Theory of Knowledge at TCIS

Practical Use for Optical Illusions?

2008-06-28T17:11:00.002+09:00

Source: http://www.gothamgazette.com/print/375

Well, I've been back in Nova Scotia for a couple of weeks now. I haven't really done a lot--although the mental break has certainly been good for me. Nonetheless, I look forward to getting back to Korea and starting my new job at GSIS. Needless to say, I will miss teaching your class. Also, however, I know that you will be in very good hands

I must tell you that I truly enjoyed having all of you as students last semester. It was exciting for me as a teacher to see you grapple with complex ideas and see how they related to the world around you. Learning is a lifelong endeavor. It does not end once the 3:05 bell rings. One of the best things about being a teacher it that it gives one the opportunity to continue learnig along with his/her students. Although I won't be at TCIS this coming year, it is my intention to continue this blog. So....I look forward to reading some of your posts and commenting on them!!

Anyways, enough of the prelude. This morrning, I found this article about how some cities are creating 'fake" speed bumps in order to encourage motorists to travel at a lower speed rate. Does it work? Where's what the article noted about tests that were done in Phoenix, Arizona:

On one of three streets tested in the Phoenix trial, the percentage of drivers who obeyed the 25 mph (40 km/h) speed limit nearly doubled. But the effect wore off after a few months.

"Initially they were great," said the Phoenix Police traffic co-ordinator, Officer Terry Sills. "Until people found out what they were."

In this instance, it seems as if experience superseded any initial change in behaviour caused by perception. Can you think of similar experiences in your own life?

Collective Guilt

2008-04-13T16:12:00.002+09:00

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/sports/080409/s040913A.jpg

A short while, Marion Jones, one of the stars of the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, was stripped of her medals because of a doping infraction. Now it appears as if her teammates may have to do the same. The International Olympic Committee has stripped her relay teammates of their medals as well, although they plan to take further legal action against the IOC.

This incident brings to my attention the whole issue of collective guilt. To what extent can and should others be held accountable for the actions of others? Like it or not, I think that we are often found guilty by association. I don't know if you remember this or not, but a couple of years ago TCIS had a language policy that punished grades collectively for failure to speak English. As I recall, it was not especially popular among students. In reality, however, I believe that we are judged collectively in many cases. For example, if TCIS has a reputation as a top international school, this has positive benefits for all students--even for those who may not be great students. At the same,if someone of a certain nationality or religion commits a heinous crime, people may stereotype all people belonging to that group in the same light. We recently initiated more stringent regulations regarding extended essays. This did not come out of the blue. Grade 11 students are now, at least in some ways, being held accountable for the action, or lack thereof, of senior students. Similarly, those in Grade 10 now may be affected by the actions of students currently in Grade 11.

Let's examine this issue on another level. Should the German people collectively be held accountable for the Holocaust? What about Canada and the US with regard to the treatment of its minority groups? What about Japan concerning its actions in China and Korea during the 20th century?

Transplant Tourism

2008-04-13T14:34:00.002+09:00

One of my students from last year--Sharssa Asassi--just wrote and informed me that she did her TOK presentation on Transplant Tourism. Not only that, but she received a perfect score on the presentation!

Well, I thought that it was a very interesting subject, so I decided to do a little bit of research on it. Transplant tourism is a particular manifestation of the broader practice known as medical tourism. Because health care in the West is so expensive, people opt to go overseas for treatment. Apparently, transplant tourism focuses on the sale of kidneys from people in the developing world to wealthy Westerners. In case you might not be aware, everyone has two kidneys. Thus, you can exist quite well on one--at long as it does not fail. According to the World Health Organization, transplant tourism accounts for about 10 percent of all transplants worldwide. Less appealing names for the practice include flesh trade and organ market.

Many people view this as quite unethical; in their opinion, something as precious as life should not be commodified. One the other hand, I suppose that an argument could be made that it benefits the poor donor financially. Certainly, the sale of that one kidney would be more than many could make in a single year. Also, some claim that it needs to be legal so that it can be regulated effectively; other illegal removal and transplantation of kidneys run the risk of creating huge health risks for both the donor and the recipient.

What do you? Should this practice be permissible? What are the arguments for and against this? Even if you don't agree with it ethically, should it be legalized so that we can prevent danger and even death to the individuals involved? Or are we simply legalizing exploitation of the poor. Here's a link that discusses the pros and cons of this issue.

Y0u know, after writing this point, I realized that I was once a medical tourist as well. About 9 years ago, I visited South Korea in order to have my teeth fixed. I met a man in Nashville who had a dental practice in Bundang. In return for me volunteering to teach him English lessons in America, he invited me to come to Korea so he could repair my teeth.

Thanks Sharssa for the topic!

Christian Music

2008-04-13T12:51:00.007+09:00

I have trying to prepare some review materials for my second year IB History class. As is usually the case when I am sitting here at the computer, I can easily become distracted by the lure of the Internet. Anyways, I came across a number of videos clips of some of my most favorite types of gospel music. So, let me share them. The first one is Andrea Bocelli singing Ave Maria. It is just a gorgeous and goose bump-producing rendition.

The second piece is completely different. It is a piece entitled "God's Own Fool." I remember first hearing this years ago.I am drawn not so much by the music itself--although the Celtic tone has appeal--but rather, the depth of the words themselves.

The next video is an example of Southern Gospel music. A fear years ago, I had the privilege to sit amongst a huge gathering of Southern Gospel singers at the Stamps-Baxter School of Music in Nashville. It was such an incredible experience to in the midst of such incredible harmony--again, one of those goose bump experiences. As someone who has studied Southern US history, I appreciate this genre not only because of the sense of joy that its brings to my soul, but also, because it so much represents the fusion of white and black culture in the US South.

The next song is an example of Christian bluegrass. Bluegrass is a musical form whose roots were in the mountain areas of the Southern US. I have also appreciated bluegrass of its earthiness and its ability to convey the feelings of the soul. Actually, it has always been my secret desire to be able to play the banjo. Anyways, this is an example of Christian bluegrass from the Cox family. Incidentally, this group was featured in a movie, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, a few years ago.

This video is from Nigeria. Nigeria is an interesting country--about 50 percent Islam and 40 percent Christian. I don't know enough about the place, but I have heard that there is a vibrancy to religious worship. This clip certainly illustrates that:

Finally, I'd like to throw in a performance from Vicki Winans, a noteworthy black gospel artist. Black gospel music has had a significant impact on American culture at large--not just in terms of religious music, but also, secular forms such as rock and roll. Indeed, Elvis Presley was heavily influenced by this form of music. As I listen to this song, I can't help but notice similarities with the earlier examples of both Southern Gospel and Nigerian Christian music. I doubt that the similarities are merely coincidental; rather, its suggests how black traditions in terms of worship style (not strictly Christian since Nigerians were not Christian at that point in time) were transfered from Africa to America by black slaves and then adopted, at least in measure, by European Americans. Anyways, here's the song--"Long As I Got King Jesus."

All of these pieces, different as they may be, speak to me. Each one comes from a different cultural milieu while at the same time sharing the common purpose of edifying God. Do they speak to all believers the same way? No, of course not. In the same light, we need no assume that all believers are exactly the same as us in the manifestation of the faith. In some sense, although we may share a common belief in Christ which serves as a filter for us to view the world, at the same time we are shaped by personal experiences and unique cultural backgrounds that cause us to be diverse as a body of believers. Think about--there is a lot of different between an Amish believer in rural Pennsylvania and a typical believer in Nigeria. Does this mean that one is a better Christian than the other? I dare say no. The Christian Church is made up of disparate elements that we can all appreciate and embrace for what they contribute to the body of Christ.

Hangul

2008-03-29T08:58:00.005+09:00

Each year, many languages become extinct as the last few remaining speakers of those particular tongues die. However, it is not only the language itself that disappears. With the demise of each language also goes many of the traditions, cultures, and historical understandings of a group of people. This is an especially tragic situation when it occurs within a language group that has no written form.

Interestingly, it seems that the Chinese government is interested in using Hangul, the Korean alphabet, as as a means of preserving the cultural record of some of its minority groups that do not possess their own written alphabet. According to Professor Choi Kee-ho:

“According to UNESCO, the world has more than 6,000 languages, and one by one, they are going extinct with the development of information technology,” Choi said. “In the past, Western countries with an imperialist mindset simply crashed into weaker continents, forcing their language and culture on the region.”

It is not the same with Hangeul. We are here to help other cultures preserve and even restore their lost customs through a convenient storage system, which is Hangeul. We do not intend to Koreanize other cultures or eliminate their valued histories because we know from first-hand experience how painful that can be.”

Koreans under Japanese colonial rule were forbidden to use the Korean language. Some 200,000 history books on ancient Korean culture were also burned.

“It will take a long time before we can present Hangeul to all of the minorities, but it's a start. The fact that we're finally attracting Chinese government attention is a big boost,” Choi said.

Dr. Kim-cho Sek-yen, Director of Sejong Studies Institute, has gone one step further. She has taken Hangul and modified it to embrace a wider range of sounds. She explains the rationale for the development of Nurigeul as follows:

"But Hangeul is not enough," says Professor Kim-Cho Sek-yen who came to

Korea

for a speech at the WOGA 2007, International Women Leaders Mission Conference. Living in New York with her husband and daughter, she has devoted over three decades completing "Nuriguel” - an alternative Hangeul system with additional letters that allow an even wider range of pronunciation that can cover sounds like "f" and "th" that are absent in Korean and hence difficult to transcribe accurately. Below are the newly added letters after Hangeul;

"The principle of Hangeul is that it can transform and regenerate itself,” she said. “I didn’t just create letters out of the blue. I merely restored the lost Hangeul letters of the 15th century and formed additional letters based on the movements of speech organs just like King Sejong, the inventor of Hangeul, did.” She said. “That’s why I call it a visible speech sound. You can see clearly why certain Nurigeul letters are shaped as they are in accordance with the pronouncing organs.”

Will Hangeul become an important tool in preserving the cultural legacy of dying language groups? Will it be used to provide a written language to peoples without their own alphabet. In many ways, it appears that Hangeul may indeed have the potential to play both roles in the future.

Using Science to Understand History

2008-03-29T08:18:00.003+09:00

Source: BBC News

We discuss a lot in TOK about how the various areas of knowledge are interrelated. This morning, I came across a couple of articles from the BBC that vividly illustrate how today's scientific technology is being utilized to undercover the past. One of the articles discusses how scientists have been able to hear for the first time a voice that was recorded in 1860. Another discusses how science has now enable us to read some of Archimedes' ancient mathematical texts. It's ironic--we think of scientific technology so much from a futuristic perspective, yet both of those articles suggest that technology is by no means antithetical to having a better understanding of the past as well.

Seal Hunting

2008-03-28T11:28:00.003+09:00

This has been a great international outcry in recent years concerning the annual seal hunt that goes on Newfoundland. Animals activists claim that the hunt is both inhumane and unnecessary. Indeed, the slight of seeing a bludgeoned seal on an ice flow is not a pretty sight, to say the least. On the other hand, sea hunters would claim that the seal hunt has gone on for centuries and that the vast majority of seal hunters kill seals in a human manner. The Canadian government insists that the seal hunt is necessary to order to keep growing seal populations under control. Indeed, the number of seals has tripled in size since the 1970s.

There are, of course, other issues involved here as well. In recent years, fish stocks off the coast of Newfoundland has been devastated by overfishing. Thus, for many small villages on the verge of extinction, the seal hunt represents a viable source of needed income. Also, how does one condemn the killing of seals, but not the killing of baby calves and lambs? On the other hand, do we continue engaging in practices simply because our ancestors did those activities? In that case, would we still consider slavery to be morally justifiable?

I think that there are huge cultural differences regarding the use of animals by man. Some groups, like the Jains in India, believe that killing any animal is morally wrong. Hindus, on the other, believe that killing cows is a religious blasphemy. Muslims and Jews, on the other hand, consider pork to be a unclean animal. Many Koreans, of course, find nothing wrong with eating dog. The Japanese continue the whale hunt despite international opposition. So, there doesn't seem to be any universal standards on this issue.

I can tell you one thing--this is an incredibly emotional issue for many Canadians, especially for those in the eastern part of the country. If anything, international condemnation has done little but rally Canadians around the Newfoundland hunters. Indeed, emotions run high on both sides and I think that this is one of the main reasons why this issue is so difficult to resolve.

Anyways, take a look at the video, and see if you can understand the main arguments that are being put forth by both sides. For further understanding of this, here's a recent statement from the Canadian government and here's another one that condemns the cruelty of the hunt.

Homecoming

2008-03-28T04:16:00.004+09:00

Sometimes when I walk outside of my apartment, I see older Koreans on the street interacting with each. I look at their faces and wonder what kind of they have lived and how the Korea of their earlier years was different from today's Korea. Did they live through the Korean War? How did they deal with extreme economic hardship? How do they feel about all of the changes that they see around themselves today?

I think that it is so important and worthwhile to communicate with others outside of our own generation. We often get so wrapped up in our own generation that we fail to realize that those younger and older than us often have had experiences that have diverged significantly from our own. The stories of those who have lived in the past give me insight into why the world is what it is today. On the other hand, understanding younger generations allows me to uncover the veil of the future, at least to some degree.

Maybe it is for these reasons that I enjoy meeting people of all different ages. When I was in Tennessee several years ago, I met a wonderful couple, in their 70s, who provided me with a cultural experience that I would never have had otherwise. Sixty years ago, the Southern US was overwhelmingly rural. The role of the church in the community was perhaps much greater than it is at present. Certainly, people did not have the luxury of traveling to faraway mega churches like they do today. Church membership was comprised of people who lived in your community. In many ways, the church was not only a place of worship; it was also a place of social interaction and enjoyment. I was fortunate when my friends invited me to attend a Homecoming--an annul reunion of church members past and present--at a small church in West Tennessee. As you can read from the recollections below that I wrote for a local newspaper, I was able to experience a tradition that may soon be a thing of the past as the church population of many small congregations continues to decline:

Homecomings and dinner on the ground have historically been an integral part of the Southern religious experience. For so many years, the church was the most important community to which a Southerner belonged. Thus, homecoming was much more than simply an annual get together. It was more akin to a family reunion—an event to which you and your spiritual kin made an annual pilgrimage to enjoy fellowship and wonderful food. As a foreigner from Nova Scotia, Canada, I have always been envious of this uniquely Southern tradition. It represents a sense of belonging that seems so lacking in contemporary society.

Obviously, the Southern religious landscape has changed significantly over the past several decades. The rural church seems to be in a state of decline. Congregations are older and smaller as the younger generations flock to larger churches replete with a full array of programs and facilities. If one allows himself to think too far into the future, it is clear that many of these country churches will die out within the next few decades unless something drastically changes in our nation’s worship preferences. It is a sad situation in some sense, yet one should also remember that these congregations have fulfilled an essential role in the religious life in their communities. They have not existed in vain; indeed, many still have an important function, even as they deal with declining membership and an uncertain future. Also, they carry on traditions, such as homecoming and dinner on the ground, which many of the newer churches have set aside.

A short while ago, I had the opportunity to attend a homecoming at Liberty All Methodist Church in Huntingdon, Tennessee. Actually, it was my second time to partake of this event. My good friends, Jim and Rusty Dean, have a home here and invite me to visit them on occasion. In fact, Rusty’s family attended Liberty All during her childhood, and even though she left Huntingdon six decades ago, she regularly still attends Liberty All’s homecoming, which is held the first Sunday in May. I realize that my friendship with Jim and Rusty gives me a window upon the South that I otherwise would not have as a Canadian in his 30s.

On Sunday morning, we got up bright and early. My first thought was about food for the dinner on the ground. When did we need to prepare the devilled eggs? Was the cooler big enough to hold the food? Would the cake hold up under the heat? Needless to say, the kitchen was the center of action. Boiling and peeling eggs, transferring salad from one bowl to another, cutting cake and ham—there was a lot of work to do. In the midst of all of this, I ran down to the local Walmart to buy ice and a slotted spoon. I must admit that I enjoyed all of this and found it strangely exhilarating. I think it gave me a glimpse of how important homecoming still is for many Southerners. It is not as if you are bringing a covered dish to a church supper. No, in some ways, you know your reputation is on the line. You want to prepare dishes befitting the occasion.

The food prepared in good time, we headed off to Liberty All. Actually, we were the first ones to arrive at the tiny church. Over the next 30 minutes or so, a crowd of 40 or 50 people trickled in. I suspect this was at least twice the normal attendance of the church. In fact, if I remember correctly, I noticed on the bulletin board inside the church that only 18 people were listed as being there the previous Sunday. After personal greetings outside, we moved inside to the sanctuary. At this point, my mind was on food. Even before the sermon began, I was anticipating its ending. In truth, however, I found the church service interesting and uplifting. The minister preached in a manner that I best could describe as old school rural South—hard-hitting, loud, and meant to convict people.

After the church service, it was time to eat. The food was wonderful. Salad, fried chicken, vegetables, casseroles, pies, cakes—a seemingly endless array of choices that made my mouth water. My only complaint was that my plate wasn’t big enough for everything that I wanted. I eyed the caramel pie and was really tempted to take a piece before everyone else. Yet, dignity overrode greed and I decided that I would wait for dessert. In any case, I had already put so much on my plate that it would have been a trial to get anything else on it. In the end, I did get my caramel pie, and yes, it was good—as were the many other desserts that I ate! I must say that I was also pleased with the cake I had made, although I am quite sure that Jim, Rusty, and I were the only ones who tasted it. Oh well, that meant more for us later when we arrived home!

The final part of the day involved singing inside the church. In all truthfulness, this was the part of homecoming that I enjoy the most. The word of God through song inspires me like nothing else. This year, the church brought in three local groups, all of whom did a wonderful job of expressing the message of Christianity through Southern gospel songs. I truly am in awe at the degree of musical talent there is here in the South, and my experience at Liberty All was no exception. Most importantly, however, I truly was ministered to by the songs that I heard. The lyrics spoke to me and really made me feel a need to strengthen my faith and commitment to God. Perhaps the simplicity of the whole experience was what made it so powerful.

I was truly blessed to attend Liberty All’s homecoming. A beautiful Sabbath day, friendly folk, a magnificent feast, uplifting song—what could be more pleasing. Of course, I can’t help but wonder the future of that tiny congregation. Will the church survive? I can’t answer that question. But what I do know is that I was able to partake of a spiritual experience that was both unique and uplifting.

Paradigm Shifts

2008-03-28T03:46:00.002+09:00

Thomas Kuhn came up with the concept of paradigm shift to suggest a revolutionary change in science that completely overturns previous notions of understanding. I would say a good example of this would be how Einstein's Theory of Relativity affected physics. However, when news ideas first come on the scene, they are not necessarily embraced immediately. Indeed, if any ideas fits outside of the mold current thinking and understanding, the tendency may be to regard it was somewhat heretical. However, as more and more evidence piles up to challenge old ways of understanding, old modes of thinking must be discarded and a new paradigm of thought is created.

Perhaps the process of change is a little more subtle and gradual than this, but I do think that there are moments when new understandings do transform previously held understandings--not only in the field of science, but in other areas of understandings as well. Actually, I can recognize key moments in my life that have really affected and changed. Within my own Christian faith, for example, there was a point when I really had to redefine the role of the church as an institution. For a long time, I had an understanding of church as an institution without flaw. However, at one point in my Christian walk, I realized that I could not hold on to that simplistic understanding any more. It was painful because I think we have hopes about how things should be in an ideal sense. I recorded my thoughts about the whole experience in a retrospective sense several years ago:

It was devastating when I first realized that Christians failed to live up to the great hopes that I had placed in them. My idealistic mentality envisioned a group of people motivated by nothing but the purest of motives. Indeed, I envisioned myself being swept up in the tide of their goodness; I would absorb their example into my own life. This was my expectation, and I never could have imagined anything else to the contrary. I recall at the time of my born-again experience how excited I felt to be in the midst of such perfect people.

Needless to say, there came a point in my Christian walk when I had to redefine my expectations of Christians. It was a painful and difficult process—one that brought emotions ranging from anger, sorrow, and a deep sense of betrayal. At times, I could scarcely hold onto my sanity, so deep was the feeling that I had been manipulated and deceived. Eventually, I sank into the throes of depression. It was so difficult for me to come to grips with the realization that I was in the midst of less-than-perfect people.

As time passed and as the Lord bestowed his healing mercy and grace in my life, I came to recognize that all Christians—including myself—are in a great struggle every day of our lives. Even in the Church and in our relationships with other believers, that fierce battle struggle between the natural man and the Spirit of God goes on. Such an understanding doesn’t necessarily take away any of the pain that I feel, but it does help sustain me in my faith when I see actions and attitudes that seem so antithetical to the Christian faith. And, if I am honest with myself, it also places me in pretty much the same boat as other believers. The particularities of the struggle may be different, but the essence of the conflict is very much the same for each of us.

Does this mean that we simply ignore the shortcomings of the Church? Of course not. In truth, the church is full of many problems. Many Christians struggle with selfish ambition and material self-interest, a reflection of prevailing cultural expectations. As a result, they often exhibit uncaring and shallow attitudes towards those in need—even brothers and sisters in their own midst. Often, goodness is conditional—we embrace it as long as it doesn’t interfere significantly with our own agenda. In reality, politics often run rampant in a church. As well, churches are too often institutions where strong-willed, ambitious, and socially well-placed individuals—not necessarily the spiritually sensitive-- rise to the top.

Having said all of this, I also realize that the tenor of my evaluation of the church is a reflection of how I have been treated and regarded by other church members. On numerous occasions I have been the beneficiary of undeserved praise and adulation. In such instances, the stock of the church rises considerably. At other times, I have felt purposely left outside the “in” circle. As a result, the church’s reputation takes a nosedive. Thus, my own emotions become a barometer of how I perceive and relate to other church members. I suspect that it is all too often a somewhat flawed method of making fair judgement.

More and more, I understand the Church to be an institution where God not only provides us with fellowship, sustenance, and a means to share His Word, but also, a place to refine us. It is within the Church that I have had to come to grips with many of my fears and weaknesses; it is a place where I have experienced some of my greatest joy and pain. As I continue to struggle with other believers and my own self, I take great peace in the words of St Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light; and

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may

Not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Comedy

2008-03-27T16:29:00.002+09:00

Every culture perhaps has their own its own unique understanding of what it means for something to be funny. Sometimes when I am at the gym exercising, I see some Korean comedy shows being broadcast. I wish that I could understand Korean better because, even as a popular art form, I believe that comedy reveals a lot about culture in general.

Here is a clip that I recently found off of Youtube. Do you think that it is funny? To be honest, I can't say that I do. I don't that the issue is merely language; indeed, I think that this humor is distinctly Korean and relates to a pasttime--the playing of Starcraft--that has so much embedded itself into Korean culture as to have unique meaning and understanding to Koreans.

Being Canadian

2008-03-25T17:41:00.003+09:00

Source: Nate Enyedi

Yes, I am Canadian. Although I enjoy going home to visit every summer, I do not consider myself a rabid patriot. In fact, when my sister gave me a hoodie with a Canadian maple leaf on it for Christmas, my mother informed her that I would not wear it. She was right. For some reason, I feel as if I don't need to be an advertisement for Canada here in Korea. When my uncle gave me a bunch of little Canadian maple leaf pins to distribute to my students, I took them with a smile--and that was it. Those pins never made it to Korea. Now don't get me wrong--I feel great pleasure when a Canadian athlete does well on the international scene. For example, I yelled with joy when Canada won the Olympic gold medal in hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics. I like the idea of wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day. I also very much love my home province of Nova Scotia. It is a beautiful place and I truly enjoy the people there. Indeed, any quirks in my personality are probably more Nova Scotian than Canadian. I think anyone familiar with that part of Canada can attest to this.

So what's wrong with me? I don't say the word "eh" (although the word "sor-ry slips out a lot). I don't care that much about the ultimate Canadian icon, Tim Horton's coffee. Okay, okay...I do like the variety of potato chips they have in Canada. So....poppies, the word "sorry,"and potato chips...that's the sum of my Canadian identity.

To be frank, I have been heavily influenced by American and other non-Canadian cultures since I was about 15 years old. How could this not have shaped my identity? My field of study in graduate school was US history. Before coming to Korea, I spent 8 years in Tennessee and 2 in Utah. In fact, I have not lived in Canada for the past 15 years. I don't feel like an exile--I made a conscious choice to live elsewhere. There was a point in my life--around my early to mid 20s--when I was much more patriotic. I felt I needed to stay in Canada in order to do something good for the country. In the end, however, I got tired of picking strawberries for a living--seriously. Do that for a while and your sense of patriotic obligation may also be challenged!

Just what does it mean to be a Canadian? What does it mean to be Korean? Are there certain prerequisites to belonging to a certain national group? Or are we so captured by stereotypes that we fail to realize the diversity of people within each nationality.

Gosh, I just thought of something....I hope I never run for political office in Canada. This blog entry will kill my career. Well, it looks as if I'll be teaching overseas for a while!

An Unavoidable Issue

2008-03-25T12:32:00.003+09:00

You can't look at the news today without seeing reams of articles dealing with the issue of climate change. In some ways, however, it is clear that the tenor of the debate has changed. While most would agree that climate change has taken place, there seems to be an increasing openness to challenge some of the more simplistic assumptions surrounding the issue.

Today, for example, I came across an article in the New York Times that mentions how one biologist's connection of global warming with the disappearance of a major species of amphibians is challenged by other scientists. Another article from a British newspaper suggests that we are exacerbating global warming by promoting biofuel production because we end cutting down forests in order to make more land available for crop production.

To be frank, I am glad that we are finally looking at this issue in a serious and thoughtful manner. As recent as last year, I felt as if there was a muzzle on anyone who dared even to criticize the leading assumptions concerning global warming. I was bothered by this because we have a tendency to vilify people who challenge the status quo positions of the day. Should we take care of our planet? Of course. Have we in the developed world done a good job of this in the past 100 years? Not at all. Is temperature change the result of human action? There is certainly evidence to suggest so, although the issue seems more complicated that originally thought--at least that is the message that is coming out of the mainstream press. Am I ready to end the debate on why our global temperatures have been fluctuating so much? No. Do I believe, as the Weather Channel's Heidi Cullen does, that all weathermen who disagree with global warming should be decertified. Nope....not ready for a 21st century Inquisition. There...that's what I think--for better or worse.

One final note. I recently bought a plane ticket from Air Canada that gave me the option to purchase carbon credits that would offset the pollution that I was causing. Apparently, by taking that flight home, I am creating far more pollution that the average person does in a whole year. So, maybe it is a good idea. But when I think about it, isn't this like the selling of indulgences that went on in the Catholic Church hundreds of years ago. Don't such programs allow me to "sin"? Aren't these corporate schemes ultimately a way for me to soothe my conscious while at the same time allowing the company to depict itself as responsible? If I was a really radical person, I would just not travel long distances by plane because of the inordinate amount of the pollution that I am creating. But, truth of the matter is, I am probably not that radical. I'll commit myself to action as long as it does not put me out too much. I am certainly not going to sacrifice seeing my family and friends. Neither am I going to take cold baths in order to save energy. Actually, stripping rhetoric aside, I don't know anyone who goes beyond the superficial and symbolic when it comes to this issue.

What a rant....

Swimming Records

2008-03-25T11:04:00.003+09:00

Source: Library of Congress, c 1919

Over the past few days, I have been paying attention to results coming out of the European and Australian swimming chamionships. What has impressed me has been the number of world records that have been shattered—9 world records in total thus far at those two events. Many are speculating that this feat relates not only to athletic prowess. They point to the fact that Speedo has recently designed a new swimming suit that allows competitors to glide through the water much more efficiently.

I also think that these world records need to be taken into context. For example, Frederica Pellegrini broke the world recod yesterday for the women's 400 meter freestyle. Within the broader context of swimmming historical records, it seems not as impressive as I first took it be In 1948, the world record stood at almost exactly 5 minutes. 30 years later, in 1978, the record was 4 minutes and 6 seconds. Now, it is 4:01.53. Thus, from 1948 to 1978, the women's world record for the 400 meters fell by 53.72 seconds. Since 1978, however, it has declined by only 4.75 seconds.

What are the limitations of human potential in swimming—or any other activity for that matter? Given the advancements in technology and human understanding of nutrition—as well as perhaps the ability to evade drug testing—do records of human achievement really mean anything?

Genetic Engineering

2008-03-24T18:02:00.003+09:00

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

The British Parliament is currently debating a bill that would extend embryonic research into new areas. The proposed piece of legislation, for example, would allow for the creation of embryos that are part human and part animal. At the same time, it would also allow for the creation of “saviour siblings”-- children specifically designed to treat the illness of a sick brother or sister. It would also permit birth certificates of children born through in vitro fertilization to exclude mention of a biological father. They apparently would allow gay couples to register as the infant's parents.

All of this has created a political backlash for the ruling Labour Party government in Britain. In fact, about a dozen or so government ministers have threatened to resign if they are forced by their party to vote in favor of the legislation. The leaders of the Catholic Church have been most vocal in their opposition:

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said: "I think Catholics in politics have got to act according to their Catholic convictions.

"So have other Christians, so have other politicians. Certainly, there are some aspects of this Bill on which I believe there ought to be a free vote, because Catholics and others will want to vote according to their conscience.

"I don't think it should be subject to the party whip."

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the Catholic leader in Scotland, used his Easter Day sermon to condemn the Government's "monstrous" proposals which he claimed would allow experiments of "Frankenstein proportion".

All of this raises enormous ethical issues. What is the meaning of human life? Is saviour sibling merely a euphemistic term of “spare parts” infants? What are the rights of these children? Are we entering the era of “designer” babies—where people deliberately create children according to detailed specifications? What is the limitation to such technology? Do we utilize technology simply because we have the capacity to do so? Who decides all of these issues and on what basis? These, of course, are not easy questions. What do you think about all of this?

Suicide Rates in Korea

2008-03-23T17:12:00.003+09:00

I just read somewhere on the internet that Korean suicide rates are now among the highest among the highest in the world. In fact, they have increased dramatically over the past decade or so. Part of the reason for this seems to be the increasing disparity between the wealthy and the poor in this country. Apparently, there also has been an increase in suicide rates among the elderly. I wonder if this situation has something to do with the rapid transformation that has occurred here in recent years. It seems to me—at least as an outsider—that there are layers of extreme generational differences superimposed on each other. Part of this change has been the product of economic success. As I have noted in class on a number of occasions, the standard of living in Korea in 1960 was comparable to Tanzania. Now, however, Korea has the 12th or 13th largest economy in the world, with the standard of living more comparable to Southern European nations such as Portugal and Greece. Along with this economic growth, of course, has been widespread social change that perhaps have shaken the communal foundations of traditional Korean society.

How do individuals and societies deal with change? Is change always a positive thing? What responsibility, if any, does society have to regulate the impact of change, so as not burden its members with undue stress caused by such transformations?

The Power of a Name

2008-03-08T07:50:00.002+09:00

After the collapse of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Macedonia declared its independence. However, one country--Greece--has refused to recognize it. It all has to do with the name of the place. One of the northern provinces of Greece is also named Macedonia, and Greece feels that the Rep of Macedonia might eventually lay claims to Greek territory as its own. In fact, Greece insists that the Rep of Macedonia officially change its name to the Former Yugoslav Rep of Macedonia.

Does this seem silly? It might, but the implications of this dispute are by no means inconsequential. In fact, Greece is currently blocking Macedonia's admission to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) because of this very dispute.

Of course, name controversies are by no means restricted to Macedonia. China and Taiwan both officially refer to themselves as China, although mainlans China seems more concerns nowadays that Taiwan seems intent on developing a sense of Taiwanese nationalism. And, of course, there is the ongoing dispute between Korea and Japan over the naming of the East Sea/Sea of Japan.

Why does all of this matter? Why does a simple name seem to have so much power to generate such great international controversy?

IB Music Recital

2008-03-06T20:36:00.002+09:00

I just came back from the Junior IB recital this evening. What a wonderful evening. What wonderful talent our school has in this area. I was so proud of every student--what great gifts they possess. But how can they do what they do? I tried to play an instrument years ago, but had no ability whatsoever. In fact, I was one of those students who would "fake" play--hoping that everyone else around me knew how to really play!!!! How much of this is natural talent and much of this practice? How does one know how to play an instrument so well as the individuals did this evening? I doubt a thousand years of practice would ever bring me up to the level of talent that I saw tonight.

As I as listening to the music this evening, it really does seem that it was speaking to my soul. in this sense, I really do think that music is a language. It communicates something to me that words cannot convey. I felt so fortunate to be in attendance this evening. I give my greatest praise to all of the performers. You are wonderful and so talented.

Feng Shui and McDonald's

2008-03-02T12:43:00.002+09:00

Recently, a McDonald's restaurant in Southern California designed its interior according to the principle of feng shui. To be truthful, I am not sure about the exact definition of such--other than the fact that it is an ancient Chinese principle that has something to do with rearranging and designing one's environment in a manner that facilitates peace and harmony. Of course, this particular restaurant's makeover probably has less to do with the owners' belief in feng shui than with the fact that the local area's Asian population has skyrocketed in the past decade or so.

Of course, many people would regard feng shui as pseudoscience. Indeed, it would be quite difficult to scientifically prove that it actually has a calming effect on the human soul. Still, I can't help but wonder if the environment doesn't in some ways shape our mindsets and emotions at times. Too much clutter, for example, can be overwhelming at times. I hate dim lights and rooms without windows. What do you think--how do you think that your physical environment affects you?

Robot Technology in Japan

2008-03-02T12:16:00.003+09:00

Every time I go to Costco, I see these little round discs--Roombas--that can clean your floors. Pretty impressive, especially for someone who is not a good housekeeper by nature. Well, these little "creatures"--really robots made by a company called iRobot--are probably the wave of the future.

I think that I have probably discussed this issue on my blog before, but it keeps coming up and up on the news; thus, I can't help but go back to it. More and more, robot technology is really becoming the norm in more and more societies. More particularly, Japan seems to be taking the lead in this regard. This morning I came across an article which highlighted this increasing dependence on robots as the Japanese population becomes older and older. Here are a few excerpts from the article:

Besides financial and technological power, the robot wave is favored by the Japanese mind-set as well.

Robots have long been portrayed as friendly helpers in Japanese popular culture, a far cry from the often rebellious and violent machines that often inhabit Western science fiction.

This is, after all, the country that invented Tamagotchi, the hand-held mechanical pets that captivated the children of the world.

Japanese are also more accepting of robots because the native Shinto religion often blurs boundaries between the animate and inanimate, experts say. To the Japanese psyche, the idea of a humanoid robot with feelings doesn't feel as creepy — or as threatening — as it might do in other cultures.

So, it seems that the Japanese fascination with robots may have something to do with the cultural peculiarities of the nation.

One another thing that I got from this article was that the more robots resemble, the mroe they will be accepted by us:

For Hiroshi Ishiguro, also at Osaka University, the key is to make robots that look like human beings. His Geminoid robot looks uncannily like himself — down to the black, wiry hair and slight tan.

"In the end, we don't want to interact with machines or computers. We want to interact with technology in a human way so it's natural and valid to try to make robots look like us," he said.

"One day, they will live among us," Ishiguro said. "Then you'd have to ask me: 'Are you human? Or a robot?'"

Will humans ever be able to make such a creation? Is it just science fiction or is it a portend of things to come?

Caning in Schools

2008-02-27T06:33:00.003+09:00

Recently I attended an IB workshop at the Anglo-Chinese Independent School in Singapore. I must say that I was very impressed by the school. It was a Christian school which openly demonstrated its faith foundations with Biblical scriptures carved into its walls. It was simple and powerful--something which I think that faith should be, as opposed to gimmicky slogans and posters. I became increasingly impressed with the institution when I found out the school's first year IB results. On the November 2007 exams, its students ended up attaining about half of the world's perfect (45) IB scores. Not only, the average IB score for the school was about 39.5. The statistics are just incredible.

So this morning I went to the school's website to investigate further. Eventually, I stumbled upon the schools academic integrity policy. Lo and behold, this school canes male students who violate these standards in an egregious manner. The policy reads:

Caning (only for male students) which will be conducted in the Principal’s office, classroom or during school assembly. Caning will be conducted for very serious and severe violations and/or will only be resorted to when all other means of disciplinary action have been exhausted. All students who have been caned will be required to attend counseling sessions arranged by the school.

Source: http://www.acs.sch.edu.sg/acs_indep/uploads/powerpoints/Principal%20Briefing%20for%20Year%205%20Parents%2027%20May.pdf

What are your thoughts on this? Can physical punishment enable someone to know something? Is so, why are only male students caned?

Teaching Students about History and Culture: Is It Important?

2008-02-27T04:58:00.005+09:00

One of the great things about IB Diploma Programme is that it provides students with a well-rounded education in a broad array of dsiciplines. Unfortunately, it seems that we cannot make assumptions that all students all receiving this same sort of educational experience. According to an article that I found in USA Today, it seems that most US teens are severly lacking in historical and cultural knowledge. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job.

Don't count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can't identify the books or historical events associated with them.

Twenty-five years after the federal report A Nation at Risk challenged U.S. public schools to raise the quality of education, the study finds high schoolers still lack important historical and cultural underpinnings of "a complete education." And, its authors fear, the nation's current focus on improving basic reading and math skills in elementary school might only make matters worse, giving short shrift to the humanities � even if children can read and do math.

"If you think it matters whether or not kids have common historical touchstones and whether, at some level, we feel like members of a common culture, then familiarity with this knowledge matters a lot," says American Enterprise Institute researcher Rick Hess, who wrote the study.

Among 1,200 students surveyed:

•43% knew the Civil War was fought between 1850 and 1900.

•52% could identify the theme of 1984.

•51% knew that the controversy surrounding Sen. Joseph McCarthy focused on communism.

In all, students earned a C in history and an F in literature, though the survey suggests students do well on topics schools cover. For instance, 88% knew the bombing of Pearl Harbor led the USA into World War II, and 97% could identify Martin Luther King Jr. as author of the "I Have a Dream" speech.

Fewer (77%) knew Uncle Tom's Cabin helped end slavery a century earlier.

"School has emphasized Martin Luther King, and everybody teaches it, and people are learning it," says Chester Finn of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank. "What a better thing it would be if people also had the Civil War part and the civil rights part, and the Harriet Tubman part and the Uncle Tom's Cabin part."

Are you surprised? Is important that people in within a culture have common historical and cultural understandings that collectively unite them? If so, how do we determine what is culturally and historically important? Do, in fact, the things that a society considers to be important changes as that society itself evolves? For instance, do you think that the history taught in schools in 2008 is the same as history taught in schools in 1950? In what ways might it be different and what does this suggest?

Kosovo

2008-02-19T02:21:00.004+09:00

Well, it's about 2:20 am and I just can't sleep. I finished washing my dishes and clothes and then tried to fall back to sleep...but no luck.

A day or two, I noticed on the news that Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia. Ever since the demise of communism in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, that whole region seems to have been in a state of unease. One by one, different ethnic groups have declared their desire to establish independent nations--Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and now Kosovo. The whole process has become bloody and cruel especially in cases where particular areas were populated by different ethnic groups that had lived together for centuries.

In some sense, I suppose that Yugoslavia was an artificial nation created following the end of WWI as a way to united Slavic peoples living in the Balkans region. In retrospect, it was a daunting task in the sense that the different peoples that were part of Yugoslavia were divided in terms of language, religion, alphabet, and history. Still, it seems ironic that in the 21st century, an era in which the term global citizen slides so easily from the tongue, that we find it a reality that different ethnic groups really do have so much trouble coexisting in the framework of a single state. Even in nations such as Belgium, ethnic tensions serve to challenge the essential legitimacy of the state. Interestingly, some European nations, such as Spain, have refused to acknowledged Kosovo's independence for fear that Kosovo's example will encourage calls for independence by ethnic minorities within their own boundaries.

Finally, regarding this whole issue of Kosovo's independence, I realize how very important an understanding of history is necessary to understand contemporary events. In some sense, the declaration of independence by Kosovo, which is 90 percent Albanian, cannot be understood except by recognizing the long term history of the region--the legacy of the Ottoman empire, the influence of Serbian nationalist sentiment in the region, etc. Perhaps I am biased, but the past really is, in many ways, a window on the present.

Women Ministers

2008-02-17T16:07:00.003+09:00

Within certain strains of Christianity, there has been a debate over the years regarding whether women should be ordained as preachers. I use the words "certain strains" because the debate has taken place largely within the confines of Protestantism. For many other religious groups, including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Mormons, and Muslims, any discussion concerning whether or not women can be ordained as ministers has been far less public and intense.

Many would suggest that this debate is a product of the Women's Rights Movement of the 1960s. While there is clearly some justification for such a claim, the issue is not quite so simple. In fact, the first major Protestant group to ordain women as ministers was Pentecostalism. Indeed, the first female Pentecostal ministers in the United States were ordained a century ago. Although very conservative in many ways, Pentecostalism has had a long tradition of noteworthy--and sometimes controversial--women ministers. Perhaps the most famous of these was Aimee Semple McPherson (pictured above).

I have my theory about all of this. When Pentecostalism began, it was definitely out of the mainstream of American Protestantism. It also appealed primarily to poor people and was much more open to racial inclusion than Christian churches in America at the time. Thus, being on the periphery of the American religious tradition gave Pentecostalism a freedom to act in a manner that was somewhat more radical than other mainstream Protestant denominations. Of course, the ordination of women ministers was also a necessity for Pentecostals--they simply did not have enough male ministers.

I guess this example is typical when its comes to radical thought--in some ways, it is liberating not to be part of the mainstream. You have less to lose when you are on the outside looking in.

Too old?

2008-02-17T13:56:00.004+09:00

In many parts of the world, people are living longer and longer due to improved living conditions, better access to health care, and new technological developments in general that have served to lengthen life span or prevent premature death.

As life expectancy increases, how will this reshape our understanding of what it means to be old? I find this an interesting question in light of the fact that it seems as if the Republican Party in the United States is about to nominate John McCain as its presidential candidate in the upcoming 2008 election. If elected, McCain, at 72 years, would be the oldest president ever elected to a first term as president (Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term as president in 1984 at the age of 73). Is is kind of amusing how McCain has recently sought to use his sharp witted 95 year old mother on the campaign trail. I guess it makes him look young by comparison!

Is Mc Cain too old to serve in the capacity of president of the United States? Some might say so, but there are certainly many people in history who have achieved notable things at rather advanced age. One person who comes to my mind is the former West German Chancelle Konrad Adenauer. He was the leader of his nation from 1949 until 1963, when he was 87 years old! In 2003, Germans voted him to be the greatest German of all time--ahead of such individuals as Martin Luther and Karl Marx.

What does it mean to be old? Does it vary from culture to culture? Does the meaning of being old change from generation to generation? Does the definition of age shift according to the needs of society? For example, as the Korean population becomes older and older, will the retirement age of the country move upwards?

Biofuels

2008-02-15T10:40:00.002+09:00

Lately, I have read in newspapers both here in Korea and Singapore that food prices are beginning to accelerate. Part of the reason for this seems to be that an increasing of agricultural output is being used to produce biofuels. Part of the rationale for this rests upon the fact this source of energy is not only renewable, but is also far less damaging to the environment than fossil fuels. Also, as countries such as China become more developed economically, a growing middle class in those countries are demanding increasing amounts of food. Both of these factors create inflationary pressures that ultimately the consumer must absorb. While most of us can live with higher prices for food--despite the fact that we might complain--there are people in other parts of the world who are significantly burdened by these higher prices. Indeed, one article I read suggests that Afghanistan is facing a food shortage because it cannot afford to purchase sufficient amounts of food at these new prices.

How do we make decisions when we face two compelling needs? How do we prioritize our needs as individuals and as a society? Do we opt to protect the environment because we ourselves are not starving or do we choose an alternative which might not be completely beneficial to our own interests because we understand the needs of others in a global sense to be valid? How do we come to some sort of compromise on this issue?

Korean Tragedy

2008-02-13T13:05:00.004+09:00

I shocked to hear over lunch about the destruction of Namdaemun Gate by a disgruntled arsonist. Built in 1398, it was considered the nation's greatest tangible historical treasure. I dare say that the South Korean Government will attempt to restore it in the future. That being said, will the restoration have any historical value and meaning for the Korean people? For me, it raises questions about the whole meaning of history. Is historical meaning defined by more simply the real historical structure? After all, aren't there numerous historical sites throughout Korea that are actually reproductions of destroyed edifices?

Cartoon Controversy

2008-02-13T03:21:00.000+09:00

Source: BBC News

A couple of years ago, a great controversy broke out when a Danish newspaper published controversial cartoons depicting the Islamic Prophet Mohammad with a bomb hidden in his turban. Muslims around the world were outraged; in fact, violent protests erupted in several nations. Now it seems that this whole incident has taken a new turn. Danish authorities have arrested three individuals who apparently were plotting to kill one of the cartoonists.

What are the limits of freedom of the press? To what degree should societies be expected to honor religious sensibilities? How do you think that those outraged with the cartoon might justify their violent response? How would the Danish cartoonists justify their illustrations?

The Changing Face of America

2008-02-12T08:02:00.001+09:00

I found this interesting article from USA Today which highlights how demographics shifts will ultimately affect the composition of the American population. By 2050, Hispanics will constitute about 30 percent of the population, while non Hispanic whites will compromise less than half of the total. Asians will make up almost a tenth of the population, while the black proportion of the US population will remain steady at 13 percent.

One thing that I really appreciated about this article is that it noted the tenuous nature of such statistical projections. These estimations ultimately hinge on whether factors such as immigration, birth rates, etc remain constant. That is certainly not necessarily a given. Back a hundred years ago or so, for example, most of the immigrants coming into the United States came from Southern and Eastern Europe. If those trends had continued throughout the 20th century, one might have made the prediction that these groups would have eventually constituted thr majority of the US population.

Another issue raised by this issue relates the whole concept of racial classification itself. What is a "white" person. As the article itself points out, the term Hispanic was not even employed by the US Census Bureau in categorizing the American population. I guess that the point I am trying to make here is that these definitions tend to be very arbitrary and flexible. Of course, an even bigger question might relate to the issue of why we find it necessary to categorize people according to race in the first place.

Sports and Politics

2008-02-11T05:22:00.000+09:00

Later this year, the 2008 Olympics will be held in Beijing. Just as the 1988 Olympics were a symbolic moment in the history of South Korea, so too does China's hosting of this worldwide sporting event mark a milestone in that nation's increasing influence globally. Yet, some have criticized China recently for its human rights violations and suggest that it should never have been allowed to have hosted the Games.

Worried about the potential for its own athletes to cause a controversy, the British Olympic Committee has made a ruling that "British athletes will have to sign a contract promising not to comment on any politically sensitive issues." In truth, the intermingling of sports and politics is nothing new. During the Cold War era, the United States and the USSR used the Olympics as an avenue to prove the supremacy of their particular ideological systems. In 1980, the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Following suit, the Soviet boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. And, of course, in 1936, Hitler used the Berlin Olympics as a propaganda tool to promote Nazism.

Should athletes be expected to be apolitical? Are there expected codes of behavior and expression that they should commit themselves to adhere to when competing in another country? If so, how do you justify such restrictions? Are we presumptious when we think that we can do and say anything--especially when visiting other cultures? If you were a British athlete, what would be your thoughts on these limitations of your free speech?

Strange Censorship

2008-01-29T00:56:00.000+09:00

A funny thing happened to me this weekend. I saw an article in USA Today that suggested that the age of figure skaters has declined significantly over the past couple of decades. In fact, the top performers at the recent US championships will not be able to represent her country at the upcoming world championships because she is too young. Well, I thought about for a moment, and then realized that I had some problems with that assessment taht competitors in the sport are becoming younger and younger. While the average age of the top skaters at the US Championships this week was low, it did not necessarily reflect the situation in the sport over the past decade. Indeed, if anything, I felt as if the age of skaters in general had actually increased.

I then responded to the article with a comment. I mentioned the fact that the 2006 Olympics, the female medal winners were 24, 21, and 27 years old old. In fact, the winner was the oldest female champion in over 80 years. I noted some other evidence to support my contention that top skaters were not necessarily becoming so much younger compared to earlier years. This morning, I did some tabulations of my own and averaged out the age of the Olympic medalists from 1968 to 2006. The results were: 18.6, 19, 19.3, 19, 19.7, 21.3, 19.7, 19, 17.6, 20, and 24. The number for 1998 is low (as the 2006 figure is high); however, it does not necessary fit the general pattern. I might also add that the 1998 average is not the lowest ever. In 1956, the average age of the medalists was 17.

Interestingly, I had a problem sending my message. When I tried to send it, it was rejected for obscene language. Well, to come to find out, the reason for this censorship had to do with the name of the the bronze medalist. She was from Russia--and her name was Slutskaya. Apparently, the issue had something to do with the first four letters of that proper noun!!

This whole situation brought forward a number of issues to my mind. First, I think we need to be careful when we deal with statistical data. I don't believe that the situation at this year's championships was typical. I would have to see data over an extended period of time to be convinced. Second, I thought about the fact that the championship was being restricted with regard to her age--even though she apparently knew how to skate better than any of her opponents. How do you justify this? What would your argument be? Finally, I think that the whole problem that I had getting my message sent out suggests that there is a real limitation with regard to technology. Machines can do an awful lot of things this year; however, they still seem limited in their ability to make thoughtful choices in the same manner that humans are capable of doing.
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Carbon Footprints

2008-01-25T11:45:00.000+09:00

In the past year or two, western socities in particular have become more and more concerned about the harmful effects of carbon emissions. In fact, some would suggest that it is essentially a crime against future generations if we don't take care of planet right now. So then, who is the biggest individual culprit when it come to polluting our environment?? None other than DAVID BECKHAM!!

However, before we condemn Beckham and others, let's take a look at our ownselves. Are we really so virtuous as we might think we are? Our support for such causes is often emotion-based without any rational understanding or acknowledgment of our own actions. I can't help but feel a bit of a sense of hypocrisy when we in the developed world speak about issues such as this. It reminds me of the 19th century progressives in the US who suffered from status anxiety as their importance in a rapidly changing world diminished. Are we doing the same? Let's stop global warming, but don't take take away my airplane ticket to Southeast Asia so that I can get away from the cold Korean climate. Let's fight for workers' rights, but let me buy my cheap products from China as well. Aren't we all contradictions in some sense? How do we justify our words with our deeds? It's a question that I ask myself on many occassions.

Religion and Politics

2008-01-25T05:14:00.000+09:00

The US presidential primaries are in full swing. I still can't get a grip on who will win the nominations for the Republicans and Democrats. It seems that a lot of issues are in play, including race, gender, and religion. With regard to the last issue, I have been interested in the evangelical Christian attitude towards Mitt Romney, the Mormon candidate. On the surface, Romney seems pretty close to evangelicals on a lot of the issues. However, a number of polls suggest that many evangelicals would not support him because of religious background. I guess it raises an interesting issue or two for me. Does religion have a role in politics? Of course, religion not only shapes US politics; there are certainly Islamic political parties in many parts of the world that wield considerable influence. What do you think? Would you support or not support a candidate because of his or her religious values? Or would you be more concerned about whether that candidate embraces policies that mirror the ethical and moral values that are part of your faith? Of course, I suppose there is a sub issue here as well. Romney would certainly claim that Mormons are Christians, while many evangelicals would argue to the contrary. Again, what is your opinion? What defines a Christian?

Making Assumptions

2008-01-24T12:57:00.000+09:00

I was intrigued by the above CNN interview with Omar Bin Laden, Osama Bin Laden's son. To be frank, I could never have imagined that such could be the case-- simply because it defied all of my imagined assumptions about anyone claiming to be his son. But don't we make such judgements on a regular basis? Doesn't out understanding of what things should be influence our understandings and perceptions of the world around us? What are the impications of this regarding how we make evaluations of others?

Cultural Sensibilities

2008-01-18T05:53:00.000+09:00

It has been a while since I last posted to my blog. I look forward to the New Year and the challenges that it will bring.

I found this article this morning concerning how the French automobile manufacturer Citreon recently found itself embroiled in a controversy regarding one of its recent advertisements. Apparently, the company's use of Mao Zedong's distorted image did not go over well with some of its Chinese clients. As a result, the company dropped the ad.

Of course, this type of issue has come up recently in other ways as well. A few years ago, many Muslims were outraged when a Danish cartoonist portrayed the prophet Mohamed in a negative and derogatory light. What are the limitations of freedom of expression? To what extent should we be concerned about the cultural sensibilities of others? What if your culture was the one being disparaged? Is the real issue one of power? Would anyone, for example, have protested the advertisement if it featured the visage of an impoverished, small nation's leader?

Brazilian Immigrants in Japan

2007-11-22T00:36:00.000+09:00

Next Monday, my sister arrives back in the US after living several years in southern Brazil. I wonder how her children--both born in the US--will adjust to the change in environment.

Of course, the movement of people back and forth from one country to another is nothing new. The above poster is an old advertisement encourage Japanese people to move to Brazil. Today, however, many Brazilians of Japanese heritage are emigrating to their ancestoral homeland in the hopes of a better future. This is an interesting article that discusses how Japan is encouraging Brazilians with Japanese heritage to emigrate to Japan as a means of overcoming that nation's shrinking labor base. According to the article, however, many of these newcomers are struggling in their new environment. Despite having Japanese genes, they are very much culturally Brazilian. This, in turn, has affected the manner in which they are perceived by native-born Japanese.

I found it also interesting how the Japanese government is gearing its immigration policy towards individuals who are ethnically Japanese. Is this an attempt of maintain some sort of racial homogeneity based on the government's assumption that genes, as opposed to cultural assimilation, are of utmost importance in terms of what it means to be Japanese?

IQ, Genetics, and Race

2007-11-21T05:01:00.000+09:00

A short while ago , a huge controversy erupted in the scientific community when James Watson, who co-discovered DNA back in the 1950s, claimed that there was a difference in intelligence among racial groups that was based on genetics. Of course, this was not the first time that Watson had made controversial statements. Despite his great scientific feats, he is not necessarily the ideal spokesperson for those who emphasis the deterministic nature of genetics.

A few days I found this series of three articles in Slate Magazine, popularly characterized as a "liberal" publication, which tries to reconcile genetic determinism with notions such as the equality of all mankind. I found some of the arguments that William Saletan uses to justify the belief that genetics is indeed the basis for difference in IQ scores among the races to be very illogical and emotion-laden. For example, he suggests that it might be okay to accept this idea because "Whitey [white man] does not come out on top?" Compelling science or overt racism?

I guess when all is said and done, I take some solace in the fact that science has, indeed, been proven wrong on so many occasions. That is not to suggest that science has provided us with great discoveries and ideas that have changed mankind much for the better. Still, I tend to be a skeptic of scientism, just as I am of other claims of complete knowledge. Each generation tends to believe that they are on the cusp of ultimate understanding. Repeatedly, however, history demonstrates the limitations of such a perspective.

Stem Cell Research

2007-11-21T04:39:00.000+09:00

Over the past decade or so, there has been a big debate over the ethics of embryonic stem cell research. While many, including some are opposed to abortion on moral grounds, view stem cell research a viable form of scientific inquiry that will ultimately benefit humans, others--including the Catholic Church and George Bush--view it as a violation of the sanctity of humans.

Apparently, there may be a way around this ethic dilemma. New scientific research suggests that it may indeed be possible to create human stem cells without using embryos through what is referred as the direct reprogramming technique. Although there are still some problems with the procedure, if they can be worked out it may indeed end the whole debate about the use of embryonic stem cells.

This whole issue makes me ponder to what extent science is shaped by society's religious and ethical morals. Would research into direct reprogramming have even occurred if, for example, the Catholic Church and other religious groups had not voiced its opposition to such? Although we usually view the relation between science and religion as one in which science has affected faith (Copernican heliocentrism, for example), the truth of the matter may be that we often miss how religion still may shape the parameters of scientific enquiry in many societies.

Sesame Street

2007-11-21T04:22:00.000+09:00

Back when I was young, the most popular children's television show was Sesame Street. It was a surprise this morning to find this article about the program in the New York Times. Apparently, those earlier versions of Sesame Street--made in the late 1960s and early 1970s--are no longer fit for children. The DVDs of those programs have a warning: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.” Hmmm....does that mean my mind was permanently damaged from watching this program? Is this particular situation a reflection of our own changing mores and values? Will future generations be equally contemptuous of the manner in which we raise our own children?

Nuture Versus Nature

2007-11-17T08:50:00.000+09:00

Is human nature entirely determined by genetics? Or are we essentially a tabula rasa that can be shaped by our environment?

The above two videos represent one of the more interesting things that I have seen or read concerning the subject. I have posted the 13 minute version followed by the 53 minute version. They suggest that genetics and the environment actually work together to determine human actions and characteristics through something referred to as epigenetics (literally meaning "above genetics." Simply, our environment seems to have the capability to determine how our genes work by turning them off and on through the epigenome, or a series a "tags" that attach themselves to the genes.

The Construction of Racism

2007-11-11T18:25:00.001+09:00

Why does racism exist? Basically, the answer to this question undoubtedly lies in understanding how society labels and categorizes individuals on the basis of certain characteristics. Following the death of Martin Luther King Jr in 1968, third grade school teacher Jane Elliot created an experiment to demonstrate how such stereotypes perpetrate racist attitudes. She divided her class into two groups on the basis of eye color. the brown eyed student were initially considered to be the favored group while the brown eyed students were the inferior group. Throughout the course of the day, it was interesting to watch the response of the students--the blue eyed students began to act in an increasingly derogatory and demeaning manner towards the brown eyed children. The next day, however, the roles were reversed. In this case, it was the blue eyed children who suffered from prejudice.

Just a couple of thoughts on this: Was it justifiable to use children as the subjects fro this experiment? If racism is a learned behavior, what should society do to mitigate its impact, particularly when it is so heavily ingrained in our society as to appear "normal"?

Asch Conformity Experiment

2007-11-11T17:19:00.000+09:00

Here a video about a famous psychological experiment--the Asch Conformity Experiment--that we studied in class a few days ago. It does suggest that we as humans tend to be very conformist by nature. One of the interesting questions that I have about this experiment is whether the individual who was the subject of the experiment actually perception of the length of the line actually changed or whether he/she deliberately prevaricated in order to meet the demands of conformity. According to the video, both factors probably came into play. Here's a link to a study that suggests that the power to conform actaully may indeed affect the way that our brain perceives things. Of course, what are the implications of all of this in terms of human accountability?

One final thought--why did some of the subjects conform while others did not? Is the degree of confromity cultural specific?

What's in a Name?

2007-11-11T16:20:00.000+09:00

Here's an interesting article from CBS News which deals with whether one's name . In the United States, there are names that are associated with African African and those associated with Causcasian Americans. In California, for example,more than 40 percent of African American female newborns were given names that given to not even a single female white baby. It is quite astounding to imagine and tends to go against a trend whereby many minorities, in order to accomadate themselves to the dominant culture and to avoid discrimination, may tend to avoid unique names particular to their own culture.

Are people discriminated against because of their names. Apparently, the evidence is not conclusive. One study suggests that ethnicity or race, not the name itself, is the determining factor, while another study suggests that names indeed may affect whether a job candidate is called in for an interview. Even equal opportunity employers were, according to the study, guilty of unconscious stereotyping. How about us? Beyong this issue of stereotyping according to name, do we hold unconscious sterotypes about how people should act? Do we have certain expectations as to what constitutes normative behaviour?

Another DaVinci Code?

2007-11-11T08:55:00.000+09:00

The mystery around Leonardo's life and his work continues on. Today, I found an article on the internet that suggests that his famous work, The Last Supper, actually has a hidden musical score within it. Of course, the mysterious score cannot be played unless it is read from right to left--the same manner in which Leonardo wrote. It is also important to note that he knew how to play several musical instruments and sometimes wrote musical riddles--from right to left. I mention these points primarily for my TOK students. We often discuss about whether a background understanding of the artist is necessary in understanding art. In this case (if indeed this theory is true) such does seem to be the case.

All that being said, the obvious question remains: Are we looking for mystery in Leonardo's work? I don't know. Someone quoted in the article link above states that this finding is a legitimate one--and quite different from Dan Brown's book, The DaVinci Code. Do you agree?

Great Art

2007-11-06T19:20:00.001+09:00

What defines great art? In some sense, it seems as if most of the art that we categorize as such has come from the West. But it may be that our perspective is changing as the nexus of power shifts from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The following article from Time Asia suggests a rise in popularity of art from that continent.

In this article, a connection is made between art and monetary value. In other words, art is a commodity with a price tag; the greater the price, the greater the art. But really, is this really a satisfactory way to categorize art? Shouldn't artistic greatness be defined by qualities other than price? But perhaps this is a reflection of the capitalist world in which we live. It seems as if we define most everything by price. Well, maybe that is a bit of an overstatement, but we do tend to put on a high value on money as a measure of worth.

As well, the article discusses how certain artists have gotten into trouble for creating works that violate certain social mores. What is the responsibility, if any, of an artist to conform to the values of his or her broader community? Isn't great art often that which transgresses traditional paradigms of the craft? On the other hand, isn't social harmony a legitimate goal of any community?

Another point I found interesting in the article is found in the last paragraph. It deals with an artist in China, apparently of some fame, who uses other artists to paint works that he then signs and sells as his own creations to a gullible market. He refers to this as the placebo effect. I think we are as a society lured in valuing things based solely on a name brand or a reputation. This apparently seems to be the case even in the area of art.

Godtube.com

2007-10-21T18:49:00.000+09:00

Recently, we have had a big debate here at TCIS over the use of internet in the dorms. Regardless of how one feels on the specifics of that issue, one should not assume that technology and religion are antithetical to each other. Take Godtube, for example. This Christian website, modeled after Youtube, is a good example of how religion can and often does embrace technology for good. Indeed, given the increasingly role of the internet in terms of communication, it would be foolhardy for any organization to eschew the value of technology as a means of speaking to the public. In the end, technology is perhaps neither good nor bad; it is, rather, a matter of how society chooses to utilize it.

Here's an interesting article from the LA Times about the growing popularity of Godtube.

Negro Spirituals and the Pentatonic Scale

2007-10-13T13:03:00.000+09:00

Not all cultures used the seven note scale in composing music. For example, as this video clip points out, American Negro spirituals used the pentatonic, or five note, scale. In early America, this scale was referred to as the slave scale. Indicative of the interaction that went on between white and slave culture, many white composers adopted this scale when writing spirituals. The performer in this video, Wintley Phipps , speculates that the melody of the famous hymn Amazing Grace was West African. He suggests this because the writer of the lyrics, John Newton, was the captain of a slave ship. Of course, we can’t be sure--others would certainly disagree--but it is a compelling idea. Whatever the case, this is certainly a hymn that crosses racial lines and even religious/secular divisions in terms of popularity.

Also, not only is this video a history lesson on music, it is also a great example of the power of music to produce an emotional experience.

Armenian Genocide

2007-10-12T04:48:00.000+09:00

A United States House of Representatives panel recently voted to call the tragic deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during WWI a genocide. In some sense, this is not an especially radical gesture, since most western historians have suggested the Ottoman rulers carried out a systematic program to destroy its large Armenian minority. Still, Turkey is protesting the vote and has recalled its ambassador to the United States. Indeed, Turkey denies that the genocide ever occurred and that Armenian deaths were a result of civil strife--not an organized program of extermination by the government. For an interesting examination of Turkish attitudes--albeit from a non-Turkish perspective, read the following article from the BBC.

I suppose that one might ask the question of who cares--since this happened a century again. But historical memory does not die easily. Koreans are certainly aware of this in their relationship with Japan. Even in the annals of history, there is a sense, one could argue, that justice must be done and that truth needs to be revealed. I think this is especially true in cases where actions stand in such stark opposition to our moral sensibilities. I think that, in this particular case, it is also important to note what Hitler stated in attempting to justify the Holocaust. He said, "Who remembers what happened to the Armenians now?"

Let me pose this question--does history have the power to define the present or is it the present reshaping the past? I guess it depends on one's perspective to a certain extent.

Language and Political Debate in America

2007-10-07T20:56:00.001+09:00

Language is a certainly powerful tool in political discourse. Over the past three decades, for example, this has certainly been the case with regard to the abortion debate in the United States. Those favoring abortion rights generally wish to be known as pro-choice, while contend that their opponents should be labeled anti-choice. On the other hand, those wanting to limit abortion prefer the term pro-life, while suggesting that those on the other side of the debate should be deemed to be pro-abortion. I remember dealing with this issue when I presented an academic paper on abortion policy during the Reagan presidency at a conference in California. I deal with it by simply referring to both sides by the terms they preferred to call themselves--pro-choice and pro-life.

This power of language is also apparent in the ongoing debate in the United States over immigration workers. While some refer to individuals who have not gone through the power legal channels as illegal aliens, others argue that they should be referred as undocumented workers. Here is an interesting radio piece from National Public Radio that discusses this struggle over language in the immigration reform debate in the United States. When all is said and done, language is extremely powerful in framing our understanding of issues--even to the point of shaping our emotional responses.

Turing Test

2007-10-07T19:23:00.000+09:00

In 1950, Alan Turing, the father of computer science, described a game, known as the Turing Test, that could be used to determine whether computers could simulate human thinking. It was designed as follows:

Suppose that we have a person, a machine, and an interrogator. The interrogator is in a room separated from the other person and the machine. The object of the game is for the interrogator to determine which of the other two is the person, and which is the machine. The interrogator knows the other person and the machine by the labels ‘X’ and ‘Y’ -- but, at least at the beginning of the game, does not know which of the other person and the machine is ‘X’ -- and at the end of the game says either ‘X is the person and Y is the machine’ or ‘X is the machine and Y is the person’. The interrogator is allowed to put questions to the person and the machine of the following kind: “Will X please tell me whether X plays chess?” Whichever of the machine and the other person is X must answer questions that are addressed to X. The object of the machine is to try to cause the interrogator to mistakenly conclude that the machine is the other person; the object of the other person is to try to help the interrogator to correctly identify the machine.
Source: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/#1

According to Turing, if the interrogator had less than a 70 percent chance of identifying the machine after 5 minutes of questioning, then one might suppose that machines could think. Even though Turing predicted that by 2000, about 30 percent of computers could achieve such a result, not a single one as of 2007 has attained this standard. Thus the question: Can a machine think? What about the role of consciousness in all of this? Check out the following podcast for further information on this topic.

Also, here's a Time magazine article on the life of Alan Turing. It was interesting for me to read about the role that he played in the breaking of the German Enigma code during World War II.

Dangerous Knowledge

2007-10-07T06:24:00.000+09:00

This is a great documentary called Dangerous Knowledge from the BBC. I suppose that the title is appropriate for a couple of reasons. First, the knowledge that the individuals discussed in the video was dangerous because it challenged previous conceptions of certainty. Second, all of these individuals had tragic deaths tied that were tied to their quest for new knowledge and understanding.

The documentary suggests that the acceptance of uncertainty in mathematics and science was, to some extent, a reflection of the times in which these individuals lived. Context is certainly important in terms of understanding. For instance, the collapse of the monarchical empires combined with the horrors of WWI created a loss of faith in both certainty and God. However, the first individual examined--Georg Kantor--was actually inspired by his religious belief. Indeed, he felt as if he had been called by God to uncover the great mystery of infinity, something which thinkers such as Galileo had previously tried to do unsuccessfully. Kantor concluded that there were actually a multitude of infinities, each beyond the preceding one. He later tries to account for this mathematically with the continuum hypothesis. It proved to be an impossible task; in fact, it basically drove Cantor to insanity. Also, Kantor's ideas about infinity made him especially unpopular with his mathematical peers because it challenged the logical clarity and certainty of the discipline.

The second intellectual looked at was Ludwig Bolzmann, the German physicist. What he did was undermine the idea of timeless order in physics. According to Bolzmann, who was on the scene around the turn of the twentieth century, the behavior of atoms was not predictable. Thus, one could only discuss physics in terms of probability and not absolutes. Indeed, entropy, the fundamental to the second law of thermodynamics, meant that the world was in a constant state of decay and change. Therefore, there no order could last forever. In some sense, one could argue that Boltzmann was ahead of his times; his ideas certainly would have been more palatable after WWI.

Kurt Godel, the great Austrian mathematician, came up with the incompleteness theorem in the early 1930s. He basically proved that within any mathematical system there would be true statements that could never be proven to be true. In some sense then, this suggested that there was truth outside of logic and the formal rules of mathematics. But how then could humans attain such truth and develop new principles. For Godel, humans possessed a divine spark of creativity in the form of intuition. But, of course, this created a new problem--how do you prove intuition?

Alan Turing is often referred to as the father of computer science. Since Godel's incompleteness theorum was somewhat concrete, Turing wanted to make it more meaningful through the use of computers. According to the incompleteness theorum, there would always be some problems which a computer could not solve. But, how could one be distinguish between provable and unprovable problems? Turing suggested that this was an impossibility. For example, after putting data into the computer, how could one really be whether a computer would ultimately stop or simply run--theoretically, at least--forever?

Turing eventually views computers potentially almost as humans. In the same way that a computer was limited by logic so too were humans. Indeed, by understanding computers, human could better understand themselves. However, one major difference between them was that computers lacked hypocrisy.

Turing's life, like all of the great thinkers discussed in this video, had a tragic ending. Turing was a homosexual. After the end of WWII and the advent of the Cold War, the British government looked upon homosexuality as a security risk. Thus, in the early 1950s, Turing was arrested on the basis of his sexual orientation and was then chemically castrated (he was injected with female hormones to reduce his sexual libido). A few years later, he committed suicide.

This is a compelling video--it again really suggests how changes in science and mathematics were very much affected by broader societal developments.

Intuition in Science

2007-09-30T12:56:00.000+09:00

You know, a lot of thing in science do indeed seem counterintuitive. For example, I just cannot comprehend that I am existing on a rapdily spinning sphere. In just doesn't make sense. In truth, it might make more sense to believe that the earth was flat!! For many scientists, the counterintuitive nature of science is one of the primary reasons why people are often so skeptical of its new findings. Here, for example, are the words of one biologist as recorded in the Los Angeles Times.

But such gut thinking poses another set of dangers to science. All too often, it bumps into scientific truth, and when it does, it tends to win — at least in the short term. Ironically, much of the time, scientific findings don't seem immediately logical; if they were, we probably wouldn't need its laborious "method" of theory building and empirical hypothesis testing for confirmation. We'd simply know.

After all, the sun moves through our sky, but it is the Earth that is going around the sun. Our planet is round, even though it sure feels flat under our feet as we walk. The microbial theory of disease only prevailed because Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch and other scientists finally marshaled enough irrefutable evidence to overwhelm the alternative perspective: that things too small to be seen with the naked eye couldn't possibly exist or have any effect on us.

This conflict was foreshadowed by Francis Bacon in his 1620 treatise, "Novum Organum," the founding document of the scientific method. Bacon warned: "The human understanding resembles not a dry light, but admits a tincture of the will and passions, which generate their own system accordingly: for man always believes more readily that which he prefers…. In short, his feelings imbue and corrupt his understanding in innumerable and sometimes imperceptible ways."

Nor is the battle over. Indeed, there is a constant tension between science and its truthy alternatives, from "quantum weirdness" to the irrefutable (but readily resisted) reality that a brick wall consists of far more empty space than solid matter. Evolution by natural selection, for example, is as close to truth as biological science is likely to get, and yet (even notwithstanding its conflict with biblical literalists) the notion that lineages change very slowly over vast amounts of time is less common-sensical than the observation that living things remain pretty much the same from one generation to the next.

Similarly, each of us is so small and the world so big that it simply isn't truthy that we are literally using up certain resources, driving species extinct, polluting even the seemingly infinite oceans and modifying the climate.

The good news is that over time, actual truth wins out. Only scientifically illiterate troglodytes deny the microbial theory of disease, or the reality of atoms, or of evolution. Still, scientists face a constant struggle, a kind of Red Queen dilemma. Recall the scene in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," in which Alice and the Queen run vigorously but get nowhere. The Queen explains, "Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that." (source: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-barash5jul05,0,2978218.story?coll=la-news-comment )

While I certainly can agree with the notion that there is such a thing as actual truth, I am far more unwilling to bestow science with the title of the uncontested source of authoritative truth. Even within the scientific community, there have been times when momentous new findings have overturned old paradigms of thoughts. Also, intuition has often proven a source of scientific inspiration in the sense that it has been the inspiration for hypotheses that later have been proven valid. Of course, you probably know how Archimeded used his intuition while sitting in a bath tub to determine whether the King's crown was made of solid gold. To quote Albert Einstein, "The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it Intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why."

Of course, the othe side of the coin is to suggest that our intuition is right when it causes us to suspect scientific finding. In fact, some contend, science is no more a source of absolute truth than history or literature. Here's an excerpt with such a tone from the McGill Univeristy student newspaper:

Science recently published an article on a study that found that humans lose their inherent “negativity bias” as they grow old. Our negativity bias is defined as our tendency to pay more attention to bad news than good. The scientists involved in the study observed that younger people’s brain activity spikes when faced with emotionally negative stimuli, but seniors’ brain activity remained stable, whether they were looking at images of puppies, a toaster, or a car crash. They didn’t offer any explanations for this phenomenon, yet one psychologist called the study “so important because it gives us a window into the way we process information at different stages of our lives.”

But does it really? It was based on 51 participants, aged 18-81, and was conducted in California. I’m in no position to critique the ins and outs of the science involved in the experiment, but it’s obvious to me that 51 participants from a single state in the U.S. is a minute sample of the population. Any results arising from this diminutive study cannot be called a “window into the way we process information,” if by “we” the psychologist means humans as a whole.

Plenty of experiments are significantly more thorough than this one, but it does point to a widespread lack of skepticism in our culture towards empiricism itself. It’s ironic, really. After all, the scientific process arose during the Enlightenment as a way to challenge blind faith in the Church’s statements; it was developed as a way to thwart ideological manipulation presented under the guise of Truth. Following science with the same ingenuity as Europeans once followed Rome is counter-intuitive, but it happens all the time. What the Western world needs today isn’t another Galileo, but more people willing to challenge the neutrality of science.

Even though it’s grounded in “hard facts,” science is just another representational mode through which people seek to make sense of the world. There may be more empirical certainty in physics than in the social sciences, but not by a particularly fat margin. We all know that 1 + 1 = 2 with the same certainty that we know the World Trade Center was blown up on 9/11, but these facts cannot be separated from how we interpret them. The interpretation of scientific or historical facts is socially and culturally contingent, no matter how thorough the study. There is no such thing as ideologically neutral science.

If anything, science is a hyper-refined Realist discourse: it expertly masks its own biases and presents its findings as reflecting reality, when it’s actually an interpretive lens. The contemporary divide between science and the humanities is imaginary: both are manifestations of a cultural continuum.

I’m sure this isn’t news to you. Most of us are well aware that Darwin’s theory of evolution was used to justify 19th century European imperialism, much like Christianity was used before it. But I think it’s important to remember that such abuses didn’t stop at the turn of the century: they’re alive and well (Source: http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=6358 )

For me, the problem with such a stance is that it seems to suggest that all truth is relative. Well, intuitively, I find that hard to accept. In the end, it seems that many have trouble finding the middle ground concerning science as an authoritative voice in society.

Silence: The Universal Language?

2007-09-29T13:16:00.000+09:00

A few decades ago, I remember watching a series on late night tv about the Hollywood silent movie era. Well, lo and behold, I recently found the whole series--entitled Hollywood--on Google Video. It really is a wonderful series. Actually, there are several different episodes and each one is worth your attention.

In some sense, silent movies were a completely different art form from either theater or talking film. Actors utilized body language to create a portrait on film. For the audience, watching a silent film was completely different watching one which had words. You could not be distracted by eating popcorn or drinking soda. Instead, your eyes had to be completely glued to the screen in order to catch every nuance of gesture or facial expression. Also, these films utilized mass spectacles as a means of capturing the visual attention of their audience and, also, utilized music played right in the theater as a means of enhancing emotion. The whole experience was enhanced by the stunningly beautiful theaters themselves. There certainly was a recognition that place meant something and that going to a movie should be seen as something special and glamorous.

In some strange way, the advent of sound perhaps had a detriment regarding the universality of film. As some of the interviewees in this series indicate, the lack of spoken language gave 1920s films a worldwide understanding that just was not capable with "talkies." Of course, the counterargument to all of that would be that we need not assume that body language is universal. Also, film dubbing has made it possible to circumvent the problem of language. But...then again....does a translated film really have the same meaning as it does its original language?

An individual you might recognize at the beginning of the video is Al Jolson. Of course, he became famous for singing in The Jazz Singer, the first full length Hollywood talking film. You will also notice at about the 7 second mark an advertisement in which Jolson made up in black face--a genre of entertainment when whites would recreate themselves as blacks in a stereotypical fashion. Obviously racist, this form of entertainment was quite popular during this period.

Math: The Language of God

2007-09-27T18:19:00.000+09:00

It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I felt, 'I cannot resist this another moment'--Francis Collins.

I am presently reading an interesting book by Francis Collins entitled The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. It is a good read and makes a convincing argument that although science cannot prove the existence of God, neither does contemporary scientific finding exclude the possibility that God created the universe. Indeed, Collins, head of the Human Genome Project and a proponent of the Big Bang Theory, concludes there are strong reasons to suggest that the creation of the universe was by no means accidental--the odds against such an accident are staggering. Furthermore, he also suggests that the mathematical ordering of the universe suggests the existence of some greater intelligence. He say the following in reference to the plethora of discoveries in quantum physics over the past couple of decades:

...as puzzling as the verbal descriptions of these newly discovered phenomena are, their mathematical representation invariably turns out to be elegant, unexpectedly simple, and even beautiful. When I was a graduate student in physical chemistry at Yale, I had the remarkable experience of taking a course in relativistic quantum mechanics from Nobel laureate Willis Lamb. His class style was to work through the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics from the first principles. He did this entirely from memory but occasionally skipped steps and charged us, his wide-open student admirers, to fill in the gaps before coming to the next class.

Though I ultimately moved on from physical science to biology, the experience of deriving simple and beautiful equations that describe the reality of the natural world left a profound impression upon me, particularly because the ultimate outcome had such aesthetic appeal. This raises the first of several philosophical questions about the nature of the physical universe. Why should matter behave in such a way? In Eugene Wigner's phrase, what could be the reason for the "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics?"

Is this no more than a happy accident, or does it reflect some profound insight into the nature of reality? If one is willing to accept the possibility of the supernatural, is it also an insight into the mind of God? Were Einstein, Heisenberg, and others encountering the divine?
In the final sentences of a A Brief History of Time, referring to a hoped-for time when a eloquent and unified of everything is developed, Stephen Hawking (not generally given to metaphysical musings) says, "Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason--for then we know the mind of God." As these mathematical descriptions of reality signposts to some greater intelligence? Is mathematics, along with DNA, another language of God?

Certainly, mathematics has led scientists right to the doorstep of some of the most profound questions of all. First among them: how did it all begin? (pp.61-63)

Chaos Theory

2007-09-26T07:43:00.001+09:00

Sometimes I have pondered upon this question: What if one small thing in my life had changed? For example, what if I decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator from my apartment? Would that simple decision have potentially changed my life? What if I missed getting hit by a car because of it? I guess it sounds silly, but there are a lot of variables in life that affect us.

In some ways, this makes me think about the Butterfly Effect and Chaos Theory. According to the Chaos Theory, the flapping of the wings of a butterfly in Brazil could potentially cause a tornado in Texas. In truth, there is a variability in nature that is impossible for humans to measure which affects long predictability for any systems. Change in the initial state of a system affects outcomes. This is why long term weather forecasting is so difficult. Interestingly, because Lorenz was a meteorologist, his findings were ignored by the broader scientific and mathematical communities for about a decade because he was a meteorologist.

In some sense, however, the name Chaos Theory is a bit beguiling. It is not chaotic in the typical sense of the word. In essence, chaotic systems--such as the butterfly-shaped Lorenz system--have defined boundaries in which particles randomly move. Furthermore, chaos theory has some practical use such as determining such things as short term weather trends. It is also utilized in various scientific fields and organizational development theory.

For more insight into this topic, check out http://library.thinkquest.org/3120/

Fractals and the Mandelbrot Set

2007-09-25T22:48:00.000+09:00

In recent years, advances in computer technology have allowed for the development of fractal geometry. The video below gives provides an interesting discussion of fractals, the most famous of which is the Mandelbrot Set (see above). Here is how one web site I came across describes fractals:

The word "fractal" was coined less than twenty years ago by one of history's most creative mathematicians, Benoit Mandelbrot, whose seminal work, The Fractal Geometry of Nature, first introduced and explained concepts underlying this new vision. Although prior mathematical thinkers like Cantor, Hausdorff, Julia, Koch, Peano, Poincare, Richardson, Sierpinski, Weierstrass and others had attained isolated insights of fractal understanding, such ideas were largely ignored until Mandelbrot's genius forged them at a single blow into a gorgeously coherent and fruitful discipline.

Mandelbrot derived the term "fractal" from the Latin verb frangere, meaning to break or fragment. Basically, a fractal is any pattern that reveals greater complexity as it is enlarged. Thus, fractals graphically portray the notion of "worlds within worlds" which has obsessed Western culture from its tenth-century beginnings.

Traditional Euclidean patterns appear simpler as they are magnified; as you home in on one area, the shape looks more and more like a straight line. In the language of calculus such curves are differentiable. The trajectory of an artillery shell is a classic example. But fractals, like dendritic branches of lightning or bumps of broccoli, are not differentiable: the closer you come, the more detail you see. Infinity is implicit and invisible in the computations of calculus but explicit and graphically manifest in fractals.

Whether generated by computers or natural processes, all fractals are spun from what scientists call a "positive feedback loop." Something--data or matter--goes in one "end," undergoes a given, often very slight, modification and comes out the other. Fractals are produced when the output is fed back into the system as input again and again.

Fractals show us that the simplest engines of change often produce exquisitely elaborate patterns. Such systems are at work all around us, from the stock market to the stars. And to the fractal artist, Mandelbrot's insights echo Kadinsky's assertion that "the process of creation is the same in art and nature." Source: http://www.glyphs.com/art/fractals/what_is.html

When examining fractal patterns one notes either perfect self similarity or, as is the case with the Mandelbrot set, approximate self similarlity.

Fractals are used for a variety of purposes--you even see fractal designs in art. One of the more useful purposes for fractals is data compression. Because fractals can be expressed using algorithms, they take up far less space than, say, a .jpg file.

If you want a clear, quite simple, explanation of how fractals work, please refer to the following site: http://library.thinkquest.org/26242/full/index.html
Refer specifically to the tutorial session.

Math and Intuition

2007-09-25T13:48:00.000+09:00

Sometimes our intuitive skills just don't work well when it comes to mathematics. Look at the example above. It still doesn't seem to make sense!!

Nature's Number?

2007-09-14T03:48:00.000+09:00

One of the more interesting proportions that is the so-called Golden Ratio or Phi. This number, which can be determined from Fibonacci's sequence (which itself was created in an effort to determine how many pairs of rabbits would be born a single pair in a year and might very well have had its origins in India) , approximately equals 1.618 . Certainly, the ancients knew about the ratio--Euclid of Alexandria came up with the concept by a different means--knew about and utilized this ratio in the design of their architecture. Later, Leonardo utilized this same ratio in the creation of many of his masterpieces. Even musicians such as Bartok may have used the Golden ratio--be it consciously or subconsciously--in their compositions. Also, many people would suggest that this ratio is found commonly in nature--the spiral shell is probably the best example. Furthermore, many would contend that it is representative of something that it aesthetically pleasing.

The above video provides a little more insight into the whole idea of the Golden Ratio. The video below illustrates the contemporary application of the Golden Ratio in carpentry. What do you think about all of this? Is the Golden Ratio "nature's number." Or do we simply look for examples of this ratio in nature and elsewhere to validate its significance? Indeed, while the Golden Ratio itself is of ancient origins, the notion that it represented something beautiful never became popular until the 1800s.

Mathematics

2007-09-13T05:07:00.001+09:00

When I look at the world around, I cannot help but be impressed with what seems to be the mathematical order of nature. I guess, in that sense, I would be somewhat of a platonist--something who would argue that mathematics originate in nature itself. On the other hand, there is something to be said for being skeptical of numerology--the idea that the mysteries of over universe can be discovered by uncovering numerical patterns and codes.

The movie that we recently looked at in class-Pi-reveals some of this conflict. I think it really raises an important issue. Is, in fact, our world inherently designed according to mathematical patterns? For me, coming from the Bay of Fundy, I am always amazed with the regularity with which tides ebb and flow every six hours. Yet, conversely, do we impose mathematical meaning on the world as a way to create meaning and understanding for ourselves. For example, if we give special significance to the number 216 in our culture, do we then look for evidence to support such a notion, while paying little attention to the bulk of evidence and happenings that have no connection to that number whatsoever. In some sense, I suppose it relates to that whole notion of confirmation bias that we discussed in class earlier. It also kind of reminds me about that whole urban legend concerning the similarities between Kennedy and Lincoln.

For me, numbers and mathematics are a bit of a paradox. In some sense, many see mathematics as something rather boring and uncreative (I am sure that mathematicians will not agree with this!), but on the other hand, numbers and mathematics possess almost a mystical or supernatural aura. Look at the number 40 in the Bible, for example. To be sure, I think we as humans, in our search for understanding, see numbers and mathematics as way to understand our world in a range of ways--be it in science, statistical interpretation of historical data, or religious symbolism.

Crop Circles

2007-09-07T04:26:00.000+09:00

A few days ago, some one brought up the subject of crop circles in class. This elaborate designs found in grain fields have been a subject of speculation for many years. During the 1970s ands 1980s there seemed to a preponderance of them particularly in a locale Britain noted for its many neolithic sites. Were the created by aliens from an other world? Were they somehow associated with the nearby historical sites? Speculation abounded until 1991, when two British men that they had created these crop circles under the cover of darkness.

But that wasn't the end of this story? Despite the confession, crop circles continue to show up around the world. Not only this, the designs are of increasing complexity. Since no one generally claims responsibility for such, people continue to associate them with the paranormal. Frankly speaking, however, I believe that they are the product of copycat efforts. What I find interesting is that people still hold to this belief--in spite of clear evidence that they are the product of a hoax. Is it that humans are intrigued by the unknown or the mysterious? I don't know...but I do think that this whole issue of crop circles again illustrates how easy it is for truth to be deliberately fabricated. Although in this case the result mights be viewed as rather harmless, aren't there examples when others have manipulated or misrepresented information for more sinister purposes?

Nuclear Energy

2007-08-30T19:55:00.000+09:00

When I was younger, we lived in fear of an atomic war with the Soviet Union. The language was harsh--terms like nuclear annihilation and nuclear Armageddon, for example--and served to exacerbate this inner turmoil. Periodically, the news media referred to something called a doomsday clock. It wasn't a real time clock per se, but rather, a visual representation of how close the world was to nuclear annihilation. When the USSR and the Us were at bitter odds with each other in the early 1980s, the clock was set only a few minutes from midnight. Of course, books like Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth--which purported to have used the Book of Revelation and other passages in the Bible to predict the looming end of the world--only heightened our understanding that the world was about to be destroyed. On top of this great fear of nuclear destruction, there were also catatrophic nuclear plant accidents that served to discredit nuclear power as a viable energy source--Three Mile Island in the US and Chernobyl in the Soviet Union.

Today, of course, in this age of global warming, many are suggesting that nuclear energy be used an alternative to fossil fuels. In some sense, it seems a less threatening option that it was a couple of decades ago. My sense of perception might be wrong, but it seems to me that the rhetoric against using nuclear power seems far less harsh today than it was two or decades ago. Yet, history seems to still influence our perception of nuclear power. The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 still taint perceptions and attitudes with regard to nuclear power. In addition, people still may regard nuclear energy production as potentially catastrophic.

Beauty and Art

2007-08-26T17:18:00.000+09:00

Here is a picture of one of my ornament shelves in my apartment. There are things on it from many different places--all of them reflecting in some ways an artistic representation of a particular society.

As I look at the variety of design and color, I can't help but wonder if different societies have different understandings of what constitutes art? Are things that are aesthetically pleasing in one society less so in another? How does this affect such notions as a universal defintion of great art? Are there certain forms of art that transcend society and epoch or is such a notion merely a reflection of trying to impose one culture's aesthetic sensibilities on cultures which might by nature not find such artistic creations so masterful?

Perceptions of Color

2007-08-26T16:34:00.001+09:00

I’ve been researching a bit the landmark Brown V Board of Education decision for my IB History class. During my research, I discovered the role that psychology played in overturning legally sanctioned segregation in the United States.

During the case, Clark, a psychologist, presented a study that showed when black were given the choice between white and black dolls, they chose the former. On the other hand, they tended to have negative perceptions of the black dolls. According, this attitude was a function of segregation. Because these black were segregated on the basis of their skin color, they began to associate a black skin as being something inferior. Here is an excerpt from a book that he wrote in 1965:

The Psychology of the Ghetto

It is now generally understood that chronic and remediable social injustices corrode and damage the human personality, thereby robbing it of its effectiveness, of its creativity, if not its actual humanity. No matter how desperately one seeks to deny it, this simple fact persists and intrudes itself. It is the fuel of protests and revolts. Racial segregation, like all other forms of cruelty and tyranny, debases all human beings -- those who are its victims, those who victimize, and in quite subtle ways those who are merely accessories.
This human debasement can only be comprehended as a consequence of the society which spawns it. The victims of segregation do not initially desire to be segregated, they do not "prefer to be with their own people," in spite of the fact that this belief is commonly stated by those who are not themselves segregated. A most cruel and psychologically oppressive aspect and consequence of enforced segregation is that its victims can be made to accommodate to their victimized status and under certain circumstances to state that it is their desire to be set apart, or to agree that subjugation is not really detrimental but beneficial. The fact remains that exclusion, rejection, and a stigmatized status are not desired and are not voluntary states. Segregation is neither sought nor imposed by healthy or potentially healthy human beings.
Human beings who are forced to live under ghetto conditions and whose daily experience tells them that almost nowhere in society are they respected and granted the ordinary dignity and courtesy accorded to others will, as a matter of course, begin to doubt their own worth. Since every human being depends upon his cumulative experiences with others for clues as to how he should view and value himself, children who are consistently rejected understandably begin to question and doubt whether they, their family, and their group really deserve no more respect from the larger society than they receive. These doubts become the seeds of a pernicious self- and group-hatred, the Negro's complex and debilitating prejudice against himself.

Source:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4627755. From Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power by Kenneth B. Clark. Copyright © 1965 by Kenneth B. Clark. Wesleyan Edition published by Wesleyan University Press in 1989. Used by permission of Wesleyan University Press.

Of course, critics of Clark would suggest that he created a stereotype of the “self loathing” black. Also, while black children typically preferred white dolls and had negative perceptions of white dolls, these attitudes were held even stronger by black in integrated northern schools. On the other hand, Kiri Davis, a black teenager, did a study a couple of years ago that suggested that black children in the US still hold a preference for white dolls (see the video above).Whatever the case, there are certainly academic studies that suggest that this imposition of negative associations with black skin was a function of English perceptions of color that had roots way back in the 1400 and 1500s—perhaps even before this to some extent. A good book on this topic is Winthrop Jordan’s White Over Black--40 years old, but still a compelling read.

Indeed, it is interesting how we tend to have different perceptions of color. Getting away from the race issue, I find it intriguing how we have recently redefined the color green. Green has become a color of favor—not because it represents Ireland(!!)—but because it has become a symbol of environmental consciousness. Can you think about how other colors may have certain symbolic meanings in our society?

Phrenology

2007-08-24T02:00:00.000+09:00

Perhaps one of the better known examples of nineteenth century pseudoscience was phrenology. Basically, phrenologists claimed that one's basic character traits or mental faculties could be ascertained by the shape of his or her skull. Although most of use would find such ideas completely risible today, phrenology was very taken seriously a century or so ago. One professor of American history has even noted that these ideas had an impact on American art with regard to the depiction of the ideal human form. Phrenology was also apparently employed by the Nazis as a means of justifying their racial superiority ideas.

In a similar vein, in the nineteenth century, criminologist Cesare Lombroso tried to define the potential for criminality based on one's physical apperance. Such features included:

large jaws, forward projection of jaw, Low sloping forehead
high cheekbones, flattened or upturned nose
handle-shaped ears
hawk-like noses or fleshy lips
Hard shifty eyes, scanty beard or baldness
Insensitivity to pain, long arms. (Wikipedia)

Well, I am balding and tend to shift my eyes back and forth a bit at times. Hmmm.....In any event, I do think that all of this suggests that we need to take our own assumptions about what we hold to be true in the realm of scientific thought with some caution. While we accept as scientifically proven today may eventually become an example of unenlightenment and backwardness for future generations.

God, Science, and Rationality

2007-08-24T01:25:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, we were discussing in class the role of logic in understanding both science and faith. Although it is common that some things in the Bible seem quite irrational from a human perspective--the turning of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, the transformation of water into wine at Cana, for example--I can't help but feel that it is more irrational to believe that the world was created through coincidence without the direction of some sort of intelligent force giving direction to this development.

Anyways, I found this article written by a Nobel Prize-nominated scientist which suggests something of the same. I especially appreciated the quotation he gives from the philosopher William Lane Craig:

Suppose a dozen sharp-shooters are sent to execute a prisoner by firing squad. They all shoot a number of rounds in that direction, but the prisoner escapes unharmed. The prisoner could conclude, since he is alive, that all the sharp-shooters missed by some extremely unlikely chance. He may wish to attribute his survival to some remarkable piece of good luck. But he would be far more rational to conclude that the guns were loaded with blanks or that the sharp-shooters had deliberately missed. Not only is life itself overwhelmingly improbable, but its appearance, almost immediately, perhaps in as short a period as 10 million years following the solidification and cooling of our once molten planet, defies explanation by conventional physical and chemical laws.

The Bible as a Metaphor for Understanding

2007-08-14T09:19:00.000+09:00

One of the most powerful things that comes out of the Bible for me is the way in which the various stories therein give meaning to my actual life experiences. For instance, the story of Job resonates with me whenever I have trials and hardship. As I read about all of the problems that this man faced, it gives me understanding about my own struggles and a recognition that I can deal with and overcome the challenges of my own life. Indeed, it is a great story of perseverance in the face of a world that seems to be turned upside down and nothing more than a swirling inchoate mess.

On a somewhat lighter note, when I found out that I was being moved to a new classroom in the old High School building--which had not had a regular classroom since the new HS building was completed--I jokingly said to one of my friends that it was if Lazarus had risen from the dead. Of course, Lazarus was a guy in the New Testament whom Jesus commanded to arise from the dead.

These Bible stories and, indeed, the language of the Bible, are important tools by which I give meaning to the world around me. They convey powerful understanding to those familiar with them. I guess, however, that I need to be careful about assuming that everyone is acquainted with them. Even Christians may have varying understandings of such accounts; thus, their efficacy as metaphors for understanding may indeed be limited.

Global Cooling: 1975

2007-08-06T03:46:00.001+09:00

When I was much younger, it seemed that we lived in a world of fear. There was a fear of nuclear annihilation, a fear of a worldwide Communist takeover, a fear of the end of the world as predicted in the Bible in the book of Revelation. Believe it or not, there was even a fear of an imminent Ice Age. Yes...it's hard to believe, but there were some scientists who were predicting a dramatic drop in the world's temperature.

Why did this happen? This article from Newsweek provides insight into this issue. Two key points mentioned that should be considered as a follows: First, there was no widespread scientific consensus on global freezing, nor did scientists have access to the same data, mathematical models, and technology that they do today. Still, however, it again demonstrates the falliability of science as a absolute predicative force of the future.

Who Defines Meaning in Art: Ashokan Farewell

2007-08-06T03:13:00.000+09:00

Whenever I teach about the US Civil War, one of the sources that I utilize is Ken Burns Civil War series. It is a masterful historical study—in many ways a piece of art in the way that Burns weaves together the story of this tragic conflict into an emotional experience for the viewer.

There is one part of the series that is especially compelling. Burns tells the story of Sullivan Ballou, a Northerner soldier who ultimately perishes on the battlefield. A week before he dies, however, Ballou writes a letter to his beloved wife, explaining in very noble terms, why he voluntarily chose to fight. Truly, it brings tears to the eyes. Heightening the emotion of the moment is a beautiful musical piece that apparently seemed to come right out of the Civil War period (see video clip above). It had a mournful, yet poignant melody that became the signature tune of the entire series; indeed, Burns repeatedly uses it throughout the documentary.

I enjoy this piece so much that I decided to download it off of iTunes. I also did a little bit of research on this particular composition. I discovered that its name was Ashokan Farewell. More significantly, it was written about 25 years or so ago!!! Indeed, it was the only piece in the whole series that was not from the Civil War period. I still love the piece, but I wonder if it will sound a bit different and color my understanding when I listen to it again in the context of Burns’series.

For me, this raises an important issue. Does art have meaning that is defined by the audience, even if that meaning is completely different from the intentions of the intentions of the creator or the historical circumstances behind the piece? Can the meaning of art differ from person to person?

Classification of Knowledge

2007-08-06T03:05:00.000+09:00

Well…it’s 2:25 in the morning and I cannot sleep because of jet lag. I just arrived in Korea a little over a day ago. My baggage was delayed, but fortunately I got it a few hours ago. It is raining outside and is very hot and muggy. In some strange way, I kind of like it…it seems rather cathartic for some reason.

As you might know, I am in a new apartment in this year. The photo above convicts me of extreme and vagrant messiness. It is true—I have collected a lot of things over the past few years and now I am having the pleasure of unpacking all of this and deciding where to put it. It is not so easy sometimes. Sure, there are basic things that belong in the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, or living room, but sometimes it is less than obvious where things should go. For instance—where do I put my computer or my books? In the same way, organizing knowledge within a certain framework is by no means an easy task—even though we by our very nature need to classify. It is a way of mapping the world around us. Sometimes we acquire a lot of knowledge but really fail to organize or classifying it in a manner that makes it completely effective. Just as I will not be able to enjoy apartment if it remains in its current condition, so too does the power of knowledge remain limited it each piece of knowledge remains discrete and unconnected to other pieces of knowledge.

On the other hand, I think that the classification of information can be a real detriment because we sometimes fail to understand that certain knowledge is applicable to different areas of knowledge. For example, doesn’t mathematical knowledge also have usefulness in areas such as science? In some sense, classification needs to be flexible. For example, haven’t acceptable standards of fashion changed over the years? Also, simplistic classification leads to the stereotyping of people. Finally, I might also add that systems of classification by no means by permanent. For instance, look at the fate of the former planet Pluto. When scientists got together and changed the criteria for what defined a planet, poor Pluto was out of luck and suffered a precipitous drop in status.

You know, this is kind of interesting topic and brings to my mind a number of questions. For instance, I wonder by what criteria Koreans classify who and who is not a Korean. Would it be the same for Americans determining who and who is not American?

Population Decline

2007-08-03T03:33:00.000+09:00

Here I am on a plane to Vancouver (and then onto Seoul). In the Montreal airport, I picked up a copy of the Economist (Mark Hahm’s favorite magazine) and found an interesting article dealing with the declining population of Japan. Of course, this is an issue that we have mentioned several times in class and is definitely a concern that many nations will confront as fertility rates in economically developed nations remain at or below natural replacement levels. Apparently, the problem has become such an issue in one Japanese village that it wants to turn itself into an industrial-waste dump. Closer to home, I cannot help but wonder how the incredibly low Korean fertility rate (about 1.2 children per woman) will affect enrollment at schools such as TCIS—especially in light of increased competition from other international schools.

The magazine brought up a significant issue, among others, regarding this whole problem of declining populations. If one looks at statistics, it is apparent that the steepest decline in fertility rates has occurred in more traditional societies that have industrialized rapidly—South Korea and Italy, for example. Apparently, in such societies, not enough has been done to allow females to work and carry on more traditional roles. As a result, women are simply not having children. On the other hand, fertility rates are much higher in developed nations--such as the US—that have allowed women to enter the workforce and still be a parent with relative ease.

I think that the whole discussion concerning changing population demographics raises a number of issues for further thought. What does it mean to be old? With increased life expectancy, technological and medical advances that have improved the quality of life for the elderly, and an upward movement in the mandatory retirement age in many nations, I guess that one could make a good argument for the notion that being old in 2007 is really not the same as being old was in 1930. Indeed, I am amazed at how many people I know in their 80s who possess keen mental acumen and good physical health. Additionally, I think that this whole issue regarding the graying of society raises warnings about the use of statistics in predicting the future. Just as those 40 years ago who suggested that human overpopulation would destroy the earth were wrong in their statistical prediction, so too may be those who suggest that nations such as Japan, Russia and South Korea will face economic crisis because of a rapidly aging population. Again—be cautious of using simple linear models in making long term predictions! Already, in fact, some nations such as France have experienced a recovery in their fertility rates; indeed, that nation’s fertility rate is now at or above replacement levels.

Another issue that while increasing come to the surface is the increasing power of the elderly within society. Increasing, determining who governs a nation will be determined by those over 50. Is this a good or bad thing? Some might argue that the elderly possess wisdom and experience that their younger cohorts do not, while others would make the point that the elderly as essentially conservative and less willing to adopt needed change. In any event, is age really significant as a defining cultural component when compared to ethnicity, religion, and other socioeconomic standing?

Can Animals Know?--The Mysterious Case of Oscar the Cat

2007-08-02T05:53:00.000+09:00

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

This week, a strange story came out about a cat named Oscar who was apparently was able to predict the death of patients in a nurisng home. It received significant coverage in the mainstream press; certainly, no one initially seemed to challenge the veracity of the account. Now, however, it seems that this story was based on unsubstantiated evidence. I found this article from Salon that points out that the story was a form of "creative nonfiction"--based on anecdotal evidence.

Obviously, the fact that the story apppeared in the New England Journal of Medicine gave it instant credibility and authority. This, of course, demonstrates again the limitations of authority. It also perhaps is indicative of human gullibility. This, for sure, is a rather harmless incident indiciative of a historical human tendency to want to give animals supernatural or myserious powers; however, there may be other cases where authority may be cited to pursue far less innocuous objectives.

Originality

2007-07-25T06:33:00.001+09:00

I guess we all like things that are original. Certainly, most of us would rather have the real thing as opposed to a fake copy when we buy clothes or shoes. Similarly, while an original piece of art might cost millions, a copy of the same piece of art is of limited value. When use such phrases as original thinker, we are certainly employing such as a label of praise.

I saw this sign today in Nolensville, Tennessee. What do you think is meant by the term “original”? What is the potential problem with such a word? Would everyone be in agreement with the meaning of the term? What does this suggest about the language that we use?

Empathy

2007-07-19T06:33:00.000+09:00

Although I certainly cannot understand the racial stereotyping that some people endure when they take a airplane flight in this post--September 11 world, I certainly can empathize with their sense of frustration at being labelled for specific scrutiny.

Whenever I enter the US, the customs and immigration officer looks at my record on the computer screen with a perplexed look. I always had the sense that there was something on my record that labeled me as a potential problem in the eyes of US immigration. Sometimes--like today--I am told to go to another room with a yellow file, my ticket, and passport. Well, I decided that I wanted to know what was going with my record. This afternoon, as the customs and immigration officer asked me a series of questions regarding my planned stay in Nashville, I asked him why I was being singled out for "special" attention. He told me that when I had changed graduate schools in the United States several years ago, there was a procedure that was not properly completed. I don't know if it was my fault or the fault of the schools involved. I asked if there was anything I could do to resolve the problem--I was told that it would all work itself out in time. I would hope so, but this type of thing as gone on for several years now.

Selling Hitler's Art

2007-07-18T22:24:00.000+09:00

Source: BBC News

A short while, some water colors and sketches purported to be by Adolph Hitler were discovered in Belgium and then auctioned off to private buyers in Britain. I suspect that most art experts would contend that Hitler was a pretty mediocre artist; thus, the real value of the art is most clearly not because of its artistic merit, but rather, its historical value.

The auction raised protests from Jewish groups. Some declared it as grotesque and a slap in the face to the families of Holocaust victims. One man, Aaron Barschak, tried to disrupt the auction as a form of protest. In the end, however, the art sold for 118,000 British pounds.

So, was it unethical to make money from the art? Is it valid to claim that the historical value of the art justifies the price paid for it? What if Hitler had been a great artist? Would it have been legitimate to appreciate the quality of the art despite the despicable reputation of the artist? Does the fact that the painting were by Hitler make it impossible to consider to bestow them with any artistic merit whatsoever?

Media Manipulation: The Case of the BBC and Queen Elizabeth

2007-07-18T07:34:00.000+09:00

A furor has developed recently in Britain concerning a report produced by the BBC that suggested Queen Elizabeth walked out in anger during a photo shoot with noted photographer Annie Leibovitz. It seems, however, that the BBC, or least the company it hired to produce the report, was guilty of video manipulation in producing the report. In truth, the Queen never walked out of the photoshot. Instead, someone at the BBC rearranged video footage to make it appear that this was the case. Now the story has blown up in the face of the BBC. The integrity of the news organization is certainly being challenged—and rightfully so.

Of course, this story raises issues relating to the authority of the media as a source of truth. It also links to concerns pertaining to the power of technology to manipulate knowledge. As well, it brings forward questions regarding to what extent one can trust his or her perceptions if such deception is indeed commonplace. Finally, it makes one skeptical concerning the claim that the mainstream media holds itself to high ethical with regard to the reporting of news. At first glance at least, this appears to be a deliberate attempt to embarrass the British monarchy by conjuring up an incident that really did not occur.

Fritz Haber and Scientific Neutrality

2007-07-18T07:11:00.000+09:00

I am currently reading a book about the history of German science during the first half of the twentieth century. While the book focuses upon the Nazi distortion of history during Hitler’s rule, it also suggests that we should not assume that scientists are morally neutral. Indeed, even prior to 1930 and the rise of Nazism, there is good evidence to suggest that scientists in Germany were being co-opted by the German state. In the early twentieth century, Fritz Haber discovered the Haber Process, which was essentially a cheap way to develop nitrates.

This is so significant because nitrates are used to fertilizers that dramatically increase food production. Indeed, it is probably safe to say that the Haber Process allowed for the tremendous increase in agricultural output during the twentieth century. Yet, Fritz Haber also was a key figure in the development of gas warfare. Not only did he actually develop the chemicals involved, he also was a promoter of gas warfare as a way for Germany to win WWI. Indeed, he was an active participant in using it against Germany’s enemies on the battlefield.

The example of Fritz Haber was not necessarily atypical. Clearly, other nations also viewed science as a means of increasing their political and military power. I think that this is a significant point to note because I think that we often hold to this image of science as being something neutral. We imagine scientists working in research centers, making discoveries and developing theories that are of themselves neither moral nor immoral in nature. Many would argue that not until these findings are applied in a practical manner—atomic theory used to develop atomic weapons, for example--do these ethical concerns really become significant. Yet, as Fritz Haber’s case suggests, science is perhaps not so innocent. Should we not hold science and scientists accountable for discoveries whose application can only be essentially harmful? What about the increasing destructive military capabilities, such as biological weapons, that are being developed today? Is there really such a divide between pure and applied science? Can we really expect scientists to maintain a neutral posture when they depend on research funding from outside sources, including private organizations and governmental bodies?

Irish Music: Nature or Nurture

2007-07-18T07:01:00.000+09:00

Source: http://www.liamoconnormusic.com/

A few nights ago, a few of my good friends and I went out to a music and dance concert here in Ireland. As the main performer, Liam O'Conner, gave the audience a brief synopsis of his life, he said something quite interesting. He stated that there was something in the genes of the Irish people that predisposed them to be good musicians.

How much is our knowledge and understanding of something or our ability to know how to do something based on biology? Is there something in an individual’s genetic code that enables him or her to have certain understandings that others do not possess? If that is the case at the individual level, does it also apply to different ethnic groups? Is there something genetic that enables Irish people to play music with greater skills than other people?

Although I would argue that Canada is a great hockey nation not because Canadians possess any special hockey gene; rather, the cold Canadian environment created a favorable environment in which hockey could flourish. Also, there is the factor of tradition to be considered. Canadians are good hockey players because they have had so many great role models to emulate. Similarly, there is a tribe in Kenya which has produced many great long distance runners over the years. Is this genetic? I would suggest that it again has much to do with the physical environment. Because these Kenyans run at a high altitude, they develop superior conditioning and endurance. If the ability to run long distance were simply a genetic trait, then why has Finland—the dominant nation in long distance running during the 1920s and 1930s, produced no great star athlete in this discipline during the past quarter century?

We tend to struggle with this issue of genetic determinism. On the one hand, there is significant scientific evidence to suggest that much is determined by our genetic code. Just as certain diseases tend to be genetic, so too do certain tendencies and character traits within members of the same family. On the other hand, by suggesting that all human action is predetermined by genetics, aren’t we stripping people of their agency?

Culture and Language Issues in Ireland

2007-07-18T06:39:00.001+09:00

I have been in Ireland the past 4 or 5 days. It is an incredibly beautiful and historic country. It has also been undergoing immense change during the past decade or so. As Ireland’s economic status has improved dramatically, so too has it changed socially and demographically. Today, for example, Ireland is a net importer of people—a remarkable situation considering that for decades previously, the nation sent out hundreds of thousands of people to other parts of the world.

The changes that the nation has been undergoing have raised serious concerns among many in the country. Some, for example, have lamented the decline of traditional Irish sports such as hurling. This same people have pushed for the inclusion of such as part of the curriculum. Someone was quoted in one of the local newspapers as saying that if Irish children are learning Japanese in the public schools, then why shouldn't they learn things that will enhance their sense of Irish nationalism?

Something else that I have noticed here in English is that the public signs are written in both English and Gaelic (Irish). I find this interesting because I have yet to hear a person actually speak the language, even though I have heard other languages such as Polish with relative regularity. Now I know that there are people who actually do indeed speak this language, but still, I cannot help but wonder whether the government’s promotion of Irish as a language is somewhat of a symbolic attempt to maintain a sense of a distinctive Irish identity in the face of dramatic societal change that traditional concepts of what it means to be Irish.

Gender Inequity in Education

2007-07-11T02:39:00.000+09:00

I am waiting at the Halifax Airport right now on my way to Ireland. Of course, a few decades ago, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Now, however, in terms of per capita income, it is one of the wealthiest. Of course, other changes have occurred in tandem with this: increased immigration, the decline of the Catholic Church, a rising cost of living, etc.
Anyways....I was thinking about something yesterday regarding the status of global education. In nations such as India, females suffer serious discrimination in terms of getting just a basic education. This perhaps is a general reflection of the status of women, particularly in the rural areas. Certainly, it is a situation that India needs to rectify if it desires to continues its social and economic advancement.

Conversely, however, the trend seems to be going in the other direction in others nations. Increasing numbers of educators are beginning to note that boys are beginning to fail behind girls in terms of learning. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, females in many western nations are beginning to dominate university admissions. In high schools in the US and elsewhere, the students receiving the top academic prizes tend to be female. This June at the Department Awards ceremony at TCIS, I noted that every single department award (including the one for my own department), with the exception of physical education, was given to a female. This is significant in light of the fact that a clear majority of students at TCIS are male. What accounts for this? Do the contemporary methodologies and language of education appeal more to females--for example, the emphasis on collaboration? Are the curriculum materials more suitable for females versus the typical female student? Are teachers, because of their general personalities and makeup, more likely to naturally favor females?

Of course, this whole conservation assumes that males and females think and operate differently as whole. I did to concur with this assumption, although others might disagree. Whatever the case, the reality of the situations in India and the West suggest that gender must be part of the discussion when dealing with ways to enhance learning for all.

Dinosaur Bones: Some Food for Thought

2007-07-07T23:34:00.000+09:00

Source: Reuters

I found this story on the internet about some people in China's Henan province who have apparently been eating dinosaur bones. Of course, an archaeologist would find this appalling. For the villagers, however, they perceived the remains as not of scientific value, but rather, of more practical use. It seems that the bones, which are rich in calcium, were being used to make some sort of soup-like concoction and medicine.

I think this issue has broader implications. For example, at what cost should historical sites be preserved? In my town, the old train station was torn down because no one would provide funding to maintain it. An historian would mourn this, of course; however, the general public might not view it as such a great loss. The land across from TCIS was once a cemetery. Was it justifiable to turn that area into commercial property? Similarly, we all are aware of the destruction of the Amazonian Rainforest and most of us would view this as a great ecological disaster. However, I have a sister who lives on the fringes of the Amazon in Southern Brazil. Most of the people that she deals with have minimal interest in organized environmental causes per se. Rather, their main goal is living day to day and dealing with the constraints of poverty.

Thus, it seems the question is: How do we balance the preservation of scientific artifacts, historical sites, and the environment with the immediate needs and desires of society. Furthermore, who makes those decisions?

Hallyu

2007-07-07T08:36:00.000+09:00

A year or two ago, I read an article that discussed the visit of Korean actor Bae Yong Joon (of Winter Sonata fame) to Japan. Apparently, he was treated as a mega superstar there, with middle aged Japanese women swooning unabashedly over him. Apparently, however, Bae is not so popular in his own country. When I asked my students their opinion of him, they indicated in ambivalent tones that he was somewhat outdated and old fashioned! I expect that most of them had a much higher opinion of Rain, the famous Korean pop singer (see video above).

The Korean Wave, also known as Hallyu, has had an incredible influence on Asian culture. It is, indeed, quite remarkable how popular Korean music, television programs, film, hairstyles, and fashion are in other Asian countries. Similarly, Korean missionaries have given Christianity an Asian face. As well, owning Korean products such as cell phones serves as an indicator of one's sophistication among other Asians.

This article originally published in the New York Times suggests that, in some ways, Korea serves as a conduit for an "Asianized" version of Western culture to other Asian nations, making it more acceptable than if it were imported directly from the United States. As some Chinese students said:

"We feel that we can see a modern lifestyle in those shows," said Qu Yuan, 23, a student at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "We know that South Korea and America have similar political systems and economies. But it's easier to accept that lifestyle from South Koreans because they are culturally closer to us. We feel we can live like them in a few years."

Jin Yaxi, 25, a graduate student at Peking University, said, "We like American culture, but we can't accept it directly."

At the same time, to put it bluntly, Korea is not Japan. The bitter historical animosity between Japan and other Asian nations serves as a barrier for the acceptance of Japanese culture. On the other hand, Korea does not share this historical burden. In any event, it is remarkable how Korea has been able to use popular culture as a means of increasing its international stature. How did a country, not held in high regard a couple of decades ago, become the Asian symbol of status and fashion?

Korean Shamanism

2007-07-07T06:55:00.000+09:00

Source: International Herald Tribune, Asia-Pacific

As we all know, Korea is one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. Thus, it may seem a bit surprising, but there has been a revival of shamanism due in part to the internet. Many of them even maintain--of all things--blogs. Again, this situation challenges our assumptions about the incompatibility of technology and tradition.

What accounts for the enduring popularity of these shamans in a modern society where Christianity and Buddhism are predominate? According to this article, they have had a remarkable ability to adjust to other cultural influences:

"In our latest survey, we found 273 categories of gods venerated by Korean shamans. If you look into the subcategories, you find 10,000 deities," said Hong Tea Han, a professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul who researches shamanism. "Korean shamanism is a great melting pot. It never rejected anything but embraced everything, making endless compromises with other religions and social changes. That explains why it has survived thousands of years.

"There are shamans who venerate Jesus, the Virgin Mary, even Park Chung Hee, the late South Korean military strongman. Under the pro-American military governments of the 1970s, there were shamans who took General Douglas MacArthur as their deity. When MacArthur's spirit possessed them, they donned sunglasses, puffed on a pipe and uttered sounds that some clients took for English.

"Until perhaps 10 or 15 years ago, we had quite a few shamans who prayed before the MacArthur statue here," said Aegibosal, a shaman in Incheon, the port city where MacArthur's troops made their legendary landing in 1950. "You don't see any of them any more."

Shamanism's eclecticism has influenced Korean attitudes toward religion, helping make South Korea one of the world's most pluralistic countries, said Yang Jong Sung, a senior curator at the National Folklore Museum of Korea.

Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity coexist peacefully. Koreans, regardless of religious affiliation, perform Confucian rites for dead ancestors. Christmas and Buddha's birthday are national holidays. Christians climb mountains at night, when spiritual power is believed strongest, and pray for their children to pass college entrance exams, their husbands to win bigger contracts or for the United States to deter another North Korean invasion.

"Korean shamanism is very, very materialistic and this-worldly, as Koreans tend to be," the curator Yang said. "I don't think a Christian pastor can succeed here if he only talks about heaven and does not hint at health and material prosperity."

After reading this article, I had a better insight as to why one of my Korean friends, whose husband was a doctor, adhered to the advice of a shaman when deciding on the name of her child. Of course, Korea is not the only society where such cultural fusion occurs. In fact, in happens in almost every situation when different cultures meet.

The Future of Christianity in the 21st Century

2007-07-07T05:49:00.000+09:00

As I ponder the rapid change around the globe, my mind inevitably focuses on China and India and their rise to major power status. This development will be transformative in a number of ways. Perhaps noteworthy is the fact that both India and China are non-Christian societies. India is about 80 percent Hindu and only 2 or 3 percent Christian. It is difficult to ascertain with certainty religious affiliation in China, although the number of Christians in that nation is a relatively small percentage of the total population. I think this is a significant point to note especially in light of other factors such as the growth of Islam and the decline of Christianity in Europe (many sociologists refer to Europe as a post-Christian society). For the first time in 500 years, most of the globe’s dominant nations very likely will not be Christian. I think for a long time Christian nations had viewed their political and economic dominance as a sign of God’s blessing and superiority. Now, however, I wonder if we as Christians need to challenge the assumption that ties material blessing, power, and God as one.

Perhaps this is not such as bad thing in that it challenges the superficiality and narrowness of some of our self perceptions. While Christian philanthropy, thought, and traditions, in many ways, have had an incredibly positive global influence, I think sometimes we as believers become smug and narrow minded in the sense of our own superiority. Ironically, maybe the message of Christianity will become more balanced in tone and deeper in meaning as world power shifts to non-Christian societies.

Increasingly, with the notable exception of the United States, most Christians will come from relatively poor nations in Africa and Latin America. Of course, there is already clear evidence that Christianity has been turned upside down on its head. Consider the facts. Korea sends more Christian missionaries abroad than any other nation, with perhaps the exception of the United States. Many Catholic nuns working in the United States and Europe come from areas such as the Philippines and Africa. Also, many churches in the United States today are growing numerically due primarily to an infusion of first and second generation immigrant populations in the pews. Of course, it should also be noted that, in many ways, the Christian church in Africa and Latin America tends to be far more socially conservative than its Western counterpart. Noteworthy is the fact that opposition within the United States to the Episcopalian (Anglican) Church to ordain homosexual ministers has come from the African Church. Such conflicts will probably increase in the future.

So there it is: An increasingly multicultural Christian Church—poorer, somewhat less influential politically and culturally, and divided regionally on a number of social issues. Again, I think these developments will challenge assumptions Christians have about themselves and the world around them. Will the growing numbers of the Church in the Third World mean that Christians in that part of the world will determine the face of Christianity? Or will the financial capabilities of the Western Church give it disproportionate influence? How will the changing face of Christianity reshape the faith in terms of doctrine and worship style? Furthermore, how will these developments shape non-Christian perceptions of the faith? Of course, Christianity has evolved considerably in the past two thousand years. We often forget that the roots of the faith were in the Middle East, not Europe. In a sense, the vibrancy and life of the church depend on its ability to transform and revive itself to meet the exigencies of the believer without discarding the traditions and core beliefs of the faith that have allowed it to endure through the centuries.

Planet India

2007-07-06T23:31:00.000+09:00

I just finished reading a book called Planet India. It deal with the rise of India as a world power. Already the fourth largest economy in the world, India’s importance on the global scene will increase if trends of the last decade are any indication. Yet while economic growth in India continues to gallop along, hundreds of millions of Indians continue to live in extreme poverty. How India deals with this problem with, in large measure, determine its future success and stability.

There is a lot that I want say about this book and what is going on in India. The author raises so many important issues that it is impossible to discuss all of them in one sitting. However, I was especially interested in how she highlighted the conflict between science and societal good. For example, the book notes how scientists are now able to genetically engineer certain strains of cotton that are resistant to many certain—but not all--types of diseases and infestations. Good, right? Not necessarily. First, these new strains produce only terminator, or sterile, seeds. Thus, the farmer is relegated to buying seeds each year from companies that hold the patent on them. This is significant because if the farmer’s crops fails, he is especially dire straits because he does not even have enough money to buy seeds to plant a crop the following year. So, does technology benefit these Indian farmers? But perhaps it is the fate of the small Indian farmer to wither away in favor of more efficient large scale operations. However, where do they go?

Another area where this clash between science and the societal good collides relates to the growing gender imbalance in some part of India. Traditionally, Indian families preferred boys over girls. In fact, once married, a woman essentially became part of her husband’s family. Today, science enables many Indians to determine the sex of their babies through ultrasound technology. If the unborn baby is a girl, it is often aborted. Also, male sperm can be separated from female sperm during the process of artificial insemination, thus ensuring parents that their child will be a boy (here is an interesting article on the ethics of this procedure). According to the book, there are approximately 50 to 60 million “missing” girls in India.

So again, I think we need to question whether science and technology are, of themselves, always good for society. It seems to me we need to question how science is utilized—it is not neutral per se and certainly not without moral implications.

Arctic Monkeys and Global Warming

2007-07-05T22:35:00.000+09:00

This was an interesting article from Agence France Press. First of all, Arctic Monkeys is a rock band and not an animal species. To be truthful, I did not know that. When I saw the title of the article, my first image was of some rare monkey species existing in a cold climate. Yes, it shows my age and how removed I am from some aspects of contemporary culture!

The text of the article deals with the upcoming Live Earth concert on Saturday to raise awareness of global warming. Apparently, not all rock stars are completely supportive of the initiative The reason they give for their lukewarm support is not that they do not think that global warming is a problem, but rather, the limited knowledge of the issue that most rock stars actually possess. As the drummer for the Arctic Monkeys noted, "It's a bit patronising for us 21 year olds to try to start to change the world," adding "especially when we're using enough power for 10 houses just for (stage) lighting. It'd be a bit hypocritical." He then went on to note that "there's more important people who can have an opinion. Why does it make us have an opinion because we're in a band?" Another band member also pointedly remarked how often the band uses airplanes to tarvel from concert to concert." Frankly speaking, I was taken aback by such blatant honesty and self reflection.

Of course, the counterargument to this is that the general public is more swayed by the lure of celebrity status. Just as they might be more likely to by a product associated with the testimonial of a famous individual, so too might they be more likely to support the crusade against global warming if famous celebrities throw their weight behind the cause. Also, what if we all waited to be experts on a issue before we went into action? Would our world make any progress? Still, there is a bit of a paradox when one one sees Snoop Dogg singing to promote global warming while also advertising for the Chrysler car company.

Language and the Creation of Fear

2007-07-05T02:36:00.000+09:00

I came across this article which suggests that new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown intends to deliberately use different language than his predecessor, Tony Blair, in publicly addressing the terrorist threat in Britian. For example, he purposely will avoid use of the term Muslim terrorist, instead preferring terms such as criminals or Al-Quadia terrorists. The intention here is obvious--to prevent people in Britain from asssuming that the Islamic religion and terrorism are synonymous. Brown also will not employ the term war on terror--again a purposeful effort to defuse tensions in Britain at a time when anxiety runs high because of a series of recent bombings.

Do governments deliberately use emotional language for their own political purposes? Is the general duped so easily duped? Are we the public partly to blame because we prefer such appeals to our emotions as opposed to more objective, drab tones?

Selling Tobacco in Nova Scotia

2007-07-05T01:37:00.000+09:00

If you go into any convenience store in Novs Scotia, you will see a sign similar to the one above displayed over the cigarette rack. Science has long told us that tobacco is deadly and is the leading cause of cancer. Certainly, one would think that the language and tone of the warning sign above, as well as the stern warnings on the tobacco cartons themselves, would be sufficient to deter people from paying 12 dollars Canadian for a product that will ineveitably contribute to their premature death. Yet, despite all of this, millions of Canadians and other people around the world continue to smoke. In fact, many convenience stores in Canada depend on cigarette purchases for a large percentage of their overall sales. I guess all of this points to the limitations of science, language, and authority in affecting the attitudes and mindset of people. I can't help but wonder: Do smokers really know the devastating impact of tobacco or is the power of human addiction so strong that it overpowers knowledge and understanding?

Yet, I also think that government sends people a mixed message when it condemns cigarette smoking as deadly and horrific but continues to allow the product to be sold. What is its justification for such a policy? Money from taxes? Giving people the freedom to choose? Recognizing the fact that smoking is still, in some circles at least, a socially acceptable vice? For me, justification seems difficult when smoking contributes to thousands of deaths in Canada each year and adds millions (perhaps billions) of dollars to health care costs each year.

Intuition

2007-07-04T07:29:00.000+09:00

Sometimes, I wonder if people think that I am naïve and do not see reality for what it is. I have even been likened to Forrest Gump on occasion. I wonder if it has anything to do, at least in part, with the influence of rural Nova Scotia and Mormon culture in my early life, since they, from my observations and experience, tend to emphasize honesty and straightforwardness in dealing with others. I didn’t have to do that much decoding of their language and still don’t when I speak to them. Actually, I have heard Mennonite culture is somewhat the same. I guess that it is kind of a compliment of sorts to all of those groups.

Still, however, I like to think that I have good social intuition. I usually think that I have a good sense when people are prevaricating or speaking in half truths. I also think my intuitions are valuable regarding important life choices. Interestingly, I usually end up regretting NOT acting on my intuitions regarding important decisions since typically I ignore them until subsequent evidence generally tends to verify them. But maybe I am giving myself too much credit. I guess a psychologist would argue that we all overvalue our intuitions!

All that being said, how reliable is intuition as a way of knowing? Is it merely an emotional feeling that really has limited value? I would like to think that my intuition is based on much more than that. Although it may seem to be merely emotional at times, it may also be based upon past experience. For example, when my intuition tells me not to trust someone, I tend to think that it has something to do with past relationships with humans. I suppose generally that intuition is most useful in areas which we already have understanding to a certain extent.

The problem with intuition, however, is that it can be used to validate one’s own personal perspective without much consideration to any other beliefs to the contrary. For example, I might contend based on intuition that abortion is morally reprehensible. Yet, others may say that guaranteeing a woman’s right to end her pregnancy is of utmost importance. Indeed, to defend your belief of something based on intuition probably doesn’t hold much weight in the public arena since intuition is generally considered to be limited to personal understanding. Our intuitions may be correct, but we generally need further evidence to legitimize them publicly.
One other thing to consider when thinking about intuition: Is there something in your life that you once considered to me true based on intuition yet now do not consider to be true? I certainly can think of some examples of such in my own life. This again suggests that caution must be taken when intuitively claiming to know something.

Knowing Through Art

2007-07-03T00:51:00.000+09:00

Whenever I watch a good movie, I often discover insights about my own life. A week or so ago, I viewed a film made in the 1990s entitled Legends of the Fall. It was the story about three brothers, each with different personalities and struggles. As the plot unfolded, I could not help but relate each of the characters to myself and my own experiences. In fact, I was so affected by the movie that I wrote an email to a good friend describing my feelings. Here’s an excerpt:

The first brother, Sam, was very idealistic and ends up dying in WWI because of that idealism. In some ways, I have lost many opportunities in life because of idealism; my intentions were usually good, but following my dreams has come at a great cost in terms of wasted years and energy. I guess that is one reason why I am very sceptical of others preaching unqualified idealism to others. Failed idealism is hard enough to endure; it is even more difficult to come to grips with when those proclaiming the virtues of that idealism were in retrospect so short of the mark themselves. There is a fine line between prophet and charlatan.

The oldest brother, Albert, tried to do everything right in life but was never fully embraced by his family, his friends, or his wife. He never felt loved the most by anyone--his parents, his wife, his brothers. I have felt like this also--I have tried to do more or less my best with family and friends, but have always felt expendable in the end to the needs of others. When Albert was embraced by his father at the end of the movie, it really touched me. It kind of brought back a memory I had with my father just before he passed away. When he told me that he hated to see me leave [to go back to Korea], it really broke me up. I guess I recognized that it was his way of saying that he loved me. It took away a lot of the pain of always feeling not good enough or feeling second rate to my siblings. It really was one of the most touching and meaningful moments of my life. One of the greatest and hardest lessons of life is to realize that real love is unconditional and endures in the long run.

Finally, the last brother, Tristan, was reckless and never followed any rules. He ends up running away for years because he cannot deal with the pain and tragedy of life. Actually, I think that I did that as well. Indeed, there was a 10 year span when I visited my family twice--about a total of one week. Truth of the matter was that I dreaded to go back home because I could not deal with the past. But eventually, I grew tired of running away from myself. I guess I just had to accept myself for who I was and give myself the privilege to feel a bit of peace in life.

I am sure many of you have had a similar experience after reading a good book or watching a film. I guess that is the power of art. When often minimize art as a way of knowing because it is so subjective. However, it creates within us an emotional experience that enables us to understand ourselves in a manner that perhaps the other areas of knowing—natural science, psychology, or whatever-- perhaps simply cannot do.

Accents

2007-07-02T08:55:00.000+09:00

Recently, much was made of Hilary Clinton's adoption of an allegedly fake Southern accent when speaking to a black audience earlier this year. Real or not, I do think that it raises an important issue about how we convey meaning to others.

Yesterday, one of my good friends called me from Tennessee. As I listened to him speak in his thick Southern accent, it was music to my soul. For some reason, I have very positive associations with Southern accents. Perhaps, it has something to do with my own personal experiences with Southerners. At about the age of 31, I went to Nashville to go to graduate school at Vanderbilt University. Coincidental to this, however, my personal life began to unravel rapidly and I fell into a condition of what I would call deep melancholia. Fortunately, I came in contact with some good people—native Southerners--who gave to me comfort and support. For me, the South and the Southern accent will always represent the best qualities of these people—graciousness, genuineness, kindness, and sincerity. I guess it is similar to how we associate certain names of people with certain feelings. For example, if you really disliked someone named Steven in elementary school, chances are you never consider giving your child this name.

My love affair with Southern accents is interesting because for many Americans, a Southern accent represents something completely different—backwardness, racism, and poverty. Given the history of the South, I suppose that there was some rationale for this characterization. Indeed, many Southerners themselves felt that their accent was an onstacle to their success. Some would even take courses that taught them to speak in sterile tones without a hint of their native accent. I wonder if such a situation exists in other societies as well. Are there certain accents that are considered preferable and even tend to be linked to one’s social status? Of course, I will say that this negative characterization of the South and the Southern accent has probably diminished somewhat as the South has emerged out of the shadow of poverty and racism since the end of WWII. Indeed, the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, who certainly spoke in the heaviest of Southern accents, perhaps symbolized a new conceptualization of the South in the American psyche.

This whole question of accents is significant in this era of globalization. When multinational corporation hire people in India as telemarketers to American households (Yes, this is true. Many of the people trying to sell products on the telephone are actually sitting in another country!! See Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat for a good discussion of this), they are taught specifically to speak with a standard American accent. They are also given “typical” American names. The assumption is, of course, that people in the US would be less willing to buy something from someone with an Indian accent and name.

When all is said and done, language is much more than mere words and body gestures. I am convinced that tone and accent also significantly affect meaning.

Fit Over Forty

2007-06-30T22:43:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, I was in the public library and noticed a book entitled Fit Over Forty. The title of the book made me stop and think. “Gosh,” I thought to myself, “I was never fit under forty!” To me, the title of the book suggested that once you hit 40, it’s pretty much downhill after that. You become like an old house that needs constant attention. Well….yes, I do get aches and pains at times, but truth of the matter is that I am much more fit as a 42 year old than I ever was in my 20s and 30s. In fact, I ran my first marathon as a 40 year old after losing over 100 pounds. In a similar vein, I saw an article on the internet a week or so ago that discussed how a female swimmer who had competed way back in the 1984 Olympics is attempting to gain a place on the 2008 US Olympic team at the age of 41. Interestingly enough, he times this year in competition have been very fast and it seems as if she has a legitimate chance to achieve her goal.

Obviously, our physical bodies wear down with age. Still, we make certain assumptions about people’s abilities and mindset based age. While I do think that age may certainly come into play regarding how we interact with and understand the world around, I think that we need to be careful about stereotyping people based on their chronological age.

Herd Mentality

2007-06-30T22:33:00.000+09:00

Human decision making often seems based on what others think and do. Indeed, it often seems that some people react almost unconsciously and irrationally in response to the perceived will and desires of the majority. This is sometimes referred to as herd mentality.

When I was young, I remember that I would occasionally hear the ring of the fire truck sirens indicating that there was a fire in the nearby vicinity. Within a few minutes, I would then see a string of cars following along, all wanting to witness firsthand some apparent tragedy. Did the people in the cars know where they were going? No. They simply were following other cars. Similarly, if I get off an airplane and don’t know how to get to customs or baggage collection, I simply go in the direction where the majority of the passengers are moving. I guess my assumption is that there is someone ahead who is actually familiar with the airport.

In group settings, it is often interesting to watch how goal-oriented individuals manage to place themselves in a position whereby they eventually dominate the agenda of the group. Sometimes, the influence of these persons is obvious. Often, however, they are not easily distinguishable from the rest of the group. It is also compelling to watch how others unconsciously respond to such leadership. They subordinate themselves to such individuals without thought, mimicking gain only the direction of the majority. This may explain why people seem to flip flop so easily on issues in institutional or group settings. Are such individuals consciously contradicting themselves? Are they the consummate chameleons? Probably not. Rather, they are again exhibiting herd mentality, responding to changing ruling sentiments within the group as different individuals position themselves into leadership roles. As students, you have probably witnessed this within your own peer group.

Of course, one of the more nasty aspects of this herd mentality is that it may sometimes lead to mob rule or what I might refer to as a lynch mob mentality. Again, it is interesting to watch group dynamics to see how individuals in settings, otherwise quite lovely people, respond with hostility to a perceived wrong or injustice. Often, the individual loses a sense of rationality and unfairness as he or she mimics the actions of others in the group. Such behavior may exhibit itself in a number of ways. Sports fans may go on a rampage after a bad call by a referee that causes their national team to lose an important World Cup Soccer match. A whole nation may block the web site of a media organization that it feels has given one of its heroes unfair coverage. Someone labeled within the group as being at the bottom of the pecking order may become the victim of unfair attack simply because it contributes to some sort of bizarre cohesion among others in the group. People of one ethnicity may react violently towards other ethnicities.

Is there really any way to overcome this herd mentality? As humans simply reduced to automatons in group settings? Does the group itself provide us with a certain degree of autonomy that allows to exhibit behaviors that we would otherwise disavow if held accountable for them on an individual basis? If, indeed, people lose autonomy in groups, to what extent should they be held responsible for their actions? This is a particularly question in light of the mass genocides that have occurred over the last century.

The Rise of Pentecostalism

2007-06-29T22:33:00.000+09:00

Source: IMPA.com

I found this interesting article from Reuters that describes the growth of Pentecostalism in Africa. The roots of Pentecostalism lie in a religious revival that took place in a Los Angeles mixed race congregation on Azusa Street about a hundred years ago. Distinctive from other Christian denominations because of its emphasis on speaking in tongues as evidence of the believer’s baptism by the Holy Spirit, Pentecostalism’s growth in recent years has been nothing short of phenomenal. Today, a full quarter of the world’s two billion Christian are Pentecostals.

This particular article brings up some interesting points. It claims that the Pentecostal emphasis on vibrant, emotional religious worship and miracles is far more suitable to African cultural norms than the staid worship style associated with groups such as Anglicans and Catholics. As someone who has studied a bit of US Southern history, I perhaps find this not especially surprising, especially when one considers the historical impact of African slave culture on American religious practice. In this sense, it seems as if culture has gone full circle, with white Pentecostals—influenced themselves by a fusion of black and white religious elements--preaching in a style that is far less alien to Africans than one might initially assume. To quote the article: "Africans want things done powerfully," said Rev. Nathan Samwini of the Christian Council of Ghana. "You meet white evangelicals from America, they behave like Africans. They are vibrant, everything is done with vigour."

In some ways, other Christians may look askance at some of Pentecostalism’s beliefs and methods—not just the emphasis on speaking in tongues and healings, but also the emotive style of worship in general and the lack of formal training of many Pentecostal preachers. Many would even go so as to characterize these individuals as charlatans solely interested in acquiring personal wealth. While some of these preachers accurately fit that label, I believe that this characterization, popularized by the early 1960s film Elmer Gantry, fails to do justice to a movement which has millions of sincere believers.

If someone really wants a balanced and fair depiction of Pentecostalism, I suggest that they watch the movie The Apostle. I think that it does an excellent job of depicting the complexity of Pentecostalism. On the one hand, there is the show biz veneer of a worship style that seems somewhat contrived. The emphasis on wealth and money is also depicted. At times, the defrocked minister in the film, portrayed by Robert Duvall, seems as much as a salesman as a preacher. Yet, the movie also makes great efforts to show the other aspects of Pentecostalism as well—the outreach to the poor, the multiracial appeal, the dedication to the cause by the faithful, the power of the conversion experience, and the vibrancy of the faith. In many ways, these same factors account for the recent success of Pentecostalism in Africa:

For Pentecostals, the Holy Spirit -- the third person of the Christian Trinity -- plays an active role in life, performing miracles and answering prayers. This appeals greatly to a continent beset by poverty and sickness. "The success of Pentecostalism is the focus on people's problems in this life," said Allan Anderson, Professor of Global Pentecostal Studies at England's Birmingham University.

What I am going to say here would certainly be disputed by some, but I feel that one of the great problems that mainstream Christians have with Pentecostalism—or at least certain strains of it—is that it preaches a gospel of prosperity that appeals to many of the world’s poor. More to the point, there is an emphasis of how God blesses His people with material wealth. While many —including myself--would find this scriptural interpretation as simplistic at best, perhaps it is our own relative wealth that gives us the luxury of playing the role of the critic here. Don’t we seek material gain through such things as higher education and better jobs? It’s easy to tell others not to want or to wait for Heaven when you yourself have material abundance. Increasingly, I wonder if we who have material are guilty of glorifying the poor as existing in a more pure and Holy state, the argument being that materialism distracts from real spirituality. However, as my own mother recently said to me, there was nothing glorious about growing up poor. And I might add something else: It’s one thing to idealize and romanticize the poor. It’s another thing to invite them into your church.

Added to this, most of would rather see the propagation of a more rational faith that we, because of our experiences, would find easier to embrace. Maybe it again reflects how western society ranks logic as a superior way of knowing compared to emotion. We tend to be suspicious of emotional appeals are mere brainwashing. Yet, when all is said and done, it is the Pentecostal strain of emotive Christianity that is most successfully appealing to the world’s poor, not the more rational discourse we would find in a university religion course.

I think another thing that many of us find uncomfortable about Pentecostalism is its emphasis on something called Holiness. What is meant by this is an emphasis on adhering to a certain lifestyle as a sign of one’s commitment to God. This often means forgoing such things as premarital sex, alcohol, and tobacco. Some of the more conservative congregations even forbid women to cut their hair and wear pants. Action and adherence to rules is one’s way of knowing God. Does their rapid growth worldwide suggest that humans actually want rules and regulations to guide their lives? Does this factor also account for the appeal of fundamentalist Islam in many parts of the world?

In some ways, I find Pentecostalism a paradox. On the one had, the movement is quite fundamentalist and conservative. Yet, Pentecostals were probably the first Christian group in the United States to ordain women as ministers. Similarly, although Pentecostalism attempts to set the believer apart from the world with its emphasis on Holiness, it has proven incredibly adept at using technology—television, satellite broadcasting, and the internet--to spread its message. In this regard, I would regard the movement as the most modern of the various strains of Christianity. Despite its contempt for much of secular culture, Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, came from a rural Mississippi Pentecostal background.

Regardless of one’s opinion of it, Pentecostalism increasingly will be an influential force in world religion. It is Islam’s major competitor for adherents in Africa. In Latin America, it challenges the dominance of the Catholic Church. In the United States, Pentecostalism has gained the status of mainstream respectability. Many Third World leaders—both on the left and the right—have embraced Pentecostalism. Without question, its success will challenge how Christianity is defined and presented to the rest of the world.

Institutional Culture

2007-06-29T22:11:00.000+09:00

Back in the 1950s, William Whyte wrote a book entitled The Organization Man. It basically argued that in individuality had become subsumed by an institutional ethos that demanded conformity and unyielding fealty. This reflected the Cold War climate of the period. Conformity essentially served as protection from being labeled a communist sympathizer.

Well, the Cold War is long over, but the reality of institutional culture remains a reality in the United States. Truth of the matter is that there does indeed seem to be an institutional culture that subsumes almost every organization at a certain point in its development. Ironically, it goes hand in hand with the organization’s success. As the organization expands in size, the role of the individual becomes subordinate to the good of the whole, which is increasingly defined by a few at the top. All aspects of the organization’s actions are susceptible to this institutional pull. Although there may be attempts to create the semblance of popular participation, such is often merely an exercise to gain legitimacy for decisions already made in the higher echelons of the organization.

I suppose that the argument for such a model today rests on the issue of efficiency as opposed to attempting to impose conformity. Still, I believe that the assumption is that conformity creates efficiency. Regardless of that particular issue, this process of institutionalization has implications regarding how knowledge is shaped and transmitted. At times, euphemistic language and doublespeak are employed to mask unpopular decisions. Businesses use the term “downsizing” to tell you that you are fired. Or they may tell you that you are being “reassigned,” which actually means you are being demoted. In the end, obfuscation becomes the rule of the day in order to avoid accountability. Don't we see this on a daily basis as we watch governments officials attempt to avoid accountability for their actions. Truth gets lost in a sea of purposeful confusion.

At its worst, institutional culture alienates the individuals. Imagine that Karl Marx were living in the 21st century? What would he have to say about all of this? First, he might note that the individual increasingly becomes disenchanted and disengaged as he or she increasingly realizes that he or she is merely part of a vast machine whose various components can be replaced with relative ease. Creativity is stifled as conformity becomes the norm of the day and knowledge is increasingly defined by authoritative figures and specialists. Autonomy is subsumed by phrases such as “team player” and “flexibility.” Compliance becomes the measure of one’s worth. Of course, the downside to all of this is that one’s loyalty to the organization tends to fade as the impersonal nature of the institution dominates.

Well, I am actually not a Marxist by any stretch. For one thing, I would suggest that he badly misjudged the essential nature of humans in his romanticized, teleological take on human history. Nonetheless, I do see how institutional culture could stifle understanding and knowledge by limiting the parameters of original thought and creativity. Think about the various institutions that are part of your life. How have they affected your acquisition of knowledge? Have they been limiting to any extent or have they provided an avenue for you to expand your knowledge and understanding? As Western business become more the norm worldwide, how can institutional culture be sensitive to cultural particularities that define different ethnicities and nations?

AIDS in Africa

2007-06-27T22:23:00.001+09:00

One of the good things about vacation for me is having the chance to read books that I would otherwise not find the time to peruse. One of the books that I am looking at now, written by James Cantelon, is entitled When God Stood Up: A Christian Response to AIDS in Africa. The book is really a call for the Christian church to focus its efforts on providing for society's most dispossessed.

As the above graph illustrates, AIDS has had a devastating social and economic impact upon sub-Saharan Africa. Life expectancy in many nations has declined precipitously. In some countries, such as South Africa, 20 percent or more of the population is infected with the HIV virus. That being said, I should also point out that the impact of AIDS on African has been by no means uniform. In North African Muslim societies, the incidence of HIV infections has been relatively low. Also, in countries where male circumcision is practiced, such as Ethiopia, the incidence of AIDS has been lower than in many other parts of the continent.

Cantelon wants to Christians to be at the forefront of the fight against AIDS. He dispels his critics who suggest he and his fellow Christians are imposing Western values regarding sexuality on African society by suggesting that the such arguments fail to take into account that it is the threat of the HIV virus that is causing Africans to change their sexual practices. Furthermore, he contends that the real cultural imperialists are those more secular types who want to impose western solutions--condoms, for example--on African society.

At the same, Cantelon condemns the western church for buying into a culture of materialism and self indulgence. He even goes so far as to challenge Christians for gaining wealth through injustice by looking the other way as "the manufacturers of so many goods exploit the sweatshops...in pursuit of higher profits." Yet, on the other hand, I suppose that there is a bit of a paradox here because it is the wealth of the Western church which, to some extent, Cantelon is depending upon to fight the AIDS epidemic. Also, many would claim that those sweatshops that Cantelon mentions provide jobs to people who otherwise would have no employment. Nonetheless, I think that he challenges Christians about the nature of their faith in a thoughtful manner, going so far as to suggest that true Christian belief should transcend the cultural boundaries of rich and poor.

Certainly, some of Cantelon's arguments are contestable. For example, he suggests that promoting safe sex as opposed to abstinence is not the solution to fighting the AIDS epidemic in Africa for two reasons. First, condoms are only 95 percent effective (if they are used) and second, they are not available to the whole population. Certainly, some would argue that the significant decline in HIV infections in Uganda (from 13 percent to 4 percent) in recent years has been the result of that nation's commitment to proclaiming the virtues of abstinence. However, I suppose that the counterargument to this is that abstinence is no sure guarantee of preventing HIV infection and that using condoms is far preferable to no protection at all. Of course, this is the same debate that goes in US schools today regarding the best way to prevent unwanted teenage pregnancy.

Something also came to my attention as I read this book. In some sense, because AIDS in Africa is viewed as a heterosexual disease, it is easier for the evangelical church to rally around the cause. What if AIDS in Africa was viewed--as is the case in North America--as a homosexual disease? Would Cantelon be able to make such a plea to a evangelical Christians? Would it affect their decisions to support the fight against AIDS in Africa? In his book, Cantelon mentions AIDS within the context of homosexuality only once--when he suggests that the solutions to the AIDS crisis in Africa are not the same as they are in America because the population of sufferers of the disease is different in the two places. It is probably a much easier "sell" to Christians to tie AIDS in Africa with women and orphans, as Cantelon does. This observation is not meant to minimize the significance of his work; rather, it is made only to suggest that any plea to a particular group generally must be versed in language that is amenable to that group's moral perspective.

International Adoption

2007-06-25T18:24:00.000+09:00

About 6 years or so ago, my good friends in Tennessee adopted a young boy from Russia. I can still remember driving to the Nashville Airport to pick them up after they arrived back in America. My friends were certainly not atypical in their decision to adopt overseas. In recent years, thousands of North Americans and Europeans have travelled to orphanages in places such as Russia and China to find children to adopt.

These overseas adoptions have not been without controversy. Recently, Russia has tightened its adoption rules and has started to seriously scrutinize adoption agencies for what it terms as political meddling in Russian political affairs. There have also been accusations that American parents have mistreated Russian adoptees. China has also tightened the reigns on international adoption by imposing regulations on which type of people can adopt Chinese orphans. For instance, singles parents can no longer adopt. Nor can people over the age of 50. Neither can obese people (with a BMI of over 40) or people taking medication for depression. Also, families already with four children can no longer adopt. Of course, all of these question raise the issue of what constitutes an ideal parenting situation for the child. The Chinese government may have its reasons for implementing these restrictions; however, one cannot help but question their validity when viewed in the context of the alternative for the child--that is, a life in an orphanage. Anyways, I suppose that this is a discussion for another day.

I guess one can look at this whole issue of international adoption from a number of perspectives. In one sense, being adopted by foreigners gives these children opportunities that they could not really have in their own country. I visited several orphanages in the Ukraine about four years ago and let me say without hesitation it is a sad plight for these children. I remember leaving one of these orphanages and seeing a young boy wave to me as our bus headed down the road. It broke me up inside because I knew that it was his dream that I take him with me. It was at that moment that I was hit by my powerlessness and, to be honest, my selfishness. Even as I write this entry, I wonder where he is now and how life turned out for him. It is my hope that everything went well and that he was adopted by someone, but I suspect there was only a small chance of that happening since he was about twelve years old at the time. Seeing human despair first hand puts a different spin on one's perception of matters.

But I suppose that there is another side to this issue as well. These children are completely removed from their culture once they leave teh orphanage. In most cases, this connection is lost permanently. So too is native language lost. Without several months, most of the adoptees lose the ability to communicate in their original tongue. Sometimes, these children are adopted even though their parents and other relatives are still living. On occasion, a child may have siblings in the same orphanage. However, only one of them ends up being adopted. In these cases, contact with the other sibling or siblings is lost forever.

I think most of us intuitively know that an orphanage is not the best place for a child. The questions seems to be then how to meet the best interests and the child while acknowledging the cultural sensitivities that come along with international adoption. I have to say that I was impressed with the efforts of the people involved with the group with which I worked with in the Ukraine. First, they gave money to Ukrainian families that would help them to buy homes so that they could adopt orphans. Second, one of the people from America I worked with actually adopted two sisters together--even though they originally intended to adopt only one child. Similarly, there have also been attempts by parents and adoption organizations to expose adopted children to the culture of their country of birth. None of these solutions is perfect; however, they at least recognize the complex problems associated with international adoption.

Another Robot First in South Korea

2007-06-24T20:11:00.000+09:00

Source: AFP

In Daejeon, South Korea--home of TCIS--another first in the history of robotics recently occurred when one of these man-made machines married a couple. Actually, the groom was the robot's creator. This raises an interesting question. If robot creators are indeed accountable for the actions of their creations, did the groom essentially marry himself? I know it sounds silly, but there are some interesting questions raised here concerning robot autonomy. These questions will become more and more complex as robots continue to play an ever increasing role in our society.

It seems that so many stories such as this come out of South Korea. Perhaps more than any other country--at least according to my personal perception, South Korea is a technology-driven society. Why is this? Is there something about South Koreans that cause them to embrace and advance technological innovation on a mass level with greater zeal than other societies? The answer cannot be tied solely to economic prosperity, since there are many nations that have a higher standard of living than South Korea.

Milgram Obedience Experiment

2007-06-24T06:37:00.000+09:00

Why do humans commit heinous against other humans? Some would suggest that there is something within the human psyche that accounts for the reasons why so many seemingly "normal" people have been willing participants in crimes of genocide and violence throughout history. In 1962, as the above simulation illustrates, Yale psychologist Stanley Millgram carried out an experiment that asked participants to apply electric shocks to an unseen individual, who in truth did not actually exist. Despite the fact that cries of extreme pain could be heard, many of the participants continued to apply electric shocks of increased voltage when commanded. Watch the video--it is shocking. At the end of this post, I have also included a video (a bit long) of the real experiment.

So what does all of say? Do humans have a natural propensity towards violence? Do we have such a need to conform that we quickly disavow our own ethical standards? Are we somehow able to psychologically detach ourselves from our immoral actions? Are we conditioned to obey authority unconditionally? To what extent should human beings be held accountable for their actions when they were ordered to carry out immoral deeds by an authoritative figure? This is a very relevant topic, especially in light of the recent prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib. Indeed, this article from the American Psychological Association makes a direct connection between those events and Millgram's findings.

The Discovery of the Americas

2007-06-24T06:11:00.000+09:00

Did the Chinese beat Columbus to the New World? This is what Gavin Menzies claims in his book 1421. It’s an interesting and certainly not unbelievable thesis. The author uses such proof such as old maps, DNA testing, his own background in navigation, the presence of Asian species in the America, and material evidence to back up his point. It is a very provocative contention and certainly not without its share of critics, including most of the mainstream academic historical community.

As much as I am intrigued by this book, I would not use it as a text for history students. For me, the author makes far too many claims based on evidence that is far from being conclusive. It is hard to believe that everything worked out quite as clean and tidy as Menzies suggests. Much of what he concludes seems based on conjecture, as opposed to incontrovertible historical evidence. This is simply not enough hard proof to make his thesis historically legitimate and strong enough to challenge existing paradigms regarding the early exploration of the Americas. In the end, Menzies’ critics are probably correct in suggesting that his work does not meet the standards of the professional historian.

On the other hand, what I really appreciated about this book is that it at least makes me confront my own suppositions about the “discovery” of the Americas and European hegemony. In other words, what he does is challenge my existing paradigm concerning the dominant role of Europe in world history. Even if I cannot fully accept Menzies’ claim as historically valid, I can accept the possibility that the Chinese did indeed reach the New World. The truth of the matter is that China was the leading world power in terms of wealth and technology for much of recorded history. Although the media portrays China’s recent rise as a world power as something unique, I like to view this situation as more of a renaissance or return of China to an accustomed role in world history. It seems quite probable that Chinese sailors could have reached the New World as one point in history. I might also add that although Menzies’ work does not stand up to intense historical scrutiny, neither can I can I completely discount his evidence as meaningless and unworthy of further investigation.

Certainly, the Chinese government has embraced Menzies’ work as legitimate. Why not? If nothing else, it contributes to national prestige. Perhaps this situation illustrates the notion that history is truly as much about the present as it is about the past. As China becomes more and more of a world, so too would one expect that historical writing would evolve to mirror this situation.

If you’d like to investigate further this topic, I would suggest you look at these two web sites. This one is essentially the companion site to the book, while this one provides arguments as to why Menzies’ thesis should be rejected.

Human Nature

2007-06-22T07:09:00.000+09:00

Are humans essentially good or evil? This question has received significant attention from philosophers, theologians, political theorists, and others throughout the centuries. Certainly, I personally have swayed significantly over the years regarding my own opinion on this matter. Fifteen years ago, I would have contended that humans are basically good. The tendency for humans to act in a corrupt manner was little more than the negative effects of social conditioning. This being the case, society simply needed to create opportunities for the innate goodness of humans to prevail.

Over the years, I suppose that I have become less idealistic. Although I still believe that society plays a major role in constructing individual attitudes and behaviors, I tend to be less convinced regarding the positive potentiality of humans to do good simply for the sake of doing what is morally right. Although some individuals certainly seem more intrinsically unselfish than others, I might even go so far to suggest that acts of goodness are seldom completely altruistic and that most humans are motivated by self interest; that is, they tend to do things that benefit themselves in the end.

Certainly, one doesn’t need to look too far to find examples of this self interested behavior and how it limits our willingness to reinforce our moral rhetoric with actual deeds. For example, when we condemn human rights violations in one country yet continue to purchase products made in that nation because they are cheaper, isn’t that an example of self interest? When we condemn abortion as morally wrong yet fail to provide help to poor women to raise their children, isn’t that a matter of self interest? When we speak out for universal human rights yet fail to prevent genocide in places such as Rwanda and the Sudan because they are not strategically important in terms of geopolitics, isn’t that a matter of self interest? When we condemn Chinese and Indian factories for contributing to global warming, yet continue to insist upon driving cars when public transportation is readily available or maintaining oversized living quarters, isn’t that a matter of self interest? When countries speak about the need for international stability and security, yet continue to self weapons of mass destruction to other nations in volatile regions of the world, isn’t that a matter of self interest?

I would even go so far as to suggest that many acts of seemingly unconditional goodness as motivated by self interest. I believe, in some sense, that all humans seek some sort of social importance. One of the worst things that a human must deal with is status anxiety—the worry that he or she is irrelevant. I often wonder if people get involved in reformist causes because it offers them a sense of importance that they otherwise not possess. But perhaps that is being far too cynical.

In any event, self interested humans may indeed produce a world that benefits everyone in the world. Because of self interest, we want to live in a world devoid of stresses and problems that threaten to upset our own stability and happiness. For example, eliminating poverty benefits the wealthy because it avoids social class tensions. Promoting world peace reduces the amount of government money needed for defense. Creating conditions for economic growth in Third World nations benefits wealthy countries as well in terms of cheaper products and potential trading partners. So, perhaps self interest is not necessarily a detriment to social harmony. There is a real motivation to ensure that other, as well as ourselves, exist in a relatively contented condition.

Still, however, I cannot help but believe that humans also need some sort of ethical code that transcends human self interest. For many of us, this comes from religious belief. From a Christian perspective, one of the powerful aspects of the teaching of Christ was the manner in which He commanded humans to act contrary to their own nature. While for others, their ethical code might originate from other sources, I do think it is important for humans to understand that there is a difference between the way that they want to act versus the way that they should act.

Censorship

2007-06-20T02:39:00.000+09:00

Source: http://www.lib.ua.edu/exhibitions/

Well, I arrived in Nova Scotia a week or so ago. It is good to have a break from school, although I certainly miss teaching, Korea, and, of course, my students! I am currently in the process of reading 1421--the book by Gavin Menzies that suggests that the Chinese beat the Europeans to the Americas by about 70 years. It is a controversial thesis--I will have more to say about this when I finish reading it in its entirety.

Speaking of provocative books, most of you are probably familiar with Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird. In fact, some of you have probably even read it. The book has significance to me for a couple of reasons. First, as a student of Southern history, I appreciate this novel because it speaks out powerfully against white racism against blacks in the South. Second, one of my friends in Nashville, Tennessee--someone a bit older than me--actually grew up with Harper Lee in Monroe, Alabama.

Today, the book was brought up in conversation. Someone mentioned the fact that a local school in Nova Scotia had banned a high school teacher from taking his students to see the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird. Apparently, the school administration felt that the language and overall tenor of the film were racist in nature. I could hardly believe it. This book was a testament against racism. How could it be banned as a racist? Perhaps school administrators felt that students would be unable to understand its intended message. In truth, however, this does not seem like a particularly convincing argument and, in my opinion, suggests a real lack of perspective regarding the use of classics as tools of understanding controversial societal issues.

But then again, am I completely against placing any restrictions on student access to certain types of materials? No, I am not. When some of my students wanted to watch the YouTube video of the Virginia Tech murderer, I refused to let them use my computer. Thus the question is--Am I just selectively defending works, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, that I personally appreciate? If not, how do I define legitimate standards of good judgement with regard to censorship?