Young Voices

For 90 years, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have recognized the outstanding ways students in grades seven through twelve have expressed their views of the world. When my granddaughter won a gold key this year for her modern fable about the consequences of a wolf's deception, I had an opportunity to look through the book of submissions from last year's winners that she received.

     With World Creativity and Innovation Week coming up April 15-21, this might be a good time for parents and teachers to encourage children and students to think about the world and compare what they draw and say with some of the representations and comments of Scholastic Art and Writing Award winners.

     One student disputed the stereotypes of color: yellow Asians, black Africans, brown Indians, and white Americans. She saw herself in many colors.

     World hunger was a topic that came up in several essays. A girl who wrote about villages where people "are skin and bones, their ribs visible" and their eyes always sad ended by saying that she never stops praying that, like "a blade of grass," these villagers can be "new and fresh." But a young immigrant from Laos who is a waitress in a bowling alley looks at American children in wonder when they "swallow between rounds" of arcade games and "drop food on the floor."

     Boys think about war. One made a sculpture showing a young man being persuaded to enlist in the Army. Another wrote about depth charges attacking a U-boat in World War II. A poet whose entry went from boy to old man included a stanza about being "a soldier with the callused heart mindlessly...following orders and longing for a purpose."

     Religion was a subject covered in art and word. Monks and Hindu statues caught the eyes of young photographers. One student looked at Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam and decided it was possible to start a world religion by deciding whom to exclude and what beliefs were contrary to the status quo.

     There were a number of unsettling dystopian views of the future. Meat and gems could not save a boy from a rare fever, and, when everything was plastic, only an old worn blanket could hold memories.

     For information about how students can share their voices with other young people and adults next year, login to artandwriting.org later this year.

North Pole Flag

     Santa Claus has a flag now. Thanks to the "Flag for the Future" competition jointly sponsored by the Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and Greenpeace's "Save the Arctic," the North Pole, which is surrounded by high seas that no country owns, has a new flag.

     British designer, Dame Vivienne Westwood, on March 17, 2013, declared the winner of the "Flag for the Future" competition a pennant-shaped flag designed by 13-year-old Sarah Bartrisyia from Malaysia. On a white background, Ms. Bartrisyia used a circle of seven multicolored doves around Arctic starflowers to symbolize peace, hope, and global community.

     The winning design will be reproduced on a titanium flag and stuck in the Arctic ice alongside a time capsule containing a Greenpeace petition signed by those who want to preserve the Arctic from overfishing and oil drilling. Drilling noise and vibrations also could have an impact on fish behavior, while an oil spill would be difficult to contain in ice-clogged waters. When a pipeline ruptured off Santa Barbara's California coast on May 19, 2015, the 105,000 gallon oil spill showed what can happen when drilling occurs anywhere. To dramatize the under-reported perils of drilling for oil in the Arctic, six Greenpeace volunteers climbed aboard Shell's gigantic oil rig, Polar Pioneer, in April, 2015 as it was en route through the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. June, 2015 saw Greenpeace volunteers in their kayaks blocking the Shell rig from leaving port in Seattle. Later, they hung from a bridge to dramatize the need to block the rig's progress to the Arctic. For more about the need to protect the Arctic and to sign a petition asking world leaders to ban oil drilling and industrial fishing in Arctic waters, go to savethearctic.org.

     In London, you can purchase a "Save the Arctic" T-shirt designed by Vivienne Westwood at her World's End Shop at 430 Kings Road. The cost is 35 British pounds.

      BP already operates in Alaska's offshore Arctic. Operating with Rosneft, the state-owned Russian energy company with the world's highest oil output, BP has a controlling interest in British-Russian TNK-BP and is set to launch a series of big projects in Russia's Arctic. As a result of Russia's actions in Ukraine in March and April, 2014, however, BP stockholders and Rosneft were concerned about the company's Russian investments until BP signed a major shale deal with Rosneft in May, 2014. In mid-2018, BP also would purchase the US shale assets of BHP for $10.5 billion.

     Concern about Rosneft's profits was justified in 2014, when the drop in oil prices and the value of the ruble caused fourth quarter losses. By August, 2018, however, a barrel of crude was selling in the mid $60s and Rosnett''s quarterly net profit reached $3.7 billion. When a BP oil spill sent 170 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the company withdrew its bid for an exploration license to drill around Danish-owned Greenland. In 2014, BP renewed its application and, along with Statoil and other firms, won an exploration license there.  A Chinese group is bidding for a license to drill for oil off of neighboring Iceland. Although the remote Chukchi Sea area of the Arctic experiences extreme weather conditions and lacks preparation to deal with an oil spill that would endanger wild life and indigenous communities, in 2008, the U.S. Department of the Interior sold oil and gas leases there.

     The 8-nation intergovernmental Arctic Council, that includes Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Canada, and the United States, has failed to agree on regulations that would govern oil and gas exploration in the Arctic region. Relying on a 1953 law that allows U.S. presidents to take executive action to prevent leasing of unleased lands in the federally administered Outer Continental Shelf, President Obama, in December, 2016, placed an indefinite ban on oil and gas leases in the Alaskan Beaufort and Chukchi areas of U.S. Arctic waters. Canada took similar actions. Both counties plan to identify shipping lanes through their protected areas, where harsh conditions would hamper cleaning up oil spills.

      The Arctic region is believed to hold 30% of undiscovered gas deposits and 13% of undiscovered oil reserves. Ice melt in the area is opening a larger region for gas and oil exploration and, consequently, a larger area for border disputes and conflicting claims of sovereignty. By submarine, Russia planted a flag 2.5 miles beneath the North Pole in 2007, and according to TIME magazine (Aug. 17, 2015), the country submitted a formal claim to the United Nations for 463,000 square miles around the pole on Aug. 4, 2015. On April 30, 2017, NBC's Evening News showed Russian military men and armor training in the Arctic.  Canada and Denmark (based on its Greenland island territory) have staked claims to sovereignty on territory including the North Pole by arguing that the Lomonosov Ridge of the continental shelf extends under the pole from their countries. A U.N. panel is expected to decide the disputes.

     For information about other world flags, see my earlier blog post, "A Salute to Flags."

    

    

"We Have a Pope"

Can children respect different religions, when the beliefs of other faiths are very foreign to them? They can if they understand a bit about the backgrounds of the world's religions. Now that the Cardinals of the Catholic religion have elected a new Pope, it is a good time to consider what led to his selection and to learn what the new Pope is saying and doing. From May 1 through October 31, 2015, the Vatican's pavillon at the World Expo (expo2015.org) in Milan, Italy, will feature the theme, "Not by Bread Alone." On his first foreign trip to Brazil, before joining students at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, July 23-28, 2013, he said protection of nature was one of his major goals. In November, 2013 he began polling the layity about the subjects of gay marriage, single-parent families, surrogate mothers, and divorce. What will he say, when he visits Cuba and the USA in September, 2015?

     Ever since Jesus told St. Peter, "...you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church...." (Matthew 16:18), there has been a continuous succession of Popes. Beginning in 533, they have adopted names such as Alexander, Celestine, John, Paul, and Benedict. The new Pope is the first one to take the name Francis. He also is the first Latin American Pope and the first Jesuit to become Pope. Known as the bishop of the Church of Rome and successor to St. Peter, the Pope has power over the whole Catholic Church. Ever since the Lateran Treaty of 1929, the Vatican State of his residence in Italy has enjoyed sovereign, independent status.

     Cardinals appointed by the Pope hold the highest religious rank under the Pope. Papal authority is exercised collectively with the College of Cardinals at ecumenical councils, such as Vatican II that was announced by Pope John XXIII on January 25, 1959, which issue documents concerning important Church doctrine. In 1869-1870, Vatican I, for example, defined papal primacy and infallibility in matters of faith and morals.

     Since the divine mission of all members of the Catholic Church is salvation, i.e. happiness in heaven, the Church hierarchy looks to Scripture and Tradition to determine and teach what is required to live a holy life. That path involves a wide range of matters, including the rituals of worship, prayer, forgiveness of sins against the Ten Commandments, care for the poor, respect for life. The Pope canonizes as saints known to be in heaven, men and women who have been true to Church teaching, such as the early Christians who died rather than renounce their faith.

     By reading about the lives of saints, children who are trying to be good will learn that Popes have recognized that there are many ways to live a holy life. St. Francis of Assisi, born into a wealthy family, sold what he had to help the poor and sick and to repair churches in poor neighborhoods. He was known for his love of animals and all creation and for his ability to win over bullies with his good sense of humor. St. Isidore of Seville didn't do his homework until he saw how a thin rope had worn away the stone on a well. Once he realized a little effort applied constantly could produce results, he became a learned scholar who presided over the Church's Council of Toledo that determined in 633 that Jewish people should have freedom of religion and not be forced to convert to Christianity. St. Monica, like many mothers, faced the problem of raising a teenage son who was living a wild, undisciplined life. Her prayer and determination not to give up on him paid off in his conversion. He became St. Augustine, one of the Catholic Church's most influential thinkers.

     Beginning in 1431, Colleges of Cardinals have selected the new Popes. Before a new Pope is elected, the ring of the former Pope is smashed to symbolize the end of his authority, and the doors to his papal residence are sealed. Although, in the eighth century, a layman became Pope Constantine, modern Popes have been elected by a two-thirds vote of members of the College of Cardinals who are younger than 80. This year it took at least 77 of the 115 assembled Cardinals to elect a Pope. In the 13th century, it once took 33 months to elect a Pope, but after 12 to 13 days now, a Pope can be chosen by a simple majority. Ballots are burned after each vote. When the smoke from these burnt ballots was white on March 13, 2013, the world learned that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76) of Buenos Aires, Argentina, had become the Catholic Church's new Pope.

     Information about some of the other world religions is included in an earlier blog post, "This We Believe."