Honduras' Coup and the Great South American Game

Map of the various countries' positions on Chavez. A Catholicgauze Map.

This past weekend the military of Honduras responded to requests by the Supreme Court and congress and removed President Manuel Zelaya from power. The military has stepped aside and let the congress vote Roberto Micheletti, member of Zelaya's party, as interm president. This affair has made Honduras the latest pawn in the great game of pro and anti-Hugo Chavez powers in Latin America.

The coup is more of a Turkish-style, military act to preserve democracy than the historical Latin American banana republic-style coup. Zelaya was the leader of Honduras' Liberal Party, a center-left political party that was more moderate left than social democrat. However, Zelaya was overtly a fan of Chavez's leftism and anti-democratic policies. Zelaya declared that there would be a referendum to allow him to stay on as president despite the constitutionally mandated term limits. Congress, the Supreme Court, and even the Liberal Party stated that this was illegal since only the congress could call for a referendum. When the military refused to set up the voting booths, Zelaya had ballots flown in via Venezuela and foreign "volunteers" began the process of setting up the voting infrastructure. The military leaders then met with the other branches of government and the coup was plotted.

The change of government has been denounced world wide including both American President Obama and Chavez, who threatened violence against the new government. This is Chavez's first real international setback since the earlier 2009 presidential elections in Panama.

Hugo Chavez has been supporting much of the "pink wave" that has flooded across the Latin American political scene. Chavez first attempted to overthrow the Republic of Venezuela in 1992 but had to wait until 1998 to gain control of Venezuela legitimately. It was not until the rise in oil prices in the early 2000s that Chavez could afford to export his ideals. Since then he has funded leftist elections in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.

Minorly supporting/tolerating/ignoring Chavez are democratic, center-left governments like Brazil and Chile. These countries' governments are dedicated to social-economic planning yet still allow for liberal democracy. The only countries in Latin America actively opposing Chavezism are Mexico, the current president defeated the Chavez-funded candidate; Colombia, the government is fighting FARC rebels who are funded by Chavez; and the center-left government of Peru, the formerly left president is now more reformed and opposes Chavez's "social projects" in Peru.

It was hoped by some center-rightist, classical liberals, and democrats that the fall in oil prices would cripple Chavez's ability to interfere in democracies. However, the recent bounce in prices has replenished Chavez's treasury. Until then Latin America will play a great game rememnecent of the Cold War and the first Great Game.

Kodak Discontinuing Kodachrome

Truly a work of art. Click to enlarge. From PDN Photo of the Day

Kodak Film has announced that it will stop producing and processing Kodachrome film. To those who may wonder why this is geographic news the answer is a painful one. Kodachrome film is the color film that made National Geographic famous. The color images from 1937 up until the digital age were all done with Kodachrome.

The baroque era of National Geographic Magazine began with their color photographs. Before, in the classical era, the magazine has superb articles with black and white images. But Kodachrome gave the magazine color and an extra enriching feeling. The famous images of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s had a slightly off-feeling that made the photographs works of art. I always felt this "offness" was a plus. Editor Melville Grosvenor felt the same way; he order photographs to include red objects like shirts to add a sharp color contrast to images.

National Geographic magazine is marking the end of Kodachrome with a short news story and a new exhibit at the museum in Washington, D.C. in the United States. I plan to visit and remember the feeling the first time I explored the world through old National Geographic photos.

Gapminder: Geography Explored Through Statistics

Gapminder is a website museum lead by Hans Rosling. The site is full of videos and graphs dedicated to exploring and explaining demographics, climate, and health issues from a global perspective.

Gapminder makes excellent use of flash and allows for easy customization of their graphics. One can compare everything from life expectancy in Chinese province against the rest of the world or discover who has the best teeth. Meanwhile, the videos are about ten minutes each and give a good, quick overview of statistical geography debunking myths many people have on various issues.

Try out Gapminder today!

Mexico Thinks They Lost an Island

Maps from the early Age of Exploration are fascinating things. Cartographers combined ship charts, captains' logs, and their own imagination to create maps of the New World. Later on more cartographers would use better information to make maps but sometimes still use old maps as "reference" to ensure they included everything. Sometimes mistakes manage to transfer from map to map because of cartographers' methods.

Case in point is Isla Bermeja. The island was marked in a sixteenth century Spanish map and was included in maps at least until the 1800s. Everybody knew of its existence until Mexico had to prove it to ensure they had sole drilling rights to a very rich oil area off the Yucatan in the Gulf of Mexico. Well, it turns out the island does not exist. Mexico is vowing to continue to look for the island but sadly for them anyone with Google Maps can quickly discover it is not there. The lack of an island opens much of the oil field near the doughnut holes to American drilling as well.

Bad cartography is hitting Mexicans hard. Some are in denial while others resort to conspiracies like CIA sinking the island or other American foul play (Spanish-language YouTube video).

Ethiopian Orthodox Church to Reveal the Ark of the Covenant

UPDATE: What we have here is a failure to communicate. The patriarch now says the world cannot view his ark.

Patriarch Abune Paulos of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church announced in Rome his plans to reveal the Ark of the Covenant to the world.

The holy ark is described in the Bible as holding the Ten Commandants and various other ancient Hebrew holy artifacts. A little after 600 BC the Ark disappeared when Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and looted much of the city.

However, Ethiopians claim they are the keepers of the ark. Depending on the legend, either the Ethiopian son of King Solomon, Menelik I, took the ark with him around 950 BC or Jewish priests gave the ark to Beta Israel to prevent it from falling into Babylonian hands. Regardless if true or not many Ethiopians believe they are keepers of the ark.

The claimed ark is in the city of Axum, Ethiopia in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion which dates back to the AD 300s.

The city of Axum is also a holy city to Muslims. Muhammad sent Muslims there during the first persecution because of the kindness of the Christian king. These refugees were the first Muslims to live outside the immediate Mecca-Medina core of Saudi Arabia. It is Muhammad was so impressed by Axum that he ordered his followers to forever leave Ethiopia in peace. Muslims in the town are not allowed a mosque because of the old imperial edict stating there can be no mosque in Axum as long as Mecca is churchless.

The patriarchs plan to reveal the ark is a massive break in tradition. Only men are allowed on the grounds where the ark is claimed to be and only the patriarch and one specially trained monk is allowed to actually see the ark. There have been claims that monks lifespans are short due to the divine energy that overpowers mere mortal sinners Old Testament-style. Anyone else who tries to see it allegedly dies. Much like what happened in the fictional Indiana Jones movie to the Nazis when they attempted to obtain it (yes, this last bit was necessary)

Kid Friendly Version


Original Version

Top Five Cultural Colonizers (Part 2)

Part One with Greco-Roman, English, and Arab culture

Chinese

The Chinese have one of the best cultures by almost any definition. Chinese culture has evolved yet retained much of its originality. The cultural system of the Han allowed for massive populations throughout history, generally strong government, and strong economy because of encouraging hard work and entrepreneurship (despite a brief historical oddity known as Maoism). Chinese culture was adopted and modified by Koreans, Japanese, and even the conquering Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty (when a political conqueror adopts the culture of the defeated like barbarians after the fall of Western Rome that says much about the strength of the culture).

The Chinese Empire and culture collapsed due to Ming and Qing dynasties fear of foreigners combined with a superiority complex. Outsiders were viewed like infectious disease to be avoided. Chinese culture finally regained a global outlook just in the past decade or two. In the meantime, Chinese emigrants brought a hard work ethic with them to southeast Asia and the United States. Chinese emigrants and their descendants in these new lands have been successful and members of the elite. Their culture has greatly aided these new homelands.

Uniqueness: The Chinese invited gunpowder and paper. They had a massive scientific edge on Europe. Finally, a navy that included an Atlantic fleet. All before Europeans managed to colonize the Western Hampshire. Chinese culture could have dominated the world. Instead they withdrew and became shadows of what they once were.

German

In many people's minds the stereotypical German is the ultimate antagonist: physically fit, hard working, never gives up, efficient, killing machine/evil. Obviously the last World War war much to do with this stereotype but so does the last two thousand years or so of Germanic culture. Fighting off the Romans, defeating Rome, conquering much of central Europe, successfully winning the Northern Crusades all by themselves, and then trying to take over the world. But the Germans were not always aggressive in their cultural efforts. Many countries like Romania and other Eastern European powers asked for German settlers to defend the frontier lands and run the markets. The Russians too desired German help in settling the Volga River valley. The hardworking, family-oriented Germans were successful in "holding down the fort" for many rulers.

The German legacy from the Asian border and Eastern Europe was a victim though of Germany itself. After the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II a vast program of ethnic cleansing cleared most Germans not in Germany or the other Germanic states of Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein.

While the German cultural influence is no more in much of the world outside Germany its impact is still strong in the United Kingdom in the United States. The United Kingdom is still ruled by the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The educational, collegiate, and bureaucratic systems of these two English countries is was made and formed by German culture. Today it is estimated that a quarter of all Americans have German heritage in them. The Germans failed to expand Germany but Germaness impacted two global players.

Honorable Mentions

Rus: Rus culture is the founding culture of both Russian and Ukrainian culture. Russian culture has impacted its neighbors and those Russia has conquered in its Eurasian land empire.

Ameroindian in Spanish colonized lands: American Indians lost to the Spanish where ever they fought. Spanish also Christianized most American Indians as well. However, mestizo culture is more Indian than Spanish and the national identity of many Hispano cultures in mainland America is more Indian than Spaniard as well.

Top Five Cultural Colonizers (Part 1)

"Great" empires come and go but cultures remain. Some cultures have managed to thrive due to cultural exportation despite political change. War, demographic colonization, and peaceful adoption have made some cultures spread like wildfire. These five cultures below have not only managed to spread across the world but also change the course of human events.

This list is in no particular order. Feel free to comment!

Greco-Roman

The Ancient Greeks had sway via colonies and states from the Pillars of Heracles to India. The heart of Greece, though, provided the start of Greek greatness. Philosophers and their adoption of the scientific mindset allowed for rational thought and debate (though killing the philosopher was an all too common solution to science versus angry mob debates). Greek ideas of governance, culture, and religion were adopted and sometimes modified by the Romans who spread the culture throughout Europe, southwest Asia, and northern Africa.

Greek rationality was adopted by early Christians via Saint Paul and spread throughout the Roman Empire in a peaceful revolution based in part by Greco-Roman ideals. Greco-Roman culture was also adopted by barbarians like the Visgoths who continued Roman culture well after the Western Roman Empire's fall (a combination of good governance, religion, and the ability to make hot baths attracted many to Greco-Roman culture). The Eastern Roman Empire and its culture managed to keep its hold in eastern Europe until the fifteenth-century (if not longer because of the its partial adoption by the Russians). Even the conquering Ottoman Empire kept parts of the old culture including the title of Caesar.

Uniqueness: The Greeks gave the world philosophy, the modern understanding of science, and the ideal of democracy. The Romans gave the world the basis of civil law, which is the most popular form of law in the world.

English

The cultural hybrid of Norman French and Anglo-Saxon first took southeast Great Britain then the rest of the British isles. Being geographically isolated from continental Europe, a cultural theory of English uniqueness grew in many English minds. English looked at Troy for inspiration, civilized like the rest of Europe but separate and bordering on the wilderness.

The English and their subjects demographically colonize and dominate what would become the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Not only this but other English colonizes adopted the democratic system (some more than others) and to this day follow many tenants of English cultures including using English as the national unity language and common law.

Unique Trait: The idea a person has rights that the state cannot control. The Magna Carta forced the state to recognize its limits. English later on expressed more rights. The start of the American Revolution, and many other revolutions thereafter, was based on the people being denied their God given rights by the state.

Arab

"There is no god but God and Muhammad is his Messenger" has been used throughout history as a cry for both war and peace. It has also been used as the cry to spread Arabic culture beyond the Arabian Peninsula. Along with Islam the Muslim advocates bring with them calls for Arab ideals and cultural norms. As Jewish culture goes with Judaism so does Arab culture goes with Islam.

Even the ideal of being an "Arab" has spread beyond true ethnic Arabs. There is a wide genetic difference between dark skinned Iranian Gulf Arabs, white Lebanese Arabs, brown Moroccan Arabs, and black Arabs of Saharan Africa yet all consider themselves to be Arab. Yet even those who do not consider themselves Arab are still deeply impacted by Arab culture through Islam, the Arabic language, or languages partially made by Arabs like Swahili.

Uniqueness: Besides the obvious of Islam, Arabic culture has been the only culture to replace either Roman or Roman-based cultures. Every other place once ruled by Rome still has a culture heavily impacted by Roman ways.

Coming Thursday: The last two cultures and special mentions