and well-lived life.

Prior to the 1940s, autism was not understood as a separate psychological diagnosis. Those individuals cursed with the unique characteristics of autism—lack of connection to other individuals, deep fixation on objects and processes, limited emotional intelligence—were usually grouped with others experiencing mental retardation, regardless of whether they exhibited the same symptoms. Autism and Asperger’s were both described for the first time in the 1940s and finally began to gain widespread understanding in the 1960s. In 1993, Oliver Sacks—a famed neurologist and one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century—was introduced to Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin, then and still today an professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, has become renowned for achieving widespread academic and professional success in spite of—or even because of—her own autism. Sacks had read about Grandin and her achievements, but was utterly perplexed that someone with autism could achieve what Grandin had done. Sacks’ disbelief was not so much in Grandin’s professional accomplishments, but at her ability to express a sense of emotion, something which those with autism usually struggle with. Upon meeting and spending a weekend with Grandin, he realized that her life was far more complex than he could have realized. This is a long read, but one that is well worth it.

If you have ever been to a bar or restaurant, no matter how nice, that offers oysters on the half shell, you may have witnessed a kitchen assistant or even a bar-back shucked the oysters onto tray covered with shaved ice. Shucking oysters is laborious and, for the uninitiated, difficult to do in ordinary circumstances. Attempting to shuck oysters with great speed may cause the shucker to slice off part of one of their hands. Shucking with speed and precision is valued by any kitchen, but those that do the shucking have long since been anonymous. But there is a growing subculture around the globe in Europe, American, and China which puts oyster shuckers front and center, allowing them to show off their skills and their speed. And the people that follow this subculture have created an atmosphere every bit as decadent and booze-filled as your local hoity-toity oyster bar offering vodka shots with Vancouver Blue Points. And the level to which this subculture has taken root in China, a nation which regarded oysters as lowly fast food until very recently, is as much a reflection of China’s evolution towards its own brand of capitalism as anything else.

If you have ever been on a commercial airliner which has diverted midflight from its intended destination to another city, you may have taken note of which city and which airport you were diverted to. In some cases, it may be an airport that does not seem to be on the logical path of the flight, and in others airliners tend to about-face and return to their airport of origin, rather than to a nearby airport, even one that is large and well-equipped to deal with modern passenger liners. Diversion decisions seem odd or counterintuitive at first glance, but if you examine all of the reasoning that goes into why and where a particular airliner diverts, the ultimate location suddenly makes incredible sense. This is a short, but very informative read.

Finally, one of the early features of the 2020 election has been the gusto with which state Republican Parties have cancelled primary elections in order to prevent any challenges to the incumbent, Donald Trump. While this is rightfully pointed to as an example of undeserving fealty to a deeply flawed incumbent, it is also not, as some outlets have suggested, without precedent. In 2004 and 2012, state Republican and Democratic parties, respectively, cancelled primaries to protect their respective incumbents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. This Crystal Ball piece examines the cancellation of primaries from a historical perspective in order to provide a context not necessarily given in most news stories.

Welcome to the weekend.

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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Trump’s Greenland Gambit Might Be Crazy. It’s Also a Window Into the Future.

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/trumps-greenland-gambit-might-be-crazy-its-also-a-window-into-the-future/

Trump’s Greenland Gambit Might Be Crazy. It’s Also a Window Into the Future.

President Donald Trump’s much-mocked desire to buy Greenland, which was rebuffed by the Danish government to his great displeasure, might be the closest he has come to acknowledging the gravity of global warming—though hardly the sort of acknowledgment one might hope for. According to theWall Street Journalarticle that first broke the news about Greenland, Trump’s interest was piqued when advisers spoke of the island’s “abundant resources and geopolitical importance.” The reason those resources—including reserves of coal and uranium—are available for exploitation is because of Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet. Its geopolitical importance has been greatly increased by the melting of Arctic Ocean ice, which has made new shipping routes accessible and opened up a new theater of strategic competition for the United States, Canada, Russia, the Nordic countries and, increasingly, China.

Trump probably doesn’t realize it, but he’s not the first president in recent years to look at the coming impact of climate change and decide to buy land. And with dislocated populations and scarcer resources looming on the horizon, he might not be the last.

Story Continued Below

In 2014, the pacific island nation of Kiribati purchased 7.7 square miles of land of the Fijian island of Vanua Levu for a little less than $9 million. A nation of 33 low-lying atolls, Kiribati is one of the countries that’s most vulnerable to sea level rise. According to the government’s climate action plan, submitted to the 2015 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris, a substantial portion of Kirbati’s capital island, Tarawa, where nearly half of its 110,000 people live, could be inundated by 2050. Smaller outlying islands could disappear even sooner.

Then-President Anote Tong described the Fiji purchase as an insurance policy, telling the media, “We would hope not to put everyone on [this] one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it.” At the Paris summit, Tong thanked the government of Fiji for opening the doors to his people.

The purchase made international headlines, with Kiribati described as the first country to purchase land abroad specifically for relocation because of climate change. But it was a little more complicated than that. For one thing, since the purchase, there’s been little in the way of preparation for any mass relocation of Kirbati’s population. The administration that followed Tong’s is mostly dismissive of his plan. The government’s story on what the land was intended for also changed several times—sometimes it was described as for relocation, sometimes for agriculture to provide food security for Kiribati. The land itself consists of steep hills and mangrove swamps, not particularly suitable for either habitation or agriculture. It’s also already home to several hundred Solomon Islanders who have lived there since the 19th century.

When I interviewed Tong at his home in Tarawa in 2016 for my book,Invisible Countries,he told me, “It’s a statement to the international community that our situation is serious. But, apart from that, it’s a damn good investment.” If all goes well, he told me in language that would likely make sense to the current, real estate-minded U.S. president, “in 50 years we can sell the land.”

Looking ahead, Kiribati might offer a model for other countries. Food security in an increasingly crowded world could be another factor that drives governments to purchase land abroad. This is arguably already happening. Chinese state-run firms have been accused of a new “land grab,” having gobbled up agricultural land in Africa and Latin America. In 2008, the South Korean company Daewoo Logistics negotiated a lease on 3.2 million acres of farmland in Madagascar, nearly half the island’s arable land. The deal was highly controversial and contributed to the protests that led to the overthrow of Madagascar’s government in 2009.

But these deals and the Kiribati purchase differ in an important way from Trump’s Greenland gambit: They did not actually involve the transfer ofsovereigntyfrom one country to another. The land in Fiji is still the territory of Fiji, even if the government of Kiribati owns it. The small population that lives on the land didn’t suddenly become citizens of Kiribati overnight. It’s more akin to the sovereign wealth funds of countries like Norway or Qatar gobbling up New York real estate. You don’t need a passport to visit these buildings in Manhattan.

The actual purchase of sovereign territory was once relatively common. Blockbuster deals like the Louisiana Purchase, the Alaska Purchase and the Adams-Onís treaty, through which Florida was acquired, were key to America’s early territorial expansion. Today, this is almost unheard of. (One possible exception: In 2011, Tajikistan agreed to cede 386 square miles of territory to China under a deal, the terms of which were not publicized at the time.)

Why has the market for territory gotten so tight? In large part, it’s because the world’s landmass is now dominated not by large colonial empires, but by nation-states that zealously guard the territory they control. Moreover, thanks to prevailing notions like nationalism and popular sovereignty, the people who live within those nation-states expect to have some say in the matter of what country they live in.

Germany learned this the hard way after 1871, when, after its victory in the Franco-Prussian war, it demanded payment from France in the form of real estate, as countless victorious powers had done since time immemorial. But even though the French government agreed to transfer the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, the people who lived there refused to accept that they were now Germans, and France nursed a grudge until it won the provinces back in World War I. Times had changed, and, as historian Martin Van Creveld has written, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck came to view the annexation as the worst mistake of his career.

A century and a half later, Trump too wants to take over a territory whose people don’t believe their sovereignty is something to be traded like poker chips between leaders hundreds of miles away; Greenland, though part of Denmark, is a semi-autonomous territory with its own government managing its domestic affairs. This isn’t the first time Trump has expressed some premodern ideas about territorial conquest—he has on several occasions argued that the United States should have “kept the oil” after invading Iraq—but he’s going to have a hard time finding negotiating partners for his expansionist dreams.

Still, just because Trump’s Greenland purchase is a nonstarter, doesn’t mean our notions of territorial control won’t get a little more fluid in the future, particularly as climate change physically reshapes the planet. Perhaps some countries will be forced to pick up and move. There’s historical precedent for this. In his book,Vanished Kingdoms, the British historian Norman Davies identifies 15 different locations called “Burgundy,” dating back to the 5th century and occupying locations from the west bank of the Rhine to what is now Switzerland to the Netherlands. These countries more closely resembled family-run holding companies than a modern nation-state. But relocation is a pretty alien concept in a world where countries are first and foremost thought of as particular pieces of land.

The predicament of Kiribati and other low-lying island states has also prompted some environmental law scholars to propose ideas like “ex-situ nationhood,” under which governments would maintain some level of political sovereignty and a role in international institutions, even after territory they used to represent becomes uninhabitable. These might end up looking less like currently existing states than entities like the Sovereign Order of Malta (not to be confused with the country of Malta)—a religious order dating back to the Middle Ages that is recognized as politically sovereign by 106 countries and enjoys observer status at the United Nations, despite controlling no territory and having no citizens. The scenario might seem far-fetched, but traditional notions of sovereignty and citizenship might no longer hold up in a world of growing migrant populations and statelessness.

It probably wasn’t what he had in mind, but Trump’s Arctic dreams could point toward an era in which both the countries of the world and the physical land they sit on are a lot less fixed than they are now.

#Foreign #future #Politics #window

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river-ocean-cruise · 5 years ago

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6 Ways to Cruise Rivers and Waterways Close to Home This Year

It's no secret that river and small ship cruising is one of travel's biggest trends. What may still be an open secret is the boom in cruising on the inland waterways of North America, with new ships and new itineraries to appeal to every cruise traveler's interests.

Maybe you want to try river and small ship cruising in your own backyard before venturing overseas. Maybe you've done it all and realized the incredible cruising experiences opening up in your own backyard! Maybe you just want a cruise with no or minimal flights and jet lag. Or an 'easy button' family vacation.

Lynn Elmhirst, Producer/Host of BestTrip TV and cruise expert, explains the unique highlights of 6 river and fresh water small ship cruises from the West Coast to the East that will have you thinking about a North American 'staycation' for your next cruise – in some cases, no passport required!

Columbia & Snake Rivers and Wine Regions on UnCruise Adventures

UnCruise Adventures' name makes it clear: this is a different kind of cruise line, focused entirely on active outdoor exploration by small ship. The Seattle-based company focuses on the Pacific side of America: small ship coastal cruises from Alaska to Central America, and year-round in Hawaii, with fares inclusive of fine dining, wine, spirits, shore activities and equipment.

UnCruise Adventurs' only dedicated river itinerary is its autumn, 7-night cruises on the Columbia & Snake Rivers in the Pacific North West, where they say you'll find some of the most magnificent scenery in the US in the Columbia River Gorge.

Early autumn cruises highlight the Lewis & Clark expedition route, Nature and soft adventure: rafting, hiking, a jet boat ride into Hells Canyon, kayaking, even a cycling/winery excursion.

November 'Rivers of Wine & Culinary' themed voyages feature the region's increasingly well-known AVA's. Their onboard culinary program is linked with shore excursions featuring UnCruise Adventure's own sommelier, other wine experts, winery tours, wine-pairing dinners and local scenic highlights.

The company also has a family program, Family Discoveries, with savings for children 8-13 years old, providing multi-generational families with plenty of outdoor activities to bond over.

The Mississippi River and Beyond on American Cruise Lines

The great Mississippi is the artery that has served America's heartland for centuries. Mark Twain's literary works immortalized the world of sailing and living along the Mississippi, and today, the mystique of the Mississippi remains, even as the modern world has caught up to river cruising.

American Cruise Lines offers 3 different styles of ships for guests to choose from, all built in the US, with among the largest staterooms in the industry: Victorian paddlewheelers (above), fully-stabilized coastal ships, and the first and only modern riverboats in the country (below).

This range of vessels cruises three-dozen itineraries in 25 US states, along great rivers the Mississippi and the Columbia & Snake Rivers, and both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

The company's 9 Mississippi itineraries remain among the most popular for Americans and Canadians, who often drive over the border to northern departure gateways to cruise itineraries between St. Louis all the way south to New Orleans, with calls that feature treasured Americana including Elvis' Graceland, Ante-bellum southern plantations, and the stunning design icon and newly re-opened St. Louis Arch.

All American Cruise Lines share its river-cruise style: all-inclusive fine dining, complimentary evening cocktail hours, pre-cruise hotel stays, gratuities, wine and beer with lunch & dinner, complimentary onboard entertainment and lectures, and many included featured shore excursions.

America's Great Rivers and Now the Great Lakes Too, on American Queen Steamboat Company & Victory Cruise Lines

American Queen Steamboat Company continues the tradition of gingerbread-trimmed paddle-wheel riverboats sailing the country's two great river systems.

One of their three boats (with another launching in 2020) was the first all-suite paddle-wheeler in the US. Another lays claim to being the largest, most opulent riverboat in the world. The vessel is an engineering marvel, six decks high, longer than a football field, but still with the lacy white trim and paddlewheel you associate with the era of waistcoated gamblers and damsels with parasols. Both sail itineraries on the Mississippi between iconic river port cities like New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis, Louisville and St. Louis. The third is the largest overnight riverboat West of the Mississippi, sailing on the Columbia & Snake Rivers with a vast collection of historic artifacts and Native artwork.

The cruise line has a unique, and popular, approach to shore excursions, many included with your fare. Deluxe coaches drive the itinerary's route in tandem with the boats. In port, they provide 'Hop-on, Hop-off' service, continuously making the round of major local attractions, so guests can select the attractions they most want to see, and enjoy them at their own pace.

Sister cruise line Victory Cruise Lines has two newly upgraded ships serving guests wanting to sail along North America's coasts, including the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, Canada & New England itineraries, and an upcoming new ship in 2021 setting sail for British Columbia and Alaskan itineraries. Guests on this cruise line travel with historians and naturalists and enjoy inclusive shore excursions for expert immersion into these destinations in North American's backyards.

The Great Lakes on Tauck

Cross-border cruising can't get any better! Tauck is known for ultra-luxury land tours and safaris, as well as European river cruises. But in addition to North American land tours, it provides a one-of-a-kind Great Lakes small ship itinerary that's tailor-made for both American and Canadian guests.

Tauck's autumn cruise between the dynamic Canadian and US cities of Toronto and Chicago bookends the voyage with included pre- and post stays in Fairmont or Four Seasons hotels in both cities. The 7-night voyage between those world-class cities highlights seasonal foliage along the coasts, and includes Niagara Falls and Niagara on the Lake, Detroit, and smaller destinations (like Michigan's Mackinac Island, above) along both countries' coasts, with exclusive and included shore excursions that feature Nature, sport, culture, makers, and history along the way.

Tauck is using one of luxury French line Ponant's elegant and eco-friendly, 160-guest, 5-star ships for the itinerary, with private balconies, iPod docks, mini bars and all-included service and on board service including wine, spirits in several lounges, and dining at 2 venues.

The Great Lakes on Pearl Seas Cruises

This sister company to American Cruise Lines uses the only fully-stabilized small cruise ship on the Great Lakes and the entire Pearl Mist ship (very similar to American’s coastal ships) has spacious, all-balcony, all outward-facing staterooms. The 210-guest ship also features open sundecks, a fitness area, and a glass-enclosed spacious dining room so you never miss a beautiful sunset or scenery floating by.

Two itineraries allow you to explore the gems of the Great Lakes' world-class cities and charming smaller and lakeside holiday communities: an 11-day, Great Lakes and Georgian Bay itinerary from Milwaukee to Toronto that cruises through vast and lovely Georgian Bay, and calls in Niagara as well as Mackinac Island, and a 7-night Great Lakes cruise that also begins / ends in Milwaukee and Toronto, but provides travelers with less time a condensed cruise that still allows them to experience their own backyard from its freshwater ports.

Canada's Rideau Canal on LeBoat

Le Boat has been operating 'self drive' cruises on the canals and waterways of Europe for half a century, and in 2018 introduced their first North American itinerary. It's a one-of-a-kind cruise on Ontario's UNESCO World Heritage Rideau Canal, the oldest continuously-operated canal system on the continent.

Begun in 1826, the Rideau Canal remains today one of North America's most beautiful navigable waterways. You'll be able to swim, fish, cycle and stroll, seeing exquisite stone-masonry and pastoral countryside between Canada's original Canadian capital of Kingston on Lake Ontario, and the current national capital, Ottawa (pictured below), at the other end of the 125 mile-long canal.

There are 47 Locks on the Rideau, many with staff members to help boaters through the locks, and a lock pass is included in your fare. Where other cruises charge by the guest, LeBoat hires out the vessels, making it a highly cost-effective choice for families and even groups including solo travelers. It also means you can set the pace and follow your own itinerary. A tutorial before you go gives you confidence driving the boat.

But don't confuse LeBoat with the houseboat rental experience you may be familiar with – this is more like what LeBoat calls pet-friendly 'floating villas'. LeBoat's fleet includes new, upscale European models designed for larger groups – some as big as 5-cabin/5-bath models that sleep 12 people! – with en-suite bathrooms, expansive 'fundecks', barbecues, air-conditioning, even dishwashers in fully-equipped kitchens. You provide your own food, drink, fuel, and fun.

New York's Erie Canal and the Great Lakes on Blount Small Ship Adventures

Founder Luther Blount built his first ships specifically for one very special itinerary: the 'Great American Waterways' cruise that includes the four Great Lakes – the world's largest freshwater system – and New York state's historic Erie Canal. The ships are built for the Erie Canal's size, making Blount the only overnight cruise line able to navigate the waterway.

Guests love the casual, no dress-up atmosphere, complimentary wine and beer with meals, and a related perk that will astound seasoned cruise travelers: a BYOB policy! Not only can you provide your own wine and spirits (or buy them at local, craft wineries and distilleries along the cruise), Blount even facilitates the process, providing mixers, garnishes and barware, so you can 'pour as you please' for your entire cruise!

The Great American Waterways itinerary remains the family-owned and –operated company's most popular voyage. But Blount considers the entire Atlantic Coast part of its cruising 'territory', with itineraries sailing coastal New England and the Canadian maritimes into the St. Lawrence seaway (pictured, top, at New York's Singer Castle), as well as winter itineraries in the Bahamas.

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Images courtesy of their respective cruise lines.

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