Colony Collapse Disorder in Domesticated Bee Populations: Finding a way to balance our agricultural system to better accommodate our bees.

"There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know. The keeping of bees, for instance."
~Henry David Thoreau

My last semester of my undergraduate studies at HPU is just around the corner.  I sit here contemplating about how much I have grown and learned about life and myself.  I sit here contemplating with anxiety and excitement about my near future.  Finding a favorite passion in life is a challenge for anyone.  For me, it has been especially difficult to find one specific aspect in environmental studies that I want to focus on during graduate school.  I believe I am getting closer and closer to finding this passion.  The main project for my anthropology class prompted me to study how our society can create a more balanced agricultural system in order to mitigate the phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in domesticated honeybee populations throughout the world.  There is a great possibility that I will continue studying this subject in graduate school, and possible write my thesis on this unsettling mystery.

Because CCD is a relatively recent phenomenon (the term was coined in 2006), there is a lot more research that needs to be done as scientists still don’t know the direct causes behind the mass bee die-offs.  Not only do the services that bees provide to civilization have great cultural and religious significance, they are the foundation of many ecosystems, agricultural industries, and the economies of the world.  The USDA states that 33 percent of the food that humans eat comes from crops pollinated by honeybees.  It is no wonder Albert Einstein said, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live …” 

CCD has been attributed to the synergistic effects of various factors including viral and bacterial pathogens, lack of genetic diversity, GMOs, stress, malnutrition, global warming, pesticides, and exposure to other agrochemicals and toxins occurring in the environment.  Exposure to the electromagnetic fields created by cell phones and cell phone towers has also been attributed with CCD. 

During my research, it was interesting to be reminded about how the technology developed during times of war and violence is the foundation of our current mainstream agricultural system.  Even though these chemicals have allowed us to grow food on a colossal scale, we are now discovering there viscous cycle.  With pesticides, beneficial insects that used to prey on pests die along with our pollinators.  With herbicides, the weedy flowering plants that bees rely on for pollen and nectar die.  The bees then leave the area because they simply have no food.  The toxic runoff from fertilizers and other agrochemicals impacts the immune systems of bees and other animals.  The pollen from GMO Bt crops is now toxic food for pollinators. 

Domesticated honeybees undergo significant amounts of stress as they are transported thousands of miles across the country in cold containers where they are fed a diet that of high fructose corn syrup pumped up with chemical nutrients.  This would be the equivalent of a significant portion of human’s diet exclusively consisting of power bars.  This physical and nutritional stress, alone, is enough to compromise a bee’s immune system.

So far, France is the only country that has been proactive by banning the import of these lethal pesticides call neonicotinoids.  Now other countries in Europe are working hard to petition to ban these chemicals from being applied to their crops.  The US has passed amendments to the Farm Bill, creating funding for the research of the potential causes of CCD and taking legal action when it comes to monitoring the movement of bee colonies throughout the country.  Unfortunately, many of these funds have yet to be allocated accordingly. 

I am looking forward to continuing my research about bees.  I am also looking forward to raising my own bees.  Now it is just a matter of retaking the GRE, getting accepted into grad school, and finding some way to pay for it.  In the mean time, I hope that farmers and individuals don’t wait for the lengthy processes of politicians and research to take action in how they apply chemicals to their crops and landscaping plants.  I think municipalities should grow more flowering plants throughout the entire growing season so that bees can have a continuous food source.  I think we should make the switch to organic farming and work to de-homogenize our farming system.  

Teaching Gardens

In higher education, so much time, money, and energy is invested in the discussion of problems.  While it is necessary to study the reasoning behind why such complex issues continue to exist in every region of the world in every field of study, I feel that not enough attention is given to the individuals and organizations that truly are making concerted efforts to take action and change things for the better.  By not being exposed to optimism and physically seeing the work of people who dedicate their entire lives to truly honest and humble career paths, today’s students become so overwhelmed and disoriented that they become unmotivated by the disheartening reality that seems to consume their entire curriculum.  So far this semester, there have been two occasions that have deeply inspired me to stay on the path that I am on in terms of my field of study.  These occasions were not lectures by esteemed professors or discussions about complex theories about how to solve multifaceted political and environmental problems.  These occasions were rather times when I got to see average Americans living a truly happy life because they chose lifestyles and careers that are genuinely simple and honest.  These people chose not to succumb to the modern American dream of material wealth which, unfortunately, is slyly permeating through the rest of the world.  These people simply walked their talk of living simply.  After these experiences, I felt a sense of physical and spiritual motivation come over my body. 

The first occasion was when our anthropology class visited Kevin Vacarello’s home and restaurant in Waimanalo.   I have written about this in a previous blog for this class.  The next occasion was this past weekend at Hickam Elementary School at Hickam Air Force Base here on Oahu.  I had the honor of being invited by one of my environmental science professors to volunteer and represent the Sierra Club in this two day event.  The event was hosted by the American Heart Association’s Teaching Gardens.  This newly formed organization travels around the country planting substantially sized organic raised bed gardens at elementary schools located in concrete jungles and military bases.  The main mission of the teaching garden projects is to promote healthy lifestyles amongst impoverished youth from minority neighborhoods and military children who are constantly moving from base to base.  These children are comparatively more disconnected from the natural environment than most of today’s youth.  One of the members of the organization told me that some young children of inner city LA have admitted to never seeing a tree.  I found this almost hard to believe.

In having the kids build these gardens, not only are they given the opportunity to learn what a healthy diet consists of, they can, in a sense, develop some sort of connection with the earth as they touch the soil and watch how their little seeds turn into strawberries, oregano, and carrots.  Growing up in a rural community deep in the mountains of Colorado, my friends and I lived in the dirt.  Until this weekend, I had never before seen children afraid of touching dirt and getting their shirts dirty.  Thankfully, once they started, they couldn’t stop!  A lasting impression can be made in a child by simply having the day-to-day exposure to food growing during their elementary education. 

Often, the attention span of young people is short, but modern curriculums continue to combat this fact by forcing students to sacrifice a recess for more times-tables.  The curriculum is counterintuitive.  However with active learning of the teaching gardens, students can physically take part in learning how to grow their own, healthy food.  As an adult college student, I felt I even learn more and naturally retain the information about sustainable agriculture during my involvement in the HPU garden and this project better than I do while attending semester-long lectures.  During interactive learning, students feel like they are able to make a tangible difference in the community.  They know what they are doing is right because they are still so sensitive to what is truly pono.  This sensitivity enlivens them and gives not just one, but every single student the most apparent passion to continue and expand their project.  It is so simple and so feasible, especially in a tropical region like Hawaii.  I am so thankful I got these opportunities.

La`au Lapa`au

Da tot of da day, braddah ~ “Go into nature and there you will find all the brains there have ever been”. 

I could just see the earth in Krista Steinfeld.  I could feel Hawaii in her passion for life.  True life.  Not the hustle and bustle of the chaotic life of today’s society, but life.  Her pono recapitulated the life of the wild.  It has been a long time since I met a new person like this, and I am ever so grateful for the sincere message she shared with me and the rest of my peers.  Her message was an important reminder for me to remember my roots, the roots I have been blessed with.  I need to return back to the earth.  Recently, I have become so disconnected with the spirit of the soil.  It is the first time I have ever lived in a concrete jungle.  Up until my senior year in college, I was blessed to call the Rocky Mountains of Colorado my home and the Ko`olau’s of Kaneohe my home away from home.  I am certainly blessed to live where I do now in downtown, Honolulu.  I guess it is just part of the necessary duality of my life that God has brought to me to teach me where I truly belong and to allow me to appreciate and respect how essential nature is when I do return back to her. 

It was refreshing to again hear someone sincerely ask the plant permission to take their life and then thank the plant and God for their gift.  It privilege to learn about the medicinal values of the plants that surround my school.  Ohia Lehua can be used for lethargy.  Ti can be used for fevers, spiritual cleansing, to reduce fevers, and to aid in the development of healthy eyesight in infants.  Ti root even makes a wonderfully sweet candy with a high nutritional value.  We learned about the dualities of the guava tree’s leaves and fruit; the fruit aids in relief of constipation while its leaves relieve diarrhea.  I have always enjoyed eating ulu with honey, but I never knew it could act as a strong bandage to protect severe wounds.  I am also looking forward to someday trying ulu poi and ulu chips.  Hala can be used as an aphrodisiac, to enhance male vigor, to increase energy, or to simply bring a masculine balance of energy to those who are out of balance.  The lace fern mends headaches.  The bumpy fern lessens scoliosis.  And of course, coconut water is high in potassium while it naturally lowers blood pressure while coconut oil is a wonderful oil to cook with because it doesn’t burn and release free radicals at high temperatures. 

Of course a person really needs to make sure that their spirit is in the right place before they make any of this medicine, because their mana (energy) will go into the medicine.  A person should make sure their spirit is in the right place before they do anything.  In today’s society, this is an easy thing to forget.  Even when one performs pule (prayer), they must be sincere because pule is real medicine.  Pule is not just protocol, a chanting performance, or merely wishful thinking.  There is power in prayer. 

Because disease has always had both a physical and spiritual element, traditional Hawaiian La’au Lapa’au focuses on curing the mind, spirit, and body holistically.  The history of La`au Lapa`au has two sides.  While it helped the Hawaiian thrive and live in health, it was made illegal when Christian missionaries started colonizing the islands.  After nearly 100 years of being illegal, it was finally decriminalized in 1965 by the state of Hawaii.  Yet to this day, there is a continued skepticism along with a scientific and spiritual devaluation of the traditional medicine.  In essence, there has been a “deification” of science as people truly believe that Western medicine is the highest form of medicine.  I really hope and pray that the Hawaiian people and the rest of the world can find pono on multiple levels of society from the individual level to the family unit to an entire society.  The rebirth of La`au Lapa`au I know is already and will continue to help move this process forward.

The Great American Brain Drain

“The freedom to think is encroached upon by the encumbrances of money”~Vijay Prashad

I am so proud that my generation is taking its first steps in standing up for humanity by peacefully protesting against our world’s most prominent problem: corporate greed.  The Occupy Wall Street movement is a multifaceted protest with no true agenda other than purely confronting corporate crimes against humanity.  It is intriguing how not having an actual agenda for a specific change essentially strengthens the protest.  By thinking outside of the box and having no plan and no head creates a situation where the opponents (the corporations that are in bed with the politicians) have no idea of what is going on, and therefore cannot come up with a cunning scheme to counteract the mission of the people. 

Thousands of young, hardworking citizens of nearly every state and many countries throughout the world are taking it upon themselves to make a visible statement to society.  Yet for some reason, the sidewalks in front of Hawaii’s banks and big corporations seem to remain the same with no sign of opposition.  How can this be when the state of Hawaii’s public education system is one of the worst in the nation?  How can this be when so many people are forced out of their homes during foreclosure?  The middle class in Hawaii is certainly not becoming more empowered in the job force while their already high cost of living is only increasing at an especially high rate.  Perhaps the reason for Hawaii’s inactivity when it comes to this particular movement is that the state is so small.  Honolulu is a city that feels like a small town.  Everyone knows everyone.  If you protest, there is a chance that you could be standing outside of your auntie’s office (a place that provides her with the most reasonable job in town) and that your uncle is the cop that monitors the protest.  Perhaps this is only a small part of the reason why Hawaii hasn’t joined the protest against greed. 

The “Occupy” movements across the world are multifaceted, taking on an array of issues from the unfair foreclosures of thousands of people’s homes, banks being rewarded billions of dollars in tax breaks, and the various forms of corporate greed.  In Boston, the movement took on America’s education system and the tremendous debt it creates for young people struggling to find jobs.  Student debt in America is now over $1 trillion.  The cost of college is a huge deterrent that keeps great minds and people with determination from even entering the classroom in the first place.  Because of this, a growing number of high school graduates are turning to vocational and trade education.  In Vijay Prashad’s article, The Closing of the American Mind, he quotes John Dewey who states that when vocational education begins to dominate the curriculum, “…“education would becomes an instrument of perpetuating unchanged the existing industrial order of society, instead of operating as a means of transformation.”  Dewey goes onto argue that education founded primarily on the simple act of learning a monotonous trades and skill is “illiberal and immoral [because the graduates] do what they do, not freely and intelligently, but for the sake of the wage earned.”

What is even worse than the deterrence created by the high price of tuition, is the amount of brilliant, driven students that have no choice but to quit college because they can no longer afford to finish their degree.  Even though, these students work full time jobs and have parents with full time jobs, they cannot find someone to take out a second mortgage on their home or cosign on a high interest loan so they can at least finish the job they already started.  More and more students are left without a degree and tens of thousands of dollars in debt from a few successful semesters in college. 

Prashad states noteworthy facts that put the US’s approach to funding higher education into perspective when her states how many equally developed and even less developed countries fund between 70 and 90 percent of students’ college costs.  These countries range from Hungary to Mexico to Turkey to Ireland.  Prashad goes onto emphasize the straightforward comparative analysis that shows what the American government gives priority:

         " The tuition and fees to all public institutions of higher education in the United States is somewhere in the ballpark of $25 billion (according to the Labor   Institute). That is a small proportion of the cost of the wars ($7.6 trillion since 9/11) and of corporate tax breaks (of which, deferral on foreign income is by itself $1 trillion). The cost of higher education is a fraction of the $1.35 trillion to $3 trillion, which is range of the cost of the Bush and Obama tax cuts. "

“The world holds enough for everyone’s NEED, but not enough for everyone’s GREED.” ~Gandhi 

Dr. Art Whatley: Culture v. the Planet

“One gallon of gas is equivalent to 25,000 human hours of effort…No wonder we are addicted!” ~Dr. Art Whatley, Professor of Management and Program Chair of the Master of Arts program in Global Leadership and Sustainable Development.

                 Yet again, our Thursday evening anthropology class was presented with the honor to have another brilliant guest speaker.  It was evident that Dr. Whatley empowered the entire class with his passion and his knowledge about how the dominating culture of the world is suppressing the planet.  During the past 200 years after the discovery of fossil fuels 250 years ago, this Western industrial culture has crept up on nearly all cultures and pervaded the world’s way of life.  250 years ago, the world looked unlimited.  All the oak trees were cut down to build ship and explore the world.  The foundations of our Western culture were built with no limitations. For over 400 years, indigenous people in each country have been trying to battle the dominant ways that go against their entire belief systems. 

                Although the beginning of Dr. Whatley’s lecture seemed only to be filled with doom, all of the unfortunately realities had to be put into perspective.  Our world must put the reality we have made into perspective before we will be able to even begin undoing this reality.  We must identify the heart and origins of each major problem.  Among the inconvenient truths discussed was the agricultural revolution, a topic not new to the class. Because we can feed more people, we can make more people.  The world’s population just reached 7 billion people who all need to be fed and who all, instinctually, will reproduce.  It is all of these 7 billion people’s genetic structure to fill every space possible and to use every resource possible.  And humans certainly have shown they have all the power necessary to do this.  It is our evolutionary, biological predisposition.  However, one could say that a strong, sound, and educated human mind can defeat this instinct.  Even a sound spiritual foundation or religious belief system can teach people the value of being frugal with how we consume our resources, how we should be charitable, and the importance of land conservation.  Disappointingly, we are feeding the world’s growing population in an inequitable way.  Dr. Whatley emphasized how “we cannot have sustainability without social justice”. 

                The dominant system the US has adopted made the country the biggest consumer society on the planet beginning in 1980.  America’s leaders have an unconscious addition to economic growth.  But the politicians and business people don’t want to talk about this, even though the world is screaming.  Sometimes I feel that many of these people are simply in a deep denial.  As Dr. Whatley put it, “Ask any economics professor if economy is more important than ecology, and their answer will be, ‘No, society and nature are subsets of the economy’”.  This has become the dominant system in our education system which has made people ecologically illiterate.  Kids and people know about economy than ecology.  At least the 20 young students in our anthropology class know that the undeniable scientific truth is that the economy is dependent on the planet. 

                It is going to be up to us to utilize our people power to overcome the power of the greedy people so that we can work to reverse the completely inverted system.  This is just now starting to happen with the Occupy Wall Street movement.  I found it quite compelling when Dr. Whatley talked about how an annual earnings of $15,000 is actually the threshold for happiness.  We must move away from the system of our industrial economy which takes, makes, and wastes, to a sustainable system that borrows, uses, and returns.  We must teach systems theory and its ideas of limits, feedbacks, and overshoot.  It is indeed possible to sustain human life without harming the planet while being happy and comfortable.  Fortunately, there is a minority of companies whose missions and objectives are to produce zero waste in their industrial processes.  Thankfully, people are taking their own initiative to live in a sustainable way in their personal lives with their diets, purchases, and how much they travel.  

Sweet Home Waimanalo

Unfortunately, I had to miss anthropology class this Thursday, Oct. 13^th, because I had to sing with the International Vocal Ensemble at the induction dinner for the new president.  So this week, I will blog about the field trip that our class took a few weeks ago to Waimanalo. 

It was such an honor and a great treat to be welcomed to the several-acre farm beautifully settled directly at the foot of the Ko`olau’s.  I cannot remember the last time I had the opportunity to stand outside and not hear the noise of the highway.  The stillness was almost eerie to me and is something that I will forever remember about this sacred space.  I will always remember the sincere Hawaiian chant from my fellow class-mates asking for permission to enter onto the property that Kevin Vaccarello leases from the government.  Kevin’s lecture and welcoming us into his home and his restaurant was a truly eye-opening experience.  Even though his mission is something that I have been studying for several years now, actually seeing it put into practice with so much genuineness spoke to my mind, my heart, and my spirit. 

In his lecture, I could see that Kevin has such a strong mind that he rarely puts to rest.  His in-depth ideas about how to evaluate environmental, socio-cultural, and socio-economic problems were arranged into quite complex models.  While the one of the main answers to solving many of our world’s problems is seemingly straightforward (people must only take what they need and leave the rest), it is necessary to be able to evaluate and diagram how society, the environment, and the economy interrelate so that problems may be more easily understood and acknowledged.  He emphasized how one of our greatest modern problems is that our economic system gives so much weight to externalities.   In a truly sustainable system, the concept of externalities shouldn’t even exist as it is erroneous and dishonest to assume that there are unlimited resources.  Kevin showed us how the studies of psychology, biology, ecology, sociology, and anthropology go into depth in evaluating the non-physical and physical components of individual and collective concerns. 

And at the end of his inquisitive lecture filled with multifaceted intellectualism, Kevin stopped.  He stopped to remind himself of the fact that what truly matters in life is the spiritual health of one’s heart and soul.  A society is healthy when its individuals wholeheartedly abide the divine laws of the universe which happen to be very basic.  He showed us how the spiritual realm encompasses all aspects of life.  When the richest and most glamorous businessmen are not honest in the careers, their whole life is miserable.    

The following week, our entire class and any of our friends had the honor to go to Waimanalo to see that it is possible to run a successful business and live a life of true abundance while being honest and frugal at the same time.  Kevin lived on land hundreds of times more beautiful than anyone with their monstrosity mansion in Kahala.  And the land and the spirits on that land accepted him because he is there to only do good.  I know that the love, warmth, and welcoming provided by the land and the spirits was felt by every student that set foot onto that property. 

Our adventure continued on into the evening at the quaint restaurant, Sweet Home Waimanalo.  It was the first time that I ever ate food that was grown on the rooftop above me.  By far, was it the most delicious produce that I have tasted in Hawaii.  When Kevin told us that every couple weeks, only 500 square feet of roof space would produce 20 pounds of greens, I know many students were inspired.  It was a sweet feeling to see a compost-bin, let alone a recycling bin at a restaurant.  Yet, at the same time, a feeling of dismay shaded my spirit.  It boggled my mind that Kevin is one of the only people on Oahu that dedicates his life to this way.  I couldn’t figure out why more people don’t have green gardens on their roofs.  It would be so much cleaner, cheaper, tastier, and certainly, more nutritious than shipping our food at least 5000 miles from the mainland or other countries to our plate.  I couldn’t figure out why more businesses in our beautiful island state didn’t provide recycling bins to their customers. 

Nevertheless, I must remember how vital it is to focus on the progress that has been made.  Five years ago, I know a field trip like this would have not been possible as there was not a strong environmental studies program or a business like Kevin’s.  Five years, and a change for the better.  I change that hundreds of students will see in the next few years.  A change that thousands of costumers see every few months.  It can be done, and thank God, people can now see it with their own eyes!

Poka Laenui in Hawaiian Justice

It was such an honor to be in the intimate classroom setting and have Mr. Poka Laenui passionately speak to us about how societies are constructed while showing us how this relates, in essence, to the Hawaii Sovereignty Movement.  His reading of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s eloquent speech about how religion relates to society was so fitting for the introduction of his presentation.  This inspired me to research more about Tutu’s humanitarian efforts in South Africa and other parts of the world throughout history.  Tutu’s words made me want to learn more about his political views surrounding modern world issues such as poverty, minority rights, and environmental concerns.  In the last year, I have been blessed to be presented with many powerful leaders that share the same belief system as me.  Studying these figures helps me to further justify my belief system and become a better student and leader, myself. 

I am so blessed to have the opportunity to pursue my education in Hawaii.  I remember my first month living in Hawaii.  So many strange things happened to me that are unexplainable.  Not until the last year have I been able to understand these incidences.  I remember running through the forest in Kaneohe near the Pali Golf Course.  Growing up in the middle of the nowhere in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, I have always had an inviting and intimate relationship with nature.  But when I was running in Kaneohe, I didn’t feel welcomed by the soil, the trees, and the ferns.  The birds would just ignore me.  This was completely foreign to me.  The only thing I could do was tell them, “I am here to learn to do good for the world…to help you.  I am not here to be dishonest or to live a frivolous life.  Please, please welcome me.  Let me see the beauty of Hawaii so I can be happy.”  Soon, I felt welcomed, thank God.  But there were still some places I would go that would literally make me vomit.  Three years later, I found out that these places were where graves were dug up by huge companies and put in shoeboxes for storage. 

 Immersing myself as much as possible in the traditions of the Hawaiian people, especially Hula, has allowed my relationship with the earth to grow tremendously.  Carefully observing the relationship that people of Hawaiian descent have with the Western world has fascinated me as much as it has saddened me.  I have always found myself drawing a parallel between the situation in Hawaii and what has happened with the indigenous culture that I am most familiar with, the Lakota Nation.  There are parallels everywhere ranging from the Christianization of the locals, to the new, cheap, unhealthy diet of salt and sugars, to the sedentary lifestyle, to the poverty, to the environmental destruction, to the racism, to the alcoholism, to the Westernization, to the materialism.  Because the story of the Hawaiian people has been kept from them, many cannot help but assimilate with the Western world.  Fortunately, their ways are making a comeback, and people are adopting them back into their lives with great pride. 

Although I still have much to learn about the history involved with the overthrow of Queen Lili`uokalani, the US military occupation of the islands, the annexation of Hawaii, and the US government’s role in the islands since then, I know that what was done was wrong and that something needs to be done about it.  What should be done and how this should be carried out has always baffled me.  Poka Laenui has so far, presented the most reasonable steps to attain justice and bring the Hawaiian people a peace of mind. 

Laenui’s model of the formal system in Hawaii and the rest of the US which specifically emphasizes domination, individualism, and exclusion (DIE) revealed so much truth so simply.  Things were really put into perspective when he revealed to us the informal system in Hawaii which upholds `olu`olu (being comfortable with), Lokani (community), and Aloha (inclusion with a sense of humanity and compassion).  The acronym for `Olu`olu, Lokani, and Aloha is OLA, which means life in Hawaiian.  Somehow, both of these systems exist simultaneously.  Yet this does not negate the unfortunate fact that the DIE model has become dominant in these beautiful islands.

In order to change from the DIE to the OLA model, we must first recognize DIE and all that it entails.  The transition from DIE to OLA is one of the main objectives that the people behind the Hawaiian sovereignty movement are fighting for.  First Hawaii must go through the process of decolonization before any true contentment and reparation can begin.  Laenui’s steps toward appropriate decolonization certainly made a lot of sense.  The first step is recovery and rediscover.  If, in this case, the true Hawaiian culture is not recovered and rediscovered, the years of colonization and its ways that have become engrained in society will just continue.  The second stage is the mourning phase; this society is more than justified to mourn for the story of their people that has been kept from them.  But society must move on to the dreaming phase and explode the system from the inside by revealing the truth.  Great consideration has to be given to identifying the deep values we want to live by in Hawaii.  Consensus then must be achieved.  All of these steps will prepare the society for appropriate action.  I truly hope that one day, all races can come together and bring Hawaii the justice it deserves.

ISHMAEL - Plot, Themes, Favorite Quotes

PLOT:

The story begins with a young man coming across a newspaper ad the read: "Teacher seeks pupil, must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person."  Even though the young man, who is the narrator of the story, initially reacts to the ad with disgust, he later decides to respond to the ad when he reminisces about his youth during the 1960’s children’s revolts.  When he arrives to the place of learning, he finds out that his teacher is a gorilla named Ishmael.  Ishmael and the man take part in a dialogue throughout the entirety of the novel.  Ishmael teaches the student a story of how human beings have become captive prisoners in their own civilization and culture.  This captivity is analogous to Ishmael’s life that is spent in physical captivity in zoos and circuses.

Ishmael describes how two cultures have subscribed their entire being to certain ideologies. Ishmael emphasizes that a culture is defined as a people enacting a story and doing everything in their power to make the story come true.   A majority of the dialogue concerns the ways of the “takers” and how they came about and why their way of life is not sustainable.  The takers are the majority of the world’s civilization, which the narrator also happens to be a part of.  Takers consider themselves “civilized”.  The taker culture originated in the Near East about 10,000 years ago during the Agricultural Revolution.  Takers believe that man has dominion over the earth and is here to continue to conquer the world.  Man should do everything in his power to assume the responsibilities of the gods. In the takers’ efforts to “bring about their view of paradise” to the world, man spoils and destroys the world because he is flawed.  

The alternative to the “taker” culture is that of the “leavers”.  Ishmael doesn’t discuss the story of the leavers to the extent that he talks about the takers.  The leavers are the people of all other cultures that are thought of by mainstream society as primitive peoples.  Ishmael named a few specific leaver cultures, and they happened to all be small indigenous cultures throughout the world.  The leavers acknowledge that their purpose on this planet is no more important than that of all other biota.  They believe that they have no dominion over earth and no reason to believe that they should take on the role of the gods. 

Ishmael believes that man has reached the pinnacle of evolution because the takers do not acknowledge the fact that they actually belong to the world rather than having unlimited control of the earth.  Takers believe that that they are superior to all other species.  Man is at a standstill because he is stubborn and doesn’t allow for true growth.  But if man were to live in a manner in which he succumbed to the hands of the gods, man would be exposed to the conditions under which evolution occurs.  Ishmael states , “…man became man by living in the hands of the gods.…by living the way the bushmen of Africa live; by living the way the Krenakarore of Brazil live...Not the way the Chicagoans live, not the way Londoners live….For three million years, man belonged to the world and because he belonged to the world, he grew and developed and became brighter and more dexterous until one day, he was so bright and so dexterous that we had to call him Homo sapiens sapiens-- which means he was us."

The book ends when Ishmael’s pupil goes to the circus to save him, but upon his arrival, he found out that Ishmael had died.  The last conversation between Ishmael and his pupil concerned the importance of educating people about the stories of the takers and the leavers.  Ishmael gives his student this responsibility.   The man remembers when Ishmael said, "Teach a hundred what I've taught you, and inspire each of them to teach a hundred."

 

CENTRAL THEMES:

Daniel Quinn chose to use the biblical story of Genesis as an analogy to represent the historical phenomenon of manifest destiny throughout the world.  The story of Genesis is used metaphorically to represent the relationship between the takers (represented by Cain) and the leavers (represented by Abel).  Ishmael states,

“The story of Genesis must be undone. First, Cain must stop murdering Abel. This is essential if you're to survive. The Leavers are the endangered species most critical to the world - not because they're humans but because they alone can show the destroyers of the world that there is more than one right way to live. And then, of course, you must spit out the fruit of the forbidden tree. You must absolutely and forever relinquish the idea that you know who should live and who should die on this planet."

The story of manifest destiny continues to occur 10,000 years later.  To this day, takers continue to pillage the land that belonged to the leavers for thousands of years.  In doing this, the takers pillage the leavers’ cultures all in the name of spreading their religion and putting the land under cultivation for food, water, and precious minerals.  The world now only utilizes five out of the several thousand crops for our main food sources.  Consequently, the agricultural peoples have decided what organisms to displace and destroy.  Water and minerals have also been displaced and destroyed all in the name of frivolous abundance.  In essence, the takers’ revolution was a revolution against the leavers’ story. 

In spite of all the presumed control takers have over the earth, Ishmael teaches his student that there are immutable laws that cannot be broken.  Unlike tax laws and the commandment, “thou shalt not kill”, which can be easily broken or changed by a vote, immutable laws are natural ecology determined by the physics of the universe and can’t be broken.  A culture that doesn’t follow these laws will not survive in the long term.  It is clear that the takers consider themselves to be exempt by these laws.  This lifestyle has continued and has been adopted by a majority of the world’s population.  Even though this lifestyle has occurred for a relatively short period of time in comparison to the millions of years of human existence, our world is now experiencing intensified environmental crises more and more often as our lifestyles contradict the immutable laws of the universe.  Ishmael states,

"There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act as the lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now.”

FAVORITE QUOTES:

Human Passivity Regarding Environmental Issues:  “What have people been told that keeps them from getting excited, that keeps them relatively calm when they view catastrophic damage they’re inflicting on this planet? …. They’ve been told an explaining story.  They’ve been given an explanation of how things came to be this way, and this stills their alarm.  This explanation covers everything, including the deterioation of the ozone layer, the pollution of the oceans, the destruction of the rain forests, and even human extinction – and it satisfies them. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it pacifies them.”

Reparation to the Environment:  “The problem is that man’s conquest of the world has itself devastated the world.  And in spite of all the mastery we’ve attained, we don’t have enough mastery to stop devastating the world – or to repair the devastation we’ve already wrought.”

The Taker Paradox:  “…famine soon becomes a routine condition of life in many parts of the Taker Thunderbolt – and the Takers have to pedal even harder and more efficiently than before.  But oddly enough, the harder and more efficiently the pedal, the worse conditions become…”

Putting time into context and ironically placing the blame on human nature:  “Man lived harmlessly on this planet for some three million years, but the Takers have brought the whole thing to the point of collapse in only five hundred generations.  And their explanation for this is what?...Not that you Takers may be doing something wrong but rather that there is something fundamentally wrong with human nature itself.”

At war with the earth:  “We’re not destroying the world because we’re clumsy.  We’re destroying the world because we are, in a very literal and deliberate way, at war with it.”

Simply put: “…If you start taking more for yourself, then there’s got to be less for someone else for something else.”

Different types of agriculturalists: “…there are semi-agriculturalists who grow a little and gather a lot.  And then there are near-agriculturalists who grow a lot and gather a little. 

 

Need of Inspiration:  “They need more than a vision of doom.  They need a vision of the world and of themselves that inspires them…Stopping pollution is not inspiring.  Sorting your trash is not inspiring.  Cutting down on flourocarbons is not inspiring. But thinking of ourselves in a new way, thinking of the world in a new way…”

Prison: “…it should be noted that what is crucial to your survival as a race is not the redistribution of power and wealth within the prison but rather the destruction of the prison itself.”

Today, at this Moment in my Life: Culture, Religion, the Environment, and Me

This week, I have chosen to post something that is quite personal, but that I feel relates to culture, religion, and the environment right now at this exact moment in time in my own life.  I have put much thought into whether or not I should post this as a blog for a class assignment, but I find its content to be relevant to the class and sincerely personal at the same time.  I know it has nothing to do with the important content of anthropology class during the last three weeks, but I feel it is a good thing to write about and share.

A relationship with a man from Saudi Arabia has consumed my life for the past two years.  He was an HPU graduate.  This relationship brought me an insurmountable amount of knowledge of one of our worlds largest religions.  It has taught me about the culture of a country which the United States has strong economic ties with and depends upon for our energy needs.  It has made me appreciate being an American woman.  It brought me closer to God and the earth.  It made me love and honor my mom more than anyone can imagine.  I plan to write a book about my experience.  I feel that the institution of committed relationships, especially marriage, are important and significant subjects to discuss in anthropology.  Interesting things are going to happen in this world during this time of globalization, and I feel that cross-cultural relationships will play a significant role in the changes of cultural norms and mores throughout the world.


My first serious relationship ever with this man has just ended.  He sent me and email, abruptly ending it.  I have changed names of people in this blog.  This is a portion of my response, which I have realized depicts a part of where I fit in to today's culture, religion, and the environment...

Abdul,

....  I know that you are most likely engaged right now and getting married very soon, and that you probably have been engaged since you initially broke up with me at the end of May of this year.  If you were engaged in May, then it is an absolute shame that you were dishonest to me, my mother, yourself, your family, and your future wife and her family and continued to talk to me as a committed partner.  If this is true, it is terrible that you met me in England  ....  You continued our relationship as close to your marriage date as possible because you are too weak to be without a woman. I hope you do not hurt your future wife. 

I went into our relationship completely not knowing anything about your culture nor of the beautiful religion of Islam.  I have discussed our relationship to many of my Muslim sisters, including some from your own country, and came to find out that your behavior at the very beginning of our relationship was not that of a good man.  If you were sincere about your love for me at the very beginning, you would have done everything in your power to not allow me to live in the same apartment with two other Saudi men.  You would have displayed a real problem with me talking to these men.  You took many pictures of me on our first date before you dropped me off at the airport because I was your prize to show off.  You wanted me to look perfect at your graduation because I was your prize to show to all your sick friends from Saudi. 

My Muslim sisters were shocked to know that an HPU graduate got a job at Sabic.  They asked me if you have any connections, and I said no.  They said only Harvard grads and people from elite schools get this job.  I want to remind you that I wrote your CV, your cover letter, and your personal statement.  Yes, you had the ideas, but I wrote it.  Talking to me for hours each day while you were getting paid at this job was so dishonest of you.  I am partly responsible, but it is the only time I could talk to you because you supposedly did not have internet at home. Or did you?...and you just didn’t want to show your family that you were still talking to me while you are engaged. 

A true man coming from your culture and religion, especially, would be saddened by his beloved spending thousands and thousands of dollars on flights to come see him.  A true man would have shown more compassion for the woman that had to find a random family to wait with for 13 hours in Cairo.  A true man would have showed so much emotion and expressed so much more concern for taking the virginity of an innocent young woman  ....  I have consulted with my Muslim sisters and brothers, and they told me a true man would have shown the least bit of concern for taking virginity, but you did not.  I know I have been forgiven when I said my Shahada.  Alhamdulellah, I feel like a virgin again.

.... I have finally revealed to my mother all of the things you have done to me and all that I know about you.  She is disgusted in you because you lied to her face and said you would take care of her daughter.  You hurt my mother a lot because you hurt her daughter.  You made me spend thousands of dollars, you took my virginity with showing no concern, you let me live with your two disgusting drunken roommates in a room filled with cigarette smoke, you told me that I needed to lose weight, you told me that you were with sexier women in the past, and you left me stranded in Cairo for 13 hours before we met and 10 hours after you left for home just so you could save money on airfare and so you could rest for a day before your new job.  A true man would go out of his way to protect his beloved in a dangerous airport in a place completely foreign to her.  He would spend the extra money to come early and sacrifice sleep and rest to stay late so that he could be with the woman he is committed to. 

A person’s friends tell a lot about someone.  I should have seen this.  Birds of a feather flock together.  And you still associate with these drunken men that are ruining the lungs Allah gave them and talk to sleezy girls.  You still let them take advantage of you.  You have showed me how weak of a man you are.  I should have known better when you told me you got drunk when you went to England last November.  I should have never allowed you to drink a beer in Sharm El Sheikh.

I now know what a true Muslim man is because I now know Islam.  You are a good man.  Your heart is good, but I need to be with a true Muslim man that takes his Islam more seriously and that strives to live like the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him.  I started studying Islam not because I saw you pray occasionally or because you brought me to the mosque once, no.  I started studying Islam because I wanted to see if the way you lived was Islamic.  I wanted to see if littering was something Muhammed would do, if having sex before marriage was ok, if having one beer every now and then with your buddies was ok, if being so consumed in materialism was good, and if dominion over the earth was helal.  I wanted to speak the language of Islam so I could convince you that these things were not ok.  I found out that Islam teaches that none of this is good.  I want to clarify with you that I do not practice Islam now because you are a Muslim.  I practice because I am sincere in my worship to Allah.

I am so surprised at your culture and how materialistic it has become, even though your country is an “Islamic State”.  I am appalled about how Saudi Arabia treats its women.  My Saudi sisters think there will be a revolution when the king and his brother die.  I hope that there will be, so that women can become empowered there.  I hope that the earth that Allah gave us will heal and that the threat of your materialism and your country’s greed will stop. 

I believe that Allah allowed the timing of the end of our relationship to be perfect.  I believe if we stopped talking to each other after you initially broke up with me in May and if we didn’t go to Europe, I wouldn’t have and never could have understood who you are.  I wouldn’t have had the support of all the beautiful Muslim sisters at the mosque and those from your country during this time of grief.  I would not have had all their clarification about you and what Islam truly is and what a good man truly is.  I am so grateful to Allah for all my blessings:  My freedom.  My dignity.  My mind. My spirituality.  His forgiveness.  My family. My friends. My beautiful country.….all that I wouldn’t have if I came to marry you and lived in Saudi Arabia.  Why do all these Saudi men come to America to make innocent women fall in love and give everything they have to these men just to leave their beloved to marry a wife that they will be unhappy with and untrue to?

Thank God I don’t have to spend any more hours waiting around to talk to you.  No longer do I have to experience the grief of when you would miss the times we planned to meet.  Now I can go on with my beautiful and happy life, pursue an honest career, and be close to my family in my free country.  Inshallah, I will one day marry a man that is like me… passionate about life and the environment, sincere in his prayers, not lazy, and that is truly physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy.  I will choose a man that I can move forward with…not one that holds me back.  I will be with a man that is honest.

I know you initially came into our relationship in December 2009, wanting a cheap woman that would give you sex.  I knew then by how you looked at my breasts on our first date and how you made out with me immediately when I flew back to Honolulu.  But I rationalized a lot of things you did by overlooking them or trying to justify your behaviors and actions.  You eventually found out that I wasn’t this cheap woman.  I am a woman of wisdom, strength, and dignity, and you fell in love with this. I confronted you on some of your behaviors, and you did, indeed, change for the better over time.  I know you fell in love with me, and I fell in love with you.  We both did get to experience true love for moments in our relationship.  But this love is diluted and contaminated by your past and your present dishonesty and weakness.  I don’t want to be with you, alhamdulellah. 

Abdul, I know you are taking good care of your family, and I commend you for this.  It is so honorable.  Be good to your wife, start being more honest with others and with yourself, and practice your beautiful religion with sincerity at every moment.  I know for a fact, you will be good to your children.  You are a good man.  You just need help.  I thank Allah for all the good times he gave us together.  I will never forget them.  You just need to know what you did to me and that it hurts.  If you acknowledge and apologize for what you did, it will help you heal and grow.  If you don’t, I understand that you are weak.  Now that you know how I truly feel, we can both move on, alhamdullelah.  

As-Salamu `Alaykum, brother.

Sincerely,

Clarice

IMF and World Bank Involvement in African Famine

Response to 9/8/11 alternet.org article, Food Emergency: How the World Bank and IMF Have Made African Famine Inevitable by Rania Khalek

“The hungry starve as scarce land and water are diverted to provide luxuries for rich consumers in Northern countries.” ~ Vandana Shiva 

It is nearly impossible to believe that in less than 50 years, East Africa has gone from having an abundance of food to mass starvation.  The media continues to inundate the public with many serious reasons for why the Sub-Saharan hunger crisis has persisted and intensified for the past five decades.  The news does tell us how record droughts, rising food prices, biofuel production and land grabs by foreign investors, and terrorist groups have all caused the starvation of hundreds of thousands of people in East Africa.  It certainly cannot be denied that these are true causes for the tragedy that continues to worsen in East Africa. But these circumstances alone did not cause the famine.  Unfortunately, mainstream media sources have not revealed how policies of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are major contributing factors to what has led Africa further into despair.  

Because a changing climate, rising food prices, land grabs, and biofuel production are occurring in every country, there must be more reasoning behind the disasters in Africa, especially since East Africa was, as the article states, “…a food net exporter between 1966 and 1970, with an average of 1.3 million tons of food exported each year” (Khalek, 2011).  Less than five decades is a reasonably short period of time for region to go from food abundance and security to mass starvation.  Khalek goes on to explain how the influence of two administrations of Reagan and Thatcher were able to instill certain programs, such as Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPS), that were carried out by the IMF and the World Bank as a means to accomplish their pro-corporatist end.  In the name of promoting the “free-market”, SAPs required massive privatization and deregulation in developing countries.  

The agenda of the SAPs entailed cutting much needed government subsidies for small farms, removing tariffs, selling most of the region’s food and grain reserves, and encouraging cash crop exports to the west while promoting massive importation of expensive goods from the US and Europe.  Khalek states, “Ironically, as they demanded that African states eliminate subsidies for small-scale farmers, the United States and Europe continued to provide their agricultural sectors with billions of dollars in subsidies, forcing peasant farmers to compete with an influx of cheap, subsidized commercial staples from the west—clearly a losing battle.” The initiatives also caused mounting debt instead of fostering intended economic growth. The insurmountable debt of Sub-Saharan Africa has forced the region’s governments to spend their capital on debt repayment rather than investing in for instance, education and health care.  

From this particular article, it has been made clear that individual politicians and interests groups throughout history have had tremendous influence in the say of international organizations.  At this moment in time, there must be more transparency to the general public about the historical context and reasoning behind the current crises in Sub-Saharan Africa so that the broken food system may be fixed.  Unfortunately, this probably won’t happen because powerful international organizations do not want to take responsibility for their actions of wealth-seeking self-interests that caused so much havoc. 

History repeats itself.  This is not the first time when the wealth of the privileged has come from that of the vulnerable.  Throughout history, governments have been able to conceal the reasoning behind certain circumstances.  It is still happing in our own country, especially with American Indians, Native Hawaiians, and the indigenous people of Alaska.  The lands of the indigenous peoples of these regions already have been and are now being stripped bare of soil, energy, water, and food resources so that wealthy Westerners may live a superfluous lavish lifestyle, while Indians are put on reservations and spend their whole lives suffering in poverty.  The government still does not want to reveal that they were responsible for most of this destruction.  Now, the same thing is happening on an international scale.  I honestly do not know how we can confront this economic violence.  I am glad, though, that it is becoming clearer to a small minority of the population.  Now, we must spread the word, elect better politicians, and proactively question the corrupt system that exists today so that there is hope for the future of all indigenous people.