Refugees Down, Internally Displaced Persons Up

The Economist has a good video on the latest developments in refugees (those who flee outside their country) and internally displaced persons (IDPs, those who flee but stay in their own country). The overall number of refugees are down; however, there are many more IDPs.

The reason for more IDPs is the turn towards internal, civil wars. There are now very few massive armies that sweep entire populations away from their homes. Now, much of the fighting is down by militia-like units which can only terrorize so much territory. This leaves many places in a country where there still is peace.

On the refugee front there is a negative trend growing. Many refugees do not want to go home. They have become use to aid and their new homeland (where they and other fellow refugees have created little national enclaves). This sadly can cause refugees to overstay their welcome like what happened to Zimbabweans in South Africa in May 2008. Either assimilation programs or an eventual boot-out is needed in these places. No one wants another Palestinian refugee situation where many refugees are forced into camps in neighboring states and feed hateful propaganda by everyone.

The Strange Saga of a Geographer and a Weatherman

While I am enjoying Labor Day this story is too odd to pass up.

The great Geo Lounge links to the story of Dr. Melanie Renfrew and a Californian weatherman, Fritz Coleman. Apparently Renfrew was in violation of a restraining order by repeatedly contacting Coleman. Renfrew complaints was that Coleman was allegedly misusing the terms on-shore and off-shore winds. Coleman felt a restraining order was needed, which a judge granted, because Coleman believed Renfrew's behavior was unstable and threatening.

Dr. Renfrew has a blog which has her side of the story, namely the post entitled Is this North Korea, now? Renfrew claims she merely pointed out the error and Coleman was making something out of nothing.

The story gets a bit odd when one examines the blog posts Renfrew tried to delete. In one post she wonders who would play Coleman in a musical about the events. Another deleted post gives her side of the story as does a deleted public letter. A fourth erased post is terribly saddening yet oddly insightful. Renfrew may have cancer (prayers for her) yet it ends with

"I’ve lived life to the fullest, and want to bless others to do the same thing. I speak truth to set others free and laugh. “A merry heart is good like a medicine,” and cruel people hurt me very much." (Emphasis mine)

This story combines several elements of my own experiences. I know several good weathermen and a weatherwoman (yes, she does prefer that term) who have told me that they attract all sorts of weirdos who vent rage at people who are on TV everyday with a significant margin of error of being wrong. Meanwhile, some other geographers (myself included) have geographical pet peeves we hate to see including geographic inaccuracies. Sometimes we just have to let it go or risk mirroring this sad, odd story.

The Empire That Was Russia: 100 Year Old Photos of the Russian Empire

This Labor Day weekend Catholicgauze will be taking it easy and will return on Tuesday. Many readers will be traveling somewhere to celebrate labor and the last holiday of the summer. One place that can be visited this weekend is the long dead Russian Empire via Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii's color photographs. The Library of Congress has the complete collection of photographs online in English and Russian websites.

The collection can be searched through or one can browse through various themes like buildings or ethnic diversity. Each photograph says a thousand words so be sure to think about what the image shows, what the backstory for the people and/or place is, and what eventually happened to them.

These photographs remind me greatly of National Geographic's golden era work.

Why Knowing Language Matters: Chinese "River + Dike = Political Order"

"River plus dike equals political order" from here.

A key yet lost part of geography is the study of foreign languages. Sadly most advanced geography programs do not require study in another language. I personally feel insight into how a language orders sentences, forms phrases, and conveys action is just as an important sight into a culture as dress, diet, and even religion. I continue to believe my statement that language is the blood of culture.

Many people have heard the saying that in Chinese the word for "crisis" and "opportunity" is the same. This gives insight into why many Chinese do not see chaos as necessarily a bad thing but a potential positive as long as one acts properly.

During the People's Republic of China's (PRC) rise to development; damming of rivers and control of water sheds has been a primary goal of the government. While the government points out these projects help with industry and agriculture, some geographers and other scientists lamented the loss of ancient history to be forever drowned or looted. The common call was that the drive for development was blinding the PRC.

What one ignores when making this claim though is Chinese culture. Sure development played a majority role, but the language itself encourages control of the physical elements. Political order is a combination of the words river and dike according to one source. Another trusted online source translates political science as "water to arrange to bring joy." This helps explain China's near-Machiavellian drive to control its water (paraphrase of Machiavelli: water and women both need to be controlled).

The above can be thought of as triva. However, it helps explain why the average Chinese had the gut feeling instinict to support dam projects. The thinking was not conscience but subconscience. Only a detailed understanding of the Chinese language could help an observer understand that subconscience decision. This is just one small reason why the study of langauges is such a key part of a true geographic education.

Special thanks to TDAXP for his insight

What Languages Will be Important to Know?

Coming Anarchy has a great article which discusses what languages should people know/be taught in schools. Sure English is the new lingua Franca but serious scholars, business men, and travelers should know at least one other language (usually one that they deal with frequently). Not only does another language help with vocal communications but also gives an insight to the other culture.

Curzon makes three main tiers of languages to prioritize educational efforts. The tiers are below

Tier One
English
Spanish
Chinese
French
Russian

Tier Two
Arabic
Portuguese
Japanese

Tier Three
Turkish
Persian
Japanese

I generally agree with the tier system. I think Russian is going to greatly decline in demand as Russia continues to decrease in population and speaking it is more of a political statement in the Near Abroad (former Soviet states). Arabic is growing in importance and probably should rank above Russian; however, who knows if the Arab markets will adjust to a post-oil world.

Certainly the tiers of language have changed massive in recent history. This is probably the widest range of tongues of importance in Western history. Just think about it

• Roman Empire to Early Renaissance: Latin and Greek were the only two languages of importance
• Renaissance to Early 1800s: Latin fades as French becomes the only language of diplomacy
• Early to late 1800s: English becomes equally important to French. Last few years see rise of German due to German scientific achievement.
• Early 1900s to End of World War II: English, French, German
• Cold War: English, Russian with Arabic and Chinese growing in importance. By the end of the era more second and third world languages become important.

Agree or disagree? Feel free to comment!

Russia: "Poland Wanted to Destroy Us! War was Self-Defense"

On the seventh-anniversary of the start of the European-theater of World War II, Russia has decided to not to feel the world's pain but instead go out of their way to claim The Second Polish Republic wanted plotted to destroy the innocent Soviet Union.

As noted before, Russia is very upset that their legacy of being liberators is being challenged by those nations who simply switched from National Socialist-occupied to Communist socialist-occupied. Poland, the Baltic states, and Ukraine all have gone to various degrees to point out that Soviets killed more than the Nazis in some places. Russia is fighting back with proposed "historical accuracy" laws and even cyber-warfare.

I personally doubt there were any serious plans by Poland to have a Franco-German-Polish alliance that would take down the Soviet Union. However, if there was, Poland would have good reason. The USSR had already invaded Poland once and this was after the Communists had invaded other countries like newly-independent Ukraine, the ethnic republics in the Caucasus, and they tried to overtake the Baltic states as well.

Sadly, the Putin regime in Moscow continues to assert Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union in all the wrong places. Unlike Yeltsin who tried to divorce Russia from the Communists, it seems Russia will be doomed to repeat its past as the Bear on the fringe of Europe.

Nazi Pseudogeography

The National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi) had an extensive plan for world domination not only in political-military matters but also in more odd subjects. A cosmology was envisioned by some of the top Nazi leaders. Part of this mad world involved a complex pseudogeography. Two key elements of the worldly pseudogeography (ignoring astronomy) were a hollow Earth and the Thule-Aryan connection.

Hohlweltlehre

Nazi pseudogeography borrowed heavily from Norse mythology and Tibetan folk beliefs. The pagan Norse believed in a world below ours where really evil dark elves lived while the Tibetans thought that the Earth had openings to worlds below where one's soul could achieve nothingness.

The Nazis, thinking themselves enlightened, rejected the supernatural elements of these beliefs while clinging to the hope that there were worlds inside the Earth. Hopeful the worlds would have easily reachable resources and having Aryans or easily conquerable people living below certainly would have been a plus.

While the Nazis did claim a section of Antarctica, New Swabia, there was no expedition there to find a hollow Earth. There is some evidence that the Nazi Tibetan expeditions were looking for portals but only the most die-hard occult Nazis thought it was possible to locate one.

The plan to conquer the hollow Earth never left the fleeting minds of the mad men who thought it up.

Thule Equals Aryans Around the World

Holding slightly more weight in Nazi pseudogeography. The Nazis were genuinely interested in researching their supposed Aryan heritage with organizations like the Ahnenerbe. Portions of the society though were infected with the thoughts of the occult Thule Society. The society believed Aryans did not some tan browned-skeined, brown haired people but were in fact blonde haired, blue-eyed whites from Atlantis! After the Aryans managed to lose Atlantis they fled to the lost land of Thule, the society believed. Once on Thule the Aryans supposedly left and easily settled across the world while the rest of humanity was living in the Stone Age.

The Nazis in general believed that an Aryan people once roamed over a wide section of the Earth. The Ahnenerbe supported this belief by pointing out that Far East people like the Kalash and Ainu had Nazi-prized Caucasian features. Research trips to places like Tibet sought to further back-up the Nazi's point of view. The Nazis failed to anticipate the discoveries in genetic geography that mapped human expansion out of Africa which links all humans together. Also, Caucasians flowed both ways, into Europe and into Asia. It was in Europe where the race fared better against Turkic and other groups.

Final Note

The Nazis had much more down to Earth views that did far more damage. However, a pseudogeography in particular and a whole range of pseudoscientific thoughts were created and used by the Nazis to justify policies that lead to tanks rolling and people dying.