New Year's Resolution for Dictators

President-elect, Adama Barrow, who ended the 22-year reign of Yahya Jammeh in The Gambia, said colonists handed over executive power peacefully, so we should be able to show our children (an even) better example.

Yahya Jammeh and Joseph Kabila in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had an opportunity to follow the model of Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria, but instead they have clung to power like Mobuto Sese Seko and Robert Mugabe.

Ahead of Iran's scheduled May 19, 2017, election, Supreme Leader Ayatolla Ali Khamenei, who heads what has been called a "clerical dictatorship," began helping the radical opposition led by Ebrahim Raisi, by criticizing the lack of economic improvement current President Hassan Rouhani promised the country when the nuclear deal was ratified. Nonetheless Rouhani won in a landslide. The public continues to resent Iran's jailing of opposition leaders, banning of newspapers, and cancellation of concerts. Business leaders come to Iran looking for opportunities but leave when they consider the political climate.

     In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a "Muslim democrat," when he gained power in 2001, but as the winner of a constitutional referendum in 2017, he claimed authoritarian powers unknown in the years after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded a secular republic.

Conditions are similar in the Congo, where President Kabila's Republican Guards arrested opposition leader, Frank Diongo, and the popular opposition leader, Moise Katumbi, who owns a successful soccer club. Etienne Tshisekedi, opposition leader of the Congo's Union for Democracy and Social Progress party died at 83 in February, 2017. Despite being known as a country rich in minerals, poverty, inflation, a lack of jobs, corruption, and crime plague the economy. Social media is cut off. Although the Constitution bans presidents from seeking a third term, Kabila's second 5-year term as president ended December 19, 2016, without plans for a new election until possibly 2018.

In The Gambia, President Yahya Jammeh, a Muslim who came to power as an army lieutenant in 1994, at first accepted defeat in the country's December 5, 2016, election. He then decided to contest the results before his term expired January 19, 2017. When a coalition of West African countries threatened to use military force to oust him, Jammeh left Gambia on January 21, 2017.

Adama Barrow, the victor in The Gambia's December election delivered a Christmas message calling for "peace and tranquility." In contrast to Jammeh's condemnation of homosexuality and gay rights, Barrow promised to "protect the right of each Gambian to hold and practice the religion or creed of one's choice without any hindrance or discrimination." From the beginning of his presidency in 2011, Jammeh was criticized for his repression and intimidation of the opposition. Media criticism was met with death threats to and arrests of journalists. The editor of a Gambian newspaper, The Point, was murdered in 2004.

Under Barrow, a truth and reconciliation commission hopes to recover millions of dollars Jammeh is accused of stealing from The Gambia, recipient of $3 million a year in US aid. Barrow also plans to establish a team of experts to design a blueprint for The Gambia's poverty eradication and economic development. Two winners of a Student Inspiration Award at the University of Pennsylvania used their $25,000 prize money to travel to The Gambia to do research and conduct a feasibility study for a goat dairy farm that would improve community nutrition and generate revenue for a local hospital now under construction..

Peaceful transfers of power, what a great New Years Resolution

 for world leaders and the people they lead.

Iceland Gives China the Cold Shoulder

Unlike Russia and the United States, China has no military or commercial presence in the Arctic. To date, Beijing's attempts to remedy the situation have failed. China's hope for a foothold in a European NATO member were dashed, when the Iceland sheep farm Huang Nubo, a former official in the Chinese Communist Party's Propaganda Department, tried to buy was sold to British shale gas fracking billionaire, Jim Ratcliffe, in December, 2016.

(If a student has a globe, this would be a good opportunity to see where a sheep farm in northeastern Iceland would be in relation to the Arctic Circle and to see which other countries are in or near Arctic waters.)

Trading on his relationship with Hjorleifur Sveinbjornsson, his former roommate at Peking University, Huang first visited Iceland in 2010 to establish a China-Iceland Culture Fund to finance meetings of poets. Sveinbjornsson has said Huang was "not an idiot" and did not think Huang's offer to buy the sheep farm for $7 million in 2011 was a front for other than the stated eco-resort purpose.

In 2012 , the state-owned China Development Bank put up $100 million to back Huang's plan to build a luxury hotel and golf course in Grimsstadir, Iceland. In the 100 square mile sheep farm, where snow falls from September to May, Huang claimed that what he called his 100-room, high end, environmentally friendly resort was designed for wealthy Chinese tourists looking for clean air, peace, and quiet.

Since Huang's Zhongkun Group chose a location near oil reserves where China bid for a drilling license on Iceland's northeast coast and also planned to upgrade a landing strip to handle 10 aircraft, a suspicious interior minister rejected a request to exempt Huang from Iceland't laws restricting foreign land ownership. Huang countered with a proposal for a long-term lease arrangement which also was not approved.

 Ratcliffe will own two thirds of the Grimsstadir property; the Icelandic government and other minority investors will own the rest. Ratcliffe says his interest in Iceland is conservation, particularly for protecting area rivers that are important breeding grounds for Atlantic salmon. The Strengur angling club that leases rivers in Grimsstadir expressed pleasure having Ratcliffe as a partner they know as an avid salmon angler who has fished the area for years.

Beijing has made multiple approaches to Iceland. From its vantage point in the South China Sea, China is used to presiding over 30% of the world's ocean-going trade. Looking ahead to the prospect of climate change permitting more traffic through warming Arctic waters, China has expressed an interest in using Iceland as a shipping hub. China's embassy building in Reykjavik is the city's largest. The two countries negotiated a Free Trade Area accord. And, in an attempt to become an observer, China sent its Snow Dragon icebreaker for a stop at Iceland during an Arctic Council meeting of eight nations (Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Canada, and the United States).

As opposed to China, Russia's oil and gas drilling prospects in the Arctic could improve. Rex Tillerson, currently Exxon Mobil's CEO and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Secretary of State, has close ties with Russia.

I Love Coffee; I Love Tea

South African tea farmers, who formed the Heiveld co-operative in the Suid Bokkeveld, are among the Africans who have learned to play the game. Not satisfied with the low prices middlemen brokers paid, and the subsequent low wages they received for the long hours (up to 10-12 hour days) they worked on tea plantations, they formed a co-operative to sell directly to Fairtrade importers who pay fair prices. Their incomes tripled by dealing with companies, such as Lemonaid & Chari Tea.

     Fairtrade certified co-operatives are a good fit with companies formed to satisfy health conscious consumers who are willing: 1) to pay a slightly higher price for products that use natural ingredients and 2) to treat all farmers fairly and with dignity. In the case of Lemonaid & Chari Tea, the company also set up a foundation which uses per bottle contributions from its specialty drinks to finance solar energy and education projects for co-operative members.

     For coffee bean farmers, current conditions are not this favorable. Rising temperatures and, in some areas, unusual drenching high altitude rain associated with climate change have caused a decline in harvests and an increase in pests and widespread roya, a leaf rust fungus, in Central America and Africa. While several big coffee companies are helping farmers move to higher ground, move away from the equator, develop more resilient coffee plants, and diversify crops, most coffee growers are poor small scale farmers unable to mill and market their own coffee beans.

     Since worldwide coffee demand is growing and coffee yields are shrinking, criminal gangs in Kenya and elsewhere have an incentive to overpower private security guards, pay off police guards, steal entire harvests from storage facilities, and sell stolen bags of beans to unscrupulous or unsuspecting middlemen.

     Coffee plantations also have an incentive to scam coffee certification systems that are designed to recognize farms for good environmental, social, and economic practices. Inspectors for the Rainforest Alliance, the Netherlands' UTZ seal, and the Fairtrade International seal have failed to spot problems in Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer. When confronted, farm owners have been known to claim violations were corrected before a deadline, labor issues were resolved, and information about code non-conformities and improved conditions is confidential. Noted certification violations include: false pay deductions for absences, for pay advances and for days off and a failure to register seasonal workers and provide their required medical exams.

     In some counties, government regulations requiring coffee marketers to provide sizable bank guarantees and to obtain export licenses have hampered the formation of coffee co-operatives that can sell directly to companies, such as Starbucks.

(An earlier post, "Coffee Prices Going Up; Allowances Going Down?" also addresses the coffee shortage.)
   

Changing Technologies Become Laughing Matter

Although those on the cutting edge of rapidly changing medical, industrial, and military technologies recognize the need to involve the public in a discussion about how to limit irresponsible applications, I tried to tell a joke that fell flat because those hearing it were unfamiliar with CRISPR.

The joke goes like this. A CRISPR scientist, Trump, a school child, and the Pope were on a damaged airplane that had only three parachutes. The CRISPR scientist, who I later explained was experimenting with the ability to edit cells to produce better crops and possibly to improve the immune properties of genes to cure cancer and other diseases, said she was about to make an important medical breakthrough that would save lives and grabbed one of the parachutes. Trump, who said he was the smartest man in the world and was needed to lead it, also jumped out. The Pope told the student to take the remaining parachute, because he had lived a long productive life and the child had his whole life ahead of him. The student said, "No worries, the smartest man in the world just took my backpack."

If for no other reason, we need to keep up with changing technologies in order to laugh at jokes. There are lots of other reasons, too. Wendell Wallach, in his book, A Dangerous Master, introduces everyone to the challenges of the new technologies and ways to make sure they work for us. (Also see the earlier post, "The Challenge of New Technologies: Prepare to Think.")

Change: How to do it

Whether it's trying to open borders for refugees, to urge professional societies to develop guidelines for new medical technologies, or to train a cat to stop chewing the furniture, some of the principles marketers use when introducing a new product can be helpful, especially when making New Year's resolutions.

1. The new has to have many advantages over the old. You'll be able to wear more attractive clothes and live longer, if you eat better and move more.

2. Demonstrate the advantages of the new. Show how a cat with a new scratching post will prefer that to chewing the furniture.

3. The new is easy to use. Professional medical societies already exist and have conferences and meetings already scheduled, where guidelines and standards can be discussed and codified.

4. Minimize risks.
     a) Financial risk. No refugee can enter a country unless he/she proves a home and job are waiting.
     b) Physical risk. Driving with seat belts, getting enough sleep, and not texting will save your life. How will consumers feel about driverless cars?
     c) Psychological risk: No one will laugh at you for studying or working out, if you do it without any of your friends or relatives seeing you. It's also wise not to tell anyone you've made the decision to start your own business, join the priesthood, become a police officer, etc.

What Can Unemployed People Do?

Concern about technological unemployment from AI, robots, sensors, and the like has led to dire observations. In the factory of the future, there only will be two non-machines, a person and a dog, and it will be the dog's task to keep the person away from the machines. In other words, let's prepare for the future by making a list of what unemployed people around the world can do.

1. Do nothing.

Although unemployed, most people still have their physical abilities.

2. Improve athletic abilities by practicing to become a professional athlete

3. Take whatever risky, possibly illegal, demeaning, poor paying job is available

4. Make and repair things from found objects

5. Sell or demand ransom for what they take by force from those who have something of value

Use brain power to study the economic environment and prepare to join it.

6. Learn to develop software

7. Learn how the stock market works and invest

8. Become a supplier to those who are making money: Manufacture robots, identify global exporters and become one of their suppliers, grow produce, operate a food truck, provide leisure entertainment by arranging tours, design websites, teach, invent, provide promotional/marketing expertise, write a story/song/play, provide spiritual guidance--------------------------------------------------------------------

Could Colors Calm Our World?

Some colors elicit a positive response by humans living in today's culture. The creative company, The Brave New Now, reached this conclusion, while working on the Ven complex housing convention space, a hotel, 50 apartments, stores, a fitness center and spa, juice bar, and rooftop restaurant at the Sloterdijk rail station in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

     When you visit the Ven Amsterdam site, you see the complex uses several colors together in the same space. Why?

     Orange: Found to boost creative performance, increase endurance, and maintain motivation and a positive attitude during tough moments.
   
     Blue: Found to enable a person to take control of a situation, focus on details, remain calm and combat stress.

     Purple: Found to inspire intellectual thoughts, stimulate imagination, and arouse responses to creative concepts.

     Hotel guests at the Ven complex will be able to choose rooms that are orange, blue, purple, or three other colors:

     Yellow: Found to promote a feeling of happiness and optimism, to boost memory, clarify thought, and improve decision making.

     Green: Found to help renew and restore depleted energy, improve efficiency, and calm.

     Pink: A very interesting finding. Females lifting weights in a room painted pink gained the strength to lift heavier weights. Pink power helped energy levels and confidence soar.

     Women negotiating in a sunny glen by the sea with glasses of orange juice or grape juice in their hands may be just what the world needs.

(You might also like to get colorful ideas from the earlier post, "Car Companies Match Colors to Country Moods" and from Harald Arnkil's book, Colours in the Visual World.)




     

All Eyes on OPEC Meeting

The 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), formed in 1960, and non-members, such as Russia, Brazil, and Kazakhstan, all had a major incentive to reach an agreement to reduce oil output and stop what has been a major collapse in crude oil prices since 2014. Compared to the $753 billion in revenue from exports then, revenue is expected to be $341 billion in 2016. OPEC members, Iran and Iraq, have been reluctant to cut production, with Iran also engaged in tit for tat charges with Saudi Arabia (See the earlier post, "Mixed Messages from Saudi Arabia.")

      At OPEC's November 30, 2016 meeting, members agreed to cut daily oil production by 1.2 million barrels beginning on January 1, 2017. Iran is allowed to increase its production to 3.8 million barrels a day as it recovers from sanctions imposed to block its nuclear program. Non-OPEC members are expected to cut 600,000 barrels a day from their production, with Russia accounting for half of the 600,000 barrel reduction. Large producers, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE, have a good record of compliance; compliance by other revenue-starved OPEC members will be closely monitored.

    The production cuts are designed to increase the price of a barrel of crude from under $50 to at least the range of $55 to $60, a welcome boost for oil-dependent economies in countries such as Angola, Venezuela, Nigeria, and Russia. Oil was selling in the low $50s in February, fell below $50 in early March, 2017, and rebounded in early April, 2017 to $52 a barrel. At the beginning of May, 2017, oil again had dropped to $45.5 a barrel and by June, 26-27. 2017, it was at the $43-$44 level.

     Nigeria provides an example of the devastating effect falling oil prices have had on an OPEC member. Banks are in trouble because of failing loans for investments in new local oil producers. Generating electricity is more costly. Currency controls have been imposed to limit the amount of foreign currency available to purchase imports and to foster local manufacturing; and the government has implemented a number of unsuccessful reforms to encourage unemployed urban residents to return to the farm (See the earlier post, "Nigeria's New Beginning.").

     Even with the OPEC agreement, it is feared oversupply will continue to dampen oil prices. US producers are in a position to increase output when prices rise and to shut down when oil is selling in the mid-$40 a barrel range or below. With higher prices, of course, more US shale oil production is also profitable.

You've Got To Move It, Move It. Trees, that is.

If you've seen the movie, Madagascar, you remember King Julien, the saucy lemur whose dances encouraged other animals to "Move, it, move it."

     Although Arbor Day began in the United States in 1972 as a way to celebrate trees for their ability to provide clean air, shade, lower energy costs, and control of storm water run-off, when rain forests began to be burned or bulldozed and animals, such as the lemur, were endangered because their habitats were disappearing, tree planting conservation needed to move it, move it, move it to other parts of the world.

     Islands like Madagascar, just like the Galapagos made famous by Darwin, have unique biodiversity environments. When Jean Norbert Rakotonirina, known as Dadalioka, guided Dr. Edward Louis, Jr. to his tropical village, the black and white ruffed lemur population was almost gone. By 2009, only eight lemurs lived in the Sangasanga Mountain of Madagascar.

     Thanks to the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, which includes the Arbor Day Foundation, 1,700, once unemployed young and old Madagascar residents have worked in nurseries and planted one million trees, especially fruit trees that are a lemur's main diet. Even the lemur population, that increased to 50 in the Sangasanga Mountain by 2015, helps the reforestation effort. When lemurs eat fruit, the seeds their tummies don't digest plant more fruit trees.

     By working on the tree planting project, single mothers in Madagascar have been able to send their children to school, support their aging relatives, start small poultry farms, repair their homes, and trade points for non-polluting stoves and sewing machines. People have learned the value of trees and of the conservation of forests, up to 80% of which were destroyed in Madagascar by 2012.

     What I especially like about the Arbor Day Foundation (arborday.org) is its modest financial request. A tax-deductible contribution of $10 plants 10 trees in an endangered rain forest that produces as much as 40% of the world's oxygen and ingredients for almost a quarter of our medicines. Also, a tree is planted in the recipient's name for each holiday card you purchase and send. Cards are shipped to you within five days. For details, go to arborday.org/giveatree. Other gift ideas, such as rain forest-saving coffee, can be found at arborday.org/holiday gifts.

     King Julien, the original party animal, says, "Thank you, and you've got to move it, move it."

     

Mixed Messages from Saudi Arabia

I like watching CNBC, because a station that follows the stock market has to keep up, not only with economics, but also with political and social trends. Following the U.S. presidential election, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman and controlling shareholder of Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Company and one of the largest foreign investors in the US, told CNBC host, Jim Cramer, "We look at you (your country) as being the vanguard and being the leaders of the world."

     Prince Alwaleed reminded me of the time I began teaching a section on Medieval Italy by asking students to list what they knew about Italy. Roman Empire, pizza, pasta, and home of the Pope helped initiate a discussion of how fragmented the country was before unification in 1870. Now, I asked myself, "What do I know about Saudi Arabia?" Lots of oil, little water, home of 9/11 terrorists, Muslim, women not allowed to drive, considers Iran an enemy. I need to know more.

     The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not formed until 1932. In the 1950s, the US participated in the country's oil boom through Aramco, the Arabian American Oil Company.  US heavy machinery companies also participated in the oil-financed construction boom that transformed a desert into a wealthy country with ports, roads, schools, hospitals, and power plants.

     Despite these close US-Saudi connections, some Sunni Muslims in Saudi Arabia, as well as those from the enemy Shi'ite branch of Muslims in Persian Iran, harbored hatred of the US for its support of Israel against the Palestinians and resented the US presence in Saudi Arabia. At present, Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen fire long-range missiles into Saudi Arabia.

     Although Osama bin Laden's family came from poor South Yemen, his father won favor with Saudi's king and gained lucrative construction contracts. Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia and spent most of his early life there in Jeddah. Due to the Muslim terrorist activities he inspired from his later headquarters in Sudan, including a suspected attempt on the life of Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, Saudi King Fahd was pressured to revoke bin Laden's citizenship and passport in March, 1994. He left Sudan for Afghanistan in May, 1996.

     Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US were Saudi nationals. Senior Saudi officials denied any role in the attacks and the 9/11 commission found no evidence linking the Saudi government with funding for the operation. Nonetheless, in September 2016, the US Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) that gives the families of terrorist victims the right to sue governments suspected of playing a role in a terrorist attack on US soil. Congress overrode President Obama's veto of the bill and JASTA became a law which potentially undermines the close US-Saudi relationship and counter terrorism cooperation between the two countries.

     In Saudi Arabia, cuts in salaries and subsidies due to falling oil prices are understandably unpopular with the Saudi public. Saudi's Vision 2030 economic program is designed to reduce the country's dependence on oil revenues. On CNBC, Prince Alwaleed told Cramer that he is a member of a group looking into energy alternatives to oil.

     Besides the importance of oil in Saudi Arabia's future economy, succession to the Saudi throne also bears watching. Currently, King Salman of the House of Saud supports both Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, his 57-year-old nephew and minister of interior who is next in the line of succession, and his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 31-year-old contender who could leapfrog past his cousin. Speculation heightened when Crown Prince Muqrin bin Aldulaziz resigned his position in April, 2015, to make room for the Deputy Crown Prince.

The Challenge of New Technologies: Prepare to Think

IBM recognized what the future would require by showing the lack of space planned for the "K" slipping down the side of its "THINK" signs. The need to think was on display at last night's poster and presentation session given by high school students who spent their summer in science labs and departments at the University of Wisconsin.

     Students needed to be willing to expend a major effort just preparing for their experiments. One young woman dragged branches, plants, and flowers to the lab to find that birds need to be motivated by an attractive, secure area in order to breed. Multiple times a young man rowed a boat into the middle of a lake at night in order to scoop up water that showed what destroyed undesirable algae multiplied faster than the invasive species that destroyed the helpful algae remover. Another student had to find a sausage factory where he could procure the pig livers he needed to test how their properties changed during heating in a microwave. Various purifying procedures were needed before testing and careful math calculations were needed before a machine could emit radiation to attack tumors. Findings, such as the dangers of the toxic nano particles lithium batteries give off as they decompose, were preliminary but important.

     Heading into the future, artificial intelligence (AI); robotics, CRISPR and other medical technologies; the relationship of technology, human values, and public policy; and other technical subjects will play a major role in lives throughout the world. Yet in recent elections, electorates have cast their votes based on emotion: anger about the rich who are getting richer while they're not, anger about their countries filling up with people who don't look like them, and anger about a perceived attack on their values.

     Away from the disillusioned voters back home, members of the World Economic Forum (weforum.org) met in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this week to discuss the impact of  new technologies. Their discussions need to make it back home to those have to understand how they will be affected by the good and bad impacts these technologies will have on their lives.

      However, you can't help but sympathize with anyone who tries to deal with the complexity and scientific jargon in an article about a technology, such as CRISPR-Cas9. First there is a description. CRISPR-Cas9 can genetically edit cells to improve crops and fight disease. In humans, if used to alter the genetic make-up of cells in an egg, sperm, or embryo, the same mutation will be transmitted from generation to generation. In order for the latter process to work, genes injected from outside need to be accepted by cells that store the germline, the biochemical unit of heredity.

     Then, articles tout the benefits of the new technology. Pig organs could be produced without the genes that prevent transplants in humans. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes could be eliminated the way genetically altered Atlantic salmon already grow double the size of ordinary salmon in half the time. Diseases could be cured, even though the complex interrelationship of genes often makes this unlikely in many cases.

     Articles frequently ignore problems associated with new technologies. It is up to the reader to ask, "Couldn't a rogue scientist use CRISPR-Cas9 to inject unhealthy mutations into human cells that would be transmitted from generation to generation?" Or might only wealthy people be able: to afford the cures that CRISPR-Cas9 technology could provide. While CRISPR-altered seeds produce uniform crops that can be harvested by machines, farmers in poor countries may not be able to pay for the annual purchase of patented hybrid seeds that grow food in drought conditions.

     Some call the biomedical duel between China and the United States to achieve dramatic CRISPR-Cas9 results "Sputnik 2.0." On October 18, 2016 scientists at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to see whether they could disable a gene in the patient's immune cells and reprogram the lung cancer patient's cells not only to resist but to fight back against the cancer. To date, results of the test are not known and neither are side effects. At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Dr. Carl June also is about to use CRISPR editing to enable three genes in the immune cells of 18 cancer patients, who have not been helped by other treatments, to seek and destroy their cancerous tumors.

     Guarding against technology bias also needs to keep up with fast-paced artificial intelligence (AI) developments. Joy Buolamwini's Algorithmic Justice League found facial-analysis software was prone to making mistakes recognizing the female gender, especially of darker-skinned women. AI is developed by and often tested primarily on light-skinned men, but recognition technology, for example, is promoted for hiring, policing, and military applications involving diverse populations.

     Finally, we all need to think about and act on the guidelines, regulations, and other checks needed to keep up with the effects of rapidly progressing new technologies.

   

Soft Power

What changes minds, governments, behavior? The idea that a trainer can get a horse to do something by using a carrot that rewards or a stick that hurts translates into soft power and hard power. In international relations, hard power takes the form of tanks, bombs, drones, assassinations, prison sentences, torture, and economic sanctions. Soft power can defeat an enemy without firing a shot or sending anyone to a dungeon.

     Young men from Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois, began kicking a soccer ball around in Andahuaylillas, Peru. Children heard the familiar sound and joined them. Adults came to watch and some also joined the game. The Loyola students were in a program exploring the way sports can be used as a means of youth and community development. Communities determined to prevent gangs from destructive activity during summer vacations can beef up policing and arrests or they can work with businesses to provide summer jobs and with parks to leave the lights on for midnight basketball games.

     Why were a female music group, a Ukrainian filmmaker, and a blogger sent to Russian prisons and penal colonies? Why are Hong Kong book sellers in Chinese prisons? Authoritarian states recognize the soft power of music, film, social media, and books to overthrow repressive governments.

     Fashion, video games, educational systems like Montessori or Suzuki, and ethnic foods also spread values and cultural influence.

     Of the millions of people who have visited Disney theme parks, few have noticed the employees dressed as costumed characters when they enter or exit the park. The doors they used are in dim, uninviting alcoves away from the fun, excitement, and bright lights designed to entertain visitors.

     The bottom line is: recognize the impact, influence, and power of soft power.

(You can find additional information about the influence of films and soft power in the earlier posts: "You Oughta Be in Pictures" and "What Moscow Could Learn from History."

   

Secret Codes

If you communicate with emojis, you might be using a secret code that people who speak another language can understand, but some who speak your own language can't. That's the essence of secret codes. You send information you intend someone to understand and hide your messages from everyone else. Of course, spies do this all the time. They report plans, troop movements, economic conditions, and the health and characteristics of key officials enemies want to hide.

     Not only is it necessary to write secrets in code and in things like lemon juice that disappears until the paper its written on is heated, but methods for sending messages also are important. Short radio bursts are used and messages are hidden in James Bond-type devices. During the Revolutionary War, Nathan Hale, considered the first U.S. spy, unfortunately  hid a secret message in his boot which was easily discovered when he was caught by the British.

     You and a friend might make up a secret code that gives words different meanings or uses the third letter in every word to make a sentence when those third letters are written together. If you want to send your message during a class, how would you get it to your friend three rows away? Or you might wrap a long strip of paper around a baseball bat, write your message vertically on the paper, unwind the paper and hide it somewhere. In order to read your message, a friend would have to wind the paper around a bat that was the same size as yours.

     Decoding mistakes can happen. In 1916, Elizabeth Wells Gallup claimed she found coded messages from Sir Francis Bacon hidden in Shakespeare's scripts. Using only words written in one particular typeface, she found a message Bacon left in Richard II that led her to believe he said he wrote the play. When Elizabeth and William Friedman looked at Gallup's work in 1955, they found the different typefaces she relied on were caused by accidental primitive printing technology, not the intentional work of Bacon or anyone else.

     Suppose you and a friend have a secret meeting or message hiding place. Spies have left messages in pumpkins, under bridges, under floor boards, and in bottles in the hollows of trees. You can signal your friend that you want to meet or you have left a message by methods similar to those spies have used. Where spies have put chalk marks on mail boxes, you could put a chalk mark on a friend's locker. Instead of putting a flower pot on a balcony, you could put a toy at your window or blink a flashlight. Slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad used to look for safe houses that had statues positioned in a certain way out front.

     Fans of Harry Potter know his owl Hedwig carried secret messages. Homing pigeons performed the same task in wartime. Could you train a pet to do the job?

     Secret codes often are very difficult to decipher. Letters carved into the sculpture, "Krypto," outside the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency remained a puzzle until an analyst spent eight years on his lunch hours using pencil and paper to figure out three of the sections on the stone. Even then, what the message meant was unclear. The movie, The Imitation Game, showed how Germans in World War II created an impossible to crack Enigma code that caused a British decoder at its secret Bletchley facility to build a computer to try millions of letter combinations. That didn't work until one person realized each transmission began with a weather report. By comparing each day's weather with the letters used in that day's secret message the number of combinations the computer had to try was reduced and messages Germans sent regarding enemy ships they intended to destroy could be read faster.

     Nowadays, it is possible to both code and decode secret messages by computer. It also is possible to hack into messages sent by computer unless security measures, such as the use of secure passwords and default passwords, are taken. TIME magazine (Nov. 7, 2016) reported that on October 21, 2016 cyber hackers even tapped into the unsecured Internet of Things (remotely controlled internet connected surveillance cameras, printers, digital video recorders) and used them to activate a virus, Mirai, (the Japanese word for "the future") that overwhelmed servers at one company with malicious traffic that prevented legitimate users from reaching intended receivers. The tasks of preparing a truly secret code and transferring secret codes are becoming more difficult every day.

(For more information about how emojis communicate, see the earlier post, "Communicate without Words.")

Turn Off, Power Down, and Act Up

The conservation-minded World Wildlife Fund included the following list of planet-helping reminders in its current catalog (wwfcatalog.org).

• Take a 5-minute shower that uses 10 to 25 gallons of the world's precious clean water resources compared to about 70 gallons for a bath.
• Turn off faucets while brushing teeth, soaping up hands, and putting shampoo in hair. Running a water faucet not only uses up clean water but running it for 5 minutes uses as much energy as lighting a 60-watt bulb for 14 hours. 
• Turn off computers or use "sleep mode" to save energy when they're not in use. Unplug electronic devices when not in use over a long period of time (overnight), because many still use energy when switched off.
• Buy local at farmers' markets and grocery stores, and eat local at restaurants whenever possible. That reduces the need for the climate warming gas used to transport fruits and vegetables up to 1,500 miles.
• Reduce the gas used for your own trips by walking, biking, or taking a bus or train.
• Replace regular light bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescent lights. 
• Investigate using solar panels to save energy and cost in your home. Make sure to replace failing refrigerators and freezers that can account for 1/6 of a home's energy bill with appliances that are certified energy efficient.

Read more information about energy and environmental concerns at the earlier blog post, "A Healthy Environment."

Aspirational Holiday Gifts

My grandfather believed in aspirational rather than age- appropriate gifts. Of all the holiday and birthday presents I received while growing up, the one I most vividly remember was the fountain pen and mechanical pencil set my grandfather gave me, when I was five. My initials even were embossed on both the pen and pencil in gold.

     What are some aspirational gifts that would inspire young people to learn more about the world? A globe is my favorite. It shows the world is round and countries are their correct relative sizes to each other, unlike on some two-dimensional maps, where Greenland is as big as Africa. Globes show the world has more than 200 countries, three oceans, and seven continents, one of which is frozen. A child can put a sticker on where he or she was born and lives.

     If a child already owns a globe, there is the Atlas of Animal Adventures that shows where animals live. Children can go from the book to the globe to find the country habitats of their favorite animals.

     Even in this digital age of email, children feel very grown up, when they receive mail. With a subscription to National Geographic Kids (shop.nationalgeographic.com/ category/magazines/national-geographic-kids), they receive a magazine nearly every month. Adults also will look forward to the world's fun facts, activities, photos, and games in each issue.

     Little Passports (littlepassports.com) is another way to give children mail every month. Each mailing provides activities, souvenirs, letters from fictional pen pals, and other fun ways to learn about a particular country.

     Presenting a child with a $25 kiva (kiva.org) gift card enables a child to loan someone in one of 80 countries the funds to improve a life. With the help of an older person, a child can scroll through the faces of people who need just a little help to plant a crop, open a store, or build something. And it is up to the child to decide where to offer his or her loan. They then receive email messages telling the amounts of every loan repayment.

     And finally, to advance a student's budding interest foreign languages or foreign travel, I'd suggest Other Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely From Around the World  by Yee-Lum Mak and illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley and the series: The 500 Hidden Secrets of London, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Paris, and The 500 Hidden Secrets of Barcelona.

     None of these aspirational gifts will choke children under three (I hope), but they will give them a head start in feeling comfortable in the world where they will spend their lives.

   

Gone Fishin'

Whether fishing with a worm or a fly in a lake or a stream, finding the perfect fishing 'hole''' and coming home with a catch is a day well spent by any child anywhere in the world.

     Efforts are being made to insure fish continue to thrive in the world's waters. To prevent fish and other marine life from becoming hopelessly trapped in the plastic six-pack rings that hold beer and soda cans, some rings are being made from biodegradable materials. Florida's Saltwater Brewery has used wheat and barley waste from its beer-making process to construct packaging that begins to disintegrate two hours after hitting the ocean or the beach.

     Bycatch is another problem fish face. To catch sushi-grade tuna, fishing boats bait thousands of hooks on a single line that can be 25 miles long. Along with tuna, longlining unintentionally catches other fish, including sharks, stingrays, and turtles. Although some of the unwanted fish are safely released, others perish from the stress of being caught and the dead fish upset the marine ecosystem balance already threatened by climate change from warming water and pollution. Experiments using circular, rather than J-shaped fishing hooks, and fish instead of squid bait have shown there are ways to reduce bycatch.

     The ocean's plastic garbage could outweigh fish by 2050, according to a study cited by the UN's Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. Tons of plastic and other floating debris already are turning beaches, marina areas, lakes, rivers, and oceans into garbage dumps. Trash causes fish. surfers, and the wealthy to suffer. In the July, 2018 issue of VOGUE, Helena Dunn, the designer of Tuulikki eco-conscious surfwear, reports, "As surfers, we have a front-row seat on environmenta lissues." Especially during storms, plastic bags, bottles, wrappers, and other debris run off from land. Large growths of seagrass add to the problems caused by debris that can clog cooling-water intakes and cause engine damage on the most expensive yachts and ships.

    Modest and major efforts are being made to keep plastics out of the world's waters. The Dell computer company has begun to use plastic collected on beaches in Haiti as its packaging material. Hewlett Packard urges computer printer users to go to hp.com/recycle to find where they can take their used ink cartridges for recycling.  When Dutch student, Boyan Slat, was 17, he founded the Ocean Cleanup Foundation for the purpose of removing the estimated 8 million tons of discarded fishing nets, water bottles, and assorted plastic debris that end up swirling in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii. Since the north Pacific Gyre, or current, funnels the plastic into the center, the foundation designed a long floating plastic boom that can be anchored across the flow of the Pacific Gyre. At this collection point, the waste can be lifted onto ships and taken to recycling centers on land.

     Australian surfers, Peter Ceglinski and Andrew Turton, are developing a Seabin to collect and remove trash around marinas. Their Seabin is a submerged cylinder open on top just below the water surface. An electric pump pulls water and floating trash into a bag filter that collects the trash and allows water and small marine life, like fish eggs, to pass through. Seabins can hang from docks, where electricity is available, and maintenance employees can empty the filter bags on a regular schedule. A solar powered model could be attached to channel marker buoys in shipping lanes. The French company, Poralu Marine, is manufacturing a prototype that is being tested at Le Grande Motte, a large Mediterranean harbor near Montpelier, France.

     Of course the best pollution solution is to refrain from throwing things in the water in the first place.

Are You Someone Who Says, "I don't cook?"

When I was helping out at a church luncheon yesterday, I was surprised to hear a woman say she had relatives coming for the weekend and she didn't cook. Unlike her, I look forward to having a house full of visitors who will gather around the table for meals and talk, which, I understand, is described in Spanish by the word, "sobremesa."

     With the joy of cooking fresh in my mind, I saw an internet item about the Common Threads program in Chicago and New York City that teaches low-income kids, in grades three to eight, to shop and prepare healthy, nutritious meals, when parents are busy and money is tight. In one aspect of the program, students learn about the history of a particular country's food, nutrition, and ingredients. It's a hands-on program that teaches cooking techniques and how to follow a recipe.

     Common Threads introduces students to new foods, like granola, whole wheat bread, cage-free chicken eggs, pesto, and various cheeses. Kids learn to make and love whole wheat pancakes, as well as salads and smoothies. There also is a gardening program, where kids might grow carrots and kale.

     Instead of expecting families to make radical new food choices all at once, Common Threads invites families to make gradual changes by adding just one or two new items to each shopping list. Families who grow their own food could try planting just one or two new crops.

     For more information about Common Threads and to sign up for a monthly newsletter, go to commonthreads.org/programs.

Teens Find Drought and Zika Remedies

Entering contests and writing to potential mentors not only can help individual students jump start their own careers but these proactive efforts also can help humanity. Dr. Hongjun Song, the mentor who received a letter from the student involved in Zika virus research, observed: "Unencumbered by previous experience, high school students aren't afraid of failure and are freer to try things than graduate students or postdocs."

Help for drought-starved crops

Kiara Nirghin, the 16-year-old South African girl who won the grand prize in Google's Science Fair (googlesciencefair.com), reasoned that a superabsorbent polymer (SAP) used in diapers could help soil retain more water when drought threatens crops. To avoid the pricey, less eco-friendly acrylic acid chemicals used in current SAPs, Ms. Nirghin tried creating a SAP by applying UV light and heat to avocado and orange peels. When sprinkled on fields, her polymer, which holds 300 times its weight in liquid, provides water for crops that would otherwise die from drought.
(Kiara Nirghin is among the world's 30 most influential teens TIME magazine lists at time.com/teens2016.)

Help for studying the Zika virus

At the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science, engineers developed a $2 genetic test to detect the Zika virus immediately by using color-changing dye in a device about the size of a soda can. The process requires no electricity or extensive technical training.
     Chris Hadiono, whose parents are U.S. immigrants from Indonesia, was a high school intern at Dr. Hongjun Song's neurology lab at John Hopkins University, when he developed a bioreactor device used to determine how the Zika virus causes the abnormal brain development which results in the small heads of newborn babies, i.e. microcephly, and many more problems.
     Using 3D printing instructions from a YouTube tutorial, Hadiono created a machine with gears that keep 12 "mini-brains" floating and growing in wells, each filled with about one teaspoon of nutrient rich liquid, by constantly stirring the liquid in all the wells at the same time.
     Before Hadiono's contribution, the neural tissue of human brains, "mini-brains," already could be produced by turning human skin cells (3D printers also can create human tissue and bone) into stem cells which could be turned into the neural stem cells that became human neural brain tissue resembling the human cerebral cortex affected by the Zika virus. And a magnetic bar could continuously stir a rich nutrient broth-like medium, or liquid, that enabled "mini-brains" to float and grow in all directions. The problem was the big device required too much costly medium and could only be used once to accommodate a few experiments at a time. With Hadiono's bioreactor device, at a much lower cost, researchers can see how the Zika virus infects and kills neural stem cells in 12 different parts of a human's cerebral cortex at the same time..  With the work of another teen, maybe prevention and a cure for microcephly will not be far behind.

Hot Topics Presidential Candidates Should Debate

Since tonight is the last presidential debate between the U.S. candidates for President, I turned to the Foreign Policy Association to see what Clinton and Trump should be discussing on TV today.
The topics the organization has selected for their Great Decisions program in 2017 are as follows:

• The Future of Europe
• Trade and Politics
• Conflict on the South China Sea
• Saudi Arabia in Transition
• U.S. Foreign Policy and Petroleum
• Latin America's Political Pendulum
• Prospects for Afghanistan and Pakistan
• Nuclear Security

Experts have written short summaries for each of these discussion topics at fpa.org. At the same site, you can sign up to receive Foreign Policy Association updates and to learn how to start a Great Decisions discussion group.

Looking back on the Foreign Policy Association's past discussion topics, such as the rise of ISIS, international migration, and Cuba and the United States, suggests this organization has useful insights on issues the world is likely to face in 2017.

You Oughta Be in Pictures

Bollywood and Nollywood are known around the world as the Hollywoods of Bombay, India, and Nigeria, because they house major film producers and distributors. In Nigeria, Jason Njoku's iROKOtv is transitioning from a Netflix distributor to a Nollywood producer. Sure, making movies helps countries make money and attract tourists, but countries such as China also see films as a way to influence social norms, politics, and economic decisions.

     As the Mauritius Film Development Corporation notes, a film industry creates jobs. Movies require acting talent but also camera and sound technicians, carpenters, make-up artists, costume designers, rental companies, caterers, restaurants, hotels, and airlines. How many tourists have films attracted to London, Paris, Rome, and New York over the years? After "Break Up Guru," which was filmed in Mauritius, played to 40 million Chinese, Chinese tourists flocked to Mauritius. The government now provides generous tax breaks to film producers who choose to take advantage of the good weather they can count on when they make a movie in this island off the east coast of Africa.

     Movie making is one of India's biggest revenue producing industries. Vinod Chopra, who has been directing films there since 1942, also works on productions in other parts of the globe. Indian film companies, such as Eros International and YRF Films distribute their movies throughout the world.

     In China, the State Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China stands ready to censor and change films in order to control what movie audiences see and think. For example, Chinese villains might be altered to become North Koreans. Now, Chinese influence is coming to the United States, since Chinese companies are buying AMC movie theatres to gain distribution in Washington, DC, New York, and small U.S. towns. A Chinese production company already owns Legendary Films, which produces Batman films, and has been negotiating to partner with Lionsgate.

     Anyone thinking about making a film in any country can check Kemps Film and TV Production Handbook for a list of helpful resources.

(The following earlier posts also look at what movies can do: How Do Films Depict Countries? See the World in Oscar-Nominated Films, See the World at the Movies, Humor Paves the Way for Refugees.)

Learn to Express Ideas Orally

Global issues require students to be able to discuss matters such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, cyberwarfare, terrorism, religious and racial differences, and female rights in a well-spoken and confident manner. A public school in London decided learning to speak was as important as reading and writing and began helping students learn the basics of discourse.

     As we have seen in the presidential race in the US this year, discussing difficult topics can bring out horrible behavior that fails to lead to a solution. When I served on a jury for a criminal trial in Wisconsin last week, I was worried about my ability to get along with the other 11 jurors as we discussed the merits of the case.

      Having training in oral communication is too important to ignore. Oral communication requires students to listen to another's argument and express a differing opinion politely. It requires using research to challenge another's thinking and to defend your own position.

     Listen to or read the speeches of Churchill and John F. Kennedy to see how important word choice is. Try out new approaches in the classroom and around the dinner table, and learn the power of oral persuasion.

 

UN Secretary-General Nominee

Although seven of the 13 candidates for UN Secretary-General were women, Security Council members recommended the General Assembly elect Antonio Guterres, Portugal's former prime minister and a devout Catholic, for the position (See the earlier blog post, "Front-Runners for UN Secretary-General.").

     Guterres served as the UN's High Commissioner of Refugees from June, 2005 to December, 2015. In his campaign-like speech to the General Assembly, he said the UN is "the best place to address the root cause of human suffering." Should he assume the five-year term of Secretary-General on January 1, 2017, he will take on the difficult task of uniting members, including Russia, to end human suffering in Syria.

Space Newcomers

Joining India's mission to Mars, that has been sending back data since September, 2014, are eight satellites, three built in Algeria, that India launched into different orbits on September 26, 2016.

     Nigeria has launched five satellites into orbit and plans to send an astronaut into space by 2030.

     From French Guiana on September 14, 2016, Peru launched a French-built satellite to monitor weather and internal security.

     Brazil is assembling its sixth satellite to be launched on a Chinese rocket by December, 2018.

(For earlier news about space activity, see the post, "Space Explorers.") 

   

Colombia Concludes Peace Deal with FARC

Colombia and FARC revolutionaries signed a peace accord to end 50 years of fighting on September 26, 2016, but, despite Colombia's President Santos winning the Nobel Prize for Peace shortly after a referendum, voters in Colombia decided on October 2 to reject the terms of the accord by a slim margin.  These terms stipulated:

• The Colombian government would grant FARC guerrillas amnesty from their crimes. A major sticking point. Guerrillas would also be guaranteed a minimum wage and seed money to build new communities. They would help the government destroy landmines and the coca crops that once funded their operations.
• FARC would take part in a truth commission similar to the one South Africa formed after apartheid.
• FARC would surrender its guns.
• FARC would become a political party.

Negotiators spent four years forging this plan and, after the referendum, they went back to Havana to try again. A new deal was reached, and, on November 30, 2016, by bypassing voters, President Santos won approval for the revised peace accord from the Colombian Congress. Rebels will not face prison for the war crimes they confess. They will disarm under UN supervision and disperse. Former FARC rebels will be allowed to run for Congressional seats, but not to represent new districts created in former areas of conflict.

Winners and Losers as the Climate Changes

Heat, drought, smog, and car and power plant emissions motivate a search for ways to deal with the climate changes they are causing.

      Cosmetic experts, for example, have found plants that purify the skin from pollutants and protect it from sun damage. Moringa seeds from trees that purify water where they grow in Africa and Asia are the secret ingredients in Vichy's Purete Thermale, a cleansing gel that removes pollution's impurities from the skin.

     Leila Janah wondered how women in Uganda managed to have lovely, unwrinkled skin despite their country's sun-soaked environment. She discovered their secret was a rare strain of African nilotica shea nuts with an extra concentration of healthy fatty acids that they purchased in a market in Gulu, Uganda. Inspired by this find, she developed a high-end beauty cream line, LXMI, named for the Hindu goddess of beauty and prosperity. Her creams contain not only organic cold-pressed butter from Gulu's shea nuts but also antioxidant fighting Ndali vanilla and Nile-grown hibiscus flowers known to plump and smooth the skin. Perhaps best of all, because LXMI is a high-priced brand that will be sold at Sephora, Janah is able to pay a dignified living wage to the women who harvest the raw materials in her creams.

      Drought has launched many a scheme, including an ill-advised one to drag an iceberg south, to provide water for farmers who are said to account for 69% of the water used around the world. Pimpri Sandas in India is among the world's villages that are watering their crops with unfiltered rainwater collected in tanks on billboards designed by Kinetic. Once a tank is full, water sensor technology sends a text message to a mobile phone that alerts a tanker to pick up and deliver the water. In India, Vodafone, owner of the billboards, funds the entire process. Other businesses, such as Hindustan Unilever and Reliance Industries, have constructed dams and ponds to help communities conserve water.

     What do frustrated farmers do when their crops die from drought and they go deeper into debt year after year? They move to cities where the UN estimates two-thirds of the world's population will live by 2050. This coming migration emphasizes the importance of the growing urban farming movement which, unfortunately, can produce too little and be too expensive for many displaced farmers. Nevertheless, it is worth examining the option of producing crops closer to where they are consumed. This process reduces pollution from trucking, a health benefit as well as a way to reduce climate warming carbon emissions. And urban farms also absorb rainwater and prevent sewer overflow from polluting rivers and lakes.

     City farms can be as simple as outside planter boxes or black pond liners filled with soil. A variety of crops can be planted to determine which are best suited for local conditions, including natural rainfall rather than irrigation. More complicated urban farms rely on greenhouses, earthworms, compost, and recycled water, that is, aquaponics (for more details, see the earlier post, "Exotic Farming."), where filtered water from tanks of edible fish water crops. In some cases, computers monitor water levels, nutrient concentration, and ideal temperatures for different crops.

     Overall, efforts to increase yields by planting crops that can withstand changes in traditional heat and rain conditions have not been promising. While cross-breeding created hybrid maize seeds that mature over shorter periods and use water more efficiently, sales are expensive and not widespread. Hybrid seeds have to be purchased each year rather than grown from the seeds of earlier crops, and since fake and falsely labeled seeds have been sold as drought-resistant, the new seeds gained a reputation as unreliable.

   

   

   

Fashion Polices AI

As I worked my way through Vogue's September issue, 800 pages featuring clothes global designers see us wearing in the coming months, you can imagine how surprised I was to find an article about artificial intelligence (AI).

     It seems Kate Darling, who studied law in Basel, Switzerland, and now works at MIT, develops robot ethics based on findings from experiments involving the way people and robots with AI that think on their own relate to each other. She began thinking about the way human beings design, use, and treat machines with AI after she bought a small, intelligent robot dinosaur ten years ago. When someone held her dinosaur upside down by its tail, and she heard its tilt sensor causing it to squirm and cry, she'd tell the culprit to put the dinosaur down, and she found herself petting it until it stopped crying.

     Now, Darling deals with questions that are philosophical as well as technical concerning:

• Privacy, if sensors in things (the Internet of things") can spy on us
• Surgery performed by robots
• Companions for vulnerable elderly populations
• How robots with AI will affect the labor market, since they do things like make complicated cocktails and teach
• Autonomous weapon systems
• Choices made by driverless cars faced with killing passengers or pedestrians
• Ways robots can motivate and manipulate people--What can toys cause kids to do? Can robocalls influence people to vote a certain way or buy a certain product?

     Darling sees a need for legal protections for robots, if violence against robots (just as violence against animals) can lead humans to be violent toward each other. Her experiments show humans treat robots as if they were alive, not as if they were toasters or other kitchen appliances. What does it say, if someone is unable to empathize with a machine? Or can violence toward a machine be a healthy outlet for someone who otherwise would be violent toward a person.

     What about a robot's look and speech?  Years ago Japanese research showed robots that look too human can inspire fear or revulsion. Humans like the look of little, soft, and cute new robot characters. Some social robots are learning to understand and even use humor and sarcasm as well as regular expressions. Siri is said to have helped an autistic boy who developed a relationship with her to interact with real people. But impolite robots also might have a negative influence on behavior.

     Since AI technology can be used for good or bad, robot ethics is a very cutting-edge, fashionable field of study all over the world these days.

Coming Soon: Global Citizen Festival

Saturday, September 24, 2016 is the day to be at the Global Citizen Festival. (MSNBC will carry the festival on TV. Check local listings.) On the Great Lawn at New York's Central Park, the agenda will include solutions to world problems, especially poverty, and performances by Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Demi Lovato, and Metallica.

    Global Citizen is a worldwide effort that mixes music with actions to support girls and women, health, education, food and hunger remedies, water and sanitation, and the environment.

     Speaking at the UN General Assembly on September 20, 2016, President Obama echoed the ideas of Global Citizen. He repeatedly said young people throughout the world have unprecedented access to information and ways through social media to express themselves. They care about the environment, and they are more tolerant than previous generations of differences in religion, race, sex, sexual orientation, and ethnic and historical backgrounds. Technology and their own eyes enable them to see the contrast between poor and rich, slums and skyscrapers. They want greater control over their own lives and to share the benefits of free trade and advances in technology. They are not satisfied to let 1% of humanity control the world's wealth.

      When global citizens take actions (emails, tweets, petition signatures, phone calls) to fight poverty and worldwide injustices, they earn points they can redeem for tickets to attend shows, events, and concerts, such as Bieber's Helsinki on Sept. 26, 2016 and Sia's in Boston on October 18, 2016. Details are available at globalcitizen.org.

   

Where Will You Be Happiest in a New Country?

Where will it be easiest to make friends, if you move to a different country for any reason? At internations.org/expat-insider/, you can find the results of an InterNations survey of 14,000 respondents who moved to 67 countries. Countries are ranked for friendliness from the three most welcoming to foreigners (Taiwan, Uganda, and Costa Rica) to the least friendly (Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait).

Before moving to a different country, you can register for free at the InterNations website (internations.org) to find tips about moving to and living in any of 390 cities around the world. InterNations also can help you 1) connect with other expats in each city and 2) meet international people at exciting events there.

Become A Discriminating Chocolate Consumer

Buy a chocolate bar and only 3% of the price usually pays for the raw ingredients (cocoa, butter, milk, and sugar). Buy a chocolate bar that comes from one country, such as Madagascar, where the cocoa is processed and the bar is manufactured and more people are employed, companies make more money, and countries collect more taxes.

     When there is more money to be made, why don't the many cocoa growers in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Sao Tome and Principe, Papua New Guinea, Grenada, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and Vietnam become single origin chocolate producers for the chocolate bar, bulk cocoa, and fine chocolates market?

     The obstacles are many. Dedicated people have to prune, deliver, and peel cocoa beans. Since the manufacturing process determines the finished chocolate product's taste, setting up a factory requires a major amount of investment and production expertise. Current labeling doesn't help consumers determine if the raw cocoa and the finished chocolate product come from the same country. Finally, there is the challenge of breaking into European and US markets dominated by companies, such as Hershey.

     Nonetheless, kids search for Pokemon Go characters, why not look for African stores that carry Chocolat Madagascar chocolate bars?

Will African Roses Replace Dutch Tulips?

World events can have both positive and negative effects on countries. By voting to leave the EU, Britain's new tariff relationships hold promise for Africa. On the other hand, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explosion on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on September 1, 2016 casts doubt on a deal between a US and Chinese company and much more.

     While the UK currently imports most of its fresh fruit from Spain and 70% of its fresh vegetables from Spain and the Netherlands, African countries anticipate they will gain a larger share of the UK market for flowers, vegetables, fruit, and tea, should tariffs on EU goods increase and tariffs on African imports end. South Africa already is the second largest source of the UK's fresh fruit, and a quarter of Kenya's fresh produce exports go to Britain. Changes in taste also might continue to boost UK imports of African produce, like pineapples, melons, and avocados, not grown domestically. Retailers caution African exporters, however, that regulations require imported produce to be safe and responsibly produced.

     Although African countries might gain from Britain's EU exit, they suffered from the Falcon 9 rocket explosion. The Amos-6 satellite that was destroyed would have given Africa internet access to Facebook.



   

   

What To Do When Under Attack

Although not every victim can survive an attack by a gang member, terrorist, or lone shooter out to right a perceived injustice, techniques developed by law enforcement agencies do save lives.

     The first thing to do if you hear gunfire, an explosion, or a scream is to recognize the danger and quickly calm yourself with repeated deep breaths in and out through your nose and mouth. It is the time to take decisive action, not to panic, freeze, or underestimate the threat. Firecrackers are not set off in office buildings.

     Since the best possible action is to get out, be aware of exits wherever you are.

     If getting out is not an option, deny access to the shooter: lock doors, pull down shades, erect barricades, remain quiet.

     When defending yourself is the only option, become an angry, violent warrior. Go for the attacker's eyes with a pen, key, or anything that will injure. Kick the attacker's legs, and use your fist, not to punch, but as a hammer to pummel.

     Statistics in many urban areas show 98% of shooters act alone and 96% are male.

   

Back to School with a New Perspective

Preparing for a new school year probably doesn't require the purchase of a harmonica, paint brush, and Thesaurus. Yet Einstein played the violin, Samuel Morse painted portraits, and Galileo wrote poems.

     Study after study shows the value of the arts. Playing music asks the brain to coordinate the notes eyes see and two hands play, to listen, and to recognize rhythms. Add dance and the whole body gets involved. In the process of drawing, painting, sculpturing, and writing stories, essays, and poems, students tap into their creative juices, express emotions, and discover their individual identities. Mistakes are made and corrected just as they are in every subject and life.

     Music, art, and literature connect students to each other, their communities, and the world. One study, for example, found that children who participated in a dance group for eight weeks were less prone to anxiety and aggression compared to a control group. At the same time, the arts promote the creativity and innovation needed to deal with a rapidly changing global economy.

     Consider how one kindergartner used an art project to discover there were two ways to find the total five. While one student had shown five by taking a photo of two red scissors and three blue scissors, another saw five, because the direction of four scissors pointed left and one pointed right. Math and science thrive on the same unexpected discoveries and strategies celebrated in the arts. Is there another way to do something is a question that has produced a Salvador Dali and a Thomas Edison.

Impact of Corruption on Terrorism

In some respects, you can't blame government leaders for adopting the self-serving, often corrupt, methods of the colonial administrators they followed after their countries became independent. Nonetheless, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pointed out in remarks in Sokoto, Nigeria (8/23/2016), bribery, fraud, inequality, humiliation, and poverty play into the hands of terrorist extremists.

     In terms of government interference and corruption, when the World Bank's "Doing Business Index" and the "Corruption Perceptions Index" rank Nigeria as a worse offender than 89% and 82% of the other countries in the world, Nigeria gives a terrorist group like Boko Haram a recruiting argument and an excuse to engage in its own looting, killing, and kidnapping.

     Citizens need to feel people in power work for them. Government funds need to be used to provide health care, educate their children, build roads, provide clean water and electricity, support agriculture, and attract investment and business, not head overseas to the secret bank accounts of crooked politicians.

(Also see the earlier posts, "Corruption Has Consequences," "Cheating is Easy, but...," and "Warning to Students: Don't Cheat.")

There's No Business Like Bug Business

Chickens, pigs, and some other animals don't share the same distaste for bugs that people did in the thriller novel and film, Snowpiercer. (Although in parts of the world, people do eat caterpillars, locusts, and termites.)

     Some kids keep ant farms and net containers, where caterpillar larvae turn into butterflies. Sean Warner and Patrick Pittaluga kept the larvae of black soldier flies in a laundry room of their apartment building to start their company, Grubby Farms, in Georgia. Other firms, such as Enviro Flight in Ohio, Enterra Feed in Canada, J.M.Green in China, and Agri Protein in South Africa, also are attempting to make a profit by producing animal feed from black soldier fly larvae.

     What is the dual objective motivating this effort? Protein from black soldier fly larvae could replace the fish meal animals now eat. About 75% of the fish in fish meal comes from anchovies, herring, sardines, and the other disappearing small fish eaten by commercial seafood catches, whales, sea lions, and other large mammals. Moreover, since black soldier fly larvae live on food and human waste, they could reduce what ends up in landfills.

     At present, the industrial scale production technology needed to make this waste mass into biomass process profitable is still developing. The operation requires heavy machinery to move waste tonnage to a processing plant where heavy buckets of waste are carried to the shallow bins where larvae feed. After oil and protein powder are produced, markets need to be found. Government approvals present other obstacles. A blog developed by dipterra.com does an excellent job of presenting the many challenges confronting this business.

     Since the technology involved in the bug business is still in its infancy, African investors and entrepreneurs have a good opportunity to become players in the field. Africans might find insects other than black soldier flies that could become a new protein source, and Africa, with its growing under-35 years of age population, also has the right innovators to take advantage of new opportunities. As Bill Gates noted in his speech at the University of Pretoria on July 18, 2016, he and Mark Zuckerberg were college-aged, when they made their innovative contributions to society.

(Also see the earlier posts, "Why Will Africa Overcome Poverty?" "Invest in Africa's Agricultural Future," "Want An Exciting Career?" and "Look Beyond Africa's Current Woes.")

African Aquifers Tested

The International Water Management Institute is seeking to implement the goals of the Goundwater Solutions Initiative for Policy and Practice (GRIPP) by accessing sub-Sahara Africa's subterranean aquifers, especially for farming irrigation. Although more reliable than rain, aquifers require policies that make them sustainable or else they can be exploited and depleted as they have been in north Africa. Since sustainable use of aquifers requires community cooperation, a pilot project in China offers promise. Farmers have access to a set amount of water from the state pumping system by using their pre-paid smartcards.

     Africa also needs investment in aquifer mapping to determine the amount of groundwater available and investment in rural electrification for pumping.

Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels

The old saying reminding us to be cautious and know what we're buying applies in the global timber trade. Some woods are much more valuable than others. Shipping a load of Brazil's big leaf mahogany into a country labeled as $9000 worth of less expensive timber can make a huge profit even if it is relabeled correctly and sold below real market prices. The American Forest and Paper Association estimates U.S. firms that use legally harvested domestic wood lose up to $460 million a year competing with this kind of undervalued, illegally logged timber. Globally, illegal logging makes up to 30% of the $150 billion a year trade in forest products.

     There are sustainable, legal ways to harvest timber, but logging companies have taken advantage of poor oversight in some countries by just putting roads in tropical forests and harvesting and exporting endangered, heavily regulated species of wood, like West African kosso. On the world market, those involved in the illegal timber trade also smuggle endangered species, illegal drugs, weapons, and slaves. Harvests of protected rosewood and ebony in Madagascar invite captures of rare wildlife, while orangutan in Indonesia are endangered along with the country's valuable tropical forests. Like the diamond and jade trade, illegal timber sales have been known to finance armed conflicts in the form of genocide, coups, and civil wars.

     Efforts to combat the illegal timber trade and its damaging side effects include government regulations and laws and consumer awareness. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) provides regulations authorizing country customs officials to confiscate illegally harvested logs being shipped through the world's ports. In the U.S. the 1900 Lacey Act and its 2008 amendment ban trafficking in illegal wildlife and illegally harvested timber and require seizure of such products and fines. Since the Lacey Amendment also makes it illegal to sell a wood product in the U.S. that contains wood that has been illegally harvested in the country of origin, U.S. retailers and other companies that sell wood products need to be sure to buy from legal sources.

     Celso Correia, Mozambique's new minister for land, environment and rural development, is an African who has learned to play the game illegal loggers used to win by relying on weak law enforcement and corruption. As few as three years ago, a report from the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency stated 93% of timber in Mozambique was cut and exported illegally, mainly to China, the world's largest log importer. China's illegal timber imports deprived Mozambique of at least $400 million plus taxes. Mozambique now seizes more illegally cut timber exports, but the country is competing with an insatiable Chinese demand for raw timber. In The House of Unexpected Sisters, which is set in Botswana, Africa, the author writes about a store that sells furniture made from Zambezi teak and mukwa wood, "none of this Chinese rubbish."

      Mozambique and other African countries are facing long odds when they try to replace deforestation with sustainable forest conservation methods that protect woods,  such as the desirable Pau Ferro, and when they try to attract responsible Chinese companies willing to process logs into more valuable planks and furniture within Africa.


     Consumers do have a way to be sure they are buying legally sourced wood and paper products. Just as kids can help adults check for an ENERGY STAR on appliances that save money by using energy efficiently, they can look for the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo of a check mark and tree on wood and paper products. When items like toilet paper, bookcases, doors, and picture frames come from forests that meet environmental, social, legal, and economic standards, they carry the FSC logo. Learn more at fsc.org.

(Also see the earlier post, "Uncover the Economic Value of Wood.")
   

   

Empower Yourself: Know Your Enemy

When facing a bully, an unfair teacher or police officer, an angry parent or one who ignores you, a potential employer, or a terrorist group, what is the natural reaction? Cower in a corner, plot revenge, accept the enemy's position and join the opposition?

     Only by understanding an enemy can you gain confidence in tailoring an effective approach to each situation. Bill Gates was said to know more about his competitors' products than his competitors did. One size does not fit all, when dealing with enemies.

     In his book, Playing to the Edge, Michael V. Hayden, who headed two U.S. intelligence agencies, explained the MICE system for recruiting spies. Those close to enemy leaders who are willing to betray their countries are not motivated by one thing. Some want Money; some share your Ideology; some are Compromised because they are about to be exposed for something they did; and some who have a huge Ego feel they aren't appreciated. Different motivations require different approaches.

     U.S. President Lyndon Johnson knew exactly what each member of the U.S. Senate wanted (a bridge in his home state, a trip to Europe with his wife, a certain committee assignment), when he was Senate majority leader. On the other hand, his failure to understand the motivation of Vietnam's revolutionary leader had dire consequences,

     Wednesday Marten gained the results she wanted, when she decided to study the social elite who were ignoring her on New York City's upper East Side. She wrote in Primates of Park Avenue how her study enabled her to join Manhattan's high society. Victims of bullying might benefit by studying popular kids.

     Without an understanding of an enemy's culture, however, Michael Morell, a former director at the Central Intelligence Agency, pointed out in the New York Times Opinion section (August 5, 2016) how easy it is to fall into an enemy's trap. Those ignorant of the point of view of Muslim extremists who see themselves engaged in a holy religious war against the secular West live up to this enemy stereotype with every anti-Muslim position they take and every anti-Muslim statement they make. If the enemy likes what you are doing, he may compliment you and you will keep on doing his bidding. What does a young man do, if a gang leader compliments him for killing a rival gang member?

     By putting together bits and pieces of the present, it even is possible to understand good and bad futures before they occur. In his book, Submission, Michel Houellebecq anticipates how an Islamic party would go about winning an election and imposing Islamic law in France. Such knowledge, actually any knowledge about an enemy, really is power.

(The idea of understanding an enemy also is discussed in the earlier blog post, "Fight, Flight, or Something Else.")

   

         

"Let There Be Peace on Earth

...and let it begin with me," advises a song's lyrics. I was reminded of this message, when I saw a suggestion Belgium newspapers had for restaurant goers after terrorist attacks. DeTijd and L'Echo urged diners to finish their meals by arranging cutlery on plates in a peace sign and then sharing their peace message in a hashtagged image of their plates on social media.

     Trendwatching.com went on to list the following ways companies promoted reconciliation among different genders, races, countries, religions and those with different economic advantages.

• In its "Share the Load" commercials, Procter & Gamble's Ariel India laundry brand dispelled the cultural assumption that there is such a thing as women's work and men's work.
• To emphasize the soul-destroying damage bullying does to kids perceived as different, Argentina's Bagley brand turned the smile on its Sonrisa cookies upside down.
• Attacking the distinction some stores make between beauty brands and ethnic brands for Afro-American women, Shea Moisture hair care brand's commercial noted its products are in the beauty aisle "where we all belong."
• Starbucks is helping overcome unemployment among teens and young adults in disadvantaged areas by providing in-store retail and customer service training in New York's Jamaica Queens neighborhood. The program is slated to roll out in 14 additional locations in the U.S.
• In connection with Mother's Day, HSBC, a bank in the UAE, not only provided a series of free workshops on resume writing and interviewing skills to help mothers return to work, the bank also helped kids make videos telling about the skills their mothers offered employers.
• JetBlue thought people could agree, if they had the right motivation. If passengers on a flight reached a unanimous agreement about where they wanted to go, they received free tickets to that destination on any US airline. Their choice and reward: a round trip to Costa Rica.

Thinking about gun violence in Chicago and terrorist attacks around the world, Sister Susan Quaintance, a Benedictine nun, spent one Saturday morning investigating what the psalms had to say about peace. She found references acknowledging our work alone is not sufficient. Believers can take comfort knowing, when it comes to peace, God helps. Psalm 4:9 says, "In peace I lie down, and fall asleep at once, since you alone, Yahweh, make me rest secure."

Share the Olympic Experience

Teams coming from around the world to begin competing in the Olympic Games Friday will experience new people, products and sights in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To help us share their experiences, I checked the innovations trendwatching.com now sees in Central and South America.

     In Brazil, Olympians might pick up a new smartphone and learn Twizer provides help choosing apps, making the most of apps, and incorporating a new phone into daily lives. The Twizer service is free for everyone.

     Other interesting things Olympians might hear about in Brazil include: the fact that for six hours on one day, Uber drivers picked up clothes, bedding, personal hygiene items, non-perishable food, and pet products for free to help Porto Alegre Prefecture's vulnerable people during the winter. Olympians might see the Ben & Jerry's inspired social media campaign, #amoreprogresso, disagree with love. Last spring Ben & Jerry's opened its store in Sao Paolo to let people discuss, over ice cream, contentious issues about corruption and politics.

      Olympians coming from countries with a corruption problem also might look into Peruleaks, an independent, secure platform that enables citizens anonymously to provide encrypted information about crimes and corruption to journalists who check accuracy before publishing a whistleblower's observations. Peru's Peruleaks is part of the Associated Whistleblowing Press (AWP), a Belgium-based nonprofit, that combats corruption.

     Venezuela is trying out a new crime fighting measure of interest to Olympians from almost any country. In the El Hatillo district of Venezuela, empty out-of-service police cars park in the city's most dangerous areas to serve as a security presence criminals are loath to ignore.

     Olympians from countries writing a new constitution, such as Thailand, might ask competitors from Mexico to tell them about the system in Mexico City that invites citizens: 1) to submit proposals for a new constitution at Change.org and 2) to vote on proposed changes. Ideas that receive more than 10,000 signatures are submitted for consideration by a government panel.

     Athletes determined to keep fit by eating healthy foods with no added hormones would be interested in the Chilean company called the NotCompany, which relies on the artificial intelligence (AI) expertise of the Giuseppe startup to make meats, cheeses, and milk out of nuts, peas, grains, and other plant-based crops.

     Female Olympians thinking about life after competition could check out Peru's Laboratoria program for training women with little to no computer science knowledge and no college education. After graduating from a 5-month coding course, women receive job placement services in Peru, Chile, and Mexico.

     And, finally, what can Olympians do with plastic bottles after they finish drinking their water? If they pass through Panama, they might see the Plastic Bottle Village being built by a Canadian entrepreneur. Once steel mesh frames are filled with up to 10,000 plastic bottles for insulation, concrete covers the frames to make walls.

   



   

Muslim Perspective: Conclusion of a 3-Part Series

What was the Muslim perspective after World War II? At first, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Yemen agreed with Britain's suggestion to form an Arab League to protect their independence from outside threats, especially from the Soviet Union. But a common opposition to the new Israeli state proved to be a stronger unifying force. Muslim countries that had no part in murdering Jewish prisoners in the Holocaust were unwilling to recognize Israeli independence. They responded with a declaration of war, when a UN resolution ended Britain's Palestinian Mandate and created the new state of Israel on May 15, 1948. The United States, with the largest concentration of Jewish people outside of Israel, went to the aid of Israel.

     After Mohammed's death, Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims took different directions and became bitter enemies (For an explanation of the rift, see the section, Mohammed's Legacy, in the earlier post, "This We Believe."). Both Muslim sects had splinter groups determined to annihilate Israel, and, by extension, Israel's ally, the United States. The new fundamentalist Shi'ite regime that took over in Iran in 1979 permitted militants to hold 62 Americans in the U.S. embassy for over a year. Israel viewed exiled Palestinian Sunnis and Iranian-backed Hezbollah Shia in Lebanon as terrorists. To rid its northern border of the threat posed by both groups, Israel supported the 1982 raid by Maronite Christian militias that resulted in a refugee camp massacre.

     Seen as an ally of the Israeli forces behind the 1982 raid, the United States became an Hezbollah target. After a suicide bomber drove a truck full of explosives into the U.S. embassy in Lebanon in April, 1983, Iran directed another suicide operation that killed 241 at the U.S.Marine barracks there in October. Tel Aviv, which had destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, pressured Washington to see that Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear bomb would not succeed.

     Only because of a blatant invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990 was President George H.W.Bush, with UN backing, able to assemble the international force that took just four days to defeat Iraq and liberate Kuwait. In other circumstances, the U.S. was a target in 1993 for Muslim terrorists who set off a bomb in the garage of the World Trade Center in New York and for the terrorists, trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, who bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. With a successful "business plan" in hand, the Muslim mastermind behind these attacks traveled to Sudan in 1995 to remind Osama bin Laden how effective suicide bombers could be against Americans. (For additional information about the Muslim perspective, see the earlier post, "Why Do They Hate Us?")



   

Muslim Perspective: Part 2 of a 3-Part Series

In a continuing effort to learn more about the Muslim perspective, the second part of a 3-part series follows:

After defeating Napoleon, England was not willing to stand by while massacres and atrocities by Turkish oppressors in the Ottoman Empire led to revolts that gave outside powers reason to intervene. France's Emperor Napoleon III and the Russian Tsar both vied to protect Christians living under Turkish rule. Tsar Nicholas I, who called the Ottoman Empire's Sultan the "sick man of the East," was intent on liberating fellow Slavs in Bulgaria and other Balkan areas that the Turks controlled. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which also saw an opportunity to expand into the Balkans, annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. Britain had no interest in the Balkans, but London was determined to prevent Russia from interfering with its profitable spice trade in India and, eventually, its access to Middle Eastern oil. Knowing that revolutions in 1848 had weakened both Austria's and Hungary's ability to prevent Russian expansion toward Constantinople and the Dardanelle Straits, Britain was willing to prop up Turkey and to join France in what became known as the 1856 Crimean War.

     Although the Ottoman Empire survived the Crimean War, a little over 20 years later, Russia forced the Sultan to recognize the independence of his Balkan possessions in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. The Ottoman Empire's North African territories were victims of the European scramble for colonies in the late 19th century. France claimed Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco and, by 1869, opened Egypt's Suez Canal.

     Britain, which viewed France as its major colonial rival in Africa, saw the canal as a vital link to India. When Egypt's Turkish ruler needed funds to pay interest on the European loans that had financed canal construction, England eagerly bought shares in the Suez Canal Company. As a result of Britain's financial interests, Egypt became a British Protectorate in 1882. Throughout half of the 20th century, Great Britain continued to maintain a strategic military base in the Suez Canal Zone.

     During World War I, Britain captured Palestine, Iraq, and Iran. It was in 1917 that Lord Balfour, Britain's foreign minister, first raised the possibility of carving an Israeli state, what he called "a small notch," out of Palestine. By making Palestine a British Mandate on September 11, 1932, the League of Nations took the first step to implement Lord Balfour's plan. After World War I, the UK also won League of Nations support in its dispute over the Mosul oil fields in northern Iraq, but England's position in the Middle East deteriorated following World War II. In 1951, Iran's government nationalized the joint Anglo-Iranian oil company on the Persian Gulf at Abadan.

   

   

Muslim Perspective: Part 1 of a 3-Part Series

When I was writing about the effort Nelson Mandela and Ali Soufan made to understand their enemies (Blog post: "Fight, Flight, or Something Else"), I realized: 1) Muslims are not my enemies, 2) Some terrorists act on their interpretation of Islam, and 3) I want to learn more about the Muslim perspective. What I have learned thus far follows in the first of a 3-Part Series.

Muslims can look back on historic conquests over the fractured Balkan states north of Greece, the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, Spain, and the islands off Italy. Just northwest of the nearby ruins of Babylon, the ancient home of Hammurabi, Nebuchadnessar II, and Alexander the Great, Baghdad was part of the sprawling 7th century Islamic empire conquered after Mohammed's death in 632. Aside from paying taxes to their Arab conquerors, life for those in this vast area remained largely unchanged. Cosmopolitan Baghdad, which may have had a population of two million by the ninth century, resembled a city in ancient Rome. Traders from India, China, and the East Indies brought their luxury wares of spices, sugar, gems, silks,and porcelains to the wealthy port.

     In lands conquered by early Muslims, citizens who were Arab, Persian, Byzantine, Greek, Hindu, and Christian shared a peaceful co-existence. Famous biblical sites in Egypt and Palestine had begun to attract Christian pilgrims as early as the second century. According to fourth century sources, both women and men reported they had faced theft, murder, and other dangers on their way to see where Jesus had lived, but there was no mention of Muslims blocking their way.

     By the eleventh century, everything changed. Newly converted, fervent Muslim Seljuk Turks began attacking Christian pilgrims en route to the Holy Land. In response, Pope Urban II called for the Crusade that recovered Jerusalem in 1099. Missionaries attempted to convert Muslims in North Africa and western Asia, but Saladin, the Iraqi-born Sultan of Egypt and Syria, retook Jerusalem in 1187 by defeating the Third Crusade led by Richard the Lion Hearted. The last territory recaptured by the Crusaders was lost in 1291.

     A new band of Turkish converts to Islam replaced the Seljuk Turks during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Named for their leader, Osman, they set out to establish the Ottoman Empire. First to fall were Slavic Serbia and Bulgaria on the Balkan Peninsula. Constantinople was defeated in 1453 and Romania in 1500. Control of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, most of North Africa, and Tigris-Euphrates valley followed.

     By 1700, the Muslim Empire began two centuries of decline. In the east, Russia's power was on the rise just as corruption riddled the Ottoman Empire's government and its army failed to keep up with military advances. At the end of a six-year war in 1774, Russia won better treatment for Christians in the Ottoman Empire, dominated the northern Crimean coast of the Black Sea, and secured a warm water port with free passage to the eastern Mediterranean through the Dardanelle Straights, the canal-like sliver of water between the Black and Aegean Seas. Success was cut short by Napoleon's victories over Russia, Austria, and Prussia in 1805 and 1806. By 1815, however, Napoleon's army was outnumbered by the combined forces of Moscow's allies: Britain the Netherlands, Austria, and Prussia.