[PHOTO] For the confused archaeologists of the future

This house

House/frieze
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

in Toronto's Little Italy district has, barely visible in the lower left-handish corner and enlarged below

Frieze
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

something that looks to me like a fragment of a Romanesque frieze. (Opinions?)

If Toronto becomes an abandoned city, and if archaeologists thousands of years later dig up this corner of Italy and happen upon this piece of art not knowing precisely the chronology, I wonder how they'd read it. Late Roman survival, perhaps?

[BRIEF NOTE] Another long-after-the-fact apology

Back in 2006, I made an extended post at Jonathan Edelstein's sadly-defunct blog the Head Heeb about another problematic apology, this one relating to the genocide inflicted against the Herero people in what was then German Southwest Africa by Imperial Germany. Here it is below.

* * *

"Germany and the Herero: What now?

"Back on the 29th of August, The Globe and Mail of Toronto featured an article by Stephanie Nolen ("'Forgive us our trespasses'") that examined the contentious question of how--or even if--the Herero of Namibia should be compensated for their sufferings in the Herero Genocide of 1904-1907.

First, some background. If the massacre of Armenians in the First World War by the Ottoman Empire counts as Europe's first genocide, then what the German Empire did to the cattleherding the Herero people of what is now central Namibia counts equally as southern Africa's first genocide. After tensions over land use in what was then German South-West Africa exploded into a revolt in 1904, Germany responded by dispatching a colonial expeditionry force led by one General Lothar von Trotha who announced for all his intention to and kill the remainder. He went on to do just that, killing thousands of Herero combatants outright in battle as at Waterberg, forcing entire family groups to flee across the Namibian desert in a search for safety in British Bechuanaland and that left tens of thousands dead of starvation and/or dehydration, and consigning the remainder to barren concentration camps from which many Herero were taken to be used as disposable labour units. In the end, perhaps as much as 80% of the Herero population died.

Needless to say, the genocide suffered by the Herero in the first decade of the twentieth century continues to dominate the present-day Herero political agenda. Besides leading to the long-term loss of their lands and the conversion of the surviving Namibian Herero a population that derived its subsistence from migrant and cash labour, the Herero position in Namibia has been permanently weakened. At present, the Ovambo of the north not only form a slim majority of the Namibian population, but comprise much of the core of the ruling South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) party.

The Hereros' place in their own country has been just as surely diminished as has that of the Armenians in Turkey or the Jews in Poland. That is unchangeable. What doesn't seem unchangeable, however, is the Herero nation's present poverty. Compensation for this, in theory, is a good idea. In practice, it's more complicated.

After years of refusing to recognize the genocide, in 2004 Germany's Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul made a formal apology.

Speaking about the "genocide" committed by imperial German troops 100 years ago, Ms Wieczorek-Zeul referred to the "colonial madness" that had led to racism, violence and discrimination. "All what I have said has been an apology by the German government," the Minister concluded her speech, followed by loud applause by listeners.

German officials had until now not wanted to admit guilt and responsibility for the 1904 genocide in fear of compensation claims made by parts of the Herero community. By not admitting responsibility, Germany did not have to fear legal steps as the genocide was made before international law criminalized crimes against humanity. With an official apology, Germany also takes on responsibility and compensation claims are therefore becoming more viable. Traditional Herero Chief Kuama Riruako, who first was quoted as saying that he now would drop compensation claims against Germany, on Sunday gave a clear message. "We still have the right to bring the Germans to court."

Both traditional Herero leaders and German authorities now however hope to settle the matter outside courtrooms. The German government has indicated its will to "give targeted aid" to Namibia's Herero community, probably in addition to the considerable development aid already channelled from Berlin to Windhoek.

Even after this acknowledgement, it took some time before the German government offered compensation, when, as Nolen writes, in 2005 "Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul finally put money on the table, pledging $28-million over 10 years for a reconciliation initiative. "The process of reconciliation now needs more action to make reconciliation in fact more tangible," she said." This proposed compensation has, in turn, become a controversial issue with the Namibian government, which would prefer that any compensation money be given to it rather than to the Herero, in conformity with its policy of non-tribalism and national unity. The Herero naturally object.

A German official, speaking off the record because, he said, any comment is twisted and misinterpreted by different factions in Namibia, said there could be no individual reparations, or even payment to the Herero as a group, but only to the Namibian government.

"We are conscious of our history and we would like to help all Namibians and the policy of national reconciliation, but not one group. That would help to create serious problems in this country. Second, there is the question of whom to pay for what. It was more than 100 years ago. It was communal land. Who would get money? There is no answer."

But Phil Ya Nangoloh, chairman of the Namibian National Society for Human Rights, said it was ridiculous for the Germans to say the Herero should not be specifically compensated. "Not the whole country suffered from the genocide that was perpetuated from 1904-08. It was primarily against the Hereros and to a lesser extent the Namas and the Damaras," said Mr. Ya Nangoloh, who is not Herero.<

"There must be reparations, for heaven's sake. Maybe not financially [to individuals] but infrastructure, to contribute to human development, life expectancy, knowledge, income options of these people. Germany should institute development in areas affected by genocide."

Even among the Herero, there are strong and growing divisions as to whether their communal authorities or individual Herero should receive the compensation funds.

None of these issues are likely to be solved soon. Likely none of these issues will ever be solved to the satisfaction of all of the parties involved, simply because of the enormity of what happened to the Herero, the impossibility of doing justice to those people who themselves lived through the atrocities, and the asymmetrical effect of the events (a minor enough episode in German colonial history, a cataclysm for the Herero nation). There's only the knowledge of what might have been and what perhaps can never be:

Demographic analysis suggests there would be 1.8 million Herero today were it not for the killings, he said, making them the dominant ethnic group in the country rather than the Ovambo, who dominate government. There are, however, only about 120,000 Herero. "We ought to be in control of this country," the chief said, "and yet we are not."

A major injection of German cash could give the Herero much more clout, of course. But in Okahandja, people seem to have less calculating goals. "We want to feel like the Germans really know what they did, and they're sorry," the young man said. "That's all."

[BRIEF NOTE] On handwriting's decline

Norman Geras' comments on the decline of handwriting as something actively practised in reguilar life stick with me. First, Umberto Eco had written about the subject in relation to his own childhood.

The tragedy began long before the computer and the cellphone.

My parents' handwriting was slightly slanted because they held the sheet at an angle, and their letters were, at least by today's standards, minor works of art. At the time, some – probably those with poor hand- writing – said that fine writing was the art of fools. It's obvious that fine handwriting does not necessarily mean fine intelligence. But it was pleasing to read notes or documents written as they should be.

My generation was schooled in good handwriting, and we spent the first months of elementary school learning to make the strokes of letters. The exercise was later held to be obtuse and repressive but it taught us to keep our wrists steady as we used our pens to form letters rounded and plump on one side and finely drawn on the other. Well, not always – because the inkwells, with which we soiled our desks, notebooks, fingers and clothing, would often produce a foul sludge that stuck to the pen and took 10 minutes of mucky contortions to clean.

The crisis began with the advent of the ballpoint pen. Early ballpoints were also very messy and if, immediately after writing, you ran your finger over the last few words, a smudge inevitably appeared. And people no longer felt much interest in writing well, since handwriting, when produced with a ballpoint, even a clean one, no longer had soul, style or personality.

It should be noted that my generation, coming well after his, assimilated the technology of the ballpoint pen well. I myself preferred, and prefer, the fine-pointed kind. Geras points out that, whatever the aesthetic pleasures, computers are so much better in composing and communicating ideas.

I had a teacher who encouraged us not to begin writing a sentence before having it fully formed in our minds. Maybe. But whatever advantages that brings, they are as nothing compared with the advantages, due to word-processing software, of being able to amend, to reshape text, to shift things around, without having to rewrite everything. If you're a very fluent writer, you may be able to get by without this. But for those of us for whom writing is more like building something, and not a purely linear process, writing by hand can slow you down too much. My pages used to get so full of crossings out, transposition marks, arrows and what not, that I'd often have to do the whole page over again; or engage in what I used to call page surgery - cutting out the OK part and sticking it to another OK part. That kind of slowness I don't miss at all.

That's right, and that's true. Still, I only can edit my extended texts well when they're printed out on paper. And now, more than a decade after my beautiful handwriting was lost in the rush to take lecture notes in university, I still looked at the calligraphy kit I've lying on a table near my desktop. It's closed, of course; I've never opened it.

[BRIEF NOTE] It's best never to offend your customers; take the below as proof

The odyssey of Dave Carroll, one of the two members of the Halifax-based duo Sons of Maxwell and an Internet celebrity thanks to his song "United Breaks Guitars", is going to get a very big audience for himself indeed.

Halifax singer-songwriter Dave Carroll will be on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to tell a hearing on airline passenger rights how United Airlines scrunched his expensive guitar and wouldn't compensate him.

Carroll will speak at an airline passenger rights hearing looking into problems with how U.S. airlines treat the flying public. Organizers have been given permission to hold the hearing in a congressional hearing room.

"It will look, smell and act like a real congressional hearing," said Kate Hanni, executive director of FlyersRights.org, a sponsor of the event.

"This is the chance for many victims to speak," she told CBC News. Her organization is supporting legislative proposals that would allow someone to deplane after three hours of extended tarmac delay. Hanni said she founded her group after being stuck waiting in a plane for almost 10 hours.

[. . .]

In the spring of 2008, Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, were travelling from Halifax to Nebraska for a one-week tour when he says they noticed United Airlines baggage handlers throwing around their instruments on the tarmac in Chicago. He later discovered that his $3,500 guitar had been severely damaged.

Carroll said United didn't deny the incident occurred, but wouldn't compensate him. After many months of emails and baggage claims went nowhere, Carroll said he told a United official he would write three songs about his experience with the airline and post them online.

Song No. 1 was called United Breaks Guitars, and the video quickly became a page of internet history. It has been viewed more than 5.5 million times on YouTube and has prompted more than 22,000 comments, many from people telling their own horror stories about airport baggage handling in general and United Airlines in particular. Song No. 2 was posted last month and has garnered more than 300,000 views. The final song in the trilogy is to be released in the fall.

United officials eventually offered some compensation. They said they're now using Carroll's videos as training exercises for new employees.

Thanks to Jerry for showing me the video back in June when it first came out. Trust me, you'll enjoy it just as much.

"Prince -1999" (Watch on YouTube)

[LINK] "An Odyssey From the Bronx to Saturn’s Rings"

Dennis Overbye's profile of Carolyn Porco, a Italian-American woman born in the Bronx who went on to lead one of NASA's most important space probe missions, is inspiring.

Dr. Porco, 56, a senior researcher at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., may be the leader of the camera team on the $3.4 billion Cassini mission, an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado and one of Wired magazine’s 15 people who should be advising the president. But she is also a proud child of the 1960s who has never let go of the exuberance of that era when President John F. Kennedy “said that the sky isn’t even the limit,” as she puts it, and “things were unleashed.”

[. . .]

She was a studious child and a spiritual seeker — “13 going on 80” — who lived a lot in her head. Later, as a student at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, she said she spent two years as a chanting Buddhist and even went on a two-week pilgrimage to Japan, where she was the majorette in a Buddhist marching band, wearing hot pants. “Now, THOSE were the days,” she wrote in an e-mail message.

By then, Dr. Porco was pursuing the future she had glimpsed at age 13 when she saw Saturn through a neighbor’s rooftop telescope. As a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, she floundered at first but then got a job helping to analyze data from the two Voyager spacecrafts, which toured the outer planets from Jupiter to Neptune from 1978 to 1989.

It was there, said Peter Goldreich, her thesis advisor, that she demonstrated a knack for picking out important things. Among them was a discovery that mysterious dark spokes in Saturn’s ring system were connected to the planet’s magnetic field. She did her thesis on aspects of the rings and how they were shaped by the gravity of tiny moonlets.

[DM] "On the vulnerability of indigenous peoples to the H1N1 virus (and other diseases)"

I've a post up on Demography Matters that takes a brief look at the various reasons to expect various indigenous peoples around the world to continue to suffer disproportionately from diseases of various kinds, including the latest, H1N1.