John Lofton Speaks

I am fascinated by the likes of John Lofton. He attacks Bob Barr using name calling on his blog but Barr basically agrees with Lofton. Barr is Pro-Life but that isn't enough for Lofton. Lofton set out to show his religious superiority over Barr. You see Barr doesn't go far enough. For the Pharisee it is never enough. Instead of showing any respect for a brother in Christ Lofton shows arrogance. You see for Lofton Barr is the wrong kind of Christian. Another issued Lofton brought up was Terri Shiavo. The Congress of the United States overstepped its authority when it tried to stop here death. Pharisees like Lofton. who worship the State as there god, like to see government interfere in peoples lives. Just watching something on TV means you know nothing of the circumstances of this case. Did Lofton meet Terry? I realize his religion will prevent Lofton from understanding anything. O Well Life goes on. And it truly is a good life in Christ.

What also interests me about John Lofton is here is a man who goes out on the internet and looks for people who reference him so he can comment. An eight year old does that. And to think I use to read men like this and followed their teaching. And why did I stop reading these men... I met there offspring.

Outsourcing at Home

The trend has to outsource to India has begun to slow. Companies have begun to outsource at home according to Business Week. The reason is increasing wages and the falling dollar. Also, the fear exists that wages in India will be on par with America within 5-10 years so companies have begun looking for low cost centers within the United States (i.e. Boise, ID or Fargo, ND). One problem these companies are experiencing is our lack of experienced highly skilled IT people. As an example AT&T decided to open a call center back in the US from India but had trouble finding qualified people to handle the jobs so AT&T started a training program.

I hear people in the United States complain about sending jobs to India or China but at the same time I see little effort being made on the home front to reverse this trend. If America wants to compete than the desire must be there. I just don’t see it anymore.

King, Rachel. (April 7, 2008). Outsourcing at Home, Business Week

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2008/tc2008043_261385.htm?chan=search

The Fool Lofton Has Spoken

I received a message from the Pharisee John Lofton today. What an honor. His primacy of Law instead of Grace continues. When I hear fools such as Lofton speak I understand why people are leaving the church in droves. There is no love in his message only arrogance. Such sadness that he had taken the teaching of Jesus Christ and produced such hatred. Lofton talks about idle words but he is the king of idle words. For the message of Jesus Christ was to reveal a Father to us who loves us dearly. A Father who wants to have a intimate relationship with us. There is nothing in those idle words Lofton speaks. No wonder this nation is dying. We don't have discussions with people but point the finger in the face and then hate.

When I was young I read these fools, teachers who had the appearance of godliness but deny the power thereof. I allowed myself to be trapped by religion instead of getting to know the God who Loves me. God is Love and He wants to reveal His Love to us daily not by a bag of rules but through the person of Jesus Christ. What amazed me that Lofton doesn't even attempt to Love people. But I understand for when I was a Pharisee I couldn't Love people either.

Another Religious Moment

I heard Bob Barr, Libertarian Presidential Candidate, being interviewed by the arrogant "Christian" leader John Lofton. I can understand why people are rejecting this crap being propagated by the holy fools like Lofton. It is because of religious arrogance that I left the institutional church. What a sad day it has become in this once great land. I do wonder if God loves us enough to let us lose?

I am reading The Shack, something the fool Lofton would hate. Lofton has made Christianity about morality and not about Christ. For Lofton the Law is primary not the beauty of God's wonderful grace.

You know you've made God in your image when He hates the same people you do.

Source Unknown

Love is patient, Our Wonderful Father is Patient with us. He knew what he was getting when He got you. Ask Him to show you His Love Today.

Love is Kind, Papa is Kind to you. He Loves you because He is love not because of anything you have done. He Loves because He is Love.

Outsourcing to India and Such

The outsourcing of accounting is an ongoing concern for those of us in the field. Friedman talks about the outsourcing of tax preparation to India, he forgets that with new tax software the average American has the ability to prepare taxes themselves. Today in the United States accounting functions are outsourced ranging from payroll, payables and receivables. Payroll giant ADP has already opened the second offshore facility in India (McDougall). And with more U.S. companies building production facilities overseas the inventory and manufacturing accounting will soon follow.

Offshoring allows companies to take advantage of two key areas. The first is low cost talent; as Friedman has pointed out Indian labor is much less then American. These low wages both in India and other developing nations will put downward pressure on U.S. wages. The second key is that technology driven processes allows companies to move accounting to India. This has allowed American Express and GE to lead the way by moving operations to India. As research and development continues to move to India and China new technology will bypass the U.S. (Prestowitz, 2005.).

Prestowitz, Clyde (2005). Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East. New York, NY. Basic Books.

McDougall, Paul (2007). ADP Opens Second Offshore Facility in India, Information Week, January 9, 2007. Retrieved June 22, 2008, from http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/outsourcing/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196802294

Guns, Germs and Steel: A Review by Danny Yee

Yee does a wonderful job outlining Diamond’s book and then turns his pen to his criticisms. Yee starts with the statement, Diamond “achieves [avoiding pitfalls] this by avoiding some areas rather than engaging with them.” Another criticism is that Guns, Germs and Steel “doesn’t even begin to be a general synthesis of historical causation.” An example used is the capture of Atahuallpa by Pizarro at Cajamarca by not explaining it. A final criticism is that Diamond though covers an amazing range of disciplines including those we is not well informed. Yee uses religion which Diamond describes as a “handmaiden of the state.”

I agree with Yee concerning Diamond’s use of Religion. By placing religion as an agency of the State limits the role religion has played in human history. Religion formed and out of this religion the State formed. The question I think of was Confucius or Buddha agents of the State or did the State use what already existed to its advantage. Yee brings out the strength of Diamond’s work. The book covers a range of topics from archaeology to zoonotics. As for the criticism of historical causation [causality – how event A leads to event B, etc] I think Diamond does a good job of building his case in those areas he understands.

I think by attempting to use environmental factors in the development of society Diamond downplays the power of culture [religion and beliefs]. In some societies envy prevents a person’s ability to move beyond others within a culture. Envy says if I can’t have it then neither can you. Diamond brings out some cultures are more conservative and other are more progressive toward new innovations. I think he fails to understand why some groups reject innovation while others embrace it.

Out of this Furnace by Thomas Bell

Below is a paper I wrote for a history class I had on working people in America.

George Kracha came to America in 1881. This begins a wonderful novel by Thomas Bell that covers the hardship, despair and love of three generations of an immigrant family working in a steel mill in Pennsylvania and the desire of earning a fair wage and the ability to make a better life for themselves. Like so many other from Eastern Europe Kracha came to America to flee the endless poverty of being a Slovak in the Austria-Hungarian Empire. After finally walking to White Haven, PA he began his life as a rail worker but after the advice from a friend moved to the steel towns. The reason for moving was the pay was better in the steel mills than the railroads. Kracha was introduced to the hierarchy which existed within the steel mills when he needed to buy an Irishman a drink to get a job at the mill, a Scotsman (Carnegie) owned the mill, an American (Frick) ran the mill and the Irish were the foremen with the Slovaks taking the bottom.

There is a brief mention of the Homestead Strike but it didn’t affect the Slovaks because the union only included skilled workers. After the strikers were defeated Henry Frick would message Andrew Carnegie, “We taught our employees a lesson.” That lesson lasted until 1937 when the Union was finally recognized. The Panic of 1893 caused by the collapse of the Reading Railroad caused hardship as the company lowered wages and cut production, a typical response during downturns in the economy.

In many ways the hope of the Slovaks were similar to many immigrants, to save enough money to go back to the old country and buy a farm or to buy a farm in the United States. Kracha develops the entrepreneurial spirit by starting a butcher shop and learns that “money makes money.” If not for greed and lust he would have maintained that spirit. There is a fear of getting involved with politics as with Mike when he was going to vote the Socialist Party ticket but feared retaliation if found out. As Kracha told Mike, “Think what you like but keep your mouth shout.” By John’s generation this would change as people came out in mass to support the Democrats in 1932.

In December 1900 the hierarchy that existed was American, English and Irish who were the department heads and Slovaks who made up half the mill but had no skilled jobs. The goal of these immigrants was to come to America, find work and make a living. The living conditions were such that when Mary returned from the ocean for the first time she realized how smoky and dirty the mill town was. One night after drinking heavily Mike shows the despair that existed within the unskilled workers at the mill. The hierarchy system did not allow the Hunkies to move upward within the mill. Tied to a life of hardship and no hope the toll it took upon the people, as one older woman complained all she had done was work all her life to the point she could not longer use her hands. After the death of Mike, Mary, like so many others, suffered due to the World War I Wartime Inflation. At the time prices of groceries more than doubled causing the ever present poverty to consume Mary as she struggled to live off her sewing, savings and what John could earn. Like most widowed women throughout history she could not find enough work to provide for herself and the children. Mary contracted Tuberculosis and was sent to a sanitarium. After Mike’s death she was never the same and died in the sanitarium. During the war John, to show his patriotism was forced to buy Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps. He would have to sell at a discount in the early 20’s.

The possibility of a strike in 1919 actually split the Catholic Church in the area. It also created a “Red Scare” promoted by the newspapers, as Unionism was tied to Bolshevikism. During this time period the company decided to bring in the Blacks to work the mills. A common strategy used by many companies to continue the ethnic division that existed. Thus the Slovaks were replaced on the lowest wrung of the ladder. Later on Dobie would tell Kracha as the Irish looked down at the Hunkies now the Hunkies looked down on the Blacks. This hierarchy was repeated within industry throughout the United States. Even to this day an order exists within some production facilities, Whites, Blacks and finally Hispanics. After the strike was called off the Pittsburgh Catholic Charities received $25,000 fro US Steel.

The Crash of 1929 and the subsequent depression caused the steel mills to literally shut down. The people were starving and were aimless with no hope. After the election of Roosevelt we see the passage of the National Recovery Administration specifically Section 7(a). Section 7(a) allowed the organization of unions for the purpose of collective bargaining. This recognition of right to organize by the government was required for any long lasting success of the unions. As has been shown throughout history when the force of government was used to end strikes and always favored business. The American Federation of Labor attempted to organize a union but in the preparation for a strike the AFL’s William Green called off the strike. Plus the union tossed 75% of the steel workers out of the union. The union was finally created when John Lewis and Sidney Hillman started the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO). One benefit the union members enjoyed was that all were members of the union and there was no ethnic divide.

The book focuses on the lower class workers within the steel towns of Pennsylvania who lived in poverty. Bell could have chosen any industry within the United States to make his point that unions lead to a better life for workers. For the poverty and treatment of the mill workers was repeated within industries ranging from rail workers to the meatpackers. The significance is that without the government backing the right of workers to organize and the right to collective bargaining no such rights would exist as history has shown that employers will use everything in their power to keep workers down. It was only with the passage of the Wagner Act that exempted unions from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act that unions could finally not fear the use of government force to breakup strikes.

The book shows two areas that have existed since the early 1800’s in the United States. The first is the desire of foreigners to migrate to this country and the second is the anti-immigration stance of people already here. These opposing views allowed employers to use ethnic groups against each other to achieve their goals. The railroads used this when bringing in Asians to build the rail lines causing friction with native born and European immigrants.

The novel is a well written and interesting work. In many ways it almost seems that the characters are real and possibly based on real persons or family members. It allows the reader to put a human face on the hardship that immigrants faced to find a better life in America and the disillusionment that occurred when hopelessness set in when they finally realized there was not a better life ahead. It shows the effects of ethnic division when groups look down upon another base on nothing more than a birthplace.

Thomas Bell wrote a novel that has a place in the library. As I read the book I kept thinking about modern day China and the struggles of industrialization that the country is facing. Many of the labor issues that faced America in her history are now facing China. Factory workers in China are treated similar to factory workers were treated in the United States before Roosevelt. How China responds to these growing pains will be interesting to watch. In the United States today we have similar classes of people, the Slovaks and Polish have been replaced by the Hispanics. We as a nation leave the dirty jobs to the Hispanics as we struggle as a nation to decide the future of these illegal’s, thus since Kracha came to America we as a nation continue to argue about the same issues as we did then.

I found this in the Daily Reckoning in an article by Marc Faber and thought I would post it:

At about the same time, John Gapper, writing for the Financial Times,
lamented the poor state of US infrastructure in an article entitled “On
the pot-holed highway to hell”:

“If anyone doubts the problems of US infrastructure, I suggest he or she
take a flight to John F. Kennedy airport (braving the landing delay), ride
a taxi on the pot-holed and congested Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and try
to make a mobile phone call en route. That should settle it, particularly
for those who have experienced smooth flights, train rides and road
travel, and speedy communications networks in, say, Beijing, Paris, or Abu
Dhabi recently. The gulf in public and private infrastructure is, to put
it mildly, alarming for US competitiveness...

“Faced with the emptying of the Highway Trust Fund, established in 1956 as
the US entered a period of growth and prosperity, Mrs. Clinton suggested
cutting its source of funds (which she claimed could be made up by a tax
on oil companies)... At times I wonder whether the world’s biggest economy
has the will to solve its challenges or will end up wandering self
indulgently into the minor economic leagues. I expect it will get serious
when the crisis is too blatant to ignore, but it has not done so yet.

“Perhaps this is a bit unfair. Some leaders have recognized the problem
for economic development, as well as for safety. They include Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Ed Rendell, governors of California and Pennsylvania,
and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York. The trio have allied to press for
the states and Washington to act.”

Gapper then quoted Ed Rend, incidentally one of Mrs. Clinton’s biggest
supporters, who supported her initiative to suspend the “gas tax” and
increase taxes on oil companies (a really bad idea, since higher oil
company taxes will curtail exploration). “Dams are in a horrible condition
... we have no real rail transport, unlike most nations in the world...
Summer delays make flying in America a disaster,” Rendell said.

According to Gapper, “...there are lots of ways in which infrastructure
inadequacy matters to the US but I would focus on two.

“First it imposes a drag on economic growth. The private infrastructure is
poor enough – broadband speed lags behind other countries and mobile
coverage is spotty. But much of the public infrastructure is unfit, a fact
that was becoming clear even before Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans
and a Minneapolis bridge collapsed during rush hour last year.

“Second, it presents an awful image of the US to investors and other
visitors. The state of transport and communication infrastructure is a
symbol of a nation’s economic development and the US is starting to look
like a third world country. In fact, scratch that. Many developing
countries look and feel better. Of course they are in a different phase of
development. The US invested 10% of its federal non-military budget in
infrastructure in the 1950s and 1960s as it built the interstate highway
system – at the time, the envy of the world. While the US investment has
fallen to less than 1% of gross domestic product, China has been matching
its double-digit postwar record... Americans may not like the sound of
that, but they cannot expect the US to maintain the economic dynamism of
the late 20th century in the 21st unless they buckle down. Sooner or
later, wishful thinking is going to crash into financial reality.”

In a column for the New York Times, Thomas Friedman noted that Americans
really “want to do nationbuilding” – not in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in
America.

According to Friedman, “We are not as powerful as we used to be because
over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation –
work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means – have given way to
subprime values: ‘You can have the American dream – a house – with no
money down and no payments for two years.’ ...

“A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to
Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit.
Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with
free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we
have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons.
If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station
today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would
swear we were the ones who lost World War II.

“How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money
from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of
dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research
to attract the world’s best talent – including Americans...

“And us? Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that
cutbacks in government research funds were resulting in ‘downsized labs,
layoffs of post docs, slipping morale and more conservative science that
shies away from the big research questions.’ Today, she added, ‘China,
India, Singapore ... have adopted biomedical research and the building of
biotechnology clusters as national goals. Suddenly, those who train in
America have significant options elsewhere.’”

Zoonosis

A recent article by Charlie Furniss (p.1) revealed that an estimated 73% of new human diseases may have zoonotic causes. These diseases include Ebola, HIV, etc. The growing body of work available for the topic includes the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases website http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/index.htm and academic journals. Traditionally disease has been spread by fleas (Black Death) and mosquitoes (Yellow Fever) but new diseases have developed that has changed this pattern. The Machupo virus was shown to have been spread by the urine of hamsters.

Diamond talked about the way disease has spread throughout history. It is believed that Black Death and smallpox were started in China and transferred to the West. I find this topic to be quiet interesting when I look at what a epidemic can accomplish that war never could. Without disease destroying the native population of the Western Hemisphere in waves the natives could have destroyed the Spanish Conquistadors.

Catching diseases... By: Furniss, Charlie, Geographical, 0016741X, Apr2006, Vol. 78, Issue 4

Compare and Contrast “1491” and The Future of the Past

History is the record of the rise and fall of civilizations. Throughout history migrating tribes have enter new regions in search of territory in which to conquer either causing the destruction or enslavement of the inhabitants. In similar fashion the Europeans conquered the Western Hemisphere along with the rest of the world. As has been said the winners write the history books and for several hundred years the conquerors have dominated the book market looking at the Indians prior to Columbus as “savages” who needed to be civilized. Recently paradigm shift has begun among archeologist and anthropologists questioning the currently accepted model about the population and development of the Western Hemisphere prior to the arrival of Columbus.

After the arrival of the first Europeans the spread of disease began to destroy the Indian populations of the Western Hemisphere. As the Mann notes, “The Spaniards arrived and the Indians died – in huge numbers.” Smallpox arrived in 1525; caused by a single Spaniard caused the death of half the Inca Empire. This plague was followed in succession by typhoid, bubonic plague, influenza and many more diseases, of which the native peoples had developed no immunity against.

Both the article and the book discuss how man effects his environment. Mann quotes Charles Kay of Utah State that humankind is the “keystone species” everywhere. In Stille this keystone species is played out in Madagascar. Humans have destroyed 80% of the rain forest along with many animal species. Humans are attempting to develop national parks to protect the forest and the remaining species.

In Madagascar man has done similar things to what the Indians may have done; burning out areas for farming or to manage the forests. Unlike the Indians, who seemed to have managed the land with great care and a deliberate plan of action the people of Madagascar have been more inclined toward a scorched earth policy. An example maybe how the Indians created a neo-tropical landscape on part of Amazon River before the Spanish arrival is reminiscent of attempts that are being made to clean up the Ganges River in India by creating a pond system that will filter the human waste from Varanasi. Showing that humans continue to develop the “wilderness” for their own purposes rather than allowing nature to control humans.

Both Mann and Stille focus upon the disagreements that exist within the scientific community about how we view the past and how best to manage the past. In the Western Hemisphere the view of the past is changing from a savage place with unoccupied territory to a place where the people had built a prosperous civilization that was destroyed by disease. Some see it as a clash of Neolithic civilizations that had both started 10,000 years earlier. Similarly in China the past in looked upon as a means to achieve financial gains. In Sicily, tomb raiders steal treasure and sell on the black market. The Western view is the past needs to be revered not be used for personal or national gain. But in order to preserve the past nations, such as Egypt, are depended upon those who would view the past in non-scientific ways. Egypt is depended upon tourism which is driven by those who follow people like Edgar Cayce.

Even as technological advancements have changed our view of the past so have new ideas that challenge the accepted paradigm. In “1491” Mann attempts to present a view that the accepted paradigm is continually being challenged whereas Stille tends to look down upon those who deviate from the accepted model, as with the Chinese view that the past should serve the present. As history shows what was once viewed as “heresy” in one generation becomes the accepted model in the next.

If I can make a book recommendation The Future of the Past by Alexander Stille. Stille is a wonderful writer who deserves to be read by people.

God is LOVE (Agape)

I John 4:16 tells us that God is Love and whoever abides in love abides in love and God abides in him. What does love mean? St. Paul defined love in the famous chapter of scripture telling us what love is. I Corinthians 13

God is patient.

God is kind.

God does not envy.

God does not boast.

God is not arrogant.

God is not rude.

God is not irritable.

God is not resentful.

God does not rejoice at wrongdoing.

God rejoices in the truth. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life!!

God bears all things.

God believes all things.

God hopes all things.

God endures all things.

God never fails.

Imagine the wonderful Father who loves you deeply. He looks to Romance you today.

The Vatican Library Mystery

In 1997 the Swiss Guard came in and shut down the businesses that existed near the Vatican library including a coffee shop and library store. What followed was the removal of Father Boyle, the prefect of the Vatican Library. Boyle was an Irish priest who rose to the Prefect position in 1984 and had an ambitious goal of modernizing the Vatican Library. Built by Sixtus V in the 1580’s the Library has a long tradition of collecting books throughout the world and contains ancient manuscripts like no where else. In order to achieve his goal Boyle contracted with an American Iannessa who was responsible to license Vatican Library merchandise with the hopes of raising money to upgrade the Library.

The trouble started when raising money for the project Boyle and Iannessa contracted with Carver, a son of a car dealer, without seeking advice from the Vatican legal counsel. In his naiveté Boyle “loaned” money to Iannessa to purchase a new home thus began legal action that in the end cost the Vatican $8.8 million plus legal fees. Along the way Iannessa was able to sign license agreements with several companies raising money so Boyle gave her a contract extension. In attempting to kill the golden goose (licensing) the Vatican has refused to honor the contract thus causing more legal disputes. Many feel that the Vatican will simply settle the contract dispute so they can proceed with IBM and digitization.

Boyle died in 2000 but some of his goals were achieved including an air conditioned reading room and the project to computerize the Vatican Library’s book collection is complete.

Khoisan Language

There are an estimated 800 languages in Africa divided into six language groups. Among those is Khoisan or Click language. The language involves the use of clicking noises that use various tones to distinguish meanings and used by an estimated 120,000 people. Some believe the Click language maybe the oldest human language. Khoisan language is subdivided into three branches: San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoi, spoken in various parts of sub-Saharan Africa; Sandawe, a language found in E Africa; and Hadzabe, also spoken in E Africa. (Columbia). One other Click language did exist on the continent of Australia and was used by the aborigines for manhood initiation ceremonies though is now extinct. In recent years Hadzabe has been removed from the Khoisan group due to difference in grammar, sounds and meanings. This implies a different origin than the other click languages or a “very ancient proto-click language. (Pennisi, 2004)

With the advancement of DNA genealogy, researchers at Stanford are using DNA to find the origin of language by comparing Y chromosomes of the Bushmen and the Hadzabe. The conclusion was the genetic differences between the groups seem to imply the two groups “diverged at the dawn of humanity.” (J.T. p. 1). “The research suggests that the Hadzabe are the descendants of one of the first groups to split off.” (Pennisi, p.2) Which some estimate to have occurred 70,000 and 50,000 years ago. Alec Knight of Stanford thinks the reason why these click languages survived, while others have died, is the hunter gather lifestyle of the Khoisan tribes because using clicks work well when hunting game. (Pennisi, 2004)

The First Language? By: Pennisi, Elizabeth, Science, 00368075, 2/27/2004, Vol. 303, Issue 5662

African languages Columbia Encyclopedia

DNA hints at origin of all language. By: J. T., Science News, 10/27/2001, Vol. 160, Issue 17

The Return of the Vanished Library

In the old crumbling city of Alexandria, along the Mediterranean, a library is being constructed. Similar to cities in China, Alexandria has decided that its past is may well be the key to the future with the Egyptian government’s attempt to rebuild the Ancient Library of Alexandria. Originally founded by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. the city was the intellectual capital of the Mediterranean for many centuries only coming to decay as the centuries wore on. The Great Library was built by Ptolemy Soter, a general of Alexander, and his descendants to help legitimize their reign and contained the wisdom of the ancient world. Throughout the centuries the city experienced decay with only a brief renaissance caused by European investment, this ended abruptly with the Nasser Socialist revolution with the confiscation of foreign business. The quote, “The city is like the decaying stage set of a play that closed half a century ago, its actors long dead, their place taken by man and women engaged in a drama with a different plot and characters” best characterizes the present Alexandria.

Today Alexandria is an old crumbling city with similarities to the Pyramids at Giza where politics have taken the place of scholarship for control of the Library. With scholars being ignored concerning the purchasing of books e.g. 30,000 old books were placed for sale at $1 each because the Zahran, head of the Library project, only wanted new books. Originally a dream of both UNESCO and Egypt the Library has become a behemoth without the staying power due to corrupt government bureaucrats. In an ironic twist as the library is being built the Egyptian government his banning books that it deemed against its best interest or anti-Muslim.

In the end the Library is a dream of a few to restore the past glories of Egypt in an environment that places politics over cultural heritage.

Are We Losing our Memory?

How do you preserve the past before the records of the past deteriorates into nothingness? In the bowels of the National Archives’ new building exists the Department of Special Media Preservation. The head of the department is a Charles Mayn, a computer engineer who leads a team in transferring information from obsolete technology to more stable modern formats with the goal of attempting to preserve the past in what has become a futile battle. At issue is the stability of modern information storage. With the technological advancement of storage devices the information contained has become less stable, ancient clay tablets that were used to write information are on display in museums where as today’s digital storage devices need to be replaced within 20 years.

Hampering this preservation is the fact that government agencies use different formatted computer systems for database storage causing a logistical nightmare for the Archives, including the National Military Command Center NIPS database that is no longer supported by IBM, which contains herbicide records related to Agent Orange. The present Archives systems were not made to handle the amount of data presently being produced, e.g. 6 million electronic files a year from the White House alone. All the additional data coming through could lead the Archives system to crash; a system designed to handle 10,000 messages a year without the ability to upgrade to the needed minimum of 1 million.

Another issue that plagues the department is that everyone wants the data preserved but no one is willing to pay to do it. Though decisions will need to be made about what data should be saved and what should be allowed to deteriorate in oblivion. In the end the decision of what to preserve may depend upon popularity such as with Homer.

Living with a Dead Language

What is the future of a language that is no longer used? Since Vatican II the usage of Latin has declined from a common language used throughout the Catholic Church to a dying language on the deaths door. Enter Reginald Foster, a Carmelite monk from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Foster has been the Latin Language Department of the First Section of the Vatican Sectariat of State since 1969. Foster is a man with more passion toward Latin than for his religion, though his religion appears to be Latin, a passion he developed while attending St. Francis Minor Seminary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin when he was thirteen. A man who can best be described as a loud arrogant know it all who prefers wearing a blue jumpsuit from JC Penny’s above his religious garb.

Foster was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and for as long as he can remember he wanted to be a priest, when he was six he would pretend he was a priest. When he was twelve he spent a time being overly religious, counting all sins, etc; a stage many people experience in life. When he was fifteen he had decided he wanted to be a teacher of Latin and join a religious community ending up as a Carmelite monk. Foster has lived for 40 years in a monastery, isolated from the real world, on Rome’s Janiculum Hill.

Foster teaches Latin to anyone willing to learn using Latin from throughout the centuries, so students could be reading Cicero, Augustine, etc while learning as compared with the technique most textbooks use by making Latin seem as much like English as possible. With no textbook Foster writes study lessons (ludi) for every class on a typewriter with only capital letters.

At the end of each year Foster takes his study lessons and burns them forcing himself to rewrite each year and losing for history a wonderful study aid created by a lover of Latin. Though today there are websites with him material. In many ways the future of Latin no longer exists in the confines of the Catholic Church but in teaching students the use of Latin to help better learn the English language.

War of Words: Oral Poetry, Writing and Tape Recorders in Somalia

As with the newfound power and the present battle over control of the internet in the United States Stille uses tape recorders in Somalia to discuss how technology can be used to change the world. The man Stille uses to discuss this is a famous Somali poet named Hadrawi who currently resides in northern Somalia. Hadrawi is used as a backdrop to show the history of modern Somalia under the corrupt regime of Siad Barre and how tape recorders were used to spread the poetry of anti-government poets throughout the land.

Throughout Somali history the poet has been a revered individual because of the oral tradition and the lack of a written language. This power was used effectively during the regime of Barre who attempted to use Latin to base his new written language. As an example of the power of the poet Hadrawi and fellow poet Gaariye launched a poetic duel called the De-ley poems that questioned corrupt government practices, In “Debatiel,” Hadrawi wrote: “Where does all this money come from?” In the end sixty poets joined in producing 120 poems. The result was that the poetry helped weaken the state eventually helping to cause the overthrown of the Barre regime in 1991. “The poetry was more important to us than guns and cannons,” once again showing the power of words in creating lasting change.

Northern Somalia is a clan based society the new state of Somaliland was formed in northern Somalia. The central government is small outfit with easy access by all civilians; hence the jamming fax machine of the nation’s president. The new republic has moved into a market based economy that appears to be benefiting the people. Elected officials need a least 20% of the vote from each region (clan) of Somaliland, taken from Nigerian law that was found on the internet.

Hadrawi is not all together happy with the results of technology despite the fact the he himself has written a book and allowing his wedding to be videotaped he talks in romantic, Luddite terminology. The future for Somaliland like United States is new technology that allows the power to exist with individuals over the powerful elite which includes something as simple as a tape recorder.