Bible Geography: Cyrus the Great

When talking Southwest Asia in World Geography, discussion of religion must ensue. When talking religions of Southwest Asia, Judaism must be discussed. When talking Judaism, the influence of the Persians must covered. Got to follow the money trail.

As our story opens, the Hebrews are slaves of the Babylonians. The Babylonians are attacked or invaded by the Persians. Persians: 1, Babylonians: 0.

Under the new Persian rulers, particularly Cyrus, the Hebrews fare somewhat better. In fact, Cyrus the Great, who the Hebrews anoint as a Gentile Messiah because they love him so much, sends the Hebrews on a mission to rebuild their temples in Jerusalem, giving them the resources to do so.

If the Persians, specifically Cyrus and Darius, had not intervened when they did, the Hebrews might have been a footnote in history. And then where would Christianity be?

The Book of Ezra contains the details of the biblical story. The Book of Isaiah also contains some elements of the story.

Geography on TV: Crusoe

A modern treatment of an old story has made its way to television. Crusoe, a new offering on NBC, depicts the adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a man washed up on an isolated, uninhabited island after his ship sinks.

Crusoe is based on Robinson Crusoe, a novel written in 1719 by Daniel Dafoe. The island in that story was off the coast of Venezuela. The novel may have been inspired by the true story of a fellow named Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk's island was in the Pacific, a lonely little place called Mas a Tierra.

Haven't seen the show; don't know if it is good or not. The show is filmed in the Seychelles. And in South America. And in the United Kingdom. The string of islands can be found of the east coast of Africa, north of Madagascar.

Israel - Isreal? Who cares, right?

I care.

This is another one of my pet geography peeves, the misspelling of "Israel".

It is not "Is-real";

It is "Isra-el".

And there is a good reason for this.

"El" means god. Specifically, "El" is the true God, the God of the Hebrews, and thusly, of Christians and Muslims. Other forms exist as "Elohim" and "Eloah".

When we break apart Israel into its constituent parts, Isra and -el, we get this: "something" + "God". What does Isra mean?

Isra means "he who struggles" or "he struggles." When we add the two together, we get:

Israel, or, "he who struggles against God," or " he who struggles with God." And that is certainly what the Hebrews did, struggled against God, throughout Exodus and Leviticus.

This is a lot different than Isreal, "is real."

I can find Israel on a map. I don't know where Isreal is.

Now that we know about El, we can use it to figure out some names.

Michael (micha-el): he who is like God
Raphael (rapha-el): healing God
Gabriel (gabri-el): devoted to God

29th in Infant Mortality, #1 in Your Heart

My tirade continues.

Ok, look, just to reiterate, to compare the United States with Poland is like comparing apples and bowling balls. Nothing wrong with Poland; I'm sure the people there are wonderful. I would love to visit sometime. But, Poland is Poland and the United States is, well, like no other country on the planet. Stop making asinine comparisons.

I dove deeper into these statistics. I want to map the most recent data. I found some stuff so a map is forthcoming. But I found some real troubling info.

First, a national goal of a 4.5 IMR is probably not doable. The goal is admirable, but consider what has to happen. The 4.5 IMR represents the sum total of all states in the United States. That has to include states with excellent health care and a relatively homogenous population, i.e. Maine. Also, we have to consider states like Mississippi and Alabama that fall way short of Maine in terms of health care and population homogeniety.

Secondly, we have to ask ourselves, Is our national health care system really that bad? We have the best trained doctors. We have the most sophisticated dianostic equipment. We have the best teaching schools and teaching hospitals. There must be something else going on for our "national" IMR to be so "bad". There is something going on.

Your assignment is to first read these news releases from a variety of state health departments:

• North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
• South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control
• Mississippi State Department of Health
• South Dakota Department of Health

Here is a table from the Kaiser Family Foundation that provides some details, and gives away where I am going with my diatribe.

Questions:

1. Are all ethnic groups equal when it comes to IMR?
2. Which ethnic group has the lowest IMR?
3. Which ethnic group(s) have the highest IMR?
4. Does any state have an ethnic group with an IMR close to 4.5?

Obviously, if you answer these questions, a pattern should emerge. If you are white, your baby has a better chance of living to his/her/its first birthday. If you are not white, then the chances of your baby living to his/her/its first birthday decrease by at least half.

Really, though, everyone is pretty lucky to live in the United States. Chances are good that your baby will see its first birthday, anyway. But babies born underweight, premies, general birth complications, anything that makes the first few days of life difficult, are going to fare better if they are white than if they are not.

It isn't because white babies are hardier or more robust - but they may be. There are lots of mitigating factors:

1. Whites tend to be less poor
2. Whites tend to have better access to health care
3. Non-whites tend to be poorer
4. Non-whites have less access to health care
5. Poor tend to lead unhealthier lives; smoke, drink, worse diets, don't see their doctor regularly.

If we look at really successful states, like Maine, we can see a couple things. People are pretty educated. The population is relatively small. Few minorities live in Maine. And 85% of the population have access to health insurance or are covered by some type of plan. This rate is one of the highest in the nation.

If we, and by we I mean our government, want to reduce our IMR, then we have to address the IMR of our minority populations; we have to address the health care of babies born to minorities. This is where we will see the greatest impact in reducing our national IMR.

Can anyone say National Health Care coverage? Socialized medicine?

29th on Infant Mortality

I wish I knew the name of the jackass who wrote this article. These editorials are the type of crap I argue against.

Read the editorial. The author says that we should hold off on being too proud of ourselves regarding shaving 15/100ths of a point from our Infant Mortality Rate. Who does this person compare the United States against? Let's take a look at our competition:

Poland. Slovakia. Scandinavia, which means Norway and Sweden. East Asia, which probably means South Korea and Japan, in this case.

Yeah, you know, the last time I checked Poland had 300 million people and was the third-ranked country in terms of population and area. Wait, so was Slovakia. And Norway. And Sweden. In fact, all of the regions mentioned have so much in common with the United States that I wouldn't know where to draw the line between where one country begins and the other ends ... voice dripping with sarcasm

We cannot go around comparing the United States to Norway. Or Sweden. Or Japan. Or Poland. They are not us; we are not them.

We have 300 million people. We are the third largest country on the planet, in terms of population and area. We have a population that is as culturally diverse as any place on the planet.

If we look at our states as real 'states' and by that I mean as countries, then let's start making comparisons. Compare Maryland to Norway. Compare Maine to Sweden. Compare New York to Poland. Now, we can compare apples to apples.

For the most part, our country, the United States, does very well in terms of IMR. We do need to examine what is going on in three states. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, the District of Columbia, and Tennessee. Those four states, and our national capitol, are holding us back.

But, to say the United States is the same as Poland or Slovakia is asinine and ridiculous, and speaks more of the ignorance of the author than any real, lurking social disease.

DROC Fighting Continues

While most of the world has been distracted by events in Iraq and Afghanistan, Africa has been challenged by forces within and without.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the largest state in southern Africa, is the site of the deadliest conflict in the world, surpassing even the Iraq War and Afghanistan, combined.

Since 1998, nearly 4 million people have died within the DROC as a result of this conflict, either through direct armed conflict or due to starvation and disease. The number dead is about 8% of the 62 million people that live in the DROC. Women, and girls have been victimized, raped, killed, tortured by roving bands of militia. Boys have been taken and are being trained as militia members. These boys are kidnapped then trained how to kill.

The major warring factions involve the Congolese army versus the militants of a renegade general Laurent Nkunda, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP). The fighting that continues today reflects hostilities leftover from the Second Congo War, also called Africa's Second War, and the Great War of Africa. 8 countries and 25 different groups fought during the five years of the formally recognized conflict.

In looking at multiple sources of information, Wikipedia, Human Rights Watch, BBC News, CIA World Factbook, I cannot really find the source or cause of the fighting. I ran across a reference to Nkunda being upset over the treatment of Tutsis, leading him to form an anti-Kabila militia. His support for Tutsis in Africa does not seem to justify his guerilla war or atrocities committed by people under him. He was indicted for war crimes in 2005.

The DROC has the potential of being one of the most economically successful countries in Africa. This potential may be the source of conflict. The DROC is the largest producer of cobalt, major producer of copper and industrial diamonds, and one of the most important metals involved in technology, tantalum.

I write about this now, as fighting as increased in the last couple of days, forcing many to leave their homes. According to The World yesterday, nearly 50,000 have been forced out of there homes because of the conflict. We, sitting in our comfortable chairs in the US, have been mostly oblivious to the conflict in the DROC.

Google Earth's Coolest Addition

I was setting up Google Earth for my lecture/discussion on the Middle East last night and noticed a funny new icon I had not noticed before.

In Google Earth, I always click on icons I am unfamiliar with just to see what happens. Maybe not always a good idea. I trust Google explicitly, though ....

Anyway, I discovered this great new addition: Webcam.travel. People from around the world have posted geotagged webcams to Google Earth. Now, anyone from around the world can visit webcam.travel, or load up Google Earth with the Webcam.travel layer loaded and look at conditions - as they are within a few minutes - almost anywhere in the world. Man, this is awesome!

We looked at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, after taking our map quiz over Southwest Asia. Part of the webcam.travel website includes a Google Map showing the location of the webcam, giving you an idea of where you are within a city, town, village, etc. Plus, you can view the typical Google Earth satellite imagery or map layer to give you a bird's eye view of the area you are looking at. The Rotterdam perspective seemed to be directed to the ocean; the view was brilliant, almost like the city was on fire. I thought I was looking at the fires in southern California at first, before I noticed the webcam's title, and vicinity. The webcam captured the intense illumination in the area, bright, saturated yellows and golds of urban lights. The skies were low and overcast, giving the effect of smoke. Taken all together, the image appeared to be that of many lines of fire, when in actuality, we were looking at four-lane highways, industrial districts, and other urban features. Cool stuff!

Movie Review: Charlie Wilson's War

Who says one man can't make a difference?

Okay, well, a lot of people say that. What happens when one person tells another that they CAN make a difference, but they have to go to Pakistan first?

What you get, at least in this case, is the US proxy war against the Russians, with Afghanistan the battlefield, and the Afghanis the army.

At the onset of hostilities between the Russians and the Afghanis, just what was the US foreign policy? Uh ... well ... we don't have one, sir. Not exactly true. Our plan, at least according to the CIA Section Chief in Pakistan, was to let the Russians keep killing Afghanis until they completely run out of ammunition. Okay ... what happens when we run out of Afghanis and the Russians still have bullets?

Not really fair for the Afghanis, particularly when the Russians do not belong there, and hundreds of thousands of Afghanis are living in squalor in refugee camps in Pakistan. Meanwhile, the Russians are picking apart cities, villages, and outposts with impunity. Not a fair fight.

Charlie Wilson, a senator from Texas' 2nd district, is an interesting character, more ethical and moral than he lets on. His heart is in the right place, let's put it that way. His mind, however, is engaged in more carnal pursuits. Encouraged by the 6th most wealthy woman in Texas, he visits Pakistan. The Pakistanis think the US assistance in the region is a joke. The Afghanis were given military assistance by the US - WWI issue rifles and ammo - which has no effect on Russian armor. The Pakistanis ask Charlie to visit the refugee camps before his departure.

What he sees changes him, changes his mind, gives him raison d'etre for bringing down the Russians. Working with a rouge CIA operative, Charlie gets U.S. support and begins the takedown of the Russia military, via Afghani rebels.

But at what cost?

Gust has some interesting insight at the movie's end, weaving in some Zen. Make sure and listen to it.

The crazies come back to Afghanistan.

Movie Review: Stop-Loss

In Tikrit, you lead your squad after some guys that attacked your checkpoint. Not because you want revenge, but because you are following orders. Three Humvees in pursuit of a little Datsun pickup with three perps inside with AKs. The squad chases them through town, down a narrow alley, where the perps flee their truck and run into a building.

You leave a man on the roof-mounted .50-cal to cover your six, and take the rest of the squad down the alley. The alley is tight, barely big enough to get a wide-ass Humvee down, and walls climb to three or four stories on either side. The sun can't be seen because the sky is so narrow above the street only a little indirect light comes through.

As you prepare to lead your guys into a building, the shooting starts. One guy goes down, then another. Fire from the rooftop. Your guys return fire. Bad guys fall. An RPG takes out your Humvee; the soldier manning the .50-cal is gone. Your second in command runs into the building after the original bad guys, but takes a hit. You hear him call your name. You rush in, and find yourself face-to-face with a guy holding a child... and a grenade. You shoot both. Moving up the stairs, you hear more shots. You dodge into a room - clear; in the kitchen, your buddy is on the floor, shot, and taking fire from around a corner. Tossing in a grenade, you cover your ears and shield your body. The concussion knocks you around. Checking the adjacent room, you find your grenade got the bad guy... plus his kids, wife, mother, father - the whole family tree just got clipped.

You manage to get your buddy out. In the meantime, the backup has arrived and is helping evac the wounded. You lost three guys, and a fourth probably lost his legs. Who knows how many baddies went down. Thank God your tour is over, thank God your enlistment is over and you can get back to the states. You've got your best girl to marry!

Enter Stop-Loss.

With volunteerism dropping, and re-enlistments dropping, the military is having a hard time meeting numbers. What to do? Why don't we activate a little known part of the contractual fine print and re-activate those that are scheduled for discharge? Excellent idea!

Stop-Loss, AKA Backdoor Draft, was instituted after the Vietnam War. When a person signs the military contract, whether for two years or four years or maybe even six years, the real obligation is EIGHT years. Now, in times of peace, eight years, smeight years, right? But with two wars on the stove, one of which is not particularly popular, and the other not going well, the military complex has found itself with a bit of a Public Relations (PR) problem. So, while we try to improve our image, we still need soldiers. And who makes a better soldier than someone who is already a soldier?

According to statistics at the end of the movie, about 10% of soldiers have been affected by Stop-Loss. Stop-Loss soldiers serve an additional 6 months, on average. But we all know the problem with averages ...

The movie covers many issues Iraq War soldiers encounter in their domestic/civilian lives. Ryan Phillipe, who I don't really care for as an actor, has such a good performance that my opinion of him has changed, a little. Many of the events in the movie are pulled right from the headlines. Well, not lately, as the media has moved onto another bright, shiny, object - Obama/McCain, and the Economy.

Watch this movie!

Movie Review: Taxi To The Darkside

Abu Ghraib.

Merely thinking about Abu Ghraib makes my skin crawl. Such an honorable example of American culture. But wait, that isn't right. American military culture under Bush. It doesn't represent me, my ideals, my concerns, or my beliefs. Anyone with any ethical or moral fibers in their bodies are probably not represented by Abu Ghraib, hopefully.

Taxi to the Darkside tells the story of what happens when someone is at the wrong place at the wrong time. And he dies from bad timing. Not because he was holding a weapon, firing weapon, in possession of a weapon. He dies from being impoverished. He dies from the color of his skin. He dies from excessive violence promoted with a wink and a nudge from the US military apparatus.

Watch the movie.

The Geography of Starbucks

Thanks to Dante Chinni for an interesting article on the geography of Starbucks.

Here we go:

Stereotypes. Some people believe that the "Wal-mart Nation" favors John McCain; the "Starbucks Nation" favors Barack Obama. Probably not true.

What I found immensely fascinating was the division of the United States into 11 Starbucks Communities. I am not going to summarize them here; you can visit the article to discover the 11 Communities, but I will list them (mostly so I don't forget)

1. Minority Central
2. Service Worker Centers
3. Campus & Careers
4. Military Bastions
5. Tractor Country
6. Immigration Nation
7. Monied Burbs
8. Evangelical Epicenters
9. Boom Towns
10. Emptying Nests
11. Industrial Metropolis

These communities do not correlate with any common perceptual region, i.e. the Bible Belt, the Sun Belt, the Midwest, or the South, for example. These communities exist wherever people who fit the demographic profile of the community live. For example, an easy one is Military Bastions, or military bases, like Ft. Campbell, KY, or Ft. Benning, GA. Immigration Nation may refer to those areas that are attractive to migrant laborers, or perhaps some urban centers that recent migrants tend to gravitate towards, such as Dallas, Phoenix, New York, Atlanta, etc.

The article deals with an area of geography called Market Segmentation. Some might say that market segmentation falls within the jurisdiction of marketing and business. However, we cannot forget that whenever place enters into the discussion, and the resulting characteristics or traits can be mapped, then we are now well within the domain of geography.

I like this Patchwork Nation idea created or implemented by the Christian Science Monitor to track trends in our culture.

Country VS Realm VS Region

One of my pet peeves is the misidentification of a realm or region as a "country."

For example, what raised my ire was an Apple iTune podcast description for the show, "travel geography." The premise of the show invites people who have traveled abroad to discussion their journey. A description of the show is posted to help the listener decide what to listen to.

In one case, a two-part episode description invited listeners to learn about the travels of a few people who had traveled across the "country" of Asia.

The "country" of Asia? You've got to be kidding me. And associated with a podcast called, "travel geography," no less.

Maybe they meant "China" or "South Korea;" or maybe they meant to say the "realm of Asia," rather than "country."

A 'country' typically is thought of to be a political area on the landscape, where the area is governed by the people that inhabit the area, and others outside the area recognize the sovereignty of the area. Such as Germany, or Portugal, or Uruguay.

A 'realm' is a large area that encompasses many different countries, contains a great number of people, and is a mostly inhabitable territory. Such as Asia, Africa, or Latin America.

A 'region' can be defined by a number of subjective characteristics. Regions can also vary by scale. A region could exist at a very local scale, such as around a town or city. A region could exist at a national scale. US states that receive a good deal of sunlight and also receive a number of retirement migrants are part of the Sunbelt. States that are perceived to have strong religious faith fall into the Bible Belt. These are perceptual regions. They encompass a number of administrative units, i.e. states, and are a subset of the larger "realm."

By the way, one of the best iTunes podcasts is The Amateur Traveler. The guy that does this does a great job.

Movie Review: Noise

ThinkFilm production has a new Tim Robbins movie available for rental, "Noise."

Car alarms are annoying. Just one car alarm going off is enough to send many people into a state of incoherent babbling. Imagine multiple cars or trucks going off simulatenously or consecutively. Madness, shear madness, could result. And this is what sends David (Tim Robbins) over the edge. The movie is somewhat autobiographical in nature, according to the NYT article. David, seeing the lack of respect in the world around him, feeling assaulted by urban noise, takes matters into his own hands, becoming a crusader for silence, the Rectifier.

While not a movie with "geographic" themes self-evident, one scene stands out to me. David is being followed around by a part-time writer, who was an earlier victim of one of David's anti-noise tirade. David had thrown a rock the the storefront of her father's furniture store because the burgler alarm going off at 3am. He has moved into an apartment as his wife has become intolerant of his anti-noise campaign methods. As David and this reporter talk about David and his alter-ego, the Rectifier, David is seen stabbing the wall with a pushpin.

I liked the scene (the rest of the movie was so-so) as the casual observer may not recognize that David is pushing a pin into an aerial photograph of New York City. He was using aerial photography to map his exploits! In fact, it wasn't just one aerial photograph. Stuck to the wall above a worktable was a partial flightline of aerial photography for New York City, with several colored pushpins jabbed into various locations across the city.

I thought that was kind of cool.

Iran and the Debates

I hope everyone has been watching the debates. They are informative in their content, and, conversely, informative in what they do not contain. Listen for comments about China and India. Are there any ???

Let me be clear, I am not going to use this venue to support either party. I do want to point something out in this venue, though.

The President of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not to diminish his power or his authority, but the reality of Iran is that M. Ahmadinejad is not the real power in Iran. The real power in Iran sits with the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

The Supreme Leader of Iran is in control of the military, not the President. When we hear President, we think, generally, that the person in the role of President has the same powers as the US President. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not a dictator - he is up for re-election next summer. He cannot launch an attack against Israel, as command of the military is outside his powers.

Many countries have a President and a Prime Minister. The President takes care of domestic affairs. The Prime Minister handles international affairs. Sometimes, the role of President may be termed, "Chancellor," such as the case of Great Britain. In the USA, we combine both the domestic duties and international duties into one position, the President.

Becoming more informed about the world is what this blog is about. When we learn, we are then able to see that things may not always be what they seem. Perhaps, we become more curious and ask more questions. That is part of becoming educated - being able to ask better questions, or question the answers.

I encourage everyone to explore debate comments.

Repairman Jack Geography

On a whim, I bought my first Repairman Jack novel, "Harbinger." Anyone who has read a Repairman Jack novel, by F. Paul Wilson will realize what came next. I bought my second Repairman Jack novel, "Hosts." And then I bought "Gateways" and "Crisscross," which I am reading now. I bought "Infernal" on Friday.

No, I am not reading them in order. I have been buying them used, based on price and availabililty. I really need a copy of "All The Rage." Events in that novel seem to alter the future of Jack, at least he realizes that there is more to his repair work than meets the eye.

FPW weaves a lot of geography into his works. His endnotes in "Gateway" specifically address his use of literary license to deviate from known geography to relocate certain restaurants and other features. The environment, via the Everglades, becomes a character in "Gateways." Demography of southern Florida is expressed through the Gateway retirement community. Jack's father retires to southern Florida, which is characteristic of our current US population. Early in the novel, Jack runs across the unique fauna and flora of Florida, the sawgrass, mosquitos, herons, plus the low relief terrain. Near the end of the novel, Jack, his father, and Carl have to deal with the looming influence of Hurricane Elvis, in addition to certain reptiles.

FPW novels are rife with geography examples. Jack is highly observant of traffic patterns, the movement of people, when people are active and when they are not, as in commuting patterns and weekend travel. Jack is attentive to the economics of the neighborhoods, caring a mental map of New York City and New Jersey that helps him at a basic level navigate the region, and operate at an advanced level as he uses his knowledge of commerical, industrial, and residential areas to conduct his "repair" operations.

For someone who has only traveled to that area once, FPW through Jack's voice, I feel like I have a better understanding of the geography Newark, NJ and New York City.