Expatriate Commentaries

Somali Coastline is Now Pirate Central

2005-11-09T23:47:00.000-06:00

The Somali coast of East Africa has been the center of piracy for over 12 years. A cruise ship was the last target. It escaped but a legacy of fear and worry for this coast is forcing a call for denominating it a "combat zone".

Just recently a Sebourn cruise ship, the Seabourn Spirit with 302 passengers, of whom 18 were British, was attacked off the coast of Somalia by pirates in two 25 foot inflatable boats. They attacked at high speed with rocket propelled grenade launchers and automatic weapons. It was felt that this was an act of piracy rather than a terrorist attempt.

The result of this attack was a loungeful of safe passengers, a crew who had been specially trained to repel people trying to gain entrance to the ship and a captain and bridge crew who first tried to run the pirates down at high speed, discharged a sonic "bang"; then changed course and outdistanced them.

Sebourn is a Carnival owned subsidiary. Carnival Cruise Lines is their worldwide headquarters based in Miami, Florida. It must have been a frightening time for the tourist-passengers and used the crew to their utmost; but it was not the first or the worst of the piracy off the Somali coast of East Africa over the past decade plus. Somalia has had no recognized government in 14 years.

The Times noted that,

"Numast, the maritime union, will meet the Chamber of Shipping in London this week to demand that the waters off Somalia, where there have been 25 attacks on shipping since March, be designated a combat area.

Such a declaration would give crew members the right to refuse to sail there, force shipowners to recruit extra staff for security duties, entitle crews to danger money and guarantee seafarers insurance cover."

The International Maritime Bureau has requested international shippers to maintain their craft at least 50 miles offshore. The pirates have become more invasive with one attack 120 miles from the coast. Ship owners have been advised to install electric fencing to repel boarders.

Citation for The Times article is at Sean O’Neill , The Times

Somalia has tuna resources and a rich eco-system offshore. However it has had no government since the fall of President Siad Barre's regime. The abyss left by the anarchy which was NOT solved by the UN/US entrance to bring "relief" to the population. Instead the warlords who destroyed that relief attempt now control the Somalia coastal patrol who have discovered that coastal patrol is easily turned to vessel seizure, kidnapping for ransom and outright piracy.

"With the breakdown of civil society, Somalia has degenerated into a no-man's land subject to clan or Islamic Shari'ah law. Owing to continuing unrest in the south, a central government is unlikely to evolve soon. In its place, a decentralized federation of regional political entities has emerged, including the self-proclaimed but unrecognized Republic of Somaliland in the northwest, the self-proclaimed Puntland State in the northeast, Jubaland in the south near Kismayo, and a future Banadir regional administration around Mogadishu when warlords Hussein Aideed (son of late General Farah Aideed) and Ali Mahdi settle their differences. Years of internal conflict have damaged infrastructure in the fishery sector and rendered ineffective any previous oil spill response capability, aids to navigation, and search and rescue capacity in a region of high tanker/cargo traffic to and from the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Aden and calling at Mombasa, the East African shipping hub..."

During this year a ship carrying a World Food Programme load of supplies into the chaos of Somalia was taken by the pirates. Her crew was held hostage for over 14 weeks. A rescue vessel sent to provide supplies to the kidnapped ship was also taken.

" Andrew Linnington, of Numast, said. 'We are now seeing ships stolen to order. Pirates will board a ship, cast the crew adrift, or sometimes kill them, before installing their own crew and sailing the vessel to a port where it is re-registered and renamed.

'Ships are very prone to attack. They are slow moving and cargo ships are low in the water, making it easy for pirates to climb on board...'"

The above quotes are from The Times of London

Further the political situation is so deteriorated in relation to the needs of maritime traffic that,

"With the breakdown of civil society, Somalia has degenerated into a no-man's land subject to clan or Islamic Shari'ah law. Owing to continuing unrest in the south, a central government is unlikely to evolve soon. In its place, a decentralized federation of regional political entities has emerged, including the self-proclaimed but unrecognized Republic of Somaliland in the northwest, the self-proclaimed Puntland State in the northeast, Jubaland in the south near Kismayo, and a future Banadir regional administration around Mogadishu when warlords Hussein Aideed (son of late General Farah Aideed) and Ali Mahdi settle their differences. Years of internal conflict have damaged infrastructure in the fishery sector and rendered ineffective any previous oil spill response capability, aids to navigation, and search and rescue capacity in a region of high tanker/cargo traffic to and from the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Aden and calling at Mombasa, the East African shipping hub. ..."

The list of vessels that have been subjected to illegal actions is long and fascinating albeit frightening. These ships are noted among others:

January, 1988: 2 ships, Bulgarian and a Syrian were captured. The crews were returned on payment of $110,000.

April, 1998: 2 Frenchman were finally released to the international community for $50,000

December, 1998: Four Ukrainian tourists from a yacht were captured. The returned to their home after a month without possessions or the yacht.

April, 1999 : A commercial ferry with a crew of 21 was abducted when it had mechanical problems. A ransom of $6.5 million was demanded; reduced to $15000 for the hostages. The ship was later abandoned and found drifting off the coast of Mombasa.

March, 1999: 2 fishing vessels from Taiwan and Ukraine taken with 50 people.

Also noted was the MV Ming Bright which was shelled hitting its superstructure and some containers but the crew escaped before they could be boarded.

And this is only an abbreviated list. See a full story at Somali Pirate Attacks.

Pravda reported in 2003 the escape of the tanker Monneron after an attack on the way to Mombassa.

" two boats with pirates approached the tanker at a distance of fifty metres and demanded that the ship stop. Three people in one boat and four in the other were armed with automatic weapons and grenade-launchers.

The crew of the tanker hid in the inner premises of the craft, and its speed was increased to the maximum. The captain immediately contacted the anti-pirate centre in Kuala Lumpur by phone and informed it of the incident. For their part, the specialists of the centre informed the command of the French naval force in Djibouti. All the ships, which were in the area of the incident, were also informed of the attack of the pirates.

The assailants fired three shots at the tanker from grenade-launchers and pursued the tanker for nearly an hour but the Monneron managed to escape. None of the crewmen was hurt."

The report is archived at: Tanker Escapes Pirates

Yesterday, 7 November, 2005 NUMAST, the international maritime union called for a UN force to guard shipping off the coast of East Africa:
"NUMAST – which represents some 19,000 shipmasters, officers and other maritime professionals – says the threat to maritime trade, lives, safety and the environment is so great in some hotspots that naval protection is essential.

It wants a United Nations-coordinated force of ships, backed up by aerial surveillance, to be deployed off the coast of east Africa to deter attacks on shipping. Without such a deterrent, NUMAST says there will be a growing risk of substantial loss of life or a major environmental disaster."

See NUMAST website where you can also look up your old shipmates. The site also offers some "shipcams" with views from bridges from ships at sea.

It is also a note that, like the humanitarian invasion of Somalia; some "small wars" remain unwinnable; the hearts and minds of the people untouched and the overall situation unchanged.

Miami travelogs

2005-10-16T21:57:00.000-05:00

Don't neglect the Miami travelogs at Expatriate Diaries Laguna Bacalar Mexico accessed on the right with the other links or at:

Expatriate Diaries; Miami

Bilingual bookstore_Miami

2005-09-11T22:25:00.000-05:00

A multilingual city and multilingual editions. Seen in Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL.

America Speaks More than English

2005-09-08T01:13:00.000-05:00

Recent AP and NY Times articles noted that a growing number of library systems in both large and small population areas are beginning to offer multi-lingual services. The New York Public Library seems to have at least 7 languages on its website.

Other areas -- no longer relegated to the South, Southwest and California -- are feeling the growth of Spanish speaking and other communities. If we are not careful America could turn into a melting pot. As the Spanish speaking and even reading population grows some public libraries have added more services in Spanish -- books, movies, periodicals.

Some localities with critics of immigration and the use of the languages of their origins have begun campaigns to counter these new services for the immigrant community. Denver, for instance, has a Republican Representative who has publicly asked if the library there was switching to Spanish instead of English materials. He voiced his worries -- and those he says are his constituents fears == that America cannot be divided by languages and that the use of any language other than English will alienate the native population and makes for tension in the community.

A local radio talk show moderator was involved in a protest because people had found sexually graphic pictures in Spanish language comic books (which were later removed from the library. I know these 5 peso comics here in Mexico hung in every papeleria and news stand. They are staple reading for the poorer and older population who do not read well nor much. My elderly Mayan gardener/guard used to always have one to look at under the light at the large door to the property while he waited for me to return and guarded my wife. They gave him a lot of pleasure and, at 75 or so, I doubt turned him into a sexual fiend.

In Denver there is a 15% Spanish speaking population. The adult services supervisor of the library said that the library brings materials to the people in whatever language is appropriate. It is that which libraries exist to do.

I grew up in a Cuban barrio and I hope that the Tampa Public Library had books for the non-English speakers. Books and magazines and movies are important. Knowing the backwardness of Tampa; probably not. In those days in the South even foreign language classes in public schools were fought since "If English was good enough for Jesus; it is good enough for our children." I remember that quote from much earlier days but it does not seem that much has changed.

One. Public Libraries in the United States have no business being censored.

Two. Reading materials and other services should benefit the community as a whole no matter what language it speaks.

Three. English is our national language but those who are so paranoid of losing control of the country because people will begin speaking Spanish must remember that there is room for different cultures and different languages. Remember, too, that it works both ways. America has failed at teaching multilingualism to its young people. In a complex world with myriad international contacts and businesses; it is time to actually begin early to bring a number of languages to the schools.

This was loosely based on an Associated Press report from the 5th of September.

Blogcritics Pick of the Week

2005-08-29T21:19:00.000-05:00

My commentary on James Fenimore Cooper's The Pathfinder was chosen by the editors of Blogcritics as a Pick of the Week. Neat!.

The post is here two posts previous (below) or at The Pathfinder: Action, Adventure and Romance

Painful Medicine

2005-08-27T23:09:00.000-05:00

We believe in our medical system as progressive, technologically advanced, always available and ready to relieve pain and danger. We may worry about the soaring costs, fat insurance company executive salaries, and unwillingness to provide the country with a health care safety net. But we still have faith that the doctors will still give us some "medicine" to cure the illness and take away the pain.

They used to come to your house to do it but we cannot hope for the moon. They used to give you some of their time and concentration rather than forming groups and seeing 3 people at a time: a few minutes with one, run out, a few minutes with another. It would be nice to feel special but we cannot hope for the stars either.

The fact is that American medicine is now being overseen and sometimes controlled by businessmen (HMOs) and cops. In an article on "Pain Management" from George Mason University,

The question is, what are the 10-20 million Americans who suffer chronic pain to do? The only non-narcotic painkiller left, aspirin, remains an option. However, long-term use of painkilling doses can lead to potentially fatal gastrointestinal bleeding. Some 16,000 people die each year from bleeding related to aspirin and other NSAIDs.

That is a lot of people, a lot of pain (which is difficult to quantify) and very few medications left for the average person. There are also people with an intense allergy to aspirin; even fewer alternatives for them. This present round of worries comes after the big loss in court suffered by Merck, the maker of Vioxx. The drug makers of COX-2 drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex have been linked to "an increased risk of heart attack and stroke". Later the NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as Advil and Ibuprofen were found to increase these risks were seen as part of the genre of medication to which belong the Vioxx and Celebrex meds. Since it is a tiny risk factor, we won't mention that people allergic to aspirin are usually allergic to NSAIDs.

So no Vioxx, no Advil, no aspirin. At least for the little aches and pains there is Tylenol (acetominophen). Nope.

And now, the last hold-out, Tylenol (acetominephen) has been linked with kidney problems and with a significantly increased risk for high blood pressure in women in an analysis of the Nurses’ Health Study.

The New York Times reported on the $253 million suit won against Merck but noted that Merck, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline continue to invest in these cox-2 drugs and hope to prove their safety. Click over to the David Nalle post on Blogcritics on The Vioxx Verdict. Mr. Nalle's article is less a polemic about the state of pain medication than a reasoned discussion of this high an award and the future for Merck as well as the drugs themselves.

See $253 Million for the New York Times Business section take on the Merck decision and the state of the industry.

Aspirin and Tylenol are not even strong enough painkellers to be classed for more than "mild" pain. What, then, is left? The answer is opoids. Opium derivatives.

"Unfortunately, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has recently gotten into the anti-opiate act, with director Nora Volkow claiming that medical education misleads doctors into believing that there is little risk of addiction when prescribing opoids for chronic pain because those who use them for acute pain treatment are not likely to become addicted.

In an interview with Psychiatric Times (7/05), Volkow said that "5-7%" of chronic pain patients given opioids become addicts. That means, of course, that over 93% do not, which many would see as a low risk. But other studies have found the risk to be lower than that claimed by Volkow. The risk for people without a prior history of drug problems, for example, has been found to be less than 1%. Furthermore, the risk of accidental addiction declines with age, which, given that many pain patients are middle aged or older, is an important consideration in considering any potential risk for accidental addiction. None of that, however, is mentioned in the Psychiatric Times piece."

Do note that the prescriptions of physicians are being controlled by an agency led by a Nora Volkow . She doesn't appear to have an M.D. or Dr. attached to her name but has the power or influence to help create painful medicine -- the present situation where "50% of dying patients in the U. S. are still under-treated for pain"-- at least according to the World Health Organization.

Note that quotations were from a release from George Mason University at Pain Management. I was led to this article by the excellent science site (similar to Blogcritics arts, culture and politics site), SciTechDaily

Other studies have shown that the vast majority of people who need pain medication for severe pain do NOT develop an addiction. If you are suffering a heart attack, believe me, morphine in huge doses is wonderful to stop the pain that is enough to kill by itself. But the morphine itself is unpleasant and nauseating and will forever remind me of the intense pain that caused me to take it. Addiction tends to require some pleasure associated with the subject -- morphine, nicotine, caffeine, fast food...

The fact is that opium derivatives do the job. A number of years ago when Jackie Kennedy Onassis was dying of painful cancer, the papers reported that she received enough painkillers to die without suffering. Essentially because she was rich, famous and an American icon. One should not have to be that rich nor famous to be kept from suffering needlessly.

It is time to reexamine our national priorities. We really cannot afford to have foreign wars and this artificial war on medications and recreational drugs at the same time. The nation's resources, veracity and safety are compromised by using valuable resources to watch physicians, cause recreational drugs to be so expensive that people kill for them, castigate older, sick people for looking for alleviation of suffering. Further, this "war" is totally non-productive. Billions have been spent and nothing has been produced except fear, pain and death. It is time to fight terrorists, if fight we must, and stop fighting the medical profession and the people it tries to serve.

Check the post with its comments at: Painful Medicine.

The Pathfinder:Adventure, Romance and Action

2005-08-21T00:34:00.000-05:00

James Fenimore Cooper (of The Last of the Mohicans fame is great fun. Yes, fun and romance and adventure and excitement. He is a bit out of fashion like black and white movies from the thirties but that doesn't mean that you wouldn't be missing a great experience by reading him.

Granted there are dated turns of phrase and he is a master of the forever long sentence like Henry James and Gertrude Stein, but these are small prices to pay for adventures in the wilderness. That wilderness is anything west of the Hudson River and north of Albany. The country was still small and its corners were not rounded into suburbs and federal highways.

These days Cooper is relegated often to being seen as the writer behind Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last of the Mohicans, a fine movie. Reading his stories of la longue carabine as the Indians of the French called him and "pathfinder" to the colonists is a struggle through some muddiness at first and then the adventures take over, the sentences make sense even though they often run on and the scenes of battle and the wilderness are trips on their own. These were planned as adventures and adventures they are.

I am not competent to review Cooper. He is an American classic and the stuff of academic discussions and classes, criticism and scholarship. I call this a "commentary" or perhaps just a reminder that all classics are not "school books". Read him for fun and for a sense of the history of our nation when it was young and the world was simpler.

Perhaps I love the Leatherstocking Tales with Natty Bumppo (Pathfinder) because the rules of the game were, like the first Superman, a simple goodness of spirit of which we are today losing so rapidly in the world. Natty Bumppo had wasn't just a prince of the virgin continent; his code of conduct was definite -- faithful, moral, fearless and he was an example of a "just minded and pure man might be."

Cooper describes him about a third of the way into the book as:

"... the most striking feature about the moral organization of Pathfinder was beautiful and unerring sense of justice. This noble trait -- and without it no man can be truly great...As might have been expected... his fidelity was like the immovable rock; treachery in him was classed among the things which are impossible; and as he seldom retired before his enemies, so was he never known... to abandon a friend..."

OK. This is not a short excerpt and the paragraph goes on and on. Still, this is the man we need now and men like him to rid the world of the bad guys and remind us who the good guys really are.

If the classics of American literature have turned you away; give Cooper a chance. Visit the adventure of a previous time. There is fun to be had and suspense without a serial killer in sight.

Open Water Swimming updated

2005-08-20T00:09:00.000-05:00

There is a new post with links (even to a "fiction") on blogcritics. Catch it.

Tourist Heaven: The Down Side

2005-08-14T23:41:00.000-05:00

Review: Live Well in Mexico

2005-08-14T23:33:00.000-05:00

Ready to change your life, your retirement or your occupation? A really big change.

We are expatriates in Mexico and have been for more than seven years. It has been both wonderful and horrible beyond imagining. We ended up here at the southern frontier for a few reasons: health, a slow life on a higher level than our income would allow in the States and because it reminded me of the Cuban area of Tampa where I grew up.

It was a great decision. It was a great mistake. One never knows which unless they did both things. It has been the best of times; it has been the worst of times to paraphrase the English master of fiction. Dickens never even went to Mexico to learn that line.

I might call this a recurring theme to this "sinister cabal". I have written on Manuel Alvarez Bravo, the great Mexican photographer, Edward Weston & Tina Modotti's love affair
with each other and with Mexico, Alan Riding's book, Distant Neighbors and Bernal Diaz del Catillo's story of the Conquest.

My new photoblog is "Expatriate Diaries" and replaces an older one. The first
included a guide for foreigners in Mexico that I thought of turning into a book. However, Ken Luboff did something similar in Live Well in Mexico: "How to Relocate, Retire, and Increase Your Standard of Living". Ken Luboff's book has its own site: Live Well in Mexico

How does his book stand in the pantheon of gudes and self-help works? Sometimes good and complete but too often weak and limited, I think.

We must start with the pictures since I, a photographer, always look at the pictures. They are black and white in a country and culture of color, amateurish and lacking in the most important thing they would bring to this book -- information. OK. He is not a photographer but around San Miguel Allende there is little excuse for visually ignoring Mexico.

For a quick tour of some interesting places not in his guide; try my albums at Architecture and
Tropical Flowers.

Next is a reason the book doesn't relate to a lot of people. It is about the central, urban heart of Mexico which is far different from other parts of the country. It centers on San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato along with Guadalajara and Lake Atitlan. As much as I would like to see San Miguel it is too high for my heart condition and so remains a mythical place where Kerouac's pal, Neal Cassady died, run over by a train. These places and every location he writes of are those with huge English-speaking populations. Here in Quintana Roo there are already places with big foreign communities: Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, etc.

Luboff writes of prices (from 1999) that are 25-50% or the prices in the U.S. I cannot argue except to remind readers that he is writing of the most expensive neighborhoods of the most expensive towns of Mexico: San Miguel, Puerto Vallarta, Cuervevaca, Cabo San Lucas... These are places with lots of English, prices in $'s, and where the foreign and Mexican communities look fearfully or hatefully at each other from a distance. In spite of problems with individual Mexicans (and Americans), I much prefer a mixed community of cultures.

He is right about prices then and now. Here on the southern frontier the prices are far, far lower that his foreign resort towns. Here it was inexpensive and quiet until the developers and the chilangos "city people" brought their tensions and prejudices to the Mayan villages down the coast from the "international zone". He is right that there is much in Mexico that is cheaper. Medications (usually), labor, food and housing. But much is more expensive: gadgets, electronics, good medical care, cars, food beyond the Mexican staples. Some things are given up for others gained.

We have a big, lovely house on the shore of what was the most beautiful swimming hole in the hemisphere, a guard/gardener and a maid 5-6 days a week. We can hold our heads high on a budget that, in the US would be near "poverty level".

Luboff is not always right: limited to a certain part of Mexico and somewhat dated. On the other hand for those who dream of a different, slower, higher scale life than they have in the States; the more information the better. It is hard to find enough to sift through. As a result, the book is well worth the price. Just realize that there is so much to learn that a lot of research and experience will be necessary. In short, research a life change very carefully and take it slowly.

A highly respected Blogcritic asked, "With all the problems you have had (robberies and attacks); why do you stay?" That is a good question. So is the one about where one could go to find a better life. Other third world countries have similar or far worse problems. Mexico is close, relatively stable, definitely looking for its unique path to democracy and a new society.

Mexico Mike Nelson also has a book out on living in Mexico. I have not read it but have read much of his guidebook style guides to driving through Mexico when we did just that and got his material from Sanborn's Insurance in Texas. He was helpful in those guides sometimes and sometimes far off the mark. We almost missed our favorite motel in Catemaco, Veracruz since he wrote that the manager held him there an hour to check the room on checkout. But we stayed perhaps five times for a few days to a couple of weeks since it was so clean and pleasant. Mexico Mike must have given them quite an impression. There were other discrepancies and there were also incredibly fine finds from his writings.

With my website looking for its unique path, there will continue to be posts on life here, life as a stranger in a strange land. Blogcritics will be a part of My Website or the other way around. There is room for stories and advice on living as an expatriate in Mexico or another haven for the disaffected, pensioners and would-be entrepreneurs.

The site US Expatriates Abroad notes that "The Dallas Morning News highlights the growth of the population of U.S. citizens in Mexico and forecasts that it will continue to increase as baby boomers retire. "The U.S. State Department estimates that the number of Americans in Mexico has increased from about 200,000 a decade ago to between 600,000 and 1 million today," the paper reports."

They go on to report that 10 million Americans now live abroad although I have also heard the figure as 12 million.

Cozumel Tourist Display

2005-08-14T23:27:00.000-05:00

©Beringer-Dratch, 2004. This is the tourist destination "upside". I like Cozumel but, on a big cruise ship day, 30,000 extra people hit this small town.

Review of the book,Distant Neighbors

2005-08-07T20:47:00.000-05:00

Mexican culture, history and politics differ amazingly from ours. It is the time to look for more understanding.

There sits America from sea to shining sea. There is a whole continent washed by both oceans carved out of the lands of native Americans, Mexicans, and anyone else who was not white enough to be coopted or Black enough to be enslaved.

To the south is Mexico. They are our closest neighbors except for Canada. Both share lengthy, contiguous borders with us. But, unlike Canada with whom we bicker now that we can no longer atttack it 18th c style, Mexico is part of a wholly alien culture. It is not America or Canada with a Spanish accent. It is a unique and sovereign country with a totally unique culture even for Central and South America.

It did not share our history of English Common Law nor the American ideal (never met) of democracy and the Rights of Man. It was at one and the same time European, Spanish colonial; multiple, mixed indigenous tribes that had shared ancient civilizations of much mystery (still) and of beautiful cities and advanced scientific and mathematical sciences. The Mayans and Aztecs are the best known although they were and are not the only indigenous groups of Mexico.

This is a complex sovereignty and a unique country that may or may not ever be understood by the English speaking countries. The USA is at the top of that list. The gap of deep understanding between the two is closer to an abyss.

As a stranger in a strange land, living here but still an American; I am not allowed to comment on Mexican politics and even writing of culture is frowned upon unless it is totally positive. Therefore I present a short review of a good, long book on the subject.

Read Alan Riding's book, Distant Neighbors. It is composed of his thoughts and observations-- and they are insightful -- from his years here as a New York Times correspondent. He wrote the book after leaving Mexico.

He wrote of history (America's Conquest that we called "Manifest Destiny" was so different from Mexico's strange domination by a small band of Spanish conquistadores. They came as gods and found a civilization that thought they were. They enslaved and burned books and knowledge and tried to destroy all the old religions. Instead they made one of the most successful societies of mixed ancestry in the western hemisphere (and perhaps the eastern).

Riding also writes of politics, into which I cannot enter, from the viewpoint of a knowledgeable foreign correspondent. He presents a complex story of interlocking parties and battles in a way that the myriad political parties can be almost understood. He presents a picture of the way the political society works that is now being changed but is an ingrained fact of the culture.

Best, I think, is that he tries to explain the culture of a complex society in a way that an American can grasp. That is not an easy chore.

Today, more than ever, America must understand the forces of nationhood, pride, honor and desires of the nations of a shrinking world and especially those of our two closest neighbors.

I leave Canada to American expatriates there and Canadians to explain. I once listened to the CBC on shortwave about a battle memorial where a great defense was made against the invaders. It took quite a time before I realized that the invaders were us.

Blogcritics Hits 10,000,000

2005-08-04T21:35:00.000-05:00

Blogcritics.org is celebrating nearly three years on the "air" (net, cyberspace, information superhighway...) and yesterday hit 10,000,000 visitors. Eric Olsen, who runs the show with some others I would love to meet in person rather than merely digitally, has posted his feelings on the milestone HERE.

There is also a link on the right navigation column. I have written a number of reviews, commentaries, opinions and, even, a newsy post for them and it has mostly been a good experience. I usually find something or a few somethings to read at the same time.

A Picture for the Last Posts

2005-07-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

Since I jettisoned my old photoblog for a new one and I am editing down the photo albums; I add this image from Miami to go with the writing post which is also on Blogcritics.

Writing as a Way of Healing

2005-07-28T04:30:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I commented on a simple book about controlling stress in a review by Floris Vermeir at Book of Calm.

I was a little harsh in my comment that books like these and Chicken Soup for the Soul did not really help anything. They were merely a salve for tragedy, unhappiness and horror. I had, after all, gotten a copy after a heart attack from a sweet and well-meaning acquaintance.

My wife was recently injured badly and a woman sent her this book: Writing as a Way of Healing. I have been reading it since my wife, a painter, feels she can work out her demons in her pictures. I, on the other hand, have slacked off my photography and am writing. When I was first sick It was strongly suggested that I write out my pain and worries and even begin some stories again or a non-fiction account and overview of a heart attack. That was eleven years ago and I wish I had begun the first day I could lift a pencil. It was good advice. I didn't take it.

On release from the hospital I did what all good blogcritics would do and took everything out of the library on heart disease and read them. A physician's first-person narrative of his attack and subsequent heart failure (sorry, title forgotten) helped save my life 2 months later when flash edema (named because it hits so quickly) began to kill me. Instead of waiting I remembered his description and called the paramedics immediately. Living 20 minutes from their station in the woods meant I kept breathing just long enough for them to get there. Not knowing the symptoms might have meant a different outcome.

The subject of this book subtitled, " How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives"is writing stories, histories, journals (maybe even blogs) in order to deal with the things in life that are almost impossible to deal with. The author, Louise DeSalvo, acts as mother hen and teacher to people who need catharsis for all manner of molestation, injury, abuse, disease and injury; Louise DeSalvo does it well enough to change my mind on this book. It has the value of therapy rather than the self-help pap of many such attempts.--the stuff of gifts when you visit the newly injured or hurt.

On the other hand, there is the art of literature and the fact that merely because some artists are also exorcising demons; does not mean that exorcising demons makes you an artist. DeSalvo writes, for example... "I've learned how, for example, Virginia Woolf, Djuna Barnes,, and Henry Miller wrote their way out of suicidal or homicidal episodes. How they transformed their traumatic past into woorks of art..." Well, maybe. Or maybe they had traumatic pasts that became art written by people who always had been forced to write by their muse.

I do not negate the therapeutic aspect of writing. DeSalvo presents a strong and supportively worded plan for people in emotional and physical need to face their pasts, their painful presents and their often uncertain futures. I spent many years working in a mental hospital (now" Psychiatric Center") and ran successful group sessions based on multi-media ways for long-term psychotic and institutionalized people to face some real demons and delusions and to work toward more self-reliance.

Sure. This kind of plan works. The author merely forgets sometimes that F. Scot Fitzgerald and William Faulkner were artists with demons and tragedies. The tragedies did not make them artistis.

Jackson Pollock was an alcoholic and a great painter but the painter came first. Henry Miller had an upsetting love affair for his times. But the Tropic series of novels were still works of art and merely given impetus by the unhappiness of his love life.

My first story was of my first unhappy love affair and a Kerouac-like trip out of the South to the big city of New York. It was cathartic for a college freshman. It was not great art. Virginia Woolf did, indeed, use books like To The Lighthouse to exorcise childhood insecurity and molestation but hers were books of substance -- those that we call "art".

I do, actually, suggest this book as a possibility for someone who needs the push to open their heart and mind and deal with seemingly insurmountable problems. But I also warn them that Ms. DeSalvo dwells on the therapy and the tragedies a bit too much. There is a limit to the repetitive mention of Holocaust stories, childhood rape (a 5 year old!), writing by the bedside of dying children and mothers. When it is Isabel Allende it is art and catharsis. When it is another example of the horrors that life throws in our faces it can become too much for the reader.

Sadly, DeSalvo seems totally non-visual. For my wife and I the image is as or more powerful than the word but words are still the stuff of therapy; pictures come in dreams. For DeSalvo there is an anecdote that "...In 1997 I attended an exhibit called 'Art that Heals: The Image as Medicine in Ethiopia'. (There is) "... an Ethiopian healing scroll, an iconic drawing of geometric shapes and five sets of eyes and written prayers..." She ignores the images and speaks again only of words. It is obvious that the healing power of pictures, icons, photos, and drawings has been lost on her.

For a time Carl Jung's Memories, Reflections and Dreams was a favorite but each reading dredged up so many dreams or such power that I finally stopped re-reading it. That is the power of both the word and of pictures and icons.

Is writing good for the soul? Absolutely. Better than chicken soup. Today after beginning this post I read by Dr Pat ; I realized that there is a real life reason for a program to help people write out their losses and horrors. He lost a friend without being able to say "good bye". But since he is an avid reader and a writer, he wrote out his hurt in a Blogcritics post. He confronted his feelings with words and that is what DeSalvo -- depressing as she can be -- outlines. His post made me feel that this book of suggestions and support for writing about traumas is far more valid than I first thought.

My final thought, which is not mentioned in the book, is the recent growth of blogs. I speak not of the corporate news blogs or blogcritics which is more like a magazine; but of the personal blogs by the millions where people write out their hearts for small audiences and no pay. It belies the need of people to communicate feelings and document their lives.

Guidant Recalls Heart Device

2005-07-20T02:57:00.000-05:00

The Guidant Corporation finally alerted physicians that it had nine "older pacemaker models (which) were prone to failing". The company which is already in a controverisal situation over earlier recalls of its units said that some implanted units might need replacing. If you don't have one yet and work at your desktop PC or Mac instead of keeping it in your chest; you have no worries.

Guidant alerted doctors to the failure possibility in the 28,000 made from November, 1997 to October, 2000. That was a bad year to be dying of heart problems, obviously. In a capitalist world you should have had the foresight to get your pacemaker from a different company or at a different time. Shame!

The problem is "...that a component used to seal the pacemakers could degrade...causing the devices to fail. Such failure could cause 'serious health complications' in some patients." This problem follows Guidants recent recall of "tens of thousands of implantable heart defibrillators..."

I love medical euphemisms. I mention it because I have a second "pacing device" implanted and made by Guidant. It is a "bi-ventricular pacing device " and has a built-in defibrillator. (I will shortly give a short course on carrying your palmtop in your chest.) The euphemisms, however, often make me laugh -- or something. In 1994, 2 days after a massive heart attack, my body (or a medical error) caused cardiac arrest. I was about to be transferred from intensive care and was sitting up eating a great looking chef salad when I felt so badly even I knew it was time to ring the bell. It was one of the hardest things I had ever done -- raising my hand high enough to bring it down on the old fashioned bell. Some time later, after some excitement that I was not on this planet to see, I looked up at an expectant team of six people and said "thanks". A joke seemed out of place and letting them know I was happier in the other realm would have negated their pride. I asked my nurse later, "What happened?" The reply: "Oh, we just lost your pulse for a while." Wow! Think of the things that can now be lost and found again.

Recently I described a later angioplasty to a surgeon where the clod cardiologist broke the coronary artery and I had emergency by-pass a few minutes later with a lot of running and shouting "Out of the way! Emergency!" This surgeon said, "That was lucky. It is usually a terminal event." For the busy physician with life and death on his hands, he can stop worrying about patients dying. They merely expepience "terminal events".

The NY Times today reported that...
"...Guidant has been under scrutiny since late May when it was disclosed that the company failed to notify doctors for three years that an electrical defect in one defibrillator model could cause it to short-circuit when needed to save a patient's life. The company continued to sell units with the potential electrical flaw even after it began producing improved versions of the same model in which the problem had been fixed.

The F.D.A. is investigating how Guidant handled reviews of its products' dangers. Since late May, the company has issued alerts or recalled 11 models of defibrillators."

See NY Times.

Another site of importance is by the Medical and Heathcare Devices Regulatory Agency of the UK at: UK Regulatory Agency.

Dr. Bruce Wilkoff at the Cleveland Heart Center responded with a concise description of the types of implanted devices and the statement that...

"...Although under some circumstances all three types of devices can protect a patient’s life, defibrillators most specifically are used for this purpose. Therefore defibrillators are placed to protect patients from sudden cardiac death. Sudden cardiac death happens frequently in patients with heart disease. Although there are no guarantees with defibrillator therapy, it has been shown to be a very good, very effective and very reliable form of treatment. This is also true of pacemakers and biventricular pacing devices.

Nevertheless, occasionally a defibrillator, pacemaker or biventricular model will be identified as being potentially affected by a problem that could cause the device to fail and not protect the patient. Often the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will call the situation a recall. However, each situation is different, and while sometimes the device will need to be removed and replaced, in the vast majority of situations THIS IS NOT THE BEST ANSWER.

Often, like the recent situations, the problem is so rare or so mild, that it is very unlikely to be harmful to most patients. In fact, all manufactured devices have a small failure rate..."

See Dr. Wilkoff's article and description of the major types of implanted machines at Cleveland Heart Center.

For an informative and fun version of pacemakers and their invention - by accident - by Wilson Greatbach in Inventing Modern America by David E. Brown which presents an anthology of fascinating inventions and their stories. Great for non-science types and wonderful for young people with an interest in invention and science. It is availably here and on my photoblog through Amazon and its own website at Inventing America. There is a great article on the World Wide Web and the first Apple, too.

The three implantable machines are a pacemaker which is smaller and "prevents the heart from going to slowly."

"DEFIBRILLATOR (ALSO CALLED AN ICD): This device is a bit larger and includes the activity of the pacemaker but also watches the heart for sudden fast heart rhythms." I had one of these for a time and it kept me alive and, here in the Mexican jungle; was there in case of cardiac arrest where you have a few minutes to get to a defib device and the closest is at least a half hour away, maybe four (if it is working and hasn't been stolen)

And, as I have now which is helping amazingly: a Guidant "BIVENTRICULAR PACING OR CARDIAC RESYNCHRONIZATION DEVICES: These devices treat heart failure, a condition when the heart does not pump enough blood to the body. These devices are either a pacemaker or a defibrillator but also have an extra lead (wire that goes from the metal device to the heart). The extra lead activates another part of the heart (left ventricle) which improves the efficiency of the heart to squeeze out more blood with every heart beat"

Am I worried about the recall? Not really. It is working, I haven't been notified and my mood doesn't include the surgery to change the one I have. Should these devices be watched more and more carefully as they multiply and become progressively more sophisticated? Absolutely!

Imogen Cunningham, Photographer: 1883-1976

2005-07-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

Photo by Howard Dratch. Similar to a Cunningham (not as good) but no copyright problems.
A grand old photographer of the feminine persuasion.
Cunningham began and enjoyed a life as a portrait photographer. She was most inlfuenced by Gerturde Kasebier who, I think, she quickly eclipsed. The marriage to a tactile artist, the potter, Roi Partridge, lasted until 1947. Of him she left some wonderful portraits of strong hands at work in the clay.

She worked with her strong determination and will until a ripe age. One of her last books celebrates age in a way it is not usually seen. Beyond Ninety was her study, her series of interview, dead on photos of people who were beyond ninety and, like her, continued to give and think and crae. The photo that always sticks so tenaciously to my mind is the portrait of her father, past ninety, with his long beard from another time, sitting on the huge pile of firewood he had cut and split to prepare for another winter.

"An old lady", you say. OK, she grew to be one because that is what happens to young women who survive to old age. Some do. Few thrive and pulse with creativity and continue to advance with modern pictures presented in new ways until the end. Another picture that always haunts me in Cunningham in a self-portrait in a shop's mirror in the manner of Winogrand or Szarkowski but so much older. The scene seems so familiar a part of the last quarter or the 20th century but the subject is a little old lady holding her well-used Rolleiflex and facing the viewer directly, facing herself, confronting the years that had slipped away and accepted them with some equanimity. It is a great shot.

There are also the flowers. They are another theme of hers that, since I also love to climb into their reproductive organs and look into their intense color and shape. I add one of mine which is decidedly NOT a Cunningham but it gives you the genre and does not infringe on anyone's copyright.

Her body of work, portraits, flowers, some nudes, even street shooting lasted more than 60 years. She used those years to hone her skills and to keep learning to see better and better.
To view or buy copies of her work go to The Imogen Cunningham Trust at Imogen Cunningham

There is a quick, brief but interesting biography at Bio.

For the younger photographers surrounded by digital cameras, memory cards and sticks and flash cards; she may seem from another world. But, the world is only different in media -- film and silver and early color versus Photoshopped, digitally printed images that can be viewed on screens and shown to millions , transferred across the globe in seconds (or is it nanoseconds?), desk-top published and conserved on DVDs and CDs. The technology changed.

The ability to see well has not. Cunningham's pictures are hers, are unique both in vision and time and pass the test --they still please the viewer so many years later.

Father Michael in his parish in Mexico

2005-07-03T20:34:00.000-05:00

This is an old picture that somehow reminds me of the Marcel Theroux book although I am not sure why. Black and white perhaps? A Dickensian character. A journey for Fr. Michael from Dublin to Bacalar, Mexico. They seem to want to be together. And who am I to keep a picture from a book; two things I love.

Marcel Theroux: "A Stranger in the Earth"

2005-07-02T23:25:00.000-05:00

This Marcel Theroux novel should be ordered from Amazon. Magically it will come to your door. Modern miracles.

My wife and I, when we both enjoyed A Stranger in the Earth were both surprised. We had not thought about it, read reviews, seen it in Blogcritics posts or the NY Times Book Review. Besides, it was published in 1998.

The surprise was that un-modern game I have played all my life of rooting in bargain bins, used bookstores, Salvation Army outlets and library fairs. The game is to find and collect books after tearing apart the bins and straining your eyes along racks of books or sneezing your way through old cardboard boxes of paperbacks. Once in a great while a treasure appears. Slightly more often an enjoyable book pops out . This one I found in the $1 bin in the Target Store after much rooting.

Let's cut to the chase. A country lad raised by an Edwardian grandfather (bumpkin, as it were) leaves for a job on a small newspaper in London that is his uncle's on the death of gramps. Is he ready for London of 1998? Hardly. He was schooled at home and dressed in "sensible" Edwardian wear complete with cape. Dickensian characters pour out of newsrooms, shops and sidestreets. It is London.

Turns out that he can write, he manages to make friends and even girlfriends and function in the metropolis. He changes and the paper changes. Friends change. Characters grow and grow likeable and real.

Where is the mystery? How many chase scenes and shoot outs?. Well, none. Sorry. Let us call this "a slice of life in modern London". As Horace thinks, "... But who understands the daily calvaries of a million unhappy people, and the fairytale reversals that make their wan lives bearable?" The man doesn't solve mysteries except for inklings about the heart and of life.

It is a book of stories, newspaper and otherwise, and of characters that do some breathing on their own and some growing. All this is a lot for a first novel. We liked it. Both of us for once agreeing on contemporary literature. Amazing.

He is the first son of Paul Theroux, a famous writer, and was born in Uganda in '68 . I have always wanter to read Paul Theroux, the master with the interesting sounding books. I never could. His son learned and excelled. Give him a try with this, his first novel, or his later work.

China's Cyber Space Patrol

2005-07-01T20:40:00.000-05:00

Chinese websites are now required to register with the national authorities prior to 10 June or the government plans to close them down at least temporarily.

AFP reported that the Ministry of Information Industry was attempting "to control domestic internet information services..."

If they are closed they will still be allowed 10 days to comply with the registration requirements. Then they will be closed for good the government agency promises.

So far the Chinese government has required internet cafes (which are legion in the developing world where every kid and business person has a computer, laptop and, probably, wireless services) to register with the Ministry before being allowed to offer internet access. Websites of size have already been forced to sign a "code of conduct" that would control the content of websites and chatrooms. Blogs are not noted in the article.

Since I often watch Chinese blogs and bloggers out of interest for the culture of both China and the blogosphere; I would expect more stringent rules to emerge very soon that would attempt to control this modern mode of communication that is, perhaps, uncontrollable.

In China the effort to control the content of the net and access to it is called "The Great Firewall of China." Obviously the idea is to keep free lines of communication off the internet -- especially "subversive", anti-government discussions and postings.

According to AFP " ... The Chinese government forecasts the country will have 120 million Internet users by the end of 2005, a figure that would mark a growth of nearly 28 percent from 94 million at the end of 2004."

In the period immediately preceding the breakup of the U.S.S.R. I attended a prophetic lecture by a political scientist. I was the photographer and had time to listen (it had been my undergraduate and grad school majors, after all). I have forgotter (forgive me) his name but the gist of the long talk was that the growth of personal computers, fax machines, photocopiers (cell phones and the net came later) would seriously hamper the efforts of authoritarian governments to control their citizens with Big Brother techniques of mid control and to limit the passage of information.

A few years later came the Tianaman Square massacre and it grew into a threat to the government and then a bloodbath precisely because people were able to reproduce information and transmit it around the world. And this was still before the internet.

What China will do and how well it will succeed remains a fascinating question. Theirs is a growing, strengthening, and dynamic society and economy. They have embraced technology and speak of democracy. Perhaps we will begin to see those limits (or changes) as well as how well the new technologies work in the world to guarantee the free transmission and expression of ideas.

There is a great deal more to this story. Check Yahoo and Google and other search engines under "China and blogs" and you will see an international concern being voiced.

MSNBC is yet another voice heard from on the subject of the Chinese censorship attempt.

I quote Google's synopsis: SHANGHAI, China - "Authorities have ordered all China-based Web sites and blogs to register or be closed down, in the latest effort by the communist government to police the world of cyberspace.

Commercial publishers and advertisers can face fines of up to 1 million yuan ($120,000) for failing to register, according to documents posted on the Web site of the Ministry of Information Industry.

Private, noncommercial bloggers or Web sites must register the complete identity of the person responsible for the site, it said. The ministry, which has set a June 30 deadline for compliance, said 74 percent of all sites had already registered."

Robert Frank: The Americans

2005-06-29T14:56:00.000-05:00

©Beringer-Dratch. Huastecan boy in Tamuin, San Luis Potosì

This is the real thing, the 50's and 60's - the Beats - the seminal work of photography and prose that brought the beauty of coming of age on that ubiquitous road trip across America to American youth as the rite of passage to manhood in a culture that was not to fall (as many did) into suburban little boxes that are now big boxes and who were not to forget that the country was made up of people who were far from alike and far from ready to embrace a conforming, Republican reality of follow the leader.

It is Robert Frank's brilliant hand-held, non-digital, often grainy and even blurred, un-Photoshopped pictures of the America that unfolded before him at mid-century. And with them and their surprises and laughter and tears are the words of Jack Kerouac whether written without stopping on paper rolls or not.

In deference I have written this in the same way except on an Apple TextEdit sheet that just scrolls away. But it is 2005. Can you believe it? And the waitresses of roadside diners are there still but the film is not grainy and the diner is a chain fast food joint without any character and a photographer would be detained for shooting in a trademarked establishment by rentacops who have no sense or sense of humor or sense of vision.

This is it, the beginning, the germinal work. It is that which you study to know where 20th century photogrpahy - street photography - came from and to try to understand where 21st century photogrpahy should go. Take a look. The 1950's just aren't that far away.

It was the beginning.