I wander down the street looking for people, but nobody is around. Suddenly, I hear pounding foot steps coming towards me and a loud roar. I don’t see the beast, but I turn and run as fast as I can to get back home. I can feel it getting closer to me, the vibrations of the footsteps shaking the ground. As I near the mound of dirt, I realize I won’t make it back to the house before I am eaten. I remember I dug a large cavity in the mound of dirt, large enough to play in. I feel the warm breath blowing on my back. I sprint to the cave opening on the opposite side of the mound. I turn quickly and enter the hollowed mound. The space inside is less than twice my size. I push myself as far away from the opening as possible. The massive body of what looks like a dinosaur blocks the entrance and darkens the room. I can see its dark, scaly skin pass by the door, gradually revealing a long slender tail. With my back against the opposite wall, I feel a chill on my lower back; and then a gentle tickle with something brushing against my back. My face goes pale as I remember a small whole in the wall. I jump away from the wall and see the tail of the monster brushing across the whole. I scream and wake from the dream.

I woke up scared to death of the dinosaur in my dream. I ran to my mom and dad’s bedroom. My dad and I retreated to the bathroom; I suspect he chose the bathroom because we could have the light on without keeping my mom and sister awake. We sat in there for what seemed like an hour or more. He told me stories about his nightmares, and talked about dreams. The recurring dream would haunt me for a year or more, and the first few times I needed my dad to protect me from them. As I grew up, I learned to sit in quiet and recognize nightmares as fiction.

We traveled ten to fifteen minutes out on the lake; although, for an anxious boy, it seemed closer to an hour. As we dropped anchor and started preparing our rods, Dad discovered there were no worms in the worm container. Apparently, we forgot to restock after the previous day or night’s fishing. Well, shucks; we were kind of stuck after traveling “all this way” to just pull up anchor and head back. Dad started hunting through the things we’d brought, rifling through the fishing gear, yielded nothing of value.

I felt sad. We had talked so much about how great it would be out there fishing. Now, the possibility of missing it, filled me with disappointment. At this point, my Dad brought forth the Leiner-ingenuity; he started looking for other options. Dad grinned. “What do you think?”, Dad said, offering Bob the sandwiches we had packed. They were peanut butter on bread (maybe with jelly). Bob laughed lightly, “What do we got to lose?” I vaguely remember Bob retelling a story of him adapting by using something uncommon for fishing; although I don’t remember what exactly he mentioned. With his classic big smile, wider than his ears, Dad said to me, “We came out her to get away and enjoy nature. Who cares if we catch anything, right?”

Dad took a chunk of peanut butter and bread, balled it up, and smashed it on a hook. He dropped the line in the water, maybe five feet from the boat, and then handed the pole to me. Dad and Bob continued to prepare their poles to fish, but only half purposefully. They were more interested in the chit-chat and coffee. We sat that there watching the bobber in the water, just slowing rocking in the waves. When the fish finally decided to try my peanut butter, it took the hook and, with a sharp tug, pulled the bobber beneath the surface of the water. The sudden excitement filled me. Dad and Bob’s amazement filled the air even more. Apparently, they honestly did not expect the peanut butter sandwich to work.

We had a great time fishing. When we got back to shore, I ran to Mom and Dot (Bob’s wife) and told them all about how I caught the fish. Such a cool idea of using peanut butter. However, I’m not sure they ever really believed those fish stories.

The plainness of the blankness
begins to dissolve into
threads and wisps.

You observe changes in hue,
fainter whites, light greys,
wispy threading.

Staring you discern contours,
cavities, missing color, nothing,
but not nothing.

Changes of threads and hue,
separating from you,
and returning in full.

You feel the presence of nothing;
randomly, occasionally,
increasingly often.

Startling disappearance of the white and wisps
and threads and greys
and contours and gaps.

And you are in openness
and space and nothing,

When you come out of the clouds, you see everything.

Beyond the fence, many shrubs of various kinds and sizes grew sporadically along the railway. These shrubs sometimes grew too close to the railway, forcing the railroad company to spray them to control their grow and keep them at least twenty feet away from the railway. At some point, they began using a new “more safe” chemical to help reduce the amount of regrowth. Unfortunately, the spray was either over-applied or over-effective, killing some trees in people’s back yards along the tracks, including our cherry tree.

I remember Dad struggling to keep the cherry tree alive, but unsuccessfully. In an attempt to make the best of it, Dad, removed most of the limbs from the tree leaving a carefully pruned and shaped skeletal form, then, to protect the wood from the elements, he painted it remainder auburn red. Within the bare branches, Dad constructed a platform frame of two-by-fours and a floor made of plywood. This platform was approximately three by six feet. On top of the platform was constructed an A-frame fort, inspired by a vacation spot we occasionally visited on Sanford Lake. In the center of the floor was a small hole to allow access to the interior of the fort. Dad attached a half-dozen or so rungs, made from leftover chunks of two-by-two lumber, to the trunk of the tree to allow ascent to the exclusive retreat. A window at the rear allowed casual, relaxing views of the passing railroad cars. I would venture to guess the platform was only four feet off the ground, but it seemed a mile in the sky to me.

This became my hideaway. I would spend hours in the tree by myself or with neighborhood friends. I remember neighborhood friends coming to play under the tree and in the fort. Tommy Wagner, Billy and Troy Young, Candy Staples, Andy Yacks, Sharon White and others, would come by and play cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, and other games in and around the tree. We would design complex schemes to defend the fort from foreign invaders, like my little sister. It would act as a house, fort or hiding spot. With Tonka dump trucks and loaders, we completed “massive” construction projects at its base. The tree offered concealment from water-hose attacks. It protected me from hurled projectiles “inadvertently” left on the rail tracks. First kisses. First cigarette. The shadow of the auburn-painted cherry tree contained many roots of my growth and maturation.

Augusto Pinochet ruled as a dictator over Chile from 1973 until 1988, after executing a successful, and heavily supported, coup d’état.  The years that followed his appointment as president gradually moved away from the historic democracy lived by Chileans.  His violent dictatorship, the weakened global economy, and political unrest in Chile, led citizens of Chile to unite and participate in subdued public displays against Pinochet’s continued dictatorship.  His zealous belief in his electability sealed his inevitable fait accompli.

Chile, Poland, the Philippines, South Africa, Ukraine and China; all of these revolutions largely can reflect back upon the waning of the Soviet Union’s strength and the end of the Cold War.  These countries depended, directly or indirectly, on the competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for monetary reinforcement and military support.  As the Soviet Union became weaker and less able to control its contributories, so too did the United States became less supportive of anti-Communist dictatorships.  The United States’ reduced support weakened those leaders previously supported by the United States solely to counter Communism.

Chile maintained a form of democracy with elected president and representatives, referred to as Presidential Republic, from 1925, until September 1973.  From 1970 until 1973, the Chilean President, Salvador Allende, struggled, unsuccessfully, through his term to maintain order within Chile.  However, ongoing pressures from the United States, coupled with economic recession, eventually weakened Allende’s position.  Allende also faced opposition from the forces of Christian Democrats and National Party (a moderate Socialist political party).

In 1973, a coup d’état, supported by the United States, ousted Allende and instituted a junta, or military dictatorship.  This placed General Augusto Pinochet in power.  Pinochet’s uprising received support from the United States.  In our textbook (Voyages 2010, 904), “Allende’s effort to build a socialist economy was strongly opposed by Chilean businessmen and landowners….” This influential economic group supported Pinochet to begin a free market system.  Under Pinochet’s rule, the Chilean junta government instituted strong military response to guerrillas.  The United States continued to support Pinochet for fear Chile would move toward a Communist government.  Unabated, Pinochet exercised extreme dictatorial control over the people of Chile.  As described in 1989 Democratic Revolutions, “…his regime arrested, tortured and killed thousands of opponents across the country.” Pinochet’s egregious abuse of power brought a new group of people out from the shadows to speak out against his heinous acts.  Women for Life, a group of mothers of missing children, came forward to defend their children.  The held silent protests for the “desaparecidos”; “disappeared ones.” Their sympathetic position forced Pinochet to restrain his otherwise hostile methods of dealing with dissidents.  Technological advancements allowed the use of mass media to disseminate these announcements even further.  The demonstrators could now resort to volume printing, radio broadcast, fax machines and cable television broadcasts.  The access to these tools removed much of the public relations purpose of using violence against demonstrators.

Pinochet’s economics relied heavily on foreign support, but as world economics began to slip, so too did Chile’s.  Pinochet’s free market is satirically portrayed in “The Contest” printed in “1989 Democratic Revolutions” (Los de Alvear 1982/Kenny 2000, 103).  Frioman, a characterization of the United States in “The Contest” is shown as dominant and unrelenting.  Frioman argues the beatitudes of “Miss Libertad Mercado,” or “Miss Free Market” and puerilely fights for her election to “Miss Economía.” The end of the story reveals “Free Market” has dirty secrets, such as “scarcity,” “high prices,” “recession,” and “unemployment,” appearing on stage as her children.  These lighthearted attacks allow the story and point of view to be easily remembered and told to other citizens.  It also elicits the response wanted by the opposition parties, partially based on the angst felt towards Americans and uber-businessmen.

Following in the footsteps of the Women for Life, the dissidents began to unite and form small groups offering resistance to Pinochet’s continued presidency.  In Gender and Social Movement Decline (Adams 2002, 292), Jacqueline Adams describes how these organizations came together.  “A resistance movement consisting of hundreds of [social movement organizations (SMOs)] operating in a clandestine or semiclandestine(sic) fashion arose early on.  The SMOs consisted of underground political parties, survival organizations (small groups of shantytown inhabitants working to solve their economic and health problems), and human rights organizations.” Adams goes on to describe the key role the Chilean Catholic Church played in bring these groups together.  This purposeful cooperation brings forward the dissidents aggravation and need for reformation.

After a failed assassination attempt on his life in 1986, Pinochet, believing his constituents seen him as irreplaceable, relented to holding a presidential plebiscite.  Pinochet’s violent response to opposition, the effect of the global economic crisis on Chile, nonviolent public demonstrations, along with his grandiose bravado, resulted in a perfect storm for the ouster of General Augusto Pinochet.

Bibliography

Adams, Jacqueline.  Gender and Social Movement Decline: Shantytown Women and the Prodemocracy Movement in Pinochet’s Chile, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 2002, 31: 285, DOI: 10.1177/0891241602031003002,
web: http://jce.sagepub.com/content/31/3/285

Hansen, Valerie and Kenneth Curtis.  Voyages in World History, Volume 2 Since 1500.  Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010.

Kenney, Padraic, 1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War’s End, The Bedford Series in History and Culture.  Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2000.

Los de Alvear, “The Contest,” 1982, ed. Padraic Kenny (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) (Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2000).

Response:
Why Britain Led The Industrial Revolution

These key factors, geographical, political and societal, favored Britain at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The geographic construction of Britain provided it simple access to natural resources. Consequently, these readily available raw materials helped generate technological advancements. Additionally, the “natural fortress” barrier provided by the archipelagic nature of British Isles isolated Britain from events on the continent. Although not immune to war, the effect was less severe. Hence, Britain did not need to spend as much to protect itself. This meant fewer Britain intellects needed to “wasted their talents and energies on unproductive military careers.” (Mokyr)

Following the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, Britain operated on a more stable economic platform. This stability helped to shelter the economy from pressure groups, providing greater flexibility to members. The Civil ware also improving property rights, this gave investors greater control of their investment and returns. With improved potential to increase retained revenue, entrepreneurs had greater incentive to be profitable, to increase revenue, and to invest in higher risk endeavors.

Bibliography:

Mokyr, Joel, “The Industrial Revolution and the New Economic History”, in The Industrial Revolution, ed. Steven M. Beaudoin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 2003), 93-102.

Hansen, Valerie and Kenneth Curtis. Voyages in World History, Volume 2 Since 1500. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010.

Response:
Racism Revealed Or Exposed?

As we learned in the course lecture and chapter 26 of Voyages, Europe had gone through some shifts in structure with the unification of Germany, the British expansion into overseas territories, as well as France’s expansion. These economies needed greater access to raw materials to boost their productions. This competition spurred greater innovations in technology and even more need raw materials. As a result, the competition forced these nations to adopt more self-centric policies, countering the free-market practices that preceded it.

Europe’s rapid growth put people in a perceived position of entitlement. They sought to deliver civility and Christianity to the people they characterized as “barbarians” in other regions of the world. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, he often uses demeaning references to Africans. He exhibits this Social Darwinistic perspective in his descriptions of Africans; such as when he describes “The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us….” Chinua Achebe’s critique points out these obvious racial epitome. However, Achebe goes on to highlight other innuendo that suggests racism. Achebe writes about the setting, “Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril.” Achebe suggests Conrad uses Africa to portray a place of inhumanity.

Achebe’s portrayal of Conrad’s book as racist appears to apply a modernized look at writing done under the pretext of a then current setting. A twenty-first century perspective openly exposes the racism in the characters. If placed in it’s historical context, I believe the point of the writing was to explore the enormity and uniqueness of Africa.

Bibliography:

Conrad, Joseph, “Heart of Darkness, 1899” and Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, 1975”, in Worlds of History, ed. Reilly, 294-303

Hansen, Valerie and Kenneth Curtis. Voyages in World History, Volume 2 Since 1500. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010.

Response:
Modernity Of The Holocaust

Modernity represents the mode we apply in today’s society to accomplish critical tasks. We divide otherwise insurmountable tasks into small, relatively simple, steps. Zygmunt Bauman describes how the modernity of the Holocaust sets it apart from other historical instances of genocide. The parenthetical categorization of the “modern … way” really highlights the “intellect” of these acts; “rational, planned, scientifically informed, expert, efficiently managed, co-ordinated” (Bauman, 89). Nazi German performed this well, beginning with ostracism of the Jews, segregation of the Jews and continuing to elimination of the Jews. With Germany’s expansion into surrounding regions, they felt it necessary to also “cleanse” these new areas.

Modern bureaucracy break the process into individual, autonomous steps; establishing a bureaucratic method as a means to an end. Each step serves no purpose on its own, but taken in whole finishes the task. Bureaucracy does not use internal advancement, so the upper echelon does not have first hand knowledge of the subordinates acts.

Modern division of labor assigns the steps to individual roles. These roles need no knowledge of what other steps are performed or the “final solution”. Division of labor separates the technical responsibility from the moral responsibility. Individuals perform their given step to achieve a greater good; a “clean” world.

To analogize these steps to the act of shooting someone: 1) Alex loads the gun; 2) Bob aims the gun; 3) Charles turns off the safety; and, 4) Dave pulls the trigger. If any of these steps are missing, the act is not executed. Likewise, the performance of any one of these steps on their own is, for the most part, harmless. Therefore, each respondent can dispel any responsibility by pointing at the others. For example, if Charles leaves the safety on, Bob aiming the gun and Dave pulling the trigger would have no consequences. This allows Bob and Dave to cast responsibility on Charles.

Bibliography:

Bauman, Zygmunt, “The Uniqueness and Normality of the Holocaust”, in The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings, eds. Neil Levi and Michael Rothberg, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Uni Press, 2003), 82-89.

Hansen, Valerie and Kenneth Curtis. Voyages in World History, Volume 2 Since 1500. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010.

Response:
Difference Between Serfdom And Slavery

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Russia and America operated similar forms of human bondage. The differences included ownership direct involvement, omnipresence versus regionally, subjects level self-governance, and racial identification of subjects.

Russian serfs worked under a quasi-contract leading to possible exploitation through labor obligations or obrok. These Russian serf-owners often owned thousands of serfs; the largest owned tens of thousands so were not directly involved in daily operations. In Russian, serfdom was relatively evenly distributed throughout the country. Russian serfdom was not racially distinctive, peasants of all descents may become serfs. Often, serfs were descendants of conquered sects. Russian serfs had greater opportunities than American slaves, but this was rarely taken advantage of. The serfs could reach a superior serf status, granting them some serfs working under them.

In comparison, American slave-owners directly managed the slaves daily activities. The owners usually owned less than two hundred slaves; the largest couple of owners had possession of not much more than one thousand slaves. In comparison, American slavery was regionally secular, for the most part slaves were in the southern states. American slaves were almost entirely African and the owners were European. In addition, the physical appearance of American slaves made it impossible to blend into society.

Bibliography:

Kolchin, Peter, Foreword to Up from Serfdom. In: Alexander Nikitenko, Up from Serfdom. My Childhood and Youth in Russia 1804-1824 (New Haven: Yale University Press 2001). p.IX-XX.

Hansen, Valerie and Kenneth Curtis. Voyages in World History, Volume 2 Since 1500. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010.

Response:
Religious diversity, incorporation of the religious groups, and Akbar’s successors.

In the sixteenth century, Mughal Empire expanded through war and other forms of acquisition to incorporate numerous regions in South Asia. Emperor Akbar, the ruler of the Mughal Emperor, controlled a large area and as many as 100 million subjects (Voyages, 461). “Akbar was keenly interested in religion,” (Voyages, 471). Akbar’s politic allowed him to effectively administer over these diverse groups. He incorporated these groups into his political structure and engaged them intellectually.

The Mughal Empire expansion crossed through various religious sects, including Muslim, Sufism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and, eventually with the exploration by the Europeans, Catholicism and Christianity. Akbar incorporated these groups into the Mughal administrative system by maintaining their social customs after establishing relationships with local aristocrats (Voyages, 462). Akbar encouraged religious and political debate and exchange with learned scholars in these groups. From this, he promoted a unified religious theory, “Divine Faith.”

Bada’Uni points out in “Akbar and Religion” how Akbar’s continued engagement with non-Muslim is against the Muslim law and will “eventually lead to license and open heresy….” The failure in these religious doctrine is pointed out but Bada’uni’s highlighting of the pope’s ability to change the interpretation of the Bible. The religious  attitude continued through his successor Jahangir. However, Akbar’s grandson, Aurangzeb, reversed this neutral position during the late seventeenth century. This change weakened the solidarity of the Mughal Empire and largely contributed to it’s downfall.

Bibliography:

Hansen, Valerie and Kenneth Curtis. Voyages in World History, Volume 2 Since 1500. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010.

Bada’Uni. (The Mughal Emperor, 1556-1605) Akbar and Religion. In: Reilly, Worlds of History, p.102-105