Holiday Season Raises Fears in Brussels and Indonesia

Brussels canceled its New Year's fireworks' display and the Indonesian archipelago continues on high alert after the arrest of nine alleged Islamic terrorists involved in a plot to assassinate police, Shi'ite Muslims, and churchgoers on the main islands of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo during the 2015 Christmas and New Year holiday season. Australian authorities are urging tourists to stay away from Indonewia at this time.

To protect Christians and others in this predominantly Sunni Muslim country, "Operation Candle" has deployed 150,000 security forces at churches, airports, railway stations, shopping malls, and other public places. There is an intensified manhunt by 1300 security officers for Abu Wardah Santoso, the ISIS militant leader of the East Indonesia Mujahidin and the operator of a terrorist training camp in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

The earlier post, "Australian Report Links Indonesian Pilots to Islamic Militants," outlines the dangers posed by Indonesian terrorists in the airline industry.

The Strategy of Prayer

When I heard that a Muslim from Yemen set his computer to remind him to pray five times a day, I thought of Jean-Francois Millet's famous painting, The Angelus. The work of this 19th century French artist pictures a man and woman who stop work on their farm when bells call them to pray at noon, one of the three times in the day the Angelus prayer is said. Was their prayer a petition for a good potato yield, gratitude for their harvest, adoration, or repentance?

     In 2016's Christian Holy Week, when terrorists tore up lives in a Brussels airport and rail station, we were reminded to pray for peace among neighbors, religions, and countries.

     At Christmas, we recognize that God didn't just get the universe started by creating something out of nothing and then forget about us. He came to Earth and experienced our joys and sorrows. And after He rose from the dead, He said the Holy Spirit would come to guide mankind into all truth.

     When we lived in Philadelphia, my daughter attended her early grades at Friends Select, where the headmaster of the school founded by Quakers was Jewish. Every week, all the students walked a few blocks to a 100-year-old Friends meeting house. There, they sat in silence until the Holy Spirit moved some or none to speak. In this holy season, the wisdom to bring peace may be but a moment of silent prayer away.

     The God much greater than ourselves, who has no beginning or end (a concept we cannot begin to understand), is at our beck and call. We don't need to set our computers to remind us when to pray. Whether we are young or old, farmer or tycoon, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto, Sikh, or Zoroaster, we can pray anytime. And in our silence, we'll receive wisdom.

 

What Are You Wearing in the New Year?

As celebrities walk the red carpets at the Golden Globes, Oscars, and other award shows, reporters ask them who they are wearing, and designers look forward to the publicity they receive from their answers.

     I once heard that President Kennedy's wife Jackie answered the who-are-you-wearing question by saying, "Mine." At every age, we all do say something about ourselves when we get dressed. Think about it. Pictures and sayings on T-shirts might tell what comic book or TV show characters a child likes. These shirts can proclaim, "Future Scientist" or "Daddy's Little Girl."

     Clothes also can be uniforms that show students attend certain schools, march in bands, or play on various teams. The earlier post, "Recess Differs Around the World," shows uniforms worn by students at various schools around the world.

     Judging from photos of men at conferences on climate change or G-7 meetings, world leaders in their dark power suits and white shirts also wear uniforms. Women leaders do too. An article about German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Time magazine's "Person of the Year," told how she presented then US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, with a framed copy of a German newspaper with the headline, "Angela Merkel? Hillary Clinton?" The photo accompanying the article showed both women wearing blazers and black slacks. (Their heads were cropped off.) Now that Mrs. Clinton is running for President, she has adopted a new style that older women might begin to copy. Interesting collars and cuffs accent her longer jackets, and she wears pants that are the same color as her jackets.

     Some US school girls have begun wearing hijab head scarves in solidarity with their Muslim sisters. Italian design house, Dolce & Gabbana, has launched a new collection of fashionable hijabs and long abayas for its Muslim and other customers. When I saw Paul Ryan, the new Speaker of the US House of Representatives growing a beard, I thought he might be showing his solidarity with the billion-plus Muslims who are not terrorists, but I learned he was imitating Joseph Gurney Cannon, who was the last Speaker, over 100 years ago, who had a beard. (You can check out the beard of Cannon, Speaker from 1903 to 1911, on the Internet.)

     When students grow older, they may decide to protect animals by not wearing fur or to protect the environment by wearing graphic T-shirts that invite others to "Save the Arctic." (See the earlier post, "North Pole Flag.") A wide variety of the sustainable clothing options now being developed will be available to youngsters in the future. Leftover high-quality luxury yarn that is insufficient to produce a full line of clothes is already being combined into sweaters that can last a lifetime. Clothing manufacturers are exploring ways to make zero-waste garments from recycled materials (See the earlier posts, "The World of Fashion" and "Recycled Fashion Firsts.") and to create new disposal methods that do not add to landfills. Waste-reduction groups are urging consumers to treasure and repair their garments rather than throw them out.

     When I worked in retail, I used to tell customers, who couldn't seem to find anything they liked, that sometimes you need to shop in your closet. Babies, for example, often are baptized in outfits their parents, and even their grandparents, wore for their baptisms. What kids wear next year may be a combination of something they, or their parents, already own.

   
 

All I Want for Christmas Is Seeds

Who knew elves occasionally take a break from making toys to store seeds in Santa's warehouse. Although many put Syria on their naughty lists, in October, 2015 the Svalbard global seed vault half way between the north pole and Norway responded to an urgent request from the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (Icarda) and sent the 128 crates of wheat, barley lentil, chickpea, fava bean, pea, and legume seeds Syria needed.

     After seeds for another 70,000 crops were added to the Global Seed Vault in 2018, Svalbard now stores 1,059,646 seeds. 

     Svalbard, known as the "Noah's Ark of seeds," is just one of the storehouses for the diversity of seeds needed to grow fruits, vegetables, and grains; the collections of plants, like apples and grapes, that are not cultivated from seeds; and even the genetic material essential to maintain the bees that pollinate many crops.

     Individual farmers also are essential in the process of ensuring a lasting food supply. On one of his "Parts Unknown" TV programs, David Bourdain found restaurant owners in the US South have been searching for the seeds that grew foods popular before the US Civil War. They located seeds that had come down through the families of former slaves, when war wiped out the seeds held by plantation owners. When kids start collecting and drying seeds for diverse crops, they also will be getting involved in the vital task of protecting the world's food supply.

 Why is the world's food supply in danger? There are many reasons:

• Wars destroy farms. Research stations in Lebanon and Morocco are working to produce seeds and saplings to resupply Syria's farmers.
• Globalization of agriculture has concentrated seed production in companies that abandon many plant varieties in order to produce uniform, high-yield varieties. (See the earlier post, "World (Food) Expo. Hybrid Crops & New Farming Practices.")
• Pests and diseases can wipe out crops. (See the earlier post, "The Bees and the Birds.")
• Global warming has reduced the area suitable for farming. (See the earlier post, "Coffee Prices Going Up; Allowances Going Down?")
• Farmers have moved to urban areas to find work.
• Without a market, farmers have stopped growing foods that have gone out of favor when diets shifted to wheat, rice, potatoes, maize, soybeans, and palm oil.
• Deforestation has removed forests where plants thrive and evolve.

Kids used to get oranges and apples in their Christmas stockings. To be sure these fruits continue to exist, the world is counting on Santa to bring these goodies along with toys and candy.

Cheating is Easy, but...

When my daughter was using a game to teach a concept, the student who won suddenly jumped up and said, "Yes!" Whether a student is learning a new concept in a dirt floor classroom in Sudan, in an air conditioned one in Saudi Arabia, or in a slum in Chicago, the joy of understanding can't be underestimated. As Pope Frances observed last week during his trip to Nairobi, Africa, a country riddled with bribery and government graft, corruption is easy, but it robs a person of peace and joy. Conversely, mastering a concept gives joy.

     I have been very interested to read in Elmira Bayrasli's book, From the Other Side of the World, 
how entrepreneurs in unlikely places are countering what India calls chai paani, "a little bit of extra," the tradition of taking a bribe before correcting an erroneous and costly customs classification, performing a medical test, issuing a telephone number, or awarding a construction contract.

     When I taught international marketing, I used to dread teaching the chapter that discussed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits US businesses from paying bribes openly or using middlemen as conduits for a bribe, when the middleman is known to use part of the payment for a bribe. I felt naive teaching that US corporations would resist the temptation to maneuver around the law when multi-million dollar contracts were at stake. I remembered the story of the overseas diplomat who took a visitor from the US to see two new office towers. "There were supposed to be three," he said, "but, after paying kickbacks, there was only money left for two."

     With this background in mind, I was surprised and delighted to read how the ability to obtain licenses, register property, and obtain other government services online has eliminated contact with officials who have discretionary power to do their jobs only after they collect a bribe, the little bit of extra.

     Although there are still many instances where bribes and kickbacks could help a business handle government paperback faster, companies like the "Dial 1298" private ambulance firm in India and high tech Infosys and Wipro in Pakistan refuse to engage in corruption. They decided to create a new corporate culture built on well defined and uncompromising values and standards that employees are expected to internalize. Moreover, organizations like Transparency International and Ipaidabribe.com, have sprung up to monitor corruption and to invite reports of bribes required and paid in India, Pakistan, Kenya, and Russia. Narenda Modi, India's current prime minister, considered it a winning message to campaign on a promise to end corruption.

      Bayrasli observed that the middle class expects functioning public services and reliable governance. As globalization expands the middle class throughout the world, wise parents and teachers may need not only to punish cheating but to reward the value and joy of learning.

     (Also see the earlier posts, "Warning to Students: Don't Cheat" and "Learning Can Be Fun.")

   

Join a Book and a Fox to Make a Box

On holiday trips in trains, planes, and automobiles, pass the time by helping kids create funny new word combinations.

     According to an item in Entertainment Weekly (Dec. 4, 2015), Jeopardy champion, Ken Jennings, said his son came up with a salmon covered with Nutella and called it "salmonella." Or just create nonsense words by making a brilk out of breakfast and milk.

     The earlier post, "Word Games Lead to Reading Fun," has word combination examples that use names to create new words.

     In any language, kids can use this technique to become their own versions of Dr. Seuss.

An Army Moves on Its Stomach

Napoleon was right. Whether its the army of ISIS, the French Foreign Legion, or the US Marine Corps, food fuels military operations. I remember reading about an incident in the US Civil War, when General Lee's army arrived at a supply depot, found it completely empty, and knew the South's cause was doomed. Hunger (and thirst) saps energy and morale.

     Countries, causes, and individuals that underestimate agriculture's value are in trouble. Mohsin Hamid describes the misdirected rural to urban rush in his book, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. The billion dollars worth of items Alibaba sold on Singles Day are no more able to feed a single person than King Midas' gold. It is a great misfortune that Pakistan, with 180 million people, has only 20% of its GDP devoted to agriculture and that in Nigeria, with 170 million people, agriculture produces only 23% of its $510 billion GDP.

     Considering food's importance for everyone, not just armies, agriculture merits the attention of every country's best and brightest. Indeed, modern agriculture is every bit as dependent on skilled techies as fields that now employ digital whiz kids. To help kids discover the challenge of moving food around the world, draw or find a picture of a farmer on the right side of a paper or board and a grocery store on the left side. Start writing down all that needs to happen in between.

     What does it take in Uganda, Africa, to go from the gift of a $500 heifer from Heifer International (heifer.org) that produces three gallons of milk a day to the sale, in a local market, of some of the milk the family does not use? Consider all the steps between the woman growing cocoa for the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana, Africa, and the retailers selling chocolate bars in Europe. Here are just some possibilities:

• Ask local farmers or Peace Corps volunteers to provide training for raising animals
• Grow feed crops
• Buy disease-resistant seed
• Cool milk
• Buy a truck
• Produce fertilizer from compost to increase crop yields
• Contract shipping space on a cargo ship
• Form a 4H chapter to interest the younger generation in farming
• Pass land use laws to protect small farms from encroachment by corporate plantations
• Lease an acre of land
• Provide police and security measures to protect farmers from gang violence and terrorists
• Build a warehouse to store cocoa beans rather than selling them all at once for a lower price than the revenue that could be earned by selling them over a period of a year
• Install irrigation and water pumps

Nowadays, the "Moo monitors" that dairy farmers attach to their cows' collars produce data about the health of their herds. Machines can pick almost every crop. GPS satellite technology enables farmers to monitor weather, judge the health of their crops, pin point the application of pesticide sprays and fertilizers, spot weeds, and measure yields as crops are being cut. Satellites even monitor the temperature and humidity of produce carried by sea in shipping containers in order to predict its condition for sale on arrival. Thanks to government funding and developers in companies like Planet Labs in San Francisco, which has developed small earth observation satellites that can fit in a shoebox, subsistence farmers will be able to utilize this up-to-date technology.

     Already, in countries with impassible roads that subject supplies and produce shipments to long delays, the widespread use of mobile phones enables farmers and fishermen to arrange trades, sales, and payment transfers.

     Since we all move on our stomachs, we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." The world is depending on kids to get involved in producing and distributing the food we all need to live.

                          Also, check out a few of the earlier posts on food and farming:

• Can Small Farms End Poverty?
• Nigeria's New Beginning
• World (Food) Expo, Hybrid Crops & New Farming Practices
• Back to the Land
• Dairy Cows on the Moove
• The Bees and the Birds
• Chocolate's Sweet Deals
• Coffee Prices Going Up, Allowances Going Down?

     

Can't Find a Job or Career; Create One

Throughout the world, younger and younger entrepreneurs and performers are making use of websites, YouTube, and Kickstarter-like platforms to, yes, kickstart their own ventures. Based on Time magazine's report (Nov. 9, 2015) that only 26% of the global workforce has a good job that provides at least 30 hours of work for a weekly paycheck, young people need to look to themselves to create their futures. Even in the USA, according to Time's data, only 44% of the workforce has a good job. In China, the percentage is 28, and in Burkina Faso, it is 5%.

     Under these conditions, starting a business, not-for-profit organization, or any other type of career by yourself or with friends is an attractive alternative. A how-to book is here to help. Crazy is a Compliment: the Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags is written by Linda Rottenberg,         co-founder and chief executive officer of Endeavor, an international organization dedicated to helping the new, fast-growing businesses of entrepreneurs. She provides real life experiences from emerging countries in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as from developed markets in the United States and Europe. For example, Rottenberg tells the story of Wences Casares, who was born on a sheep farm in Argentina. While he was in high school, he started painting and selling T-shirts. Then, he downloaded all the unedited telephone numbers from his village, corrected them, and published and sold a directory that also carried paid advertising.

Here are a few of Rottenberg's helpful conclusions:

• Consider stability the friend of the status quo and chaos the friend of the entrepreneur who sees opportunities where others see obstacles.
• It's a common misperception that an entrepreneur has to start with personal wealth, an ivy league degree, and a Rolodex full of contacts. In reality, Rottenberg has found the opposite is true; they most often lack connections, an elite old school network, and a trust fund.
• When you first get an idea for a new venture, don't tell anyone about it. Family and friends will either say it sounds great because they love/like you, or they will discourage you. One way to get objective feedback is to ask for it on a crowdfunding site.
• Although some risk is necessary, just invest enough to create a minimum viable product or a relatively small adaptation, not a mind-blowing prototype or a multitude of different products. As Henry Ford said, "Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs." Take incremental steps, get feedback, and adjust. You don't necessarily need a business plan which probably will change as soon as you start doing something.

     Rottenberg also has a section that alerts would-be entrepreneurs to the strengths and weaknesses their personalities bring to their new enterprises. She terms visionaries like Mark Zuckerbert, Dreamers; charismatic personalities like Oprah, Stars; those who can reenergize traditional businesses like Ikea founder, Ingvar Kamprad, Transformers; and strategic, analytical thinkers like Bill Gates, Rocketships. Which personality type of entrepreneur are you?

A Catholic and Communist Work to Overcome Two Countries' Major Difficulties

Vietnam and Brazil are not just accepting the status quo. With different approaches, two individuals are tackling problems and working to improve the lot of their citizens.

     Using initial capital provided by an organization based in the Netherlands, Sister Mary Nguyen Thi Phuc, a member of Vietnam's religious order, the Secular Institute of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, designed a credit and savings program for women infected with HIV/AIDS. Using a $223 loan, a woman can start a small business, e.g. by buying a motorbike to transport paying customers or by opening a stand to sell soft drinks, coffee, or fruit, that can generate enough money to provide for herself and pay student fees for her children.

     Borrowers are given 10 months to repay their loans with interest to a banking account. Interest is used to assist others who have accidents, illnesses, or lack funds to pay for a funeral. The microloan program has the added benefit of inspiring other women to overcome their difficulties.

     In Brazil, the State of Maranhao on the Atlantic Ocean in the northeastern part of the country has both dense Amazonian forests and a vast desert-like expanse of white sand dunes. Its newly elected governor, Flavio Dino, although a member of the Communist Party, is a pro-free market proponent who recognizes the private sector generates wealth. He united members of opposition parties and governs with a vice governor from a pro-business party. His first order of business was to cut palace expenses by eliminating or reducing the budget for champagne, caviar, lobsters, and the security staff.

     Although Brazil is in the midst of its worst recession since the 1930s, Maranhao, the country's second poorest state, is determined to rise above Brazil's corruption (See the earlier post, "Warning to Students: Don't Cheat."), declining commodity exports (See the earlier post, "Falling Commodity Prices Spur Diversification in Emerging Markets."), and political turmoil. This toxic combination is threatening to cause Brazil's overall economy to decline 3% this year.

   

Calling All Space Sleuths

What is casting an enormous shadow on KIC8462852?

     Ever since 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope has been circling the Earth's sun once every 371 days. What it looks for is changes in the brightness of hundreds of thousands of sun-like stars in one part of the galaxy. Just as from Earth, we see an eclipse when the moon occasionally blocks our sun, Kepler looks for a dimming, or eclipse, caused by a planet moving in front of any of the suns it watches.

     On October 13, 2015, readers of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society saw that Yale University astronomer, Tabetha Boyajian, had spotted an irregularly shaped 20% dip in the brightness emitted by the sun, KIC8462852. Since the diameter of our sun is nearly a million miles, it would take something on the order of 200,000 miles by 200,000 miles to block out 20% of its brightness. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, would dim KIC8462852 by only 1%. In short, whatever passed in front of this distant sun was enormous.

     Could this huge object be collecting KIC8462852's energy as Jason Wright, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, theorized and like the Dyson sphere that appears in science fiction? Less exotic explanations include: matter that has yet to come together in a planet, a gas cloud, or a comet's head.

     And what if there is alien life on the object that ventured past KIC8462852? In eight countries, the NASA-funded Wisconsin Astrobiology Research consortium of 57 scientists in the fields of geology, microbiology, chemistry, and engineering is on the hunt. The consortium looks for the records the simplest organic life forms might leave in water and volcanic environments and the roles oxygen and methane play in microbial evolution.

     William Borucki, who helped design NASA's Kepler Space Telescope at the Ames Research Center in California, found that the Earth's sun is much younger and more intense than most other stars in the universe. Than's good news for young, intense scientists looking for future work in what Borucki is convinced is a "universe...much more wonderfully complex" than he ever imagined.

             (Also check out earlier posts: "Hunt for Moon Rocks, "Who Needs International
                                                Expertise?" and "Space Explorers.")
   

   

Play Book: Retell Tales with a Twist

Tell the same old stories in a new way at a campfire, a party, in class, or at a sleepover. Trent Hergenrader came up with the idea of involving children in Role Playing Games based on familiar books. Although characters, plot, setting, and objects retain some elements of the original stories, "what if" questions challenge kids to go off in new directions.

     The idea is to ask questions that lead children to develop their own story twists. If Cinderella didn't go to the ball with her step sisters, what could she have done to improve her situation if she stayed home? Why might Cinderella's fairy godmother be too busy to come to her aid with a gown and coach? Instead of getting free help from the elves, what changes could the shoemaker make in his business in order to hire employees for pay?

     Thought provoking questions can be based on any book a child reads. In his text, The Multiplayer Classroom, Lee Sheldon goes so far as to show how to convert stories into foreign language games. I prefer to use fairy tales to introduce what some may consider fan fiction, fiction by readers who write their own versions of a book. Every country has its own fairy tales, and, since generation after generation has read them, young and/or old can participate in the "what if" process.

     In the musical, Wicked, Gregory Maguire's take on the Wizard of Oz, good friends were recast in later life as good and bad witches. Cinderella's slipper wasn't glass until Disney magic changed it. (What if she had worn sneakers?) But Maguire and Disney should not be the only ones to reimagine beloved childhood tales. Critical thinkers around the world can come up with their own modern twists. It's fun. And, as the Finnish saying goes (See the earlier post, "Learning Can Be Fun."), "Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily."

Santa's Helpers

As the holiday season approaches, let's find some gifts that help those in need around the world.

You can help the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana that provides the delicious Divine Chocolate in the advent calendars and bags of foil covered coins sold by SERRV (serrv.org). Request a SERRV catalog to find other gifts from less developed countries.

Two organizations give children an opportunity to choose how they would like to help others overseas. With a donation as little as $25, children can go to kiva (kiva.org) to pick out a borrower they would like to help. For a donation of $10 or more to Heifer International (heifer.org) you can send honor cards to children telling them how much they have to contribute to the purchase of an animal for a family in need.

At wwfcatalog.org, when you donate $55 to the World Wildlife Fund, you can choose a plush version of over 100 symbolically adopted animals for a child and become a partner in a global conservation effort that establishes new protected areas for animals, stops wildlife crime, finds innovative ways to safeguard marine life, ensures healthy freshwater systems, and provides a sustainable future for our planet.

Gifts from unicef (unicefusa.org) not only help save and protect the world's most vulnerable children, but unicef's rolling carry-on plastic suitcase (12" tall x 18" long x 8" deep) can start kids thinking about how they can travel to a foreign country some day. Until then, they can ride or pull their durable suitcase, which holds up to 75 lbs.

Speaking of foreign travel, maybe it's time to give a youngster his or her own passport. Many US post offices can help with the process or go to travel.state.government/passports.html for information.

To keep youngsters from getting bored on a trip, American Stationery (americanstationery.com) offers personalized, 100 sheet game pads printed with tic-tac-toe, hangman, and dots you connect to make squares.

Of course books are one of the best ways to help children develop an interest in their world. Entertainment Weekly magazine recently mentioned two new picture books that would help parents and teachers introduce youngsters to adventures around the world: Atlas of Adventures by Rachel Williams and Lucy Letherland and The Safari Set by Madeleine Rogers. Another gift-worthy book, Max, Mia and Toby's Adventures Around the World, from Little Passports (littlepassports,com) comes with 7 souvenirs. This site also offers other global gifts, including a World Coin Collection of 20 real foreign coins and a booklet of coin related activities and trivia for kids 6 and over.

                                             Wishing you all a joyful holiday season!

Who Are Your Country's Super Heroes?

Judging from their popularity in comics, graphic novels, and movies, young people love super heroes. Can they match the following countries with some of their super heroes?

_____A. Mahatma Gandhi launched a program of civil          1. Pakistan
               disobedience that led to independence.

_____B. Bishop Desmond Tutu called for Western                 2. Poland
               nations to apply sanctions that led to an end
               of apartheid, i.e. segregation of blacks into
               separate homelands and other indignities.

_____C. Malala Yousafzai won a Nobel Peace Prize              3. Turkey
               for urging all countries to educate their
               girls and women.

_____D. Fidel Castro assembled a Communist                       4. France
               guerrilla band that caused the country's
               corrupt dictator, Fulgencio Batista, to flee.

_____E. Dorothy Day was commended by Pope Frances       5. Myanmar/Burma
              as a champion of workers and the poor.

_____F. Lech Walesa organized the Solidarity                       6. Cuba
              trade union that began the movement
              that ousted the Soviet Union from Eastern
              Europe.

_____G. Aung San Suu Kyi, known as "The Lady,"               7. India
               who received a Nobel Peace Prize for
               keeping democracy alive in the face of a
               military regime takeover.

_____H. Mao Zedang, leader of the "Long March" away       8. United States of America
               from rivals, who returned to lead the country in
               1949 and to try rapid economic development
               through a program called the "Great Leap
               Forward."

_____I. Mustafa Kemal, who took the name Kemal                9. South Africa
             Ataturk and was elected president in 1923,
             established the country as a secular republic
             after hundreds of years as part of a Muslim
             empire.

_____J. Charles de Gaulle led the country's                           10. China
              government-in-exile until World War II
              ended and he could return to be elected
              President.

Answers can be found at the end of the earlier post, "What Moscow Could Learn from History."

Movement Without Wheels

Who said there is nothing new under the sun? Surely not Theo Jansen, the Dutch artist who turns wood, plastic tubing, lemonade bottles, and rags into giant, animal-like objects that come alive on Holland's coastal beaches. You can see his creatures and read about him at ted.com/speakers/theo_jansen.

Help kids look around the world to find inspiration. The earlier post, "Robots for Good," showed how wheels could move artificial humans. Now, Jansen shows how wind pumping air into old lemonade bottles can propel spindly plastic legs while a creature's body remains steady. Sensing it could become stuck in dangerous water or on loose sand, his "Strandbeests" even can reverse direction.

What Moscow Could Learn from History

After college, a friend of mine, who had studied the Russian language, traveled to Moscow. When she visited again fifty years later, she raved about the changes and couldn't wait to show me photos of modern life there. What seems to be happening in Russia today is a grim throwback to yesteryear from which students who wonder why they should study history, as well as world leaders, can learn.

     Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and his oligarchs, who have accumulated great wealth, are a new monarchy that thrives on corruption. Rather than recognize how corruption undermines public support for a government, as China has by prosecuting officials who use their positions for private gain, Moscow has revived a climate of fear and terror to keep its population in check. Dare to confront government lies, as Anna Politkovskaya and Boris Nemtsov did, and you are assassinated. Run Open Russia, an online video operation that informs scattered dissidents of opposition protests, and you suddenly collapse in your office, possibly from poisoning. Blog criticism of the regime and your younger brother, Oleg Navalny, is sentenced to three and a half years in a Russian penal colony. Return from doing Putin's dirty work fighting in Ukraine, and your weapons are confiscated at the border. How long can Moscow keep a lid on a public upheaval? Nicholas II thought, forever.

     By just looking at a map, a young student would expect the vast expanse of Russia to be an economic power house compared to the islands of Japan. Instead, falling oil prices have exposed Russia's less diversified economy which contracted 3.7% in 2015. Oil prices that were expected to improve after an OPEC meeting failed to materialize and remain below $50 a barrel in 2017. When countries, such as Russia and North Korea, focus exclusively on the military, space, and cyber technology, the rest of the economy suffers. Destroy their military and what would they have left to make them a great power? Once Japan and Germany were defeated in World War II, these countries did not make this mistake.

    With nationalism pinned to advanced military weaponry, Moscow has flexed its non-economic strength and expansionary vision in Georgia, Ukraine and now Syria. TIME magazine in October, 2016 recalled the 2013 manifesto of the chief of the Russian general staff, Valery Gerasimov, who wrote, "A perfectly thriving state can, in a matter of months and even days, be transformed into an arena of fierce armed conflict through political, economic, informational, humanitarian and other nonmilitary measures applied in coordination with the protest potential of the population." Apparently Putin assumes such attacks can be directed only from Russia rather than toward Russia as well. In any case, military demonstrations of power and cyber attacks do nothing to correct Moscow's biggest problem, a failing economy. Sanctions imposed on Russia after its Crimea takeover and low oil prices continue.

     Migrants have fled Syria the way Russians abandoned ground when Napoleon's army marched on Moscow in 1812. To the victor will belong a shell of Syria or the realization that two hundred years later a country's power rests, not only on military strength, but on a strong diversified economy and an ability to negotiate a just and lasting peace in the world.

      To this latter end,  U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Putin agreed to meet at the UN on September 28, 2015. Putin expressed a willingness to discuss a joint effort to remove the threat of ISIS in Syria but then sent fighter planes to prop up Syria's regime by bombing rebels attacking a government that has killed, rather than listened to, protesters. However, once Putin determined ISIS had brought down Russian Flight 9268 over the Sinai peninsula in October, 2015, he pivoted to join the US and France to launch a major attack on terrorist forces. However, Moscow again returned to military support for the Syrian government. In August, 2016, Tehran showed its displeasure, when Moscow bragged about using bases in Iran to bomb Syria, by canceling an agreement permitting such raids. After Russia destroyed a convoy carrying supplies to Syrians during a failed ceasefire, the US broke off talks with Moscow regarding Syria.

   

Answers to post about super heroes in certain countries: A-7, B-9, C-1, D-6, E-8, F-2, G-5, H-10, I-3, J-4.

   

Why Is the Pope Going to Philadelphia?

Pope Francis will attend the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. He has nothing in common with the aristocratic slave owner who wrote the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, but he agrees with the essence of what Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776. That is, people are entitled to "the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them...."

     Specifically, to what rights are people entitled? Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. For Pope Francis, the pursuit of happiness goes beyond searching for gratification or escape with sex, drugs, or alcohol. The pursuit extends all the way to the eternal happiness of heaven. And what is heaven? No one knows for sure, but I believe it was St. Frances of Assisi, Pope Frances's namesake, who posited heaven could be like the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve gave into Satan's temptation. Could be. When I lived in Hawaii, I often heard people refer to the natural beauty of the islands as "a little piece of Paradise." When, in the Pope's recent encyclical, Laudato Si, he asks individuals and countries to make changes needed to protect the environment, perhaps he is inviting us to find a bit of heaven on earth.

     In any case, Philadelphia will be for the Pope, as it has been for the many who have visited the city since 1776, a reminder that governments are instituted to secure the rights God has endowed on all people. After the Declaration of Independence listed the ways government by the King of Great Britain failed to secure basic human rights, delegates again met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write the Constitution. Not satisfied that the Constitution sufficiently safeguarded individual rights, a Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution, was added in 1791. When the United Nations, which Pope Francis addresses September 25, 2015, was founded after World War II, it adopted a similar Declaration of Human Rights to promote respect for human rights and basic freedoms for people all over the world.

     Does God see countries with secure borders? It seems He sees people with secure rights, the way Thomas Jefferson did in 1776 and the way Pope Frances does in 2015.

   

   

   

 

Falling Commodity Prices Spur Diversification in Emerging Markets

Commodity exporting countries that have depended on the Chinese market have been hard hit by the slide in China's economy. Zambia, for example, relies on copper exports to China, which consumes 40% of the mineral's global output, for 70% of its foreign exchange earnings and 25 to 30% of its government revenue. Like Nigeria, which has depended on petroleum exports that are declining in value, Zambia sees a new need for economic diversification.

Check out countries heavily dependent on commodity exports:

• Bauxite: Indonesia, Jamaica, Brazil
• Chromite: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Albania
• Coal: Indonesia
• Cobalt: Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Copper: Chile, Kazakhstan, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru
• Iron Ore: Brazil
• Lithium: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia
• Manganese: South Africa, Gabon, Brazil, Ghana
• Molybenum: Romania, Chile
• Nickel: (Indonesia banned exports to China), New Caledonia, Madagascar
• Petroleum: Saudi Arabia, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Nigeria
• Platinum: South Africa
• Tin: Indonesia, Myanmar
• Tungsten: Myanmar, Bolivia
• Uranium: South Africa, Namibia, Niger, Kazakhstan
• Vanadium: South Africa
• Zinc: Peru, like Australia, has cut production and jobs 

Can Small Farms End Poverty?

Before performers, men, women and young people gather, at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City's Central Park on September 26, for the purpose of ending extreme poverty, let's look at a few of the factors contributing to world hunger. Silo thinking, where everyone focuses on their own problems and solutions, is undermining the need to feed and employ people, provide export revenue from agriculture, and protect the environment.

     Small farms provide employment that prevents a country's rural population from flocking to urban areas that are not ready to provide sufficient jobs, sanitation, housing, transportation, and education. David Hoyle, deputy director of ProForest has pointed out how small farms would benefit from governments willing to engage in land-use planning. What governments need to do is designate specific areas where: 1) villagers can farm and live, 2) concessions are leased to large scale export producers of, for example, palm oil and timber, and 3) forested areas needed to sop up greenhouse gases are protected. Water use planning to prevent pollution and supply sufficient water for sanitation, cooking, and crops is also necessary.

     Without land-use planning, plantations governments are counting on to provide agricultural export revenue are in constant competition and conflict with local farmers. Moreover, plantation owners need government help to provide the housing and sanitation facilities, schools, and clinics that are a constant source of complaints by the laborers they employ.

     Countries have tried to coordinate local production and crop exports by providing villagers with fertilizer, seeds, technical assistance, and credit. In exchange, under contract state-owned enterprises buy, at fixed prices, what the farmers produce. As earlier posts for Nigeria, coffee, and cocoa reveal, this process has been financially unsuccessful to both governments and small growers. Modifications have led governments to provide farmers with vouchers they can use to buy their own supplies, and private companies or coops have taken over the task of buying commodities from farmers.

     Chemical companies in a position to perform research for the precision farming that provides seeds, fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides adapted to local soil and climate conditions in global areas of extreme poverty now concentrate their efforts on profitable corn, soybean, and cotton crops important to American agriculture, not, for example, cassava, which feeds the poor in sub-Saharan Africa.

     Instead of engineering crops to provide added vitamins and minerals to first world consumers, in areas of extreme poverty the same objective could be achieved by introducing small farmers to new crops they could plant and bring to their local markets. Not only would a greater variety of produce improve nutrition, but crop rotation could improve soils and increase a farmer's income. Farmers might save money by controlling weeds with mulch rather than chemicals, and they may even be able to make additional money by using weeds to weave baskets (see baskets for sale at serrv.org) or make bio-fuel.

(Farming topics also are covered in the earlier posts, "World (Food) Expo, Hybrid Crops & New Farming Practices" and "Back to the Land.")

New Uses for Mobile Apps

It's been awhile since I visited trendwatching.com, but, as always, this website is full of new ideas from around the world. This time, I found tech-fueled, mobile app ideas from the Asia Pacific that are worth imitating.

Using the LINE app in real time Burberry brought its fall fashion runway show to Japan. But brands aren't just using apps to sell things, they also use them to offer lifestyle, social issue, and financial solutions to their customers.

Directory apps are responding to the need to help app users find the categories they want amid game, shopping, travel, and a million other options. Indonesia-based Oiffel, Shopious, and Kleora are among the providers of directories that assist consumers by compiling lists of online shops. For businesses that use its iPads, Apple is bundling apps for specific industries. GottaGo in India provides a very useful list of nearby, clean restrooms. Other apps locate parking spaces.

Governments are discovering new ways to use mobile apps to assist citizens. The Delhi Police Department receives complaints about police officers seeking bribes and harassing citizens in India on WhatsApp. Partnered with the Shanghai government, the WeChat City Service app enables smartphone users to locate hospitals, make medical appointments, find visa services, check driving records, and browse library books.

Rural areas in BOP countries at the socalled Bottom of the (Smart) Pyramid have apps to locate rickshaws and the best fishing areas. All in all, more than half of the world's smart phones are in the Asia Pacific.

Warning to Students: Don't Cheat

Children who are motivated to cheat by copying another student's work, paying someone to write their papers, or hiring another student to take a standardized test for them could learn a few lessons from those who have avoided corruption or engaged in it around the world.

Even if the current business culture in a country sanctions corruption, the honesty espoused by Bulent Celebi's AirTies firm in Turkey offers a promising example. When Celebi established his WiFi company, which does not rely on phone lines or fiber optic cables to transmit data, he had six founding values. Besides customer satisfaction and engaged employees, he stated AirTies would be ethical. Therefore, he did not rely on bribes but, according to Elmira Bayrasli's book, From the Other Side of the World, he launched his business by working through the laborious process of dealing with Turkey's bureaucracy and paperwork. Shortcuts, he felt, would start AirTies off in the wrong direction.

     While on a visit to Nairobi, Kenya, in November, 2015, Pope Francis told a cheering crowd that corruption was easy and sweet but in the end it makes politics, even in the Vatican, and a country sick. He urged the crowd to keep corruption out of its lives, because corruption takes away joy and robs people of peace in their lives.

     Major European auto and truck maker, VW, will pay at least $15 billion for developing a cheating way to pass emissions tests.

     As a result of bribing doctors and hospitals by giving them kickbacks, the Japanese-based manufacturer, Olympus, paid a $646 million fine.

     By pretending subprime mortgages were sound, Goldman Sachs, one of the US firms that helped bring on the 2008 recession, is expected to pay about $5 billion to resolve state and federal investigations.

     In Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff and House Speaker Eduardo Cunha have been implicated in a corruption scandal involving construction firms that paid bribes to Petrobras, the state energy firm. Marcelo Odebrecht, former head of Brazil's giant construction company, designed the scheme that paid kickbacks to win contracts from senior Petrobras officials and that funded political campaigns. In March, 2016, Odebrecht was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Although Rousseff thus far has been found blameless in the Petrobras scandal, the charge of her involvement has led to a call for her impeachment and hurt the country's economy by stopping building and energy projects. Petrobras has had to stop paying dividends, and the company has cut $32 billion from its 5-year $130 billion investment plan. Now that the Federal Accounts Court has ruled that Rousseff's administration used illegal accounting practices, the prospect of impeachment is even greater. Eventually, Rousseff was out, but in June, 2017, new President Michel Temer was charged with taking $11.5 million in bribes for helping a meatpacker who had tax and loan problems.

     Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, Iceland's Prime Minister, was the first victim of a leak of papers from the Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. In April, 2016, he stepped down, when it was disclosed that he and his wife owned an undeclared off shore account where he concealed millions of dollars from taxes. The papers reveal Mossack Fonseca also has formed off shore shell companies to help other clients launder money, dodge sanctions, and evade taxes.

     Nigerian authorities fined the South African-based MTN multinational mobile telecommunications company $5.2 billion, later reduced to $3.4 billion. Of MTN's 62 million subscribers, the company failed to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered, and therefore unidentified, Sim card accounts. Kidnappers had used an unregistered Sim card from MTN to demand a ransom for Nigeria's former finance minister, Chief Olu Falae.

     A November, 2015 report from the World Anti Doping Agency alleging State-sponsored doping of Russia's Olympic athletes could result in banning the country from competing in 2016's Summer Olympics. And the head of the agency that selects the countries that hold World Cup soccer matches had to resign, when winning host countries were found to have bribed their way into the honor.

     In Indonesia, the government's failure to keep an up-to-date land registry results in an inability to assign blame for the devastating forest fires on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo that also have spread a thick haze of smoke to Malaysia, Singapore, and southern Thailand. All together, the smoke has caused an estimated 500,000 respiratory tract infections, and 100,000 premature deaths are a possibility. Fires are set by cheap slash and burn methods used to clear for new planting by both small scale farmers and corporate palm oil, timber (used for paper), and other agricultural corporations. Standards for the hiring and working conditions of migrant labor in the palm oil industry have failed to remedy abuses. When an investigation by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil found the Malaysian palm oil company, IOI, failed to correct deforestation violations in its concessions, Unilever and 9 other major companies cancelled their contracts with IOI.

     You can read about charges of corruption Russia faces in the earlier blog post, "Hearing Voices." And Communist Party officials throughout China have been severely punished as reported in the earlier blog post, "China's Corruption Crackdown, New Bank Backing, and Release of PR Activists."

Look Beyond Africa's Current Woes

Falling commodity prices and a terrorist attack in Tunisia haven't prevented the private equity Abraaj Group's institutional investors, pension funds, and development finance institutions from making a total $1.37 billion investment, mainly in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Arif Naqvi, Abraaj's founder, sees middle class consumption doubling in the region between 2014 and 2024. Consequently, what the fund looks for is well-managed, mid-market businesses where the fund can influence strategy and growth in fields that benefit from the growing middle class. These fields include: healthcare, education, consumer goods and services, business services, materials, and logistics.

Remember when Lucy in the "Peanuts" cartoon said what she wanted as a gift was real estate. Grandparents might look beyond the latest toys and video games advertised on TV and give their grandchildren a stake in a fund with emerging market investments. It won't be a favorite gift now, but when the high costs of college and grad school come around, kids (and their parents) will be very grateful.

Books with International Themes for Boys (and Girls)

PBS.org/parents/best-books-for-boys/ just posted a very useful resource: a reading list for young, middle school, and advanced readers. It picks up on ideas in my earlier posts: "How Do You Get Boys to Read (about the World?)" and "Word Games Lead to Reading Fun."

Books from the PBS list that have international themes are listed below:

• Arroz Con Leche: Songs and Rhymes from Latin America by Lulu Delacre
• Tu Mama es una Lama? by Deborah Guarino
• Pierre: a cautionary tale about a hungry lion by Maurice Sendak
• Storms and Volcanoes, 2 books by Seymour Simon
• It's Disgusting and We Ate It: True Food Facts from Around the World by James Solheim
• Slinky, Scaly Snakes (from around the world) by Jennifer A. Dussling

Time to Revisit China's and the World's Foreign Currency Exchange Rates

Watching how a change in the amount one country's currency, such as a US dollar, can buy of another country's currency, such as Chinese yuan, illustrates globalization at work. Currency exchange rates certainly demonstrate how countries are interconnected.

     What brings this subject to mind (after it was addressed in the earlier post, "When to Buy/Sell in the World Market") is today's Chinese devaluation of its currency by about 2% against the US dollar. Based on information in the earlier post, kids who have an interest in finance might conclude China was attempting to reduce the price of its exports in order to compete with lower priced goods from other countries. China's imports of luxury goods and electronics from the US would cost more, and US tourists in China would get more for their money.

     In the past, China selected a midpoint currency conversion rate that fluctuated between 2% above or below the US dollar. As a result of China's first devaluation, the US dollar could buy 6.22 yuan compared to 6.11 the day before. The next day the value of the yuan dropped a little over 4%, but that is nothing like the 20% to 40% devaluation that would be needed to compete with much lower priced competitors like Vietnam or Burma. Although China did not want to risk losing investment capital that would exit a country whose currency has this kind of weak buying power, subsequent devaluations have caused capital to flee.

     The truth is, demand is weak within China, as shown by Alibaba's slowed quarterly growth. China's $50 billion canal project in Nicaragua has been put on hold until 2016. While no reason was given, the stock market dip has caused the fortune of Wang Jing, CEO of the HKND Group funding the canal, to fall from $10.2 billion to $1.1 billion. Yet, in December, 2015, President Xi Jinping announced China would be giving Africa emergency food and $60 billion in grants and loans.

     Weak demand throughout the world is hurting all exporters, including South Korea and Taiwan. Countries that depend on their commodity exports to China are especially hard hit as reported in the later post entry, "Falling Commodity Prices Spur Diversification in Emerging Markets." A 2% currency devaluation and even a 20% devaluation will not cure sluggish worldwide industrial and consumer demand.

   

   

   

   

   

Girls of All Sizes and Cultural Backgrounds Can Be Smart

Kids always have loved playing with dolls, but the dolls have changed from country to country and throughout the years. Today, four dolls from MGA Entertainment have different cultural backgrounds, but they all are smart. Each doll comes with an experiment kit that can create a working volcano, lava light, glow stick necklace, or blueprint for a skateboard using ingredients kids have in their homes.

These new dolls are sold at Walmart, Toys "R" Us, Amazon, Kmart, and Joann Fabrics and Crafts. A Netflix Original series, titled Project MC2, features four girls, inspired by the dolls, who join a top secret spy organization.

For other examples of girls doing great things, see the earlier posts, "Break into a Happy Dance" and "Girl Power?"

Games Techies Play

LEGOs, videogames, robots, and drones blur the line between play and war. Consider the 45 foot by 44 foot Star Wars X-wing fighters built from LEGOs (See the documentary film "A LEGO Brickumentary."), the "Battlezone" videogame that the U.S. Army has used as a simulator to train tank operators, wars between "BattleBots" on TV, and drone races in soccer fields on Saturday afternoons.

     With theatrical lighting, announcer commentary, and brackets worthy of college basketball's "March Madness" in the U.S., home made "BattleBots" fight robot wars on television. Some "BattleBots" are works of art, but other determined teams only create spinning, crushing, jabbing, remote-controlled machines in order to destroy their opponents.

     To navigate the cones and pylons that mark a drone race course, pilots wear first-person-view (FPV) video goggles, rely on a live camera feed, and use joy sticks that control the pitch, roll, yaw, and throttle of their tricky-to-fly, remote controlled quadcopters (four-propeller drones). A segment on the TODAY show June 1, 2016 claimed drone competitions are going to be the next big thing. Find out more at droneworlds.com and dronenationals.com.

     Where can techies learn to be "playful?" Try the maker spaces mentioned in the earlier blog posts, "I Made This Myself" and "Robots for Good."

   

What Do Starbucks and ISIS Have in Common?

Whether you're friendless in a big city or big school, you're going to be drawn to a welcoming environment. Baristas who greet you by name and remember your order and organizations that promise boyfriends and a purpose in life have found the secret of success. They are not going to point out the down sides associated with what they offer.

     What can be done to counteract the lure of terrorist groups and gangs? Offer positive alternatives for bonding in sports teams, theater productions, church choirs, robot competitions. Provide classes in school and out that teach skills directly related to landing a good-paying career. Publicize internships that provide experience, not just in taking orders, but in an environment that invites them to contribute ideas and to learn to lead in a way that doesn't offend others.

     Separation of church and state need not be interpreted to rule out studying world religions in schools. Unless myths about Catholics, Muslims, Jewish people, Buddhists, and other religious followers are dispelled, these falsehoods will continue to undercut positive beliefs that can foster tolerance. Just as the Internet can be used to bully and promote violence, techies can use social media to muster posses that post cartoons, jokes, and songs that focus on fun and inclusion. What stylish young woman who works out to keep her figure trim and who keeps up on the latest mascara, nail polish, and hair and skin care advice really wants her boyfriend to demand she wear a burka?

Does the Technological Age Require Too Much Work?

We all know it's easier to take a selfie than to do math homework. Yet this age of rapid technological advances and big data requires close attention.

    But there is a temptation to blindly accept accelerated technological developments, because understanding the pros, and especially the cons, of vaccines, smartphones, and other scientific and engineering marvels is more difficult than doing math. It even is difficult for human subjects of a drug experiment to read, much less understand, things like the side effects they might develop.

     Blind acceptance is a major mistake, especially for kids around the world who have an aptitude and interest in asking questions to help them understand how things work and for kids who want to control what Wendell Wallach calls technology: A Dangerous Master.

     Even without reading Wallach's new book, parents, teachers, and young people can begin observing proposed and implemented new technological developments:

•  self-driving cars
• genetic engineering
• virtual reality
• 3D printers, some of which can create human tissue and bone 
• stem cells
• military robots
• drones
• nanomaterials

What are these gadgets and breakthroughs expected to do? How will they affect each of us? How will a complex sociotechnical system function successfully when it requires technological components to work together with people, institutions, environments, values, and existing social practices?

     Wallach points out how humans are responsible for making the correct responses when a piece of space junk is about to hit the International Space Station or when automated stock trading systems and safety controls for nuclear reactors fail. The trouble is: pressure to derive economic benefits from growth hormones or the desire for political, personal, and other payoffs can cause scientists and engineers to underestimate the probability of unanticipated events and even to have no idea of what the probability of something like an oil spill from drilling in the Arctic might be.

     Wallach stresses the necessity of creating a critical mass of informed citizens and scholars willing and able to raise concerns about technological developments, their impact on society, and the time needed to design adequate safety mechanisms. Informed young people are living at a time when they have opportunities to make their concerns known: in classrooms, at town meetings, through their social media networks, in contacts with political representatives, through call-in programs, in surveys and polls, by writing letters to editors, at science fairs, and by writing blogs.



     

     

 

Australian Report Links Indonesian Pilots to Islamic Militants

A recent Australian report about Indonesian pilots with ISIS ties raises questions about a possible relationship to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March, 2014.
(See earlier post, "Who Needs International Expertise?")

     According to the Australian report, Ridwan Agustin was a proud Indonesian pilot who flew AirAsia flights to Hong Kong and Singapore prior to September, 2014. Thereafter, he changed his name to Ridwan Ahmad Indonesty and began expressing support for ISIS. AirAsia stated the company no longer employed Ridwan Agustin and his wife, Diah Suci Wulandari, a flight attendant, but refused to provide details of the flight routes they flew.

      By March, 2015, the Australian Federal Police reported Ridwan listed his location as Raqqa, Syria. Since 2012, an estimated 500 people have traveled from Indonesia to the Middle East, including Iraq and Syria, to join terrorist groups estimated to now total 800 ISIS radicals in Indonesia. A weekly report for March 3-10, 2015 from the National Counter Terrorism Center mentioned Malaysians and Indonesians had formed a joint weapons training unit, Majmu'ah al'Arkhabiliy, commanded by ISIS in Raqqa, Syria.

     Access to and knowledge of aviation security and safety makes radicalized pilots a serious threat. Some 300 pilots, flight attendants, flight instructors, radar and air traffic controllers, and ground crew from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, France, the Middle East, UK, and USA exchange information on Instagram and Facebook.

     There are five known ISIS recruiting centers in Indonesia, one of which was responsible for killing 202 people in the 2002 Bali bombing. Another attack in Bali occurred in 2005. Reports are pending for a crash by AirAsia Airbus 320 en route to Singapore that killed 155 plus the crew in December, 2014 and for an Indonesian military airplane crash in July, 2015 that killed at least 135.

     An Indonesian military-trained pilot, Tommy Hendratno (also known as Tomi Aby Alfatih), who had known connections to Ridwan Agustin and who expressed concern for the plight of Muslims and support for ISIS, flew private charter and commercial flights to Bali, Malaysia, and Dubai for Premiair before he quit the company on June 1, 2015. He had attended three training sessions (the last one in February, 2015) in the US at Flight Safety International in St. Louis, Missouri.

   

   

Break into a Happy Dance

What do festivals and weddings include? Dancing. Whether dancers are doing a Mexican Hat Dance or Horah to the tune of Hava Nagila at a Jewish wedding, there's a smile on everyone's face. Through the years, the same happy attitude has accompanied the slow graceful French minuet, spirited Italian tarantella, Virginia Reel from Scotland, Irish step dancing, Poland's mazurka and polka, the Sailor's hornpipe, clogging, square dancing, and break dancing by b-boys on the street. Colorful costumes often add to the joy.

  When Michaela DePrince was a hungry little girl living in an orphanage in Sierra Leone, Africa, she saw a magazine picture of a happy ballerina standing on her toes and wearing a pink dress. To be happy, she thought, I want to be like that girl. Defying all expectations, she was adopted and, carrying the picture of the happy ballerina with her, she came to the United States. As soon as her new momma saw the picture, she said, "You will dance." Ballet classes followed, and Ms. DePrince, now one of the few black ballerinas in the world, dances with the Dutch National Ballet. She tells her story in Ballerina Dreams.

     Misty Copeland, who just became the first female African-American principal dancer in the American Ballet Theater's 75-year history, is another happy ballerina. Her memoir, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, tells how she pursued her career despite beginning ballet lessons at, for a ballerina, the advanced age of 13.

     Dancing is for the very young and very old. Multicultural Kids (multiculturalkids.com) offers children All Time Favorite Dances on DVD and CD formats and international tunes for dancing on Ella Jenkins Multicultural Children's Songs and I Have a Dream World Music for Children by Daria. Making conversation with two elderly women at a party, I asked how they met. "At folk dancing," one said, and, on the spot, she did a few steps to show me one of their dances. At the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the Ko-Thi Dance Company (ko-thi.org) gives children and adults lessons in traditional dances from Africa and the Caribbean on Saturday mornings. For world travelers, trips can include learning a few steps after watching hula dancers in Hawaii or girls performing the classic Khmer apsara in Cambodia. Trip planners at AAA.com/TravelAgent promise travelers to Argentina will never forget their private dance lessons at an authentic tango house in Buenos Aires.

Personal Response to the World's Problems

Some effort is better than none. Asked if we are alone in the universe, former NASA astronaut, Barbara Morgan, responded in Time magazine (July 6-12, 2015), "In every crack in the sidewalk, there's something growing....Life seems to want to take hold...." Last year about this time, one bucket of ice water dumped over a person's head helped hope take hold for people suffering from ALS by raising $94 million to find a cure (See the earlier blog post, "Good Works Multiply Fast.")

 Learn that Nestle is filling the plastic water bottles it sells with ground water pumped out of drought-stricken, fire-prone California's San Bernardino National Forest. An even bigger problem: Why would someone in a developed country which has strict health and safety regulations to keep water free of pesticides and pollution drink water transported in plastic bottles from another country?
Response: Fill reusable bottles with water from taps or pumps in areas where water is protected by clean water acts.

Learn that nearly 800 million people in the world don't have enough to eat every day.
Response: Bring a can of soup or fruit to a shelter for homeless people, a food pantry, or church collection center.

Learn that usable items are thrown away in dumps that pollute the land and pose health risks for children tempted to play in them.
Response: Hold a yard sale to sell outgrown clothes and toys. Maybe, even give the proceeds of the sale to a charity.

Learn that a "religious" terrorist group has used a bomb to hurt people it doesn't like.
Response: Read the Barron's book series, This is my faith, or another children's book on religions to find out the true beliefs of Muslims, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. that have nothing to do with violence against those who practice other or no religions.

Learn the drawbacks of drilling for oil in the Arctic (See the earlier blog post, "North Pole Flag."), fracking (See the post, "The Lure of Shale Oil Independence."), and greenhouse gases (See the posts, "Pollution Update" and "A Healthy Environment.").
Response: Walk or ride a bike to reduce the need to be driven in a car that burns gasoline and look for ways to use less electricity from coal-burning power plants. What can you do without turning on a light, computer, or TV?

Learn that pesticides can harm the bees needed to pollinate crops and can reduce the milkweed food supply butterflies need to eat. (See the earlier blog post, The Bees and the Birds ".).
Response: In backyard and community gardens, pull out weeds by hand.

Learn that someone has been hurt or killed because of the color of their skin, where they were born, their religion, who they love, because they are girls, or because they want to vote.
Response: Pray for greater understanding, tolerance, and respect among all people in the world.

Do-It-Yourself Museums

You may have seen or heard about the free lending libraries people have built in little glass houses on top of wooden bases and poles in their front yards. Stocked with use books for children and adults, anyone can take from, replace, or add to these collections. In some airports, museums also have mounted mini exhibits in glass cases. Combining these ideas has led to little free museums of art and museums of science and technology on private property.

     Using an international theme, museums could display art from foreign countries: paintings, sketches, sculpture, textiles, pottery (such as the Korean vase seen here), photography, and any other art form. For example, a hat or crane made out of Japanese paper-folding origami could be displayed in a glass case over a mailbox, labeled "Take One," that was filled with directions for making this object.

     Since simple scientific experiments work in any country, they would be perfect to display in little home made museums everywhere. Chemical reaction experiments could be shown in a mini museum. With three glasses, one would be filled with red grape juice, another would show how the same red grape juice would turn green when mixed with ammonia (an alkaline solution), and the third glass would show how the green/red grape juice and ammonia would return to red when acidic vinegar neutralized the alkaline solution. Experiments found at sciencefairadventure.com could lend themselves to demonstrations in little museum display cases.

     Those who have made little free museums say they have received enthusiastic help from professors at local colleges and universities. They also say freestanding unmanned museums have to be sturdy and able to withstand all kinds of weather conditions. Unfortunately, they report a certain amount of vandalism is to be expected. But the best part is daily exposure to art and science motivates artists and inventors.

 (The earlier blog posts, "I Made This Myself," "Robot Revolution," and "Robots for Good," suggest projects that might lend themselves to mini museum displays.)

   

Uncover the Economic Value of Wood

We are used to valuing trees because they absorb greenhouse gases (See the earlier post, "A Healthy Environment.") and provide the shade other crops need to grow (See "Coffee Prices Going Up, Allowances Going Down?"). But at a recent 4H meeting of young people who enter their animals and agricultural projects in competitions at county fairs every year, one of the members demonstrated the value of trees after their growing days are finished. Seeing the bowl he had made out of a variety of local woods started members thinking.

     What happens to trees that are uprooted by wind and storms, trees that are removed to make room for roads, utility poles, and developers' projects, evergreen trees after Christmas, and all the area trees that have been removed because they were infested by the emerald ash borer insect? Some dead trees are used for firewood, but others just rot.

     When my sister was in college, I remember she drove several students in one of her art classes to a lot that collected bits and pieces of wood. I have the statue she carved, sanded, and oiled to show, not only the form of a woman, but also the beautiful grain of the wood she used. Besides the grain of wood, the perfume of freshly sawn cherry tree logs first attracted the man who now owns a custom-made furniture business.

     Beyond firewood, there is a market for useful and beautiful objects made from the world's sustainable and rotting wood. Leafing through a catalog from SERRV (serrv.org), I saw how artisans in the Philippines had turned coral tree and acacia wood into birdhouses and bowls, Bangladesh craftsmen had used albizia wood to make stools, and carvers in India had stained and transformed mango and shesham wood into tables. I've also read how a Mozambican wood carver sold an expensive three-foot-tall ebony sculpture to a tourist in Kenya.

     Clearly, trees can play an important role in sopping up greenhouse gases that cause global warming, and wood products can boost a country's economy. A UN study concludes forest land the size of South Africa has disappeared since 1990. In square miles, an article in TIME magazine (September 28, 2015) shows deforested areas have been lost fastest annually since 2010 in the following countries: Brazil (3,799 square miles), Indonesia (2,641), Burma (2,108), Nigeria (1,583), and Tanzania (1,436). Before turning trees into logs for export, these countries and others need to consider how builders can use whole trees instead of steel to support structures and how an increase in their middle class populations represents the income potential of future furniture markets. Moreover, Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency reports illegal logging of rosewood in Madagascar deprives the country of $460,000 a day. Illegal logging also has been used to fund conflicts in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

     Kids might begin to get an appreciation of uses for wood by making craft projects out of Popsicle sticks. They might go on to think about finding jobs operating tractor-powered sawmills, learning how to dry wood, or if they would like to sell products made from wood. Who knows, some day they may be in a position to invite architects and planners to consider showcasing local woods in major projects. For more ideas about the use of wood, check wisconsinurbanwood.org.



   

Summer Project: Adopt a Country

Your country could be a big one, like China or Russia, that is always in the news or a small one, like Papua New Guinea, that you didn't know existed. Whatever country you choose, there are resources to help you explore your choice (See some suggested sources of country information in the earlier post, "See the World.") I took my own advice and decided to learn about Malaysia. Unfortunately, I only got as far as looking at a map and deciding Malaysia must have a complicated history, It shares the slim Malay Peninsula with three other countries: Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and Singapore, and the nearby mountainous Borneo island with Brunei and Indonesia.

     Those who plan to put more effort in learning about a country can begin their project by buying a scrapbook or notebook and labeling pages with titles, such as "Maps," "Government leaders," "Sports," "Key industries," "Agricultural products," and so forth.

     On the first page, "Maps," include a map of your country and a world map with an arrow pointing to it and to your country. (For sources of maps and other information about maps, see the earlier blog post, "You Are Here.") When I had an Atlas out to look for Malaysia, I also decided to see where Iran's secret nuclear facilities probably were located. It was easy to spot the long swath of Zagros Mountains that run along Iran's western border. Eye-in-the-sky satellites could know where to look for activity indicating the construction of new facilities that violated its nuclear agreement with UN Security Council members and the EU.

     Your second page could be labeled, "Flag," Find a colored picture of your country's flag in a World Almanac at the library or elsewhere. Countries put a lot of thought into their flags, because they symbolize a country's important characteristics. Saudi Arabia's flag is almost all green, because the Muslim faith is important to its people and green is the color associated with Mohammed, founder of the Muslim religion. South Africa's flag is much more complicated than Saudi Arabia's. For example, it has red and black for the struggle its population had for freedom and gold for a source of its wealth. (More information about flags is in the earlier blog post, "A Salute to Flags.")

     On a page titled, "Population," list how many people live in your adopted country. How does the size of this population compare to the population of your home country? Is it two times larger or less than a tenth the size of your country? Also include pictures of your country's government leaders and its people. List names of people in your adopted country that may be very different from those of your classmates (Some sources of people and place pictures are listed in the earlier blog posts, "Picture the World" and "Getting to Know You.")

     A page for "Places" is a good one for photos of cities, especially the country's capital. Photos also will show mountains or flat land, snow or beaches, rivers and farms, how people live in cities, and what sports they play. If you know relatives or friends will be visiting your adopted country, remind them to send you postcards to include in your scrapbook.

     Not every country has the same animals that live where you do, so be sure to have a page labeled, "Animals." If you go to a zoo, see if you can find an animal whose native home is your adopted country. The zoo's brochure may have a photo of this animal that you can add to your scrapbook.

     Your interests may lead you to look into your country's music: folk songs and classical composers, current tunes and performers, various instruments.

     What products does your adopted country produce, minerals does it mine, and crops does it grow? Find photos.

     As a student, you will be interested in "Education."Do all children attend the same types of schools? What do they study at what ages? A new book, Playgrounds, shows what recess looks like in some countries (See the earlier blog post, "Recess Differs Around the World.")

     Subjects such as "Food," "Religion," and "Language" could all have separate pages. You may be lucky to find foreign money and stamps from your adopted country, an interesting book about your country, a souvenir from an Olympic or World Cup games held in your country, or a doll dressed in native garb. Recently, when the founder of my granddaughter's 4H club spoke at a meeting, she told how she had 80 dolls from the 80 countries she and her husband had visited.

     The best thing about filling a scrapbook or notebook with information about an adopted country is beginning to think about traveling there some day.

Coffee Prices Going Up; Allowances Going Down?

Children may be looking at a cut in their allowances, if the adults who provide them are big coffee drinkers.

     A quick lesson in economics teaches disposable income is the money people bring home from work after taxes are removed. For most people, a large portion of disposable income pays for such necessities as food, housing, transportation, and clothing. After paying for these necessities, what is left over is discretionary income that can be spent on things like a mango, doll, game system, or any other things children want.

     For those who need their morning cups of coffee, the anticipated increase in the world's price of coffee beans will reduce the amount of disposable income they have left over for discretionary spending. Is an allowance a necessity that has a claim on disposable income? If it is, it won't be affected by higher coffee prices. But a child's allowance may suffer, if the adult paying it considers an allowance in the same category as discretionary spending for a new toy. Increased coffee prices that reduce the amount of disposable income left over for discretionary income can cause a reduction in a child's allowance. If that happens, older children might decide to look for jobs that give them an income and the power to decide their own disposable and discretionary spending.

     Considering a wider economic context, kids might learn to ask why coffee, banana, soda, bus fare, and other prices go up and down. When a supply increases and demand stays the same, prices go down. But, when supplies decline and consumer demand increases, prices also increase. That explains a coffee price increase.

     In Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, because of climate change, temperatures are rising in the high altitude tropical regions that grow high-quality Arabica coffee beans. There, coffee bean output is threatened by the pests and plant disease that flourish because of long periods of drought and short periods of heavy rainfall. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia suggests survival for Arabica growers will require them to move 300 to 500 meters farther above sea level, an impossibility for Brazil's highly mechanized, commercial coffee plantations that supply 70% of the world's 1.6 billion cup daily coffee demand.

     Although growing coffee under a canopy of trees, such as shown in the photo of coffee growing in Mexico, would increase the predators that feast on insects that damage coffee beans, reduce the costs of chemical pesticides and fertilizer, and curtail polluting run-off, for all but a few specialty brands, the trend in the past 20 years has been away from shade-grown coffee. High-yield Robusta coffee, like that grown in Vietnam and Indonesia, can withstand higher temperatures, but its lower quality is used mainly for instant coffee. Wet processed coffee beans from the Indonesian island of Sumatra gives them a different taste that some coffee drinkers dislike but others enjoy, especially when, for example, McDonald's mixes them with beans from other sources.

     Whatever the coffee type, the same conflicts the palm oil and timber industries face regarding deforestation, questions of land ownership, competition among food crops, and water scarcity affect all types of coffee growers.

     While the future of coffee production is uncertain, increased demand is certain. Using Arabica grown in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania, Starbucks, in partnership with Taste Holdings, is planning to open in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2016. Positioned as part of the fashionable, upscale urban scene in Shanghai and Beijing, coffee consumption in traditional tea-drinking China is growing faster than anywhere else in the world. Although China's four-cup-per-person-per-year is very low compared to the U.S. and Europe, Starbucks and Costa are responding to the potential for growth by planning to double and triple the number of their shops in China by 2020. Sumerian, a local company, also has entered China's coffee shop scene. Although China currently imports most of its coffee beans, domestic growers have increased their production from 60,000 to 120,000 tons in five years. Unfortunately, most Chinese coffee is grown in the sun in southern Puer, Yunnan, where more fertilizer and water are required and, at the moment, all but 30% of Yunnan's coffee is exported because it is a lower quality than what Chinese shops prefer to serve.

     With coffee consumption increasing, coffee bean growers have an incentive to solve production problems and meet high quality standards. Children who receive an allowance from coffee-drinking adults have an incentive to keep an eye on coffee prices.