Tibetans Riot Against China; Sign of Things to Come?

The past several days have seen protests and riots by Tibetans against the People's Republic of China's (PRC) imperial rule over the province. The unrest will be fully and brutally put down by the Communist regime, of source and sadly, but Beijing can expect much more to come.

The world's attention is now focused on the PRC because of the upcoming Olympics. Groups in China who have claims will be more bold because they know their message can be spread globally and will receive attention right now.

• Xinjiang aka East Turkestan is another region that will pose problems. The native Uyghurs have ties to violent Islamic extremists and there are fears of terrorist attacks on the Olympics.
• The Republic of China (ROC) may also be bold in embarrassing the PRC. The ROC has two referendums coming up on United Nations membership. Though both these are likely to fail because of partisan party disputes, the ROC may judge that PRC would not conduct military reactions right before the Olympics. This may leave the window open for more assertive demands or claims of independence.
• The Catholic Church has many members in the PRC. Pope John Paul II knew how to embarrass Communists in Eastern Europe and his friend Pope Benedict XVI may have the skill as well. Benedict may try to have the Chinese "Patriotic" Bishops publicly recognize Rome right before the games.

Sadly the games are unlikely to be boycotted and the PRC will receive false praise like being taken off the list of human rights offenders. Globalization has been noted for bring freedom to the oppresed but it also can aid the oppressor. Let us all pray for a free and just China.

The Judeo-Christian Outlook on Geography: Part 1

The start of an on-going series

While chanting Psalms at Church my mind dwelled on the Biblical outlook on physical geography. Themes of fallen and redemption are applied to the Earth. Also, physical features both natural and man-made are given importance.

Part 1 - Pits

The Biblical view on the world can be examined vertically. If the surface represents the status quo, normal good and bad then the higher the elevation the better. The lower on goes the worse things become.

Openings in the Earth are bad. Pits and other interiors are frequently mentioned as places where people and nations become stuck and lost from God. They are blasted lands to be avoided.

• "The nations fall into the pit they dig; in the snare they hide, their own foot is caught. The LORD is revealed in this divine rule: by the deeds they do the wicked are trapped. " Psalm 9:16-17
• "Therefore, as I live, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall become like Sodom, the land of Ammon like Gomorrah: A field of nettles and a salt pit and a waste forever. The remnant of my people shall plunder them, the survivors of my nation dispossess them." Zephaniah 2:9
• Pope John Paul II's service on the Scriptural Way of the Cross mediates about how Jesus' tomb was in Earth's "womb" away from the sight of God.

The worst part of the interior of the Earth is the Pit. Not a whole to the center of the Earth but more as an opening into the Abyss. The Abyss is Hell, the complete opposite of Heaven. It has been described as eternal torment, abandonment, and complete destruction of the soul. The Abyss and Pit are so horrible that it is a hell for Satan himself. In short: the end.

• "He will take pity on him and say, 'Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found him a ransom.'" Job 33:24
• "What gain is there from my lifeblood, from my going down to the grave [pit]? Does dust give you thanks or declare your faithfulness?" Psalm 30:10
• "They had as their king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon [the destroyer]." Revelation 9:11 (Yeah)

Why such a negative view of the inside of the Earth? Genesis 1:1-3 help explain.

• "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light."

The interior of the Earth and the Abyss are the oldest parts as the surface was shaped later, according to the Creation story. While the surface and above received the good works of God the insides were left in their original state free to corrupted by both the Fall and Satan. Naturally ad by God's design man was not meant to be underground. So it is best just to stay away. The interior of the Earth is no place for Man.

Next post in the series: Peaks- Monuments of the Lord

Coups Around the World

Coming Anarchy has a map showing countries whose leaders came to power via coup. The map reveals stagnation and progress.

Countries that have coup leaders as heads are now limited to Africa, Asia, and Fiji. These countries are in the “Gap” as defined by Thomas Barnett. Sadly these countries are corrupt with traits (sometimes in combination) such as Islamic resistance to Western ideals such as political liberalism, African tribal corruptioness, or just military bossiness.

Latin America, once known for its banana republic dictators, has experienced liberalization. Unfortunately as former extreme Rightist countries open up extreme Leftists are now becoming democratically elected potential dictators.

The future is mixed for these coup countries. Bahrain is becoming more democratic as the Sunni monarchy tries reform in order to please the Shia majority. Pakistan has a rising tide of democrats going toe-to-toe with failed military leaders and Taliban. Meanwhile coup Africa seems stuck while formerly war-torn western African republics rebuild their democracies.

Post-Election Violence in Kenya Maps

Since December 2007 violence has been wagging between supporters of the corrupt Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and the corrupt, Islamist friendly Raila Odinga.

The violence is going along ethnic lines and segregating the country as the above New York Times map shows. Odinga's Luo supporters are being pushed west while groups friendly to Kibaki flee east to government controlled strong holds.

In a sign of online geographical activism the site Ushahidi is creating a mash-up using Google to report the violence. Witnesses can report crimes and users can view incidents on a map.

Like Darfur's Google Earth layer neogeography is being used to inform the world. While some falsely believed readily accessed information would stop genocide because of instantaneous global outcry, it has allowed for more people to become knowledgeable on issues and try to help in their own small ways.

Malaria Atlas Project and How to Help Stop Malaria

Even though DDT is making a comeback Malaria still remains a major problem killing nearly three million people a year. The disease is referred to as a “poverty disease” because treatments and prevention are readably available only to countries and people who can afford it.

The disease is found around the equator up to the tropics. The only areas “free” of the plague are mountainous because of the difficulty for malaria-spreading mosquitoes to survive.

The Malaria Atlas Project has detailed maps both static, animated, and in KML format along with the supporting data.

A major way the stop infections is to have mosquitoes nets cover one-self as one sleeps. The infected mosquitoes tend to come out at dusk and night. For those interested in helping the distribution of nets check out Against Malaria for more information. The charity even has a map page of where the nets are going!

A New Cartography to View the World

An old Robert Kaplin article "The Coming Anarchy" has a section entitled "Lies of the Mapmakers." A good point of the section that traditional maps do not do an adequate job showing what I call overlooked spaces (like slums), unofficial de facto areas, contested places, and mixed areas.

Standard cartography like the one Kaplin complains about lead to a flawed perception of the world. New technology and new ways of thinking are the only way to rectify this error.

New Thinking

When the developers of Delta Force: Black Hawk Down were designing the action game they consulted actual Somalia veterans on whether or not the game captured the "feel" of Mogadishu. Designers were shocked that veterans said the environment did not feel like the actual slums even though designers used detailed maps. What the developers left out were slums. When they added slums into the game the combat veterans gave their blessing.

Slums and shantytowns in India, Brazil, and elsewhere play a huge rule in health, social, political, and the personal lives of millions. Planners of everything from infrastructure to military operations use maps to create proposals and remind the world of the situation on the ground. Overlooked areas need to be map so a more accurate outlook on the world can be gained.

Geotechnology Can Aid in New Thinking

New and old geotechnology can aid in the new cartography. GIS allows for layering. The layers can be used to overlay contested place. Transnistria, Tamil Eelam, Northern Cyprus, and other de facto places can be shown as both separate and part of their respective countries.

3D graphics is especially suited for the new cartographic thinking. Google Earth can have heat maps either attached to the ground or have the data hover above the Earth. The maps can represent, for example, loss of control of a neighborhood. This allows both "politically correct" data and "ground truth" data displayed on top of each other easily viewable by the user.

Thoughts

In this chaotic world we commonly hear how students cannot locate certain countries on a map. The problem is not location memorization is lacking per se but that students do not know spatial data. Mapping overlooked and contested places will better help to understand local and medium-range geography better. With better knowledge on those levels, people can become more knowledgeable citizens.

Daylight Saving Time

All American readers who are affected should remember to push their clocks one hour ahead because March 9th at 2 A.M. local time is the start of Daylight Saving Time.

The idea is American in origin, invented by Benjamin Franklin to save lamp oil and aid the economy. The reason the change is at 2 A.M. is because most people are asleep, bars are already closing, and few trains operate.

Daylight Saving Time is an international thing and very political. This map page has information about countries which use DST. Some countries adopt it to be Western while others drop it to be independent like Kazakhstan breaking away from Russia or the Palestinian Territories changing the dates to be different from Israel.

Allowing more daylight is desirable for much of the world away from the equator. Web Exhibits continues their great DST explanation with a neat interactive map showing daylight versus nighttime.