Has Chavez Created His Own Church?

Way back in 2006 this blogged looked at rumors that Hugo Chavez was plotting his own church to advance his socialist ideals. It now seems that the ball is in play with the establishment of the Reformed Catholic Church of Venezuela (RCCV).

The RCCV is a bit of a chimera. It uses Catholic titles, catholic sacraments, the Anglican Book of Common Prayers, and was established by rogue clergy of the Anglican, Lutheran, and Catholic Churches. While claiming to be free of politics, the group is openly pro-Chvaez, claims to support the poor, and has liberal views on divorce, celibacy, and homosexuality. Several bishops were ordained (unknown exactly how) in Ciudad Ojeda. It appears the group has about 3,000 members right now.

Meanwhile the Anglican Church denies it is involved in RCCV's founding while the Catholic Bishops of Venezuela have denounced it. Archbishop Roberto Luckert has gone as far as claiming President Chavez is funding the RCCV with oil money.

RCCV combines two legacies in Latin America: Liberation Theology and national governments trying to control the churches. RCCV is clearly an arm of Chavez's goals trying to combine all elements (including God) with remaking society in a communist image. With controlling the churches Chavez continues in the long line of both conservative and leftist governments trying to play politics with the church. Latin American governments have tried to disestablish churches, crush them completely, or use them for their own purposes.

In Venezuela the RCCV should have little impact in part because of the strong Catholic backlash and the fact the Church has played a smaller than Latin American-normal role in Venezuelan affairs in the past. Though if the RCCV plays missionary it could serve as another propaganda/spy arm for Chavez.

Harpers Ferry: Geography Matters

Catholicgauze spent his Fourth of July weekend hiking around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The beautiful country side was as hilly as my homeland is flat. Trees covered the hills, small towns climbed with the trees, and roads travelled every which way seeking the path of least resistance. While hiking it came to mind how Harpers Ferry is a perfect example of why geography matters and how everything intertwines with the science.

The area has a rich geologic history (PDF map). Millions of years of water advances, retreats, and land uplift created mountains. The most important factor though to Harpers Ferry was the cutting of the rock by water. Both the present-day Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers managed to carve the landscape and meet up where the town is now located. The rivers were able to cut through most of the rock while harder rocks fell into the river.

The meeting of the two rivers created an prime place for settlement in the years right before the American Revolution. A ferry allowed land transport because while the rivers were still wide enough for boat travel rapids blocked access. The town was considered the last place of civilization before the great American wilderness.

George Washington scouted the area for canal improvements after the war and fell in love with Harpers Ferry. When Washington became president he saw a use for Harpers Ferry; the town was sixty miles away from the future capital and would provide a good fall back point in case of invasion. So Washington established a federal armory at Harpers Ferry. The armory contained over 10,000 guns and plenty of supplies to wage war.

The munitions at Harpers Ferry attracted interest. John Brown, the anti-slavery zealot wanted in Kansas for murder, decided to bring the fight for freedom to the east. Working with members of his Kansas militia Brown trained for a raid into the town to seize the armory in 1859. It failed. After the raid it was revealed Brown had financial backing from Northerners and plotted to start slave rebellions all throughout the South. What was most frightening was that the attacked happened in the east ("close to home" and not out in the wild country of Kansas). These facts scared almost every military-age Southerner into militia training. The training helped Southerners win battles and prolong the Civil War by years. Hundreds of thousands would die because of the skills Southerners learned because of the raid.

In a series of connections the millions of years of geomorphology helped start and prolong the Civil War. In geography, like Harpers Ferry, everything is interconnected.

Place Spotting: Playing Hide and Go Seek on Google Maps

Reader Martin sent me a link to his website Place Spotting. The website is a fun place to try out hide and go seek on Google Maps with friends and can even be used for educational purposes.

What one does is find a zoomed-in image on Google Maps, create hints on how to find it (i.e. in a Slavic country, capital building of President so-and-so), and then post it to the website. Anyone can try it out but there is also an option to e-mail friends the quiz.

According to Martin there are 6,638 different quizzes stored, 108274 quizzes were solved and 927,275 opened. The language of the users seems divided between English and German so some may be hard to solve but try out the English ones anyways.

For the first quiz try to see where Catholicgauze was Fourth of July weekend!

Happy July 4th!

God Bless America!

July 4th helped create a new world...

... and is my mom's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!)

Catholicgauze will be taking the weekend off and do a small adventure on the Appalachian Trail

Blogging to resume on Monday

The Foreign-Born Communities of America

A spat of recent news stories have documented immigration in the United States. Life experiences as well have confirmed the presence of large immigrant communities (in certain parts of the D.C. metro English is the foreign language).

Immigrants tend to live in enclaves that offer social support and ease (and sometimes stop) the process of assimilation into the home country. According to the U.S. Census’ 2006 data the metro areas with the largest percentage of foreign born are

Los Angeles, California – 34.2
El Centro, California – 32.6
San Francisco, California - 29.6
New York, New York and New Jersey – 28.2
El Paso, Texas – 27.5
Laredo, Texas – 27.4
Merced, California – 26.4
Yuma, Arizona – 26.3
Washington, D.C. and Virginia – 20.1

While Los Angeles’ foreign-born population percentage may seem large it does not come close to what has been dubbed the most multinational city in the world: Toronto. For reference:

Toronto, Canada – 45
London, United Kingdom – 27.1
Paris – 17.6
Mexico City – 0.7

The Junky Heavens

Anyone flying by must think we are trashy. From the European Space Agency

Looking up at the night sky is an awe-inspiring thing. Seeing the wide open heavens with its stars makes one think of all the wonders floating in the vast nothingness. The view; though, is deceptive. About 13,000 pieces of man made objects orbit the Earth creating a ring and sphere of a junkyard. According to NASA about 95% of objects orbiting the Earth is junk.

There are some neat diagrams and informational sites about space junk. La Cartoteca links to the European Space Agency's website featuring three dimensional diagrams. NASA has a website dedicated to the space junk issue. And Space-Track tries to catalogue all the junk up there.

Space junk is way too small to affect tidal patterns; also since they are in semi-stable orbital patterns space craft and still fly around them with few concerns. However, whenever one falls to the ground there is a chance for damage to property and pollution by hazardous materials. Solving the space junk issue is on the back burner of many minds but still should be considered.

Is Beauty Foreign?

Beauty is a common goal of almost all yet no one can seem to agree on what exactly beauty is. A frequent point on beauty is that it is something only a few have. Because of that point beauty is something exotic. However, the geographer in me wonders if beauty is something foreign.

There are many cases of a culture admiring rare traits of a foreign group. Ancient Greeks believed the blackness of Ethiopians was a sign of the gods' favor. Slavs, especially Russian women, will dye their hair red in an effort to mimic redheads of Western Europe. Indians historically favor fair skin due to the Aryan invasion but the trend has been revised in part by upper caste/class India integration with Europeans and Americans. Surveys have shown Mexicans are attracted to lighter skin. Finally, Americans historically have tried to copy the latest fashion trends from Europe.

While none of this is conclusive it does seem that beauty can be a rare foreign trait. Rariety, exoticness, and sign of social status all seem to combine into a formula. This makes beauty something one can never truely have unless they cheat like dye their hair or adopt foriegn dress... or at least that is what people tell themselves. Being happy with what one has, their own cultural traits, appears hard to do when somebody else has something so "beautiful."

There is a dark side though. Sometimes traits can be viewed as repulsive like black skin to "Enlightened-age" Europeans, black skin to Indians, and too-many American Indian features to mixed-blood Mexicans. Sadly racism is easily tied into what is beautiful and what is not.