In the perspective of A parliamentary election held in Iraq on 7 March 2010 and the Oscars 2010 best original screenplay for the  movie “The Hurt Locker” (which gives a perspective of the Iraq war)

Here is a comment I made back in 2007 on Mark Joyner’s

blog post:

March 13, 2007

Dear Bill O’Reilly (About The 600,000 in Iraq Bill Maher Mentioned)

A comment from Sunny Sudden FRANCE

-Earth Citizens sin- “indifference”

Thank you Mark for opening the issue on “disinformation.” Everyone seems very passionate: “O”Reilly, Maher, politics, facts, truth”… In the meantime “Earth Citizens” (God’s creatures if you believe there is a “Higher Power”) are still dying daily in Iraq. (lost Iraqi, American lives… many being innocent people= Earth Citizens)…

Is the debate about “disinformation”?...

We live in a global “fear” based society. We are becoming increasingly “indifferent”… to “others” suffering.

Gandhi said: “in the midst of death, life persists, and in the midst of darkness, light perists…We can say “no” to violence, and “yes” to life.”

If we really felt the weight of our own individual actions, and responsability… Instead of spending so much time “arguing with words.” We would strengthen our life daily by our personal “acts”…

Noone can be “neutral” and “indifferent” to what’s happening to Planet Earth, its Earth Citizens (specialy in Iraq)… certainly NOT because we’ve got 3 meals a day, a job, a fat bank account, or because we have too much responsability or are too poor to “care”…

In a fear based society, Earth Citizens are being daily bombarded by GIGABITS of “disinformation” and crippled with “information overload” In this context what should Mark Joyner have said? “For God’s sake, don’t disturb me…leave me alone…with your “true lies…Let’s keep it simple…Let me mind only Simpleology Training”…

My friend as you have a “fight with words”: “disinformation”, “white lie”, “true lie”… let me remind you that Earth Citizens are dying DAILY in Irak…

So I ask you Earth Citizen: “Are you blind”… and “is your heart made of stone”?…that you do not SEE what’s at stake (LIVES: HUMAN LIVES)…

We have right here and right now a crisis of: Truth, Honesty, Courage, and LUCIDITY…

This is not just about “disinformation”…and O’Reilly… It’s foremost about “indifference”…and “fear“… The higher we are socialy the more we seek security… no disturbance…”leave me alone”… “I have enough of my own problems”

And slowly “inertia” takes place in our lives… (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual inertia) while EVERYTHING is constantly changing in this dynamic universe…

As we are “debating” Earth Citizens in Irak give their last breath on Planet Earth…

Albert Schweitzer*, le “Grand Docteur” who fought for growth of brotherhood among races was right when he said: “Men do not think”…

In fact the last thing “WE”… YOU and I…want to face is that YOU and I are responsible for this violence...

- FIAT LUX -

*Albert Schweitzer: His whole life and all of his work are a message addressed to all men regardless of nationality or race…

Note: “In these troubled and uncertain times men are searching for something which will allow them to believe that mankind will one day enjoy the reign of peace and goodwill. “If altruism, reverence for life, and the idea of brotherhood can become living realities in the hearts of men, we will have laid the very foundations of a lasting peace between individuals, nations, and races.”

Presentation Speech by Gunnar Jah for: -Dr. Albert Schweitzer NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT 1952-

NOTE FROM MJ: Beautiful! Read my “constructs” and you’ll see we’re very much on the same page. It’s one thing to think it, another to do something about it. Look at “Construct One” for the first step …

From: Wikipedia®

From: ® http://www.haydenplanetarium.org

Since February 2000, the planetarium has been one of the two main attractions within the Rose Center for Earth and Space. The top half of the Hayden Sphere houses the Star Theater, which uses high-resolution fulldome video to project “space shows” based in scientific visualization of current astrophysical data, in addition to a customized Zeiss Star Projector system replicating an accurate night sky as seen from Earth. The bottom half of the Sphere is home to the Big Bang Theater, which depicts the birth of the universe in a four-minute program. As visitors leave the Planetarium theater, they exit to the Size Scales of the Universe exhibit which shows the vast array of sizes in the universe; the walkway itself is a timeline of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present. This exhibit leads to the Big Bang Theater and exits to the Cosmic Pathway, which shows the history of the universe. From the bottom of the Cosmic Pathway, visitors can stop by the Hall of Planet Earth to explore geology, weather, plate tectonics and more, or go down to the Hall of the Universe to explore the realms of planets, stars, galaxies and more.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is the planetarium’s director.

The Hayden Planetarium offers a number of courses and public presentations including the Frontiers of Astrophysics and Distinguished Authors lecture series.

When the Hayden Planetarium reopened after renovation in 2000 with a model of only eight planets, excluding what was then called planet Pluto, it resulted in a headline-making controversy.^[1]

History

• List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City

• Rose Center for Earth and Space official website
• History of the Hayden Planetarium at the Internet Archive
• Summary of the Hayden Planetarium from the Zeiss website
• ‘The Digital Universe’ — 3-dimensional atlas of the universe — free downloadable software provided by the Hayden Planetarium

A 2,500-year-old clay cylinder bears what has been called the world’s “first human rights charter” and was inscribed under the direction of the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE. In the Greek Bible (Isaiah 45:1), Cyrus is called “Christ” (“…τῷ χριστῷ μου Κύρῳ…”) or “the Lord’s anointed” for his role in rescuing the Jews out of the “Babylonian Captivity.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Cyrus Cylinder

(Photo by Marco Prins and Jona Lendering)

In addition to that alleged good and godly deed, Cyrus committed to writing what is believed to be the earliest charter establishing human rights so far found. Thus, Persia – or Iran - is ironically and tragically the birthplace of a remarkable tradition of human rights. Contrast that amazing fact with the state in which the ancient and noble Persian people live today, under Islamic fanaticism, with a severe restriction of many basic rights we take for granted.

Iran made to wait for loan of ancient treasure after ‘remarkable’ discovery

THE “remarkable” discovery of two small fragments of inscribed clay at the British Museum will cast vital new light on a 2,500-year-old cylinder bearing what is often described as the world’s first charter of human rights, it has been claimed….

The cylinder was written in 539BC on the orders of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian empire, after he conquered Babylon and freed the Jews and other peoples held captive there, while ushering in religious freedom.

Here an ancient Persian man deemed “Messiah” and “Christ” by a group of people is likewise renowned for “ushering in religious freedom” and inscribing one of the world’s first known documents addressing human rights. Meanwhile his modern heirs are infamous as some of the worst human-rights abusers in the world, with little to no religious freedom under their tyranny. Who can honestly contend that human creation progresses linearly rather than cyclically?

It is time for a resurgence of the Persian spirit, as exemplified in the legends of Cyrus the Great and his civilized charter for human rights.

Acharya S

January 19, 2010 9:05 | by Jacques Attali

As often, a natural event can be used as a metaphor for a social phenomenon.
And, to describe and understand crises, nothing is better than the metaphor
of an earthquake.

First, an economic crisis, like any earthquake, is the result of an
accumulation of imbalances, consequence of long movements, followed by a
sudden break. In the case of geology, the long trend is the continental
drift; in the case of the economy, it is the fall of the centers of power,
from one ocean to another. Both of these trends bring about accumulations of imbalances (in one case, geological; in the other, financial) being
translated by breaks (in one case, earthquakes; in the other, crises).

In both cases, there is very often before the disaster, a lack of concern
for the risks involved and a refusal to take seriously the alarmist
predictions, there is also extreme inequality in the treatment of victims,
there are countless replicas, shaking or relapses, extending the initial
chaos, there is still a chaotic management of relief and support, and
finally a quasi immediate loss of memory, once the situation returns back to
normal, of the underlying reasons of the disaster.

The metaphor goes even further, because earthquakes have an economic impact.

Not only because they destroy everything they are called to reconstruct, and
provide opportunities for public expenditure, so necessary, according to
Keynes, for the resumption of growth; but above all because living in an
earthquake zone is a constant call to newness, change, inventivity. This
leads to the emergence of a culture of vigilance, of the precarious, of
being light, nomadic, of the short-lived; to an acceptance of modernity,
the condition for progress.

No wonder that among the most creative lands of humanity, we find at the
forefront some of the most seismically active lands: Greece, Italy,
Flanders, California, Japan, all have, each in turn, experienced the threat
of earthquakes as an incentive to change, as an appeal to what the Greeks
called "the tyranny of the new." And Haiti has done better than anyone else
in the world, demonstrating the only creativity that it could afford,
cultural creativity, one that puts everything into perspective, in a
constant search for surpassing oneself and the beautiful.

It would be wise to learn this lesson from the current tragedy: the wealth
of humanity comes from its capacity to imagine the coming changes and to
live them the best way possible; and for this to admit that can only survive
those who are capable of giving meaning to the destruction of the past; and
to understand that wealth always comes from "creative destruction" of which
Joseph Schumpeter, the greatest 20th century economist spoke, far more
discerning than John Maynard Keynes.

At least, may this terrible tragedy serve this purpose. And may Haiti be
rebuilt (who would dare talk about "rebuilding" when it comes to such
slums?). So Haitians can finally make their art not a refuge in their misery
but a way to live with dignity their brilliant contribution to History.

j@attali.com

© L’Express

Note: Conversation avec Jacques Attali

http://blogs.lexpress.fr/attali/

Jacques Attali (born 1 November 1943 in Algiers, Algeria) is a French economist and scholar. From 1981 to 1991, he was an advisor to President François Mitterrand.

Foreign Policy’s First Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy: http://bit.ly/8aLXLi

#86 Jacques Attali French Economist

Thanks to my friend Linda Forsythe (Official Page)

Here is a List of Charities:

Action Against Hunger

2010 Haiti
earthquake

From Wikipedia®

Port-au-Prince Jacmel Petit-   Goâve       Saint-Marc
The damaged National Palace (top),   Quake epicenter (bottom)
Date	16:53:10, 12 January 2010 (−05:00) (2010-01-12T16:53:10−05:00) 21:53:10, 12 January 2010 (UTC) (2010-01-12T21:53:10Z)
Magnitude	7.0 Mw
Depth	13 kilometres (8.1 mi)
Epicenter location	18°27′25″N 72°31′59″W / 18.457°N 72.533°W / 18.457; -72.533Coordinates: 18°27′25″N 72°31′59″W / 18.457°N 72.533°W / 18.457; -72.533
Countries/   regions affected	Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, The Bahamas, Jamaica
Max. intensity	MM X[1]
Casualties	Confirmed ‘burials’ – 70,000 (Haitian government)[2] Estimated deaths up to 200,000 (Haitian government)[3]

The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 M_w earthquake with the epicentre near Léogâne, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, striking at 16:53:10 local time (21:53:10 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.^[4][5] The earthquake occurred at a depth of 13 kilometres (8.1 mi). The United States Geological Survey recorded a series of at least 33 aftershocks, fourteen of them between magnitudes 5.0 and 5.9.^[6] The International Red Cross estimated that about three million people were affected by the quake,^[7] and the Haitian Interior Minister believes that up to 200,000 have died as a result of the disaster,^[3] exceeding earlier Red Cross estimates of 45,000–50,000.^[8] Several prominent public figures are among the dead. The Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive announced that over 70,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves.^[9]

The earthquake caused major damage to Port-au-Prince. Most major landmarks were significantly damaged or destroyed, including the Presidential Palace (President René Préval survived), the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, and the main jail.^[10][11][12] To compound the tragedy, most hospitals in the area were destroyed.^[13] The United Nations (UN) reported that the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), located in the capital, had collapsed and that the Mission’s Chief, Hédi Annabi, his deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, and the acting police commissioner were confirmed dead.^[14][15] Elisabeth Byrs of the UN called it the worst disaster the United Nations has experienced because the organizational structures of the UN in Haiti and the Haitian government were destroyed.^[16][17]

Contents 1 Background 2 Geology 3 Infrastructure damage 4 Conditions in the aftermath 5 Casualties 6 Response 7 Rescue action 8 Recovery 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Background

The island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is seismically active and has experienced significantly destructive tremors in the past. An earthquake struck in 1751, and another in 1770 while the island was under French control. According to French historian Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750–1819), "only one masonry building had not collapsed" in Port-au-Prince following the 18 October 1751 earthquake, but "the whole city collapsed" during the earthquake of 3 June 1770. Another earthquake destroyed the city of Cap-Haïtien and other towns in the northern part of Haiti and the Dominican Republic on 7 May 1842.^[18] In 1946, a magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck the Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people and injured many others.^[19]

A 2006 earthquake hazard study by C. DeMets and M. Wiggins-Grandison noted that the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone could be at the end of its seismic cycle and forecast a worst-case scenario of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, similar in size to the 1692 Jamaica earthquake.^[20] Paul Mann and a group including the 2006 study team presented a hazard assessment of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system to the 18th Caribbean Geologic Conference in March 2008, noting the large strain (overall equivalent to a 7.2 M_w earthquake); the team recommended "high priority" historical geologic rupture studies, as the fault was fully locked and had recorded few earthquakes in the preceding 40 years.^[21] An article published in Haiti’s Le Matin newspaper in September 2008 cited comments by geologist Patrick Charles to the effect that there was a high risk of major seismic activity in Port-au-Prince.^[22]

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,^[23] ranked 149th of 182 countries on the Human Development Index.^[24] The Australian government’s travel advisory site expressed concerns that Haitian emergency services would be unable to cope in the event of a major disaster;^[25] and the country is considered "economically vulnerable" by the Food and Agriculture Organization.^[26] The country is no stranger to natural disasters: it has been struck by multiple hurricanes, causing flooding and widespread damage, most recently in 2008 from Tropical Storm Fay, Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike, resulting in 800 deaths.^[27]

Geology

USGS intensity map.

The earthquake occurred inland, on 12 January 2010, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) WSW from Port-au-Prince at a depth of 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) at 16:53 UTC-5^[4] on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system.^[28] Strong shaking with intensity VII–IX on the Modified Mercalli scale (MM) was recorded in Port-au-Prince and its suburbs. It was also felt in several surrounding countries and regions, including Cuba (MM III in Guantánamo), Jamaica (MM II in Kingston), Venezuela (MM II in Caracas), Puerto Rico (MM II–III in San Juan), and the bordering country of the Dominican Republic (MM III in Santo Domingo).^[1][29] The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning after the quake,^[30] but cancelled it shortly afterwards.^[31]

Caribbean tectonics plates.

Since the quake occurred under land rather than water, structures and people on the surface were directly exposed to the tremors, particularly since the fault was quite shallow.^[32] The quake occurred in the vicinity of the northern boundary where the Caribbean tectonic plate shifts eastwards by about 20 mm per year relative to the North American plate. The strike-slip fault system in the region has two branches in Haiti, the Septentrional fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault in the south; seismic data suggests that the January 2010 quake was on the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault, which had been locked solid for 250 years, gathering stress. The stress would ultimately have been relieved either by a large earthquake or a series of smaller ones.^[33] The rupture of this M_w 7.0 earthquake was roughly 65 kilometres (40 mi) long with mean slip of 1.8 metres (5.9 ft).^[34] Preliminary analysis of the slip distribution found amplitudes of up to about 4 metres (13 ft) using ground motion records from all over the world.^[35][36]

The United States Geological Survey recorded six aftershocks in the two hours after the main earthquake of magnitudes approximately 5.9,^[37] 5.5,^[38] 5.1,^[37] 4.5,^[37] and 4.5.^[37] Within the first nine hours 26 aftershocks of magnitude 4.2 or greater were recorded, with twelve of them magnitude 5.0 or greater.^[39] According to a member of the USGS, about three million people would have been affected, based on the strength and location of the quake.

Infrastructure damage

Collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince

There was major damage to Port-au-Prince. The buildings of the finance ministry, the ministry of public works, the ministry of communication and culture, the Palace of Justice, the Superior Normal School, the National School of Administration, the Institut Aimé Césaire, Parliament, and Port-au-Prince Cathedral were damaged to varying degrees.^[40][41][42] The National Palace was severely damaged.^[43][44] The quake seriously damaged the control tower at Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport.^[45]

Towns west of Port-au-Prince, such as Jacmel, Carrefour, Léogâne, Petit-Goâve, and Gressier were reported to have extensive and perhaps catastrophic damage.^[46] They were furthermore isolated by debris blocking connecting roads and unable to receive supplies that were slowly getting into the capital. Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon estimated that fifty percent of the buildings in the affected regions were destroyed.^[47]

There was significant damage to communications, and a Haitian diplomat has said that "communication is absolutely impossible … I’ve been trying to call my ministry and I cannot get through."^[30] A hospital in Pétionville, a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince, collapsed from the earthquake.^[48] The main prison in Port-au-Prince collapsed during the earthquake. Many prisoners escaped into the streets, and their whereabouts are unknown.^[49] The roof of the facility reportedly collapsed and caught fire, and family members have been unable to find their incarcerated relatives.^[50]

Damage in downtown Port-au-Prince

The headquarters of MINUSTAH at Christopher Hotel^[14] were destroyed, as were offices of the World Bank.^[51] The quake affected the three Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) medical facilities around Port-Au-Prince, causing one to collapse completely.^[52][53][54] The building housing the offices of Citibank in Port-au-Prince was destroyed, and several employees remained missing.^[55] Up to 200 guests at the collapsed Hôtel Montana in Port-au-Prince remain unaccounted for, and are presumed dead.^[56] As of 15 January 2010 (2010 -01-15)^[update], reported damage to the Port-au-Prince seaport includes the collapse of cranes and containers into the water, structural damage to the pier, and an oil spill, rendering the facility unusable for immediate rescue operations; the Gonaïves seaport, in the northern part of the country, remains operational.^[57]

Swamped cranes along the Port-au-Prince docks

The apparel industry, which accounts for two-thirds of Haiti’s annual $350 million in exports to the United States, reported structural damage at manufacturing facilities in Haiti. American-based Hanesbrands Inc. reported that three of its four factories had been affected by the quake, with one facility substantially damaged. The Canadian clothing company Gildan Activewear reported that one of the three textile factories that produce their products had been severely damaged.^[58]

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that offices of Radio-Tele Ginen had been destroyed, several other stations, including Melodie FM, Radio Caraibes, Signal FM, and Radio Metropole, remained functioning. Journalism as a whole in Haiti was affected by the fact that many journalists had suffered personal losses and were unable to work.^[59] The music studio Hercule, located in Pétionville, was destroyed and the studio’s owner Joubert Charles, one of the most prominent promoters of music in Haiti, died in the quake.^[60][61][62]

Buildings shook in Santo Domingo, the capital of the neighboring Dominican Republic, but no major damage was reported there.^[63]

Conditions in the aftermath

Assistance camp set up by the Brazilian Army

Through the nights following the earthquake, many people in Haiti slept in the streets, on sidewalks, in their cars, or in makeshift shanty towns either because their houses had been destroyed, or they feared standing structures would not withstand aftershocks. Even Haitian President René Préval was unsure of where he was going to sleep after his home was destroyed.^{[64][not in citation given]} Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, and construction standards are low; like many islands in the Caribbean the country has no building codes. Engineers have stated that it is unlikely many buildings would have stood through any kind of disaster. Structures are often raised wherever they can fit; some buildings were built on slopes with insufficient foundations or steel.^[65] A representative of Catholic Relief Services has estimated that about two million Haitians live as squatters on land they do not own. The country also suffers from shortages of fuel and potable water even when not addressing times of disaster.^[66]

Haitian citizens have been congregating in open areas, both to minimize their aftershock vulnerability, and to provide easier access for relief workers.

Towns in the eastern Dominican Republic began preparing on 15 January for tens of thousands of refugees, and by 16 January hospitals around the border had been filled to capacity with Haitians. Some began reporting having expended stocks of critical medical supplies such as antibiotics by 17 January.^[67] The border was reinforced with Dominican soldiers, and the government of the Dominican Republic asserted that all Haitians who crossed the border for medical assistance would be allowed to stay only temporarily. A local governor stated, "We have a great desire and we will do everything humanly possible to help Haitian families. But we have our limitations with respect to food and medicine. We need the helping hand of other countries in the area."^[68][69]

President Préval and government ministers used police headquarters near the Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport as their new base of operations, although their effectiveness was extremely limited. Several parliament members were still trapped in the Presidential Palace, and offices and records destroyed.^[70] Some high-ranking government workers lost family members, or had to tend to wounded relatives. Although the president and his remaining cabinet met with U.N. planners each day, there remains confusion as to who is in charge and no single group has been organizing relief efforts as of 16 January.^[71] The government handed over control of the airport to the United States to hasten and ease flight operations, made worse by the damaged air traffic control tower.^[72]

Almost immediately Port-au-Prince’s morgue facilities were overwhelmed. By 14 January, a thousand bodies had been placed on the streets and sidewalks outside. Government crews operated 60 trucks to collect thousands more, burying them in mass graves.^[73] In the heat and humidity, others that were trapped in rubble began to decompose and smell. Mati Goldstein, head of the the Isreali ZAKA International Rescue Unit delegation to Haiti, described the situation as "Shabbat from hell. Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in the air. It’s just like the stories we are told of the Holocaust – thousands of bodies everywhere. You have to understand that the situation is true madness, and the more time passes, there are more and more bodies, in numbers that cannot be grasped. It is beyond comprehension."^[74]

Some Haitians felt water was safer than land following numerous aftershocks.

Slow distribution of resources and the absence of any central authority in the days after the earthquake resulted in violence, as groups attempting to dispense food and other aid were attacked, including an attempted carjacking of aid vehicles.^[75] At least one looter was killed as Haitian police fired upon hundreds, and episodes of looting continued as aid officials feared a breakout of lawlessness unless US troops can deliver the needed aid to the up to three million survivors who have not received any.^[76] Former US president Bill Clinton acknowledged the problems and said Americans should "not be deterred from supporting the relief effort" by upsetting scenes such as those of looting.^[77] Some reports of violence indicated a more communal aspect as supply delays continued as looters were wounded or killed by vigilante justice with tacit police approval, including one purported thief dying with a burning tire around his neck; other neighborhoods constructed their own roadblock barricades.^[78]

In many neighborhoods, singing could be heard through the night and groups of men coordinated to act as security as groups of women attempted to take care of food and hygiene necessities.^[79] During the days following the the earthquake, hundreds of women were seen marching through the streets in peaceful processions, singing and clapping.^[80] On Sunday, 17 January, Haitians roamed the streets looking for church services to attend. Impromptu gatherings were held outside churches that had collapsed with a few attendees appearing in their best clothes.^[81]

Casualties

Main article: Casualties of the 2010 Haiti earthquake

Brazilian pediatrician and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Zilda Arns was killed in the earthquake.

The earthquake struck in the most populated area of the country; estimates of the number of dead increased from 45,000 shortly after the earthquake to 200,000 six days later .^[8][82][3] The day after the earthquake the International Red Cross estimated that as many as 3 million people had been affected by the quake.^[7] Appeals for international aid were issued by Haitian government officials, including Raymond Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States.^[83]

A minister for the Haitian government reported on 16 January that nearly 20,000 bodies had been recovered by government crews.^[84] Some reports indicated 250,000 people sustained injuries, and as many as one million Haitians were left homeless.^[85] Experts caution that any final death toll will be a "guesstimate" as the scale of the disaster makes an accurate tally impossible.^[86]

Amongst the large number of dead were several public figures including government officials, clergy members, and musicians, and foreign civilians and military personnel working with the United Nations. Those killed include Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince,^[87] and officials in the Haitian government, including Justice Minister Paul Denis and opposition leader Michel Gaillard;^[88] and numerous prominent Haitian musicians.^[61] At least 37 United Nations personnel working with United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) were confirmed dead and over 300 remained missing and presumably buried in the building rubble.^[89] Many foreign civilians also died, including citizens of the U.S., China, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Peru,^[90] Taiwan, Spain and the United Kingdom.^[91] Among them was Brazilian pediatrician, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Zilda Arns.^[92]

Response

Main articles: Humanitarian response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake and Humanitarian response by national governments to the 2010 Haiti earthquake

United States Coast Guard moves a wounded Haitian onboard a cutter to provide medical aid.

Appeals for humanitarian aid were issued by the International Red Cross, the Salvation Army,^[93] the United Nations^[94] and president René Préval.^[95] Ambassador Joseph and his nephew, singer Wyclef Jean,^[96] who was called by Préval to become a "roving ambassador" for Haiti,^[97] have also pleaded for donations.

Many countries have responded to the appeals and launched fund-raising efforts, as well as sending search & rescue teams. The neighboring Dominican Republic was the first country to give aid to Haiti, easing tensions that have existed between the two countries since the 19th century.^[83] The Dominican team sent food, bottled water and heavy machinery to remove the rubble.^[98] The hospitals in Dominican Republic were made available, as well as the airport to receive aid that would be distributed to Haiti.^[98] Personnel from the Dominican emergency team provide service to more than 2,000 injured and the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel) helped to restore telephone services.^[98] The Dominican Red Cross and the International Red Cross have been coordinating health relief services.^[98] The Dominican Republic has also been a landing point for foreign correspondents who have come to cover the tragedy.^[98] The government has sent eight mobile medical units along with 36 doctors including orthopedics, traumatologists, anesthesiologists, and surgeons. In addition, 39 trucks with canned food have been dispatched, along with 10 mobile kitchens and 110 cooks who can prepare 100,000 meals per day.^[99]

US Navy heavy-lift helicopters ferry water from the Carl Vinson, 15 January

Other nations from farther afield also sent personnel, medicines, materiel, and other aid to Haiti. From the Middle East, the government of Qatar sent a strategic transport aircraft (C-17), loaded with 50 tonnes of urgent relief materials and 26 members from the Qatari armed forces, the internal security force (Lekhwiya), police force and the Hamad Medical Corporation. The team will set up a field hospital and provide assistance in Port-au-Prince and other affected areas in Haiti.^[100] A rescue team sent by the government of Israel established a field hospital near the United Nations building in Port-au-Prince. It began operations on the evening of 16 January 2010, and included specialized facilities to treat children, the elderly, and women in labor.^[101]

Elements of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division deployed on 15 January 2010 from Pope Air Force Base by US Air Force aircraft.^[102] Military action in rescue and recovery efforts concentrated on safely bringing aid, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Ideas such as air dropping aid were dismissed early in planning for their problematic logistical issues.^[103] The U.S. Navy also announced on 13 January that the hospital ship Comfort and amphibious helicopter carrier Bataan will be deployed to assist in the humanitarian relief efforts.^[104] On 14 January, the U.S. government announced a large relief fund effort for Haiti. President Barack Obama said the U.S. would give $100 million to the aid effort for the stricken Caribbean country and pledged that the people of Haiti "will not be forgotten".^[105] Obama also sent an email to all members of the Organizing for America mailing list urging readers to help support relief efforts in Haiti.^[106] By 16 January, US military helicopters were airdropping food and supplies to the survivors.^[107]

Urban Search and Rescue specialists from Fairfax County, Virginia, USA work at the Hotel Montana.

The International Red Cross has announced that it has run out of supplies in Haiti and has appealed for public donations.^[108] Giving Children Hope has been working to get much-needed medicines and supplies on the ground.^[109] Partners in Health (PIH) is the largest health care provider in rural Haiti; it oversees some 10 hospitals and clinics, all far from the capital and all still intact. PIH is currently serving the flow of patients from Port-au-Prince.^[110]

MINUSTAH has over 9,000 uniformed peacekeepers deployed to the area;^[111] most are searching for survivors at the headquarters.^[112]

The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was activated^[113], thus providing for exigent satellite coverage^[114] by several national and international space agencies^[115].

Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook were responsible for spreading messages and pleas to send help.^[116] Facebook was overwhelmed from some Haitians and blocked some users who were sending messages about updates.^[117] The American Red Cross set a record of mobile donating when they allowed people to send $10 donations by cellular phone text messages, raising $7 million in 24 hours.^[118] The OpenStreetMap community responded by greatly improving the level of mapping available for the area using post-earthquake satellite photography^[119] provided by GeoEye,^[120][121] and tracking website Ushahidi coordinated messages from multiple sites to assist Haitians still trapped or to get word to family members of survivors.^[122]

Rescue action

Main article: Timeline of rescue efforts after the 2010 Haiti earthquake

MINUSTAH troops meet a relief flight on 16 January 2010; this landing MH-53E is the largest helicopter type operated by the US.

Rescue efforts began in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, with able-bodied Haitian and foreign national survivors prying both living and deceased casualties from the rubble of the many buildings which had collapsed,^[123] but efforts were stymied by the chronic lack of hospital and morgue facilities leaving the Argentine military field hospital the only one available until 13 January.^[124] The MINUSTAH peacekeeping force, which is usually involved in relief efforts in times of natural disasters in the country, was itself trying to rescue their own personnel from the wreckage of the UN peacekeeping facilities in Port-au-Prince. Rescue actions only slightly increased in frequency with the arrival of doctors, police officers, military personnel and firefighters from various countries two days after the earthquake.^[125]

On 13 January, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) set up a special website to facilitate family contacts, which allowed people in Haiti and abroad to register the names of relatives whom they wanted to contact.^[126]

Medical teams treat victims at a Haitian Coast Guard base.

The first of three massive Red Cross Red Crescent basic health care emergency response units (ERUs, designed to provide basic and immediate health care to 30,000 people) arrived on 16 January. On 17 January 14 ERUs had already been deployed to Haiti, with most expected to arrive in the coming days. They include water and sanitation units, logistic units, IT and telecommunication infrastructure, and a massive 250-bed hospital.^[127]

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) operated out of two hospitals, treating about 500 people who needed emergency surgery.^[53][54] The state of medical care was severely limited; a parking lot served as a triage center and the wounded were forced to lie in tents for treatment.^[54] By 16 January, seven field hospitals had been established, set up wherever room was available and working without electricity. The most serious procedures involved caesarian sections and amputations. A doctor with Médecins du Monde estimated that they would perform 400 amputations on people who had been trapped in buildings.^[128] Aid stations were besieged, made worse because the able-bodied bringing wounded friends and relatives had nowhere to go.^[129] As the earthquake response neared its first week, some medical teams ran out of the supplies they arrived with, and began to construct splints out of cardboard while re-using latex gloves; other rescue units were forced to withdraw as night fell, for security reasons.^[130]

A canine search-team from Los Angeles County Fire/Search and Rescue, California, USA is transported by the US Air Force to Haiti.

A Médecins Sans Frontières airplane carrying medical necessities and a portable hospital was told by the U.S. government it would be unable to land.^[131] First responders voiced frustration with the number of relief trucks "sitting" at the airport instead of operating.^[132] Aid workers blamed US-controlled airport operations, for prioritizing the transportation of security troops over rescuers and supplies;^[78] the evacuation policies favoring citizens of certain nations were also criticized.^[133] The US military acknowledged the non-governmental organizations’ complaints concerning flight-operations bias and vowed improvement, while noting that to date, 600 emergency flights had landed and 50 were diverted; by the first weekend of disaster operations diversions had been reduced to three on Saturday and two on Sunday.^[134] The airport was able to serve 100 landings a day, up from the 35 that the airport gets on a normal day, and though a spokesman for the joint task force for running the airport confirmed that more flights were requesting to go, no more were being turned away.^[135] While the Port-au-Prince airport ramp only has room for five airplanes including one jumbo,^[136] the supply backup at the airport was expected to ease when the perceived need for heavy security is less pronounced.^[78]

The initial foreign military presence in the country in response to the quake were MINUSTAH troops and United States Coast Guard vessels Forward, Mohawk, and Tahoma.^[137] By the 14th, over 20 countries had sent military personnel to the country, with Canada, the United States (particularly its Marines and Navy) and the Dominican Republic providing the largest contingencies, and further arrivals or announcements of delegations to the country are expected. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived at flank speed on 15 January with 600,000 emergency food rations, 100,000 ten-liter water containers, and an enhanced helicopter wing numbering 19 aircraft; 35,000 gallons of potable water were transferred to shore in her first day on scene.^[138] The helicopter carrier USS Bataan sailed with three large dock landing ships and two survey/salvage vessels, intending to create a "sea base" for the rescue effort.^{[139][140][141]} They were joined by the French Navy vessel Francis Garnier on 16 January,^[142] the same day the hospital ship USNS Comfort and guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill left for Haiti to assist.^[143][144] To repair the destroyed Port-au-Prince seaport, the salvage ship USNS Grasp was dispatched.^[145]

A Haitian baby is fitted with warmer clothing after evacuation to New Jersey.

International rescue efforts were also restricted by impasses such as traffic jams in mountain roads between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, while vessels used various means to dock and deploy supplies and manpower onto shore; furthermore, roadblocks in the streets of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, mostly from fallen debris or manmade roadblocks constructed either for safety purposes or in protest at the current situation, severely restricted access by aid workers and military personnel.^[146] Although U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had previously ruled out dropping food and water by air, by 16 January, U.S. helicopters were distributing aid to areas impossible to reach by land.^[107] By 17 January, 1,500 people working in 27 rescue teams from several countries were searching for people still trapped in rubble.^[135]

Easing refugee immigration into Canada was discussed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper,^[147] and in the U.S. Haitians were granted Temporary Protected Status that will allow about 100,000 undocumented Haitians in the United States to stay legally for 18 months, and will stop the current deportations of 30,000 more; it will not apply to Haitians outside the U.S.^[148][149] Local and state agencies in South Florida, and the U.S. government began implementing a plan for a mass migration from the Caribbean named "Operation Vigilant Sentry" that had been laid out in 2003.^[150] Several orphanages were destroyed in the earthquake. Adoptions that were in process were hastened for 300 children into the U.S. and 100 into the Netherlands. Before the earthquake, there were 380,000 orphans in Haiti, and the number is expected to rise.^[151] Several organizations began planning an airlift of several thousand orphaned children into South Florida on humanitarian visas, modeled after a similar effort with Cuban refugees in the 1960s named Pedro Pan.^[152]

By Sunday evening, five days after the initial quake, the UN announced over 70 survivors had been pulled from the rubble, while 130,000 food packets and 70,000 water containers were distributed to Haitians, as safe landing and distribution centers like golf courses were secured.^[153] There were nearly 2,000 rescuers on-scene from 43 different groups, along with 161 search dogs; the airport had handled 250 tons of relief supplies by the end of the weekend.^[154] Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has begun using scheduled port calls in northern Haiti, to transfer emergency supplies using extra space on its liners.^[155]

Recovery

Haitians await the opening of a supply depot, 16 January 2010

U.S. President Barack Obama announced that former presidents Bill Clinton, who also acts as the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, and George W. Bush will coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti’s recovery. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Haiti on 16 January to survey the damage and stated that $48 million has been raised already in the U.S. to help Haiti recover.^[156] Following the meeting with Secretary Clinton, President Préval stated that the highest priorities in Haiti’s recovery are establishing a working government, clearing roads, and ensuring the streets are cleared of bodies and sanitary conditions return.^[157]

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden stated on 16 January that "[Barack Obama] does not view this as a humanitarian mission with a life cycle of a month. This will still be on our radar screen long after it’s off the crawler at CNN. This is going to be a long slog."^[158] Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that France, the United States, Brazil and Canada would hold a conference to organize the reconstruction of Haiti.^[159]

The president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, offered interested Haitians free land in Senegal, up to an entire region depending on how many respond to the offer.^[160]

Coordination of the relief effort is central Haitian recovery, according to U.S. officials.^[161] With the large number of organizations compounding the reconstruction work, President Préval asked for improved cooperation between donor nations.^[162][163] The French Secretary for Cooperation, Alain Joyandet, filed a complaint at the U.S. embassy on 16 January against a perceived preference for American aid arriving at the U.S.-controlled Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport.^[164] The day before, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim had already decried American favoritism for incoming aid.^[165]

See also

• List of 21st century earthquakes
• List of earthquakes in Haiti

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115. ^ http://www.disasterscharter.org/web/charter/members
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117. ^ Facebook users in Haiti say some access has been blocked, The Miami Herald (14 January 2010). Retrieved on 14 January 2010.
118. ^ Gross, Doug (14 January 2010). Social networks, texts boost fundraising, CNN. Retrieved on 14 January 2010.
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120. ^ "[OSM-talk] GeoEye Haiti imagery Ok’d". Mikel Maron. http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2010-January/046993.html. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
121. ^ "[OSM-talk] Extended GeoEye imagery now available for use on OSM". Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason. http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2010-January/047072.html. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
122. ^ Hesse, Monica, (16 January 2010). Crisis mapping brings online tool to Haitian disaster relief effort The Washington Post. Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
123. ^ Marrapodi, Eric, Lawrence, Chris, Hall, Rick, Phillips, Rich, Watson, Ivan and Candiotti, Susan (15 January 2010). Haitians dig themselves out as quake damage slows outside aid, CNN. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
124. ^ "Only one hospital open in Haiti’s quake hit capital". Courier Mail. 2010-01-13. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,26587037-5003402,00.html?from=public_rss.
125. ^ Haiti Devastated, Indian Express. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
126. ^ "ICRC sets up special website to facilitate family contacts". 2010-01-14. http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/haiti-news-140110.
127. ^ "ICRC rushes to get water and medical supplies to survivors". 2010-01-14. http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/haiti-earthquake-update-170110.
128. ^ AFP (17 January 2010). Medics report mass amputations in Haiti, The Herald Sun. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
129. ^ Sheridan, Mary Beth (17 January 2010). Patients overwhelm medical teams at Haiti clinics, The Washington Post. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
130. ^ Edwards, Steven; Barrera, Jorge (17 January 2010). "Fears of violence as Haitians grow desperate for water, food". Montreal Gazette. http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Fears+violence+Haitians+grow+desperate/2450845/story.html. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
131. ^ Tran, Mark (17 January 2010). Aid plane turned away from Haiti airport, says medical charity, The Guardian. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
132. ^ Montpetit, Jonathan (18 January 2010). "Canada determining how and where to direct relief to Haitians". The Canadian Press. http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iLy6wsX4PmBjhJ8AkCwfws39nVKw. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
133. ^ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/558f15be-038b-11df-a601-00144feabdc0.html
134. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H00020100118
135. ^ ^{a b} Cave, Damien, Sontag, Deborah (January 17, 2010). Rescues Beat Dimming Odds in Haiti, The New York Times. Retrieved on January 17, 2010.
136. ^ Boadle, Anthony (17 January 2010), "U.S. military says Haiti airport jam easing", Reuters (Miami), http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H00020100118, retrieved 18 January 2010
137. ^ Hsu, Spencer (15 January 2010).Coast Guard cutter delivers medical supplies, help; ‘we saved a lot of lives’, The Washington Post. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
138. ^ Dreazen, Yochi (15 January 2010). U.S. Carrier Carl Vinson Joins Relief Efforts, The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
139. ^ "Vinson Helicopters Perform Medical Evacuations; "Sea Base" On the Way". Navy.mil (United States Navy). 2010-01-16. http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=50582. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
140. ^ Bacon, Lance (2010-01-15). "3 amphibs leave Virginia for Haiti". Navy Times. http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/01/navy_bataanleave_011410w/. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
141. ^ Farlan, Mark M. (16 January 2010). "Bataan heads for Haiti". Navy Times. http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/01/navy_bataan_haiti_011510w/. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
142. ^ Haïti: un navire français en route (in French), Le Figaro (15 January 2010), Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
143. ^ Garamone, Jim / American Forces Press Service (16 January 2010). "Top Navy Doc Predicts Long USNS Comfort Deployment". http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=57565. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
144. ^ Fuentes, Gidget (16 January 2010). "Bunker Hill en route to help Haiti mission". Navy Times. http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/01/navy_bunkerhill_011610/. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
145. ^ "US Navy en route to make Haiti seaport usable". The Washington Post (Associated Press). 2010-01-16. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/16/AR2010011601601.html. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
146. ^ At Haiti roadblock, a lesson in power dynamics, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
147. ^ Canada considers fast-tracking Haitian immigration, CBC News (15 January 2010). Retrieved on 15 January 2010
148. ^ Stone, Rick (14 January 2010). "Miami’s ‘Little Haiti’ Neighborhood Waits For News". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122567003. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
149. ^ Preston, Julia (15 January 2010). Haitians in U.S. Illegally Given Protected Status , The New York Times. Retrieved on 15 January 2010.
150. ^ McGrory, Kathleen (17 January 2010). Krome detention center readied for for possible influx of Haitians, The Miami Herald, Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
151. ^ Haitian orphans rushed to new homes abroad, CNN (January 17, 2010). Retrieved on January 17, 2010.
152. ^ Chardy, Alphonso; Bustos, Sergio (14 January 2010). "Church, immigrant groups plan to airlift Haitian orphans to S. Florida". The Miami Herald. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1425090.html. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
153. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6108740n&tag=contentMain;contentBody
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156. ^ Presidents Clinton, Bush lead effort to raise funds for Haiti, CNN (16 January 2010). Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
157. ^ Hillary Clinton meets with Haiti leader after arrival, CNN (16 January 2010). Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
158. ^ Reinhard, Beth (16 January 2010). Biden meets with Haitian-American leaders in Miami, The Miami Herald. Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
159. ^ "World scrambles rescue teams, aid to quake-hit Haiti". France24. 15 January 2010. http://www.france24.com/en/20100115-world-scrambles-rescue-teams-aid-quake-hit-haiti?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
160. ^ Callimachi, Rukmini (16 January 2010). Senegal offers land to Haitians that want to come, The Miami Herald. Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
161. ^ Hampton, Olivia (16 January 2010). Beset by logistical challenges, Haiti relief presses on, AFP. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
162. ^ (Portuguese)Scofield Jr., Gilberto (17 January 2010). Descoordenação atrapalha ajuda a vítimas do terremoto no Haiti, O Globo. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
163. ^ Morris, Harvey (17 January 2010). Haiti airport delays blamed on US, Financial Times. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
164. ^ AFP (16 January 2010). (French) La France critique la gestion de l’aéroport de Port-au-Prince, Libération. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.
165. ^ (Portuguese)Fernandes, Adriana (17 January 2010). Brasil pedirá que ONU defina papéis, O Estado de S. Paulo. Retrieved on 17 January 2010.

External links

Wikinews has related news: Category:2010 Haiti earthquake

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 2010 Haiti earthquake

Emergency aid

• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• Doctors Without Borders
• Disasters Emergency Committee umbrella organisation for 13 UK aid agencies coordinating the appeal in the UK
• Haiti earthquake aid pledged by country, DataBlog at The Guardian with data spreadsheet downloads, visualizations and mashups

Contacting friends and relatives in Haiti

• International Committee of the Red Cross Family Links webpage
• US National Next of Kin Registry (NOKR) Emergency Contact Registry
• Looking for loved ones in Haiti from CNN (photo and message database)

News and pictures

• 2010 Haiti Earthquake News and Media at the Open Directory Project
• United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
• UNDP photo gallery from Haiti on Flickr
• Latest Geo-Eye satellite imagery
• Department of National Defence images on Flickr

Population and geographic information

• Haiti Earthquake – US Census Population Data maps and data from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Earthquake science links

• USGS page for this event
• University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre – FAQ on Haiti Earthquake and implications for wider Caribbean
• USGS scientist discusses this event
• Frequently asked questions about earthquakes
• List of Historical earthquakes, International Seismological Centre (ISC)
• US Army Corps of Engineers, Army Geospatial Center

v • d • e 2010 Haiti earthquake   Humanitarian response (by national governments) · Rescue efforts · Casualties   Regions affected Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone | Haiti – Ouest: Port-au-Prince Arrondissement (Port-au-Prince · Pétionville · Carrefour · Gressier) · Léogâne Arrondissement (Léogâne · Petit-Goâve) — Sud-Est: Jacmel Arrondissement (Jacmel)   Damaged facilities Christopher Hotel (MINUSTAH) · Holy Trinity (Episcopal) Cathedral · Hôtel Montana · Presidential Palace · National Assembly · Notre-Dame (Catholic) Cathedral · Toussaint Louverture International Airport   Casualties Georges Anglade · Hédi Annabi · Zilda Arns · Luiz Carlos da Costa · Paul Denis · Rev. Sam Dixon · Michel Gaillard · Jimmy O · Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot

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“Justice is one of the most popular courses in Harvard’s history”

“Sandel has opened up an important area of debate at a time when some of the unquestioned assumptions underlying economic policy and praxis of the last few decades have been exposed as fraudulent and are being questioned. What happens to the human person in a greedy society? What happens when people and values become commodities that can be traded? What happens when morality is reduced to what is technically practicable? And who is willing to take responsibility instead of just blaming others for what they don’t like?” Nick Baines

Michael J. Sandel (born March 5, 1953) is a political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University. He is best known for his critique of Rawls‘ Theory of Justice (1971) in his Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982).

Education

Sandel graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1975, and received his doctorate from Balliol College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where he studied under Charles Taylor.

Philosophical views

Sandel subscribes to the theory of communitarianism (although he is uncomfortable with the label), and in this vein he is perhaps best known for his critique of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice. Rawls’ argument depends on the assumption of the veil of ignorance, which allows us to become “unencumbered selves.”

Sandel’s view is that we are by nature encumbered to an extent that makes it impossible even in the hypothetical to have such a veil. Some examples of such ties are the ties we make with our families, which we do not make by conscious choice but are born with them already attached. Because they are not consciously applied, these ties are impossible to separate from someone. Sandel believes that only a less-restrictive, looser version of the veil of ignorance can be possible. Rawls’s argument, however, depends on the fact that the veil is restrictive enough that we make decisions without knowing who will be affected by these decisions, which of course is impossible if we are already attached to people in the world.

Teaching

Justice

Sandel has taught the famous “Justice”^[1] course at Harvard for two decades. More than 10,000 students have taken the course, making it one of the most highly attended in Harvard’s history. The fall 2007 class was the largest ever at Harvard, with a total of 1,115 students.^[2] The fall 2007 course was recorded, and is offered online for students nationwide through the Harvard Extension School. An abridged form of this recording is now a 12-episode TV series, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, in a coproduction of WGBH and Harvard University. Episodes are available on the Justice with Michael Sandel website.^[3] There is also an accompanying book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, and the sourcebook of readings Justice: A Reader.

Click here for Other episodes -videos- of Justice by Michael Sandel

Other teaching

Sandel also co-teaches with Douglas Melton “Ethics and Biotechnology”, a seminar considering the ethical implications of a variety of biotechnological procedures and possibilities.

Authorship

Sandel is the author of multiple publications including Democracy’s Discontent and Public Philosophy. His Public Philosophy is a collection of his own previously published essays, examining the role of morality and justice in American political life. He offers commentary on the roles of moral values and civic community in the American electoral process – a much-debated aspect of the 2004 U.S. election cycle and current political discussion.

Michael Sandel gave the 2009 Reith Lectures on “A New Citizenship” on BBC Radio, addressing the ‘prospect for a new politics of the common good’ ^[4]. The lectures were delivered in London on May 18, Oxford on May 21, Newcastle on May 26 and Washington DC in early June ^[5].

Public service

Sandel served on the George W. Bush administration’s President’s Council on Bioethics.

2009 immigration commentary

In 2009, he described a controversial ’solution’ to immigration. Sandel suggested that the international community should impose annual refugee quotas on nations according to their wealth. Countries would be allowed to pay other, poorer countries to take refugees allotted under their quota.^[6]

Sandel does not endorse this view. He merely uses it as an illustration of the markets inevitably presupposing and promoting certain norms. He concludes: “There is something distasteful about a market in refugees, even if it’s for their own good, but what exactly is objectionable about it? It has something to do with the fact that a market in refugees changes our view of who refugees are and how they should be treated. It encourages the participants — the buyers, the sellers and also those whose asylum is being haggled over — to think of refugees as burdens to be unloaded or as revenue sources rather than as human beings in peril.”^[7]

Works

• Michael J. Sandel, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, (September 15, 2009), ISBN 978-0374180652
• Michael J. Sandel, Justice: A Reader, Oxford University Press, (September 27, 2007), ISBN 978-0195335125
• Michael J. Sandel, The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, (January 31, 2007); paperback (September 30, 2009), ISBN 978-0674036383
• Michael J. Sandel, Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics, Harvard University Press (October 31, 2006), ISBN 978-0674023659
• Michael J. Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, Cambridge University Press, (March 28, 1998), ISBN 978-0521567411
• Michael J. Sandel, Democracy’s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (February 6, 1998), ISBN 978-0674197459

Other languages

• Michael J. Sandel, Plädoyer gegen die Perfektion (German), Berlin University Press, (January 1, 2008), ISBN 978-3940432148
• Michael J. Sandel and Maria Luz Melon, El Liberalismo y los Limites de la Justicia (Filosofia del Derecho) (Spanish), Gedisa Editorial, (November 2000), ISBN 978-8474327069

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References

External links

• Harvard University Bio
• Podcast interview with Nigel Warburton on Philosophy Bites on What Shouldn’t Be Sold
• Podcast interview with Nigel Warburton on Ethics Bites on the topic of Genetic Enhancement in Sports
• The President’s Council on Bioethics
• FORA.tv The Case Against Perfection
• FORA.tv Michael Sandel on Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning at the Aspen Institute, one hour excerpt
• A page of links relating to the 2009 Reith Lectures
• Justice with Michael Sandel, WGBH Boston and Harvard University, complete online video with discussion guides, readings and discussion circle
• Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? on Harvard University’s YouTube channel

© Matthieu Ricard (born 1946) is a Buddhist monk who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal.

Recently the Dalai Lama Center Canada organized a Peace Summit in Vancouver with the Dalai Lama and other Nobel Prize winners and speakers. One evening the rock singer and humanitarian Bob Geldof, whose Live Aid concerts have raised 100s of millions of dollars for Africa, made this passionate plea:

“For most of us, all we can do when witnessing suffering is to put our hand in our pocket. If a million of us do that, it is a lot of people, a lot of help, and governments should take note. We need to keep children alive long enough so that they can become the doctors and engineers of tomorrow. Without that something will wither and die inside of us.

Many of these children don’t have parents because of man-made mistakes like wars. In my life I have met extraordinary people such as Mother Theresa. She would tell me that she saw the suffering of Christ on the broken backs of the poor. I don’t see that. I don’t see God. I see the malignant hand of man laid bare. And if that is so, it can be remedied, because it we have done it and we can undo it. We can say: “Enough!” All this is the symptom of poverty revealed in lack of education and in ill health.

In terms of global wealth, the need is infinitesimal if the political will would be there. How many times do we have to manifest the will of the people to the politician and say: “GET-THIS-DONE!” How many times do we have to create African children’s choirs and pop concerts in order to convince human beings to join in the glory of humanity? What are we – a circus or a society?

In truth, the real need represents only a tiny proportion of national budgets.

In the case of America, it is 0.16% of the national economy. It is not that Americans are selfish. Surveys show that when asked what percentage of their GDP do they believe goes into foreign aid, Americans say: “10%”. And when asked “it that enough”, they say “no”. But when they actually find out that it is only 0.16%, they are dismayed.”

The Commission for Africa has requested a doubling of aid by 2010 that will total 50 billion US dollars. Three months ago, one private bank in Britain was given 75 billion pounds within 30 minutes to save it from going under.

Yet a billion people will go down, and the cost is less that one private British company, in an economic system representing more than 50 trillion per annum. And one of the world’s richest economies can’t find a fraction of that.

We really are a joke.

When we break our promise to the poor, we break the most sacred promise, because breaking this promise kills people.

About Matthew Ricard

Walter Mischel

Columbia University

Paul Meehl, in one of his last public speeches, memorably noted that most clinical psychologists select their methods like kids make choices in a candy store: They look around, maybe sample a bit, and choose what they like, whatever feels good to them.

New report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, the result of a major two-year analysis that lays out the ugly truth behind this shady industry.

“Many clinical psychologists today, perhaps the majority, are deeply ambivalent about the role of science in informing their practice,” the authors write.

This report wasn’t written by some unhappy fringe or radical group looking to discredit psychology. It was written by a group of top psychologists, some of the few rays of light who see the darkness engulfing their profession.” William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

Connecting Clinical Practice to Scientific Progress

by Walter Mischel (pdf file)

Copyrights: http://www.psychologicalscience.org

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Mischel

Walter Mischel (1930- ) is an American psychologist specializing in personality theory and social psychology. He is the Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University.

Early life

Mischel was born in 1930 in Vienna, Austria, from which he fled with his family to the United States after the Nazi occupation in 1938.^[1] He grew up in Brooklyn, New York and studied under George Kelly and Julian Rotter at Ohio State University, where he received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1956.

Professional career

Mischel taught at the University of Colorado from 1956 to 1958, at Harvard University from 1958 to 1962, and at Stanford University from 1962 to 1983. Since 1983, Mischel has been in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University.

Mischel was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1991. In 2007, Mischel was elected president of the Association for Psychological Science. Mischel’s other honors include the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Society of Experimental Social Psychologists, the Distinguished Contributions to Personality Award of the Society of Social and Personality Psychologists, and the Distinguished Scientist Award of American Psychological Association’s Division of Clinical Psychology. He is past editor of Psychological Review and past president of the American Psychological Association Division of Social and Personality Psychology and of the Association for Research in Personality.

Contributions to personality theory

In 1968, Mischel published the now classic monograph, Personality and Assessment, which created a paradigm crisis in personality psychology that changed the agenda of the field for decades. Mischel showed that study after study failed to support the fundamental traditional assumption of personality theory, that an individual’s behavior with regard to a trait (e.g. conscientiousness, sociability) is highly consistent across diverse situations. Instead, Mischel’s analyses revealed that the individual’s behavior, when closely examined, was highly dependent upon situational cues, rather than expressed consistently across diverse situations that differed in meaning.

Mischel made the case that the field of personality psychology was searching for consistency in the wrong places. Instead of treating situations as the noise or “error of measurement” in personality psychology, Mischel’s work proposed that by including the situation as it is perceived by the person and by analyzing behavior in its situational context, the consistencies that characterize the individual would be found. He argued that these individual differences would not be expressed in consistent cross-situational behavior, but instead, he suggested that consistency would be found in distinctive but stable patterns of if-then, situation-behavior relations that form contextualized, psychologically meaningful “personality signatures” (e.g., “she does A when X, but B when Y”).

These signatures of personality were in fact revealed in a large observational study of social behavior across multiple repeated situations over time (Mischel & Shoda, 1995). Contradicting the classic assumptions, the data showed that individuals who were similar in average levels of behavior, for example in their aggression, nevertheless differed predictably and dramatically in the types of situations in which they aggressed. As predicted by Mischel, they were characterized by highly psychologically informative if-then behavioral signatures. Collectively, this work has allowed a new way to conceptualize and assess both the stability and variability of behavior that is produced by the underlying personality system, and has opened a window into the dynamic processes within the system itself (Mischel, 2004).

In a second direction, beginning in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Mischel pioneered work illuminating the ability to delay gratification and to exert self-control in the face of strong situational pressures and emotionally “hot” temptations. His studies with preschoolers in the late 1960s, often referred to as “the marshmallow experiment“, examined the processes and mental mechanisms that enable a young child to forego immediate gratification and to wait instead for a larger desired but delayed reward. Continuing research with these original participants has examined how preschool delay of gratification ability links to development over the life course, and may predict a variety of important outcomes (e.g., SAT scores, social and cognitive competence, educational attainment, and drug use), and can have significant protective effects against a variety of potential vulnerabilities.^[1] This work also opened a route to research on temporal discounting in decision-making, and most importantly into the mental mechanisms that enable cognitive and emotional self-control, thereby helping to demystify the concept of “willpower” (Mischel et al., 1989; Mischel & Ayduk, 2004).

References

External links

• Columbia University Department of Psychology: Walter Mischel

elected bibliography

Media reports

• Lehrer, Jonah. “Department of Science: Don’t!” May 18, 2009. The New Yorker. [1]

Scientific publications

• Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and assessment. New York: Wiley.
• Mischel, W. (1973). Toward a cognitive social learning reconceptualization of personality. Psychological Review, 80, 252-283.
• Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M. L. (1989). Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244, 933-938.
• Mischel, W. & Shoda, Y. (1995). A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure. Psychological Review, 102, 246-268.
• Metcalfe, J., & Mischel, W. (1999). A hot/cool system analysis of delay of gratification: Dynamics of willpower. Psychological Review, 106, 3-19.
• Mischel, W., & Ayduk, O. (2004). “Willpower in a cognitive-affective processing system: The dynamics of delay of gratification”. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications (pp. 99-129). New York: Guilford.
• Mischel, W. (2004). “Toward an integrative science of the person”. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 1-22.

Autobiography

• Mischel, W. (2007). “Walter Mischel”. In G. Lindzey & W. M. Runyan (Eds.), A History of Psychology in Autobiography (Vol. IX, pp. 229-267). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2009

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA…

“for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”

Photo: Pete Souza, Obama-Biden Transition Project, licensed by Attribution Share Alike 3.0
Barack Obama
USA
44th President of the United States of America
b. 1961

“His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population,” Nobel Committee.

Copyright: http://www.time.com

Courtesy of OBAMA FOR AMERICA

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1834628_1754174,00.html

OBAMA FAMILY TREE:

Supreme Court Justice

Obama’s distant cousin, Gabriel Duvall, was a member of the US House of Representatives, from the second district of Maryland. In 1811, he was appointed to the Supreme Court, where he sat until 1834. He was also a friend of Thomas Jefferson and the owner of 37 slaves

Farmers

Louisa Eliza Stroup Dunham and Jacob Mackey Dunham are the candidate’s great-great-great grandparents. A farmer in Tipton, County, Indiana in the 1870s, Jacob Dunham later owned restaurants and a confectionary in the Oklahoma Territory. He died in 1907.

Grandparents

Stanley and Madelyn Dunham pose with Obama’s mother Ann in a photograph probably taken in the 1950s. Born in Kansas, Obama’s maternal grandparents lived in four states before settling in Hawaii.

Mother

Though she has signed this sophomore yearbook photograph of herself “Stanley” — her parents named her Stanley Ann at birth — Obama’s mother was known as Ann for most of her life. After attending Mercer Island High School in Washington, she enrolled at the University of Hawaii, where she met Barack Obama, Sr.

Father

Born in Kenya, Barack Obama Sr. came to the University of Hawaii in order to study for a degree in economics. This photograph hangs on the wall of his stepmother’s house in Kogelo, Kenya.

Parents

Barack Sr. and Ann Dunham married in February, 1961 and Barack was born six months later. Their union did not last long, however. The marriage ended in divorce in early 1964.

The Young Obama

For the first six years of his life, Barack lived in Hawaii. In 1967, his mother remarried and the family moved to Indonesia.

Reunion

After the divorce, Barack Jr. only saw his father one more time, in Hawaii, in 1972, when this photograph was taken. The senior Barack then returned to Kenya, where he worked for a US oil company and the Kenyan government. He died in a car accident in 1982, at the age of 46.

Half Sister

Maya Soetoro, the daughter of Barack’s mother and her second husband, Lolo Soetoro, sits beside the young Barack, Ann and grandfather Stanley Dunham in this photograph taken in Hawaii the early 1970s. Ann came back to Hawaii to attend graduate school in 1974 and remained until 1977, when she returned to Indonesia.

Family Ties

When Ann returned to Indonesia, the young Barack remained behind in Hawaii, where he was raised by his maternal grandparents. He eventually attended Columbia University in New York, where this photo was taken in the 1980s.

Extended Family

On his father’s side, Obama has numerous relatives. He has made several visits to the home of his step grandmother, Sarah Obama, front row, second from right. He also has four half brothers through his father.

Kenya

Sarah Obama, now 86, still resides in Kogelo. In this photo, she and Obama pose together outside her home in 1995.

Michelle

Barack met his wife in the late 1980s, when the two worked at the prestigious Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin. They were married in 1992. Shortly thereafter, they spent a Christmas in Hawaii, where this photo was taken.

The Next Generation

Barack and Michelle have two children, Malia, now 10, and Sasha, 7.

The Story of Barack Obama’s Mother

By Amanda Ripley / Honolulu

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729524,00.html#WordPress

Ann Dunham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stanley Ann Dunham in 1960

Born     Stanley Ann Dunham

November 29, 1942(1942-11-29)

Wichita, Kansas, USA

Died     November 7, 1995 (aged 52)

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Cause of death     Uterine cancer

Resting place     Pacific Ocean

at Koko Head, Oahu

Nationality     American

Ethnicity     White

Education     BA, MA, PhD [1]

Alma mater     University of Hawaii

Occupation     Anthropologist

Home town     Wichita, Kansas

Known for     Mother of US President Barack Obama

Indonesian anthropology

Spouse(s)     Barack Obama, Sr.

(1961–1964, divorced)

Lolo Soetoro

(1965–1980, divorced)

Children     Barack Obama (b.1961)

Maya Soetoro (b.1970)

Parents     Stanley Armour Dunham

Madelyn Payne Dunham

Stanley Ann Dunham (November 29, 1942 – November 7, 1995), mother of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, was an American anthropologist who specialized in economic anthropology and rural development. Dunham was nicknamed Anna,[2][3] later known as Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro,[1] and finally Ann Dunham Sutoro.[1] Born in Kansas, Dunham spent her childhood in California, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas and her teenage years in Mercer Island, Washington, and much of her adult life in Hawaii and Indonesia.

Dunham studied at the University of Hawaii and the East-West Center and attained a bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. in anthropology

Professional life

Dunham returned to graduate school in Honolulu in 1974, while raising Barack and Maya. When Dunham returned to Indonesia for field work in 1975 with Maya, after three years in Honolulu, Barack chose not to go, preferring to finish high school in Hawaii while living with his grandparents.[29]

Having been a weaver, Dunham was interested in village industries, and she therefore moved to Yogyakarta, the center of Javanese handicrafts.[35] In 1992 she earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Hawaii, under the supervision of Prof. Alice Dewey, with a dissertation titled Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia: surviving and thriving against all odds.[36] Anthropologist Michael Dove described the dissertation as “a classic, in-depth, on-the-ground anthropological study of a 1,200-year-old industry”.[37] Dunham’s paper challenged popular perceptions regarding economically and politically marginalized groups, and countered the notions that the roots of poverty lie with the poor themselves and that cultural differences are responsible for the gap between less-developed countries and the industrialized West. According to Dove, Dunham

found that the villagers she studied in Central Java had many of the same economic needs, beliefs and aspirations as the most capitalist of Westerners. Village craftsmen were “keenly interested in profits,” she wrote, and entrepreneurship was “in plentiful supply in rural Indonesia,” having been “part of the traditional culture” there for a millennium…Based on these observations, Dr. Soetoro concluded that underdevelopment in these communities resulted from a scarcity of capital, the allocation of which was a matter of politics, not culture. Antipoverty programs that ignored this reality had the potential, perversely, of exacerbating inequality because they would only reinforce the power of elites. As she wrote in her dissertation, “many government programs inadvertently foster stratification by channeling resources through village officials,” who then used the money to further strengthen their own status.[37]

Dunham then pursued a career in rural development championing women’s work and microcredit for the world’s poor, with Indonesia’s oldest bank, the United States Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation, Women’s World Banking, and as a consultant in Lahore, Pakistan. She mingled with leaders from organizations supporting Indonesian human rights, women’s rights, and grass-roots development.[29] While at the Ford Foundation, Dunham worked with Peter Geithner, father of Tim Geithner (who later became United States Secretary of the Treasury in her son’s administration), to develop the Foundation’s microfinance programs in Indonesia.[38]

Illness and death

In late 1994, Dunham was living and working in Indonesia. One night, during dinner at a friend’s house in Jakarta, she experienced stomach pain. A visit to a local physician misdiagnosed her symptoms as indigestion.[1] Dunham returned to the United States in early 1995 and was examined at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and diagnosed with uterine cancer. By this time, the cancer had spread to her ovaries.[14] She moved back to Hawaii to live near her widowed mother and died on November 7, 1995 at the age of 52.[29][39][40] Following a memorial service at the University of Hawaii, Obama and his sister spread their mother’s ashes in the Pacific Ocean at Lanai Lookout on the south side of Oahu.[29] Obama scattered the ashes of his grandmother (Madelyn Dunham) in the same spot on December 23, 2008, weeks after his election to the presidency.[41]

Obama touched upon his mother’s death in a 30-second campaign advertisement (“Mother”) arguing for health care reform. The ad featured a photograph of Dunham holding a young Obama in her arms as Obama talks about Dunham’s last days worrying about expensive medical bills.[40] The topic also came up in a 2007 speech in Santa Barbara:[40]

I remember my mother. She was 53 years old when she died of ovarian cancer, and you know what she was thinking about in the last months of her life? She wasn’t thinking about getting well. She wasn’t thinking about coming to terms with her own mortality. She had been diagnosed just as she was transitioning between jobs. And she wasn’t sure whether insurance was going to cover the medical expenses because they might consider this a preexisting condition. I remember just being heartbroken, seeing her struggle through the paperwork and the medical bills and the insurance forms. So, I have seen what it’s like when somebody you love is suffering because of a broken health care system. And it’s wrong. It’s not who we are as a people.[40]

Personal beliefs

In his 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father Barack Obama wrote, “My mother’s confidence in needlepoint virtues depended on a faith I didn’t possess… In a land [Indonesia] where fatalism remained a necessary tool for enduring hardship… she was a lonely witness for secular humanism, a soldier for New Deal, Peace Corps, position-paper liberalism.”[47] In his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope Obama wrote, “I was not raised in a religious household… My mother’s own experiences… only reinforced this inherited skepticism. Her memories of the Christians who populated her youth were not fond ones… And yet for all her professed secularism, my mother was in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I’ve ever known.”[48] “Religion for her was “just one of the many ways — and not necessarily the best way — that man attempted to control the unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives,” Obama wrote.[49]

Maxine Box, Dunham’s best friend in high school, said that Dunham “touted herself [then] as an atheist, and it was something she’d read about and could argue. She was always challenging and arguing and comparing. She was already thinking about things that the rest of us hadn’t.”[5] However, Dunham’s daughter, Maya Soetoro-Ng, when asked later if her mother was an atheist, said, “I wouldn’t have called her an atheist. She was an agnostic. She basically gave us all the good books — the Bible, the Hindu Upanishads and the Buddhist scripture, the Tao Te Ching, Sun Tzu — and wanted us to recognize that everyone has something beautiful to contribute.”[28] “Jesus, she felt, was a wonderful example. But she felt that a lot of Christians behaved in un-Christian ways.”[49]

In a 2007 speech, Obama contrasted the beliefs of his mother to those of her parents, and commented on her spirituality and skepticism: “My mother, whose parents were nonpracticing Baptists and Methodists, was one of the most spiritual souls I ever knew. But she had a healthy skepticism of religion as an institution.”[1]

OBAMA’S NATION OF HOPE:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1866257_1814250,00.html

Money, Power, Wisdom:

September 20, 2009

Before you read any further, let me warn you. This blog post is not typical of what I usually write – and is DEFINITELY NOT for everyone!

If the “existential dilemma” leaves you cold (you lucky dog, you!), or your “search for meaning” rarely surfaces, and (when it does) is easily sublimated by a bar of chocolate in the fridge, then you won’t find this interesting.

I’ll go further. You may find it shocking, disturbing and scary. Stop. You have been warned!

(But no, I’m not joking!)

Still with me. Ok. Let’s start at the very beginning (the very best way to start, sings Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music”, by the way!)

Late last night, I was reading a blog called TECHNIUM. It’s by Kevin Kelly, the guy who wrote the awesome “1,000 True Fans” post I reference often.

This post had the intriguing title “The Unabomber Was Right”. I started reading – and found myself instantly pulled into the narrative. And (gasp!) nodding my head in agreement with some of Kaczynski’s theory!

Look, I’m no Luddite. In fact, I work in TWO of possibly the most technologically sophisticated industries in the world today – a very specialized branch of medicine (pediatric cardiac surgery), and the cutting-edge, rapidly advancing, constantly evolving arena of Internet business.

And I love what I do, and how I do it – and realize it would be impossible to do without technology.

Yet I found myself AGREEING with some quoted excerpts of the manifesto (which, by the way, I haven’t read fully – though I might at some point, to see what else is in there).

As I wended my way through the very long post on Technium’s blog, my mind recalled a similar article (from April 2000) by Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, and for a long time, it’s chief technology officer and software architect. That provocative piece, published in WIRED magazine, was titled “Why The Future Does Not Need Us”.

That article moved me to deep thought, and even resulted in a letter in response that I emailed to Wired, though I’m not sure if it was ever published in the magazine. (I’ve included it below, if you’re interested in reading it)

It also led me to study the work of futurologist Ray Kurzweil, and I read his paradigm shifting book, “The Age of Spiritual Machines” which first introduced me to the concept of a “downloadable consciousness”! (And with such relentless logic, damn it!) If you want your socio-technological foundations shaken to their roots, read that book – and be prepared to be surprised.

Anyway, the parallels AND THE DIFFERENCES came to mind – because where Bill Joy ended his essay on a more or less nihilistic tone of hopelessness, Kevin Kelly chose (like me) to see the ‘positive’ – and highlighted the expanded range of choice that technology has permitted us all.

So even if technology is evil and all-pervasive to the point of killing off all alternative (non-technology based) options in the long run (and no one can say that will happen, though logically it does appear likely), at least in the process enormous advantages/benefits will have been conferred on humanity.

Today, I believe, we have already crossed the Rubicon. Realistically, we can no longer tune out technology. Tell me… can we shut down the Internet? Can we run stock exchanges without computers? Heck, most of us can’t even make our early morning brew without extensively using ‘technology’!

So are we on the slippery slope of self-annhilation and subservience to a nameless, faceless force called TECHNOLOGY, the Darth Vader of our Milky Way galaxy?

I went to bed with that thought lurking under the surface of my awareness, mildly disturbing but not too worrisome (you’ll see why if you read my reply to Bill Joy’s article below)

Anyway, what happened today was kind of cool. Events like this make me wonder about the role (and reality) of serendipity, coincidence and chance in our lives.

I’m halfway through reading the “Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”, but sought out a different book to read over dinner. We had bought seven new books a few days back at the bookstore, and the one I picked today was Isaac Asimov’s.

Now, this book has two stories – “The Caves of Steel” and “The Rest of the Robots” – and for some reason, I selected the second one to read first!

Flipping over to page 8, I read the introduction, which included this passage – and was stunned at the relevance and congruity with the line of thinking that had been occupying my mind subliminally since last night!

Here’s what Asimov says about robots (in the context of why he started writing about them in his sci-fi novels):

“In the 1930s, I became a science-fiction reader, and I quickly grew tired of this dull hundred-times-old tale. Robots were created, and destroyed their creator. As a person interested in science, I resented the purely Faustian interpretation of science.

“Knowledge has its dangers, yes, but is the response to be a retreat from knowledge? Are we prepared then to return to the ape and forfeit the very essence of humanity? Or is knowledge to be used as itself a barrier against the danger it brings?

“In other words, Faust must indeed face Mephistopheles, but Faust does not have to be defeated!

“Knives are manufactured with hilts so that they may be grasped safely, stairs possess banisters, electric wiring is insulated, pressure cookers have safety valves – in every artifact, thought is put into minimizing danger. Sometimes, the safety achieved is insufficient because of limitations imposed by the nature of the universe or the nature of the human mind. However, the effort is there.

“Consider a robot then, as simply another artifact. It is not a sacrilegious invasion of the domain of the Almighty, any more (or any less) than any other artifact is. As a machine, a robot will surely be designed for safety, as far as possible. If robots are so advanced that they can mimic thought processes of human beings, then surely the nature of those thought processes will be designed by human engineers and built-in safeguards wil be added. The safety may not be perfect (what is?), but it will be as complete as men can make it.”

WOW!

Asimov’s philosophy regarding technological advances so closely parallels mine (as reflected in the letter below) that I cannot help but wonder if I had read this passage many years ago (and forgotten about it), and then re-surfaced it in my own paper… with the tinge of fatalism that my cultural upbringing has inculcated in many facets of my thinking.

Anyway, what are your thoughts (if any) on this subject? Read my letter below, and then (if you feel like it), leave a comment on the blog.

My email to WIRED magazine, after reading Bill Joy’s article:

THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY IS …… ‘HUMANOIDITY’ ?!

As a paediatric cardiac surgeon working with children’s heart defects, almost every issue Bill Joy brought up in this article is related what I do on a day-to-day basis. Technologic advances, ethical issues related to such developments, interfering with Nature’s course, exploring new frontiers of science, are all an integral part of my professional work. And hence, areas which I’ve thought about in depth, time and again.

Joy’s article brought up many debatable issues. Here are some of my comments and thoughts.

I agree with the basic premise. Technology will soon advance to the level where machines will become intelligent – even more so than the average human – and will do things better. Maybe someday soon, we’ll come to look upon machines as indispensible to our lives.

I also accept that such progress comes at a price, and an enormous risk. But feel the benefits derived on an everyday basis, as also on an evolutionary level, outweigh the dangers.

While the possibility that the future might see us humans get integrated with an intelligent robot is unsettling, once you get used to the concept, it becomes increasingly acceptable. Especially if, as Joy thinks, it will happen slowly, universally, painlessly. Why worry about it? Like Death, after all, it will be upon you before you realize – and then you won’t need to!

Are we constructing tools that may replace our species? Well, I’d prefer to think the tools we are working on are enhancing our species, helping it evolve into a more powerful, extinction-proof form.

As more and more computing and processing power becomes available to us, that itself will act as an impetus to unleash more of our own brain-power in a synergizing and snow-balling manner. And when you consider that barely 5% of our cerebral capacity has been tapped, you begin to realize that all isn’t lost with the human race. In fact, we might have barely scratched the surface in terms of species/intelligence evolution.

Certainly, there is the uncomfortable risk that we might destroy ourselves in the process. But isn’t that true about any revolutionary development in history?

I believe the human species is innately pre-programmed to survive – and in the process evolve to become ever better, albeit, maybe, losing what is today its essential *humanity*

Looked at in this sense, work on today’s cutting edge technology is a step in that evolutionary process that ensures survival of the fittest species – OURS.

Shouldn’t we be proceeding with caution ?

We are. Nature’s built-in safety valve makes certain that we come up with the most fascinating, innovative advances and breakthroughs ONLY when we are ready for them.

Not much has changed in the basic processes of the human brain or mind in the past century. But look at the advances it has been able to think up, create and implement over the same period. Why didn’t they happen earlier? Surely, humans *could* have thought up the same discoveries and inventions earlier than they did. I prefer to believe there is an inherent timetable that everyone conforms to, knowingly or not, which determines the speed of our evolution.

If an intelligent, self-replicating robot does indeed come into existence in 2030, it is perhaps because human-kind will then be ready for it. We will not survive an encounter with such super-human robots.

But are we sure humankind will try and engage in a battle of wits or strength with such robots? Or even if we do, isn’t it also a possibility that our own intelligence – aided by our harnessing of the *intelligence* of such robots – would have grown to the level that we can do so with a reasonable chance of success?

I’m convinced we’ll have ways to integrate the strengths of both, maybe in the process merge humans with robots in a manner hard to imagine today. The result may be, as Danny Hillis suggests, robotizing of humans. I personally feel it will be the reverse, and we’ll find ‘humanoid’ robots, humans with the processing power of robots but essentially, in all non-technical aspects – emotions, feelings, intuition – human.

And far from being dystopian, that would be utopian, wouldn’t it ? Because it would retain what is the essence of *man*, while also retaining whatever is the upside of mechanization – intellectual superiority, immortality, technical excellence, productivity.

As I see it, this scenario is infinitely preferable to the one created by dabbling in genetic manipulations. After all, how much more dangerous to mankind could a destructive, super-intelligent robot be when compared to incarnations of evil in human form, as for instance the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler?

In genetics, as in Nature, no rules are concrete, knowledge of the whole is miniscule, and dabbling with one aspect could have immeasurable effects on many others. That is a cauldron which, if stirred wrong, could throw up nightmare situations I don’t even dare imagine.

Inequality among humans is an unpleasant fact of life. Trying to correct this by genetic manipulation is not the best answer. And so, if indeed such genetic engineering results in another species with unequal groups, would we have significantly altered the status quo in its very basic sense? No.

As regards using genetic engineering, I’m worried irrespective of the purpose – military, scientific, terrorist or accident. Because we don’t have the slightest idea of the impact on the entire ecosystem, or even in isolation on a particular species alone, over time.

Any modification or manipulation of Nature can be put to the best possible use. And truly enough, this is the motivation of the scientists seeking to unlock these secrets. And just as inevitably, there is the certainty that those very developments will be perverted by a minority to suit their narrow minded needs.

In the well publicized race to decode the human genome, you see evidence of this trend. While the Human Genome Project researchers followed a plodding, methodical process, maverick geniuses like Dr.Venter short-circuited the system rushing to decode only the functional genes with commercial potential. Therein lies the danger – as the silent, non-functional codons and genes just might hold the secret of Life. And we’d never know – until it was too late.

Nature, or God if you will, has planned for such variety – and built in the safeguards that will protect humanity – or as it might become known later, ‘humanoidity’.

While we can but plan for *foreseeable* dangers of technology and evolution, how can we predict what we don’t know about? For instance, how many would have imagined, just 10 years ago, the impact of the Internet on mankind? Robotics, nanotech and bioengineering are today what the Internet was to mankind a couple of decades earlier – wonders of the future with enormous potential for good and bad, of which we know but little, and can only hope the best.

There are far too many potential situations that could wipe out humanity as we know it, many of them eerily current, and dependent on such insecure safeguards as one man’s (or a small group’s collective) ego or intelligence. A lab accident could release the small-pox virus. A temporarily unbalanced President could hit the nuclear trigger. Lazy computer programmers avoided typing four digits for a year and scared the world into believing in a doomsday as the new millenium rolled in.

Yet they didn’t happen. And – most probably – won’t ever. Why? I’d like to think because Nature ordains it that way!

Business covets a stable, peaceful environment more than does a military or government. It is more likely that a technological innovation with commercial benefits, developed by corporate enterprise, would be used for peaceful purposes than those invented by a military research lab for defensive, or as is more common, acquisitive intent.

Perhaps the marketplace, with its competitiveness and scope for enormous profits, will be the best safety check to prevent harmful application of the new technology. So let’s just ensure enormous business profitability from those technologies! And as for governments, the destructive potential itself will be the most effective deterrent against its damaging deployment, just as detente evolved as a direct consequence of the atomic bomb blasts.

While it is true that the ease of availability of this technology to the common man is disconcerting, is there any reason to believe Joe-next-door finds the prospect of annhilating human-kind any more exciting a prospect than leaders of nations?

As to the question of tampering with and altering the *awareness of Nature and the order of life*, doesn’t almost any scientific advance do just that, in a sense ?

Take for instance the treatment of a serious heart birth defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome or HLHS. While initial efforts at cure resulted in over 95% mortality, it is perseverance that has brought about current survival figures in excess of 90%. Naturally, left alone, these patients would ALL have died within one year of life. Now if that isn’t tampering with the *order of life*, I don’t know what is!

Yet no one today criticizes the efforts of those early pioneers. Their initial efforts were just as inefficient, the systems they built were just as fragile to begin with, as today’s efforts with robotics and software are. But over time, these systems and processes become robust, stable, effective.

Do you know what is scary about this? No one seems to condemn these efforts as strongly as they did the first nuclear explosion, or cloning, or experiments at creating intelligent robots. Why? Because, on the surface, we are restoring health to a human life. No one pauses to wonder why, and indeed if, we should try and influence Nature’s course as it affects that one patient. It is taken for granted. Indeed to REFUSE to offer this treatment would be consider unethical!

What if there were some other, hitherto unknown, yet enormously serious *other* reasons for which that particular patient wouldn’t have survived *naturally* ? And what if those very other reasons – of which we do not know anything – could be harmful to the ecosystem, in a broader sense?

There are too many unknowns in the biologic arena, much more than the relatively better controlled area of robotics and automation technology. Yet we dabble uncaringly in these bio-spheres, indeed are even encouraged to continue doing so – simply because we see no harm in the near term. The same might be true of other tech fields – nanotechnology and robotics. And the trend will continue – until disaster strikes. And then, it will be too late to worry!

Yet we talk about shielding ourselves from the terrible consequences of these exciting new technologies. But the truth is we cannot shield ourselves, or hide from them by abandoning the planet or covering it with a star-wars style barrier. There is only one sure-fire way to *protect* ourselves, and that is to abandon any efforts at developing such technologies.

And that is absurd, on the face of it. Maybe even more dangerous as well, since a lack of progress can be construed as regression, and could reduce the survival advantage our species has built up over centuries.

Indeed, many of the advances made in earlier years by our forebears might have been viewed as *threatening* by their peers, been conceived as likely to annhilate the species at the time. Yet we are still alive to tell the tale, and none the worse for wear – indeed better off in many ways.

We live in an imperfect world. Yet that world hasn’t ended. Despite many predictions to the contrary, we have survived and thrived. Yes, I believe we are pre-programmed to survive, no matter what we need to do, how we need to change and evolve to do so.

And it is naive to assume that we can hold back now. Put the genie back into the bottle and throw it out to sea. Throttle the progress that has been made already.

Maybe that was possible a few decades ago. Now that Dolly has been cloned, Venter has patented significant chunks of Man’s genetic make-up and molecular electronics has risen on the horizon of techno-research, we have embarked on a journey of no return. The only relinquishment possible will be when one or many parties have achieved their ends.

But we still hold the rudder. We can navigate within safe seas, discover new lands, explore uncharted waters, play safe and do good. Or instead we could become the Grand Pirates of the ocean of life, attacking innocent passers-by, spreading death and destruction, and ultimately pay the supreme price of self-annhilation.

As always, the choice is ours.

——————————————————————————–

A Message From My Heart..

From Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian

Reader's Digest magazine influenced my life - twice.

In 1977, with a story about a living God.  A heart surgeon
named Denton A.Cooley.  He was glamorous, a pioneer and
entrepreneur.  Operated on princes, presidents and prime
ministers.  In all, over 75,000 operations.  Founded the
world-famous Texas Heart Institute in Houston.  

I wanted to be like him.

A 1989 issue I read during my medical internship featured
a neurosurgeon named Tom Peters.  One sentence in his
interview remains burned into my mind:

"I don't accept children dying."

This time, I didn't just *want* to be like him.

I LIVED LIKE HIM.

I too won't accept a child dying.  I made myself a promise.

Anything... ANYTHING that is within my power to prevent it
happening, I will do.

   = = = = = 

1989 - It was the year I grew up.

When I realized - and accepted - that life is unfair.

1989 was when a 22-year old held my hand as his life ebbed away

1989 was when I lost a loved 8-year old niece to an untreatable
kidney ailment

1989 was when I watched helplessly as a teenager succumbed to
a terrible severe viral infection.

It hurt.  Terribly.  Deeply.

And proved beyond doubt that life isn't fair.

But that's ok.

We just need to tweak the odds - in our favor.

That's what technological advances, evolution - indeed survival
itself - is all about.

Tweaking the odds in our favor.

   = = = = = 

A child's life is precious.  VERY precious.

It's loss - crushing.  Mind numbing.

It may be Nature's law - but I don't like it.

Never will.

I won't accept a child dying.

Many forms of heart birth defects make survival impossible.

Unless they're repaired.

That's one reason I became a pediatric heart surgeon.

Apart from the challenge, the technical, intellectual and
emotional puzzles the speciality poses its practitioners.

The latter, sadly, creates robots.  Unemotional automatons
that get caught up in their craft, forgetting or ignoring
the human element.  The stress, pain, trauma, helplessness
associated with the problem.

The COST.

Heart birth defects have a unique social dimension.  Young
families, just starting out on their careers and settling
down, with little if any financial cushion, suddenly are
confronted with a daunting choice...

Raise the money - often paralyzingly huge sums - or watch
your child suffer... or worse.

Most of my work online aims to tackle this facet of the
complex problem.

I can - and do - handle the medical and emotional elements.
But alone, I can't help with the financial ones.

That's why I need YOU.

The children do.

And thanks to the heartwarming generous outpouring from a
group of amazing folks, at least 23 children will live.


Without you, they may not have.

YOU have made a difference.

YOU are special.

I'm honored to consider you my friend!

Thank you -- from my heart!

Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian

Thank you for supporting the Heart Kids Blogathon.
http://www.HeartKidsBlogathon.info

If you'd like to contribute, there's still time. Go to:


http://www.CHDinfo.com/howdonate.htm

-------------------------------------------------------

MORE ABOUT Dr. Mani:

Dr. Mani: An Internet Mogul With a Heart

Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian has been compared to Mother Theresa, especially by
poor families in India that have a child living with a congenital heart
defect.

Dr. Sivasubramanian, better known simply as "Dr. Mani," is a well known
author that handles health-related topics online. His first calling in life
was cardiology. He has performed lifesaving heart operations for numerous
children.

Already impacted by the work of heart surgeon Dr. Denton A. Cooley, founder
of the Texas Heart Institute, Dr. Mani had made a decision to become a heart
surgeon himself. In 1989 Dr. Mani read a quote in a medical journal by a
neurosurgeon named Dr. Tom Peters, who said: "I don't accept children
dying." Dr. Mani realized he didn't accept children dying either.

In fact, that same year Dr. Mani lost his own eight year old niece to kidney
disease. He regularly watched other children and young people die from
illness. He had watched as doctors that he worked with became hardened to
death and suffering. He vowed that, even though he witnessed suffering every
day, death would not become just a routine part of his job as a physician.

Dr. Mani knew he that, as a heart surgeon, he could make a tremendous impact
on the lives of children with congenital heart defects. But he wasn't
satisfied with simply staying in the hospital and wielding a scalpel. He
wanted to get involved with the families of the children, real human beings,
whose lives were turned upside-down by the misfortune of being born with a
heart defect.

So, in 2003, he launched the Dr. Mani Children Heart Foundation. Dr. Mani
also became a well known and award winning Internet and business
entrepreneur. He has raised over $84,000 to provide life saving heart
operations for children whose families could not otherwise afford the
operations. The children helped by Dr. Mani's foundation would likely have
died without his intervention.

Dr. Mani continues to raise awareness about congenital heart disease around
the world. His foundation maintains a growing base of supporters, currently
at approximately 700 members. He also sponsors major fundraising events. One
of these is The Heart Kids Blogathon, an annual event which was started in
2003. He and his foundation are also an integral part of "A Day for Hearts,"
a fundraising event that falls on February 14 each year. The day is
dedicated to raising awareness of, and generating support for, congenital
heart disease.

Dr. Mani accepts that life isn't always fair. But he also knows that it only
takes a little bit of dedication to "tweak the odds in our favor."

Copyright © 2009 www.dr-mani.com inc. All rights reserved.

——————————————————————————————-

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Mani

Kersauson was the seventh child in a family of eight. While he was the only Kersauson not to have been born in Brittany, he was born on 20 July 1944 and brought up near Morlaix in a “provincial Catholic aristocracy with compulsory mass” as he calls it. Very early on, Olivier de Kersauson was to break away from his family. Without being inattentive, he was a pupil who did not settle in well to school life with the priests at boarding school. He passed through eleven schools altogether. After his final school exams and getting up to a lot of things, always on the coast, he began studying economics.

At the age of twenty-two, he met Eric Tabarly in Saint Malo. Shortly after, Eric invited him to do his military service on board. This opportunity stretched into eight years during which he was Tabarly’s mate.

Together, they put on their boots and waterproofs, swallowing up the miles aboard the Pen Duicks. Very quickly, Olivier de Kersauson developed a passion for multihulls in which he became a pioneer. He was, in particular, the first to build a multihull of composite material, Ribourel, then a trimaran with long floaters, Poulain, at the helm of which he set in 1989-1990 the single-handed round the world speed record.

From 1992 onwards, he spent his time working towards the Jules Verne Trophy, the round the world crew record. Wearing the livery of Lyonnaise des Eaux – Dumez, in 1994, he raced around the world against Peter Blake. At the helm of his catamaran Enza, the New Zealander and his six-member crew managed to go around the world in 74 days and 22 hours, while the five Frenchmen took 77 days and five hours. Remaining determined, he made some improvements to his boat and wearing the livery of Sport Elec, took off again around the world. On 8 March 1997, Olivier de Kersauson and his six-man crew left Brest. They were to return triumphant 71 days, 14 hours, 22 minutes and 8 seconds later, improving by more than a week on Peyron’s first time. In 2001, he named his giant trimaran Geronimo, “because Geronimo never gave up.” It was at the helm of this boat that Olivier de Kersauson took the Jules Verne Trophy for the second time in 2004 (63 days, 13 hours, 59 minutes).

In January 2003, Kersauson claimed that his boat was attacked by a giant squid.

Source: Wikipedia®

——————————————————————————————-

Qui est vraiment Olivier de Kersauson ?

Copyright: http://blog.breizh.bz/

Par Ronan Le Flécher, mardi 6 novembre 2007 

Il figure parmi les Bretons préférés des Français. Son humour, sa grande gueule et sa culture en font la coqueluche des médias où il campe un personnage bougon et misogyne. « J’ai la chance de pouvoir faire le con en bateau », sourit Kersau. Pourtant, le phénomène Kersauson dépasse de loin le cadre de la voile. Alors, est-il un marin à l’épais palmarès, un homme au franc parler ou un bouffon du roi ? À vous de vous faire une idée.

———————————————————-

Copyright: http://www.fralo.info

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Toutes mes émotions sont liées à la mer et mes chagrins aussi.

Portrait à la mer. En cette Bretagne dure et mystique, habituée au malheur, Olivier de Kersauson a vu des larmes glisser sur les joues parcheminées des femmes en noir qui chaque jour d’hiver venaient attendre des bateaux qui ne reviendraient plus. Il a entendu leurs imprécations rauques adressées à la mer, vu des croix nouvelles se dresser dans les cimetières marins sur des tombes symboliques. Près de la baie des Trépassés, on disait d’un homme qu’il était crevé s’il avait rendu l’âme dans son lit, on disait qu’il était mort si la mer l’avait emporté. Depuis sa tendre enfance, il aime apporter la contradiction, manifester sa singularité; rentrer dans le rang n’est pas son genre. Cela ressemble à un simulacre, mais c’est de sa part une manière quasi naturelle de s’affirmer. Originaire de milieux conservateurs, très tôt, il se trouve en rupture avec la notion de famille : ” Je trouvais ce monde ennuyeux, suffisant… sans intérêt. Je n’adhérais pas aux moeurs ni aux coutumes. Je ne souhaitais pas vivre dans ce milieu écrasé de conventions et qui en perdait son talent. ” « Dans ma petite enfance, mes parents voulaient faire de moi un pot de fleurs. Je n’ai jamais tenu en place, je me levais la nuit en pyjama et je regardais la mer. Ma mère venait me chercher: “Olivier, il faut rentrer maintenant.” » Dans les différents collèges religieux qu’il fréquente (11 au total dont un pendant 10 jours), le silence, le rêve et la lecture sont une armure qui exaspère les bons pères. ” Les propositions intellectuelles, morales et sociales ne servaient pas l’intérêt que j’accordais à la vie. J’ai été renvoyé de nombreux collèges sans avoir jamais chahuté. J’étais simplement d’une indifférence totale et ils ne pouvaient le supporter. En désaccord avec l’entourage, on subit d’abord une grande solitude puis on se retrouve dans l’obligation de s’évader par le rêve. J’ai rapidement pris conscience du monde maritime. Il m’a fasciné depuis l’enfance.” Après le Bac, Odk s’engage dans des études supérieures : “ J’ai fait de l’économie en fac, le prof avait des chaussures en crêpe et un costume pas frais, je me suis dit que c’était une arnaque totale; s’il avait compris l’économie, il ne serait pas là … ” ” J’ai décidé que c’était à moi de choisir ma vie, Ce fut le signal de la « grande dételée » qui dure depuis. J’allais pouvoir faire ce que je voulais ; personne ne me prendrait mon temps. On m’avait pris mon temps pendant dix-huit ans dans des collèges épouvantables dirigés par des maîtres stupides. Le temps allait m’appartenir. J’étais un goinfre, curieux, déchaîné, avec une envie : courir le monde. ” ” Je décide de prendre des vacances actives. À vie. Plus personne n’allait m’obliger à faire ce que je ne voulais pas faire. Jamais je ne rentrerai dans aucun système. Quel qu’en soit le prix. ” ” Pourquoi l’envie de fuite est si forte quand on a 20 ans ? Pour échapper aux mouches bleues qui se posent sur le vide-ordures à pédale. ”

================

Olivier voue une admiration sans limite au navigateur Polynésien Francis Cowan : ” Avec Francis Cowan, on s’est connu en 1957 et il avait une grande connaissance du monde maritime Polynésien. C’est quelqu’un qui avait une réflexion basée sur du réel. Très souvent les réflexions dans ce milieu sont basées sur la lecture et non par le fait de naviguer. Francis avait le don de l’intelligence appliquée. Sa vie est une histoire maritime formidable parce qu’il y a des gens qui réfléchissent et d’autres qui agissent. C’est rare qu’il y ait les deux en même temps. “

================

A bord, Kersauson est du genre “carré”, sinon ombrageux. Un marin formé sur le tas, à qui Éric Tabarly à dit un jour (par exemple) dans le Pacifique: “un spi, il faut qu’il soit comme il faut qu’il soit.” Point. A lui de comprendre ce que cela voulait dire. “ Éric fut dans son métier de marin un visionnaire réaliste le premier à construire un trimaran de couse, et un immense serviteur du large qui haïssait l’impudeur des émotions. L’homme raisonnable renonce souvent face à la cause qu’il sent perdue. Lui jamais. J’ai été son équipier puis son second pendant huit ans sur tous les océans quand les projets paraissaient insensés et les buts chimériques. Eric n’a jamais été inférieur à son destin. C’était mon maître. ” Olivier est intraitable avec ses équipiers : “ En course je deviens chaleureusement inhumain “, mais ne perd jamais son calme, gaspille rarement sa salive : les explications orageuses se déroulent toujours après. ” Même dans une situation dramatique, il y a toujours un moment favorable pour agir ” Il déteste les conversations oiseuses durant les veilles, qui relâchent l’attention : le barreur a ordre de ne pas parler, de ne pas fumer, de ne pas goûter au café. ” Un homme ne peut pas bien faire deux choses à la fois ” La sécurité est une préoccupation constante ” La moindre distraction sur un bateau peut aboutir à une catastrophe ” à tel point qu’il interdit à ses hommes de porter des gants : “ Supposez que lors d’une manoeuvre vous en perdiez un, la main subitement exposée au froid s’engourdit et devient inutilisable. Hors sur un navire, il faut avoir ses deux mains valides : l’une pour l’homme, l’autre pour le bateau” …/… ” Je suis un maniaque de l’ordre, je ne supporte pas que l’on bâcle. Cela peut-être dangereux ! ” …/… ” En 40 ans de navigation, j’ai vu disparaître trop de copains, ne pas être conscient de la sécurité des hommes quand on navigue est presque indécent. La mer doit rester un plaisir, pas un engin de mort. En mer, le courage et la bravoure, c’est de s’attacher pour que la mer n’ait pas le goût des larmes, comme le dit si bien la SNSM. » Olivier de Kersauson a le goût de l’excellence, de l’effort, refuse de se laisser étourdir par les propositions médiocres de la vie. Il a appris à se plier à la discipline de la mer. : ” Le chemin de l’excellence, c’est la discipline. J’aime les gens qui ont le goût de l’excellence : puisqu’il faut faire, faisons avec passion. Il n’y a pas d’intelligence sans courage. ” ” Qu’est-ce qu’un patron en mer ? C’est celui qui est capable de ramener son équipage, de porter toutes les responsabilités et d’accepter de ne pas recueillir les fruits du succès. ”

================

Pour Olivier de Kersauson, la faute incombe toujours à l’homme : ” Dans le monde de la mer, une erreur se paye automatiquement, et l’on connaît le responsable. ” Il fait le détail de la procédure de l’homme à la mer à sa manière : ” Bon, le mec est à l’eau. Primo, il faut lui balancer un bout, de préférence pas sur la gueule. Secundo, dès qu’il l’a empoigné, il faut l’amener doucement près du bord. Tertio, il faut lui demander – Où est ton pognon ? Quarto, dès qu’il a craché la planque, il faut relâcher le bout : ce serait inhumain de le laisser sans rien à la mer. Quinto, il faut prendre le nom du gars et le porter sur le cahier des punitions. ” OdK explique l’utilisation des radeaux pneumatiques ainsi : “ Quand vous êtes dedans, c’est la bonne vie. Vous avez tout pour survivre : une Bible, un pot de rillettes, une photo dédicacée de Moitessier bébé, un plan de Pigalle et une cassette qui répète : tenez bon, tenez bon … ” A ceux qui lui disent “je pense que …” il répond ” Vous n’êtes pas ici pour penser. ” Dans l’action, sur le pont, il bouscule ses équipiers qui n’agissent pas suffisamment vite, les remplace, se bat comme un forcené tel un bison qui charge, ne lâche pas prise, abattant une besogne démoniaque; il possède le même courage sauvage que celui de ces patrons impitoyables qui commandaient les grands voiliers du passé. A bord il n’y a qu’un maître : lui. Un jour, peut-être le seul de sa carrière, il a proposé un choix à son équipage : ” Vous allez voter, soit la première solution, soit la deuxième. Réfléchissez, mais vite. Je veux le résultat du scrutin dans cinq minutes. Profitez-en, ce sera l’unique fois où vous voterez durant le joli voyage. … Ah ! j’ai oublié une précision : ce n’est pas certain que je tiendrai compte de ce vote ! ” (ce qu’il avait d’ailleurs fait) Un équipier qui écoutait une cassette de Vivaldi sur un magnétophone se souvient encore de l’intervention du patron : “ Je ne veux plus entendre ce mec-là, ni Beethoven, ni Mozart, ni Stivell, balancez moi tout ça à la mer. Je n’ai pas travaillé toute ma vie pour avoir un bateau transformé en maison de la culture ou en caravane, et l’Océan n’est pas un terrain de camping ! ” ” Tire-toi du pont. T’es pas assez gros pour que te casse la gueule. Et t’es trop con pour faire un mutin ” a dit OdK à Alain Labbé sur Kriter II qui avait désobéi et tenté de frapper le skipper. Il se justifie ainsi : “ Sur un bateau, seule une dictature éclairée donne des résultats positifs. Si tu ne comprends pas que la course est un sprint de plus de deux mois, si tu ne comprends pas qu’en course, seule la course compte, alors ça prouve que tu n’as rien à faire à bord. ” … ” La sagesse est l’antichambre de l’impuissance. “ Mais il sait apprécier la vraie amitié manifestée au large par un équipage heureux, la satisfaction d’une manoeuvre difficile et judicieusement orchestrée : ” Je pense aux hommes qui m’ont accompagné et qui ont servi la mer et le bateaux avec abnégation, intelligence, amour du métier et professionnalisme. Notamment Yves Pouillaude et Didier Ragot, fidèles et droits. De grand marins. ” Olivier de Kersauson n’est pas prêt d’accepter une femme à bord mais il sait reconnaître les qualités des (quelques) meilleures d’entre elles : ” Il n’y a jamais de femmes sur mes bateaux, c’est un rapport de masse musculaire: 15 femmes font le poids de 11 hommes. J’aime bien les bonnes femmes, beaucoup plus que vous ne l’imaginez sans doute. Je ne veux pas rajouter la pulsion sexuelle en plus de tous les soucis qu’on a à bord. J’aurais beaucoup de mal à naviguer avec une bonne femme sous les yeux. “ “ Il y a quelques femmes qui sont des marins exceptionnels: Florence Arthaud a du vrai génie maritime, il n’y a pas beaucoup de mecs capables de faire ce qu’elle a fait. Karine Fauconnier dans la nouvelle génération a quelque chose d’extraordinaire. ”

================

Après son échec dans l’Oryx Quest en 2005, Olivier raconte : … ” On rentre à Sydney, nous jetons l’éponge. Je suis sur le quai, mon fils est là, je sais que nous devons rentrer à Paris car sa mère va mourir. Mon monde professionnel explose, je vois aussi le monde de mon fils qui explose. C’est un bombardement. Je rentre en Europe pour suivre le cercueil de Caroline, la mère d’Arthur. Une semaine après l’enterrement, je reviens à Sydney pour « terminer ce qu’on a échoué » … Grosse fatigue ! Didier qui a pris la direction des réparations, et l’équipage me disent : « Casse-toi, va prendre l’air, casse-toi en Polynésie. » ( …) Je vais à Moorea chez un copain polynésien et je vais acheter des clopes au tabac du coin. La fille qui vend des cigarettes me dit qu’elle a un bouquin sur lequel figure une photo de moi. Je regarde. Je suis dans la baie de Cook en 1969 avec Tabarly, Moitessier, Colas. Tabarly, Moitessier et Colas sont morts. Je réalise que le temps a passé. C’est un signal qui arrive. Je suis le seul survivant. Je me dis que je ne vais pas mourir sans avoir vécu en Polynésie… ça devient une évidence, une décision. Je vais dès lors passer tu temps sur la mer ici, beaucoup de temps. Je sais que je vais habiter ici. ” (ndlr : en 2008, Olivier de Kersauson est locataire d’une maison située en bordure de mer, dans la baie de Cook)

================

Pourquoi la mer ? : ” Prendre la mer, c’est tout sauf une fuite, c’est au contraire une discipline et une contrainte. Décider d’aller chevaucher les vagues, c’est une conquête et, pour conquérir, il faut partir. C’est l’extraordinaire tentation de l’immensité. La mer, c’est le cœur du monde. Vouloir visiter les océans, c’est aller se frotter aux couleurs de l’absolu. Il m’a toujours semblé indécent de ne pas aller voir partout dans le monde. Il me fallait partir sur tous les océans, découvrir tous les ports… Pour moi, c’est vital : puisqu’on est dans le monde, il faut le courir. “ Il sait faire partager son amour de la mer : ” Regarder la mer, c’est se balader dans le temps, elle n’est jamais monotone. Quand je monte sur le pont, j’ai la sensation d’être un berger qui va surveiller son troupeau de vagues. ” En mer, tout est différent, le reste du monde disparaît, la notion de temps est déformée, ” En mer, la solitude est la compagne la plus sûre du navigateur. Elle chasse les chimères, fait tomber les illusions et, amplifiant tout avec une impitoyable acuité, elle vous entraîne dans un voyage au bout de soi souvent des plus révélateurs. Quand on passe un mois en mer, on ne se rend compte qu’on était parti que lorsque l’on revient “. Il sait rester humble devant cette nature à la fois généreuse et cruelle : ” La mer m’a bien rendu l’amour que je lui ai donné. Je suis heureux dans ce monde maritime qui me passionne, il est jouissif. ” La mer est sa vie :” J’ai toujours été prêt à mourir pour la voile. D’autres se contentent d’en vivre. “- ” Dès que je suis loin de la mer, la vie ne m’intéresse plus, j’ai l’impression que je suis stupide, comme un type qui fait la queue à la caisse d’un supermarché avec un cabas vide. ” – ” Si on m’enlevait la mer, il ne reste plus rien. ” … ” La fin du voyage en mer, c’est la fin de la fête. Ce n’est pas parce que je vais retrouver « des gens que j’aime » – car tout ceci n’est que des contes pour les journaux – que je n’abandonne pas avec amertume une conquête tant désirée. C’est terrible de quitter ce rythme de la mer, ce monde de force brute tant aimé et redouté mais qu’on ne se résout pas à abandonner. C’est une sorte de dissolution de la beauté. Tout à coup, on souffle la grande flamme qui brûlait en nous depuis deux mois et demi de mer. Puis on éteint la petite veilleuse de la douceur en sortant du bateau. On ferme derrière soi la porte du souvenir dans le sinistre grincement des huisseries. C’est pour toutes ces raisons que je n’ai pas de souvenirs mais juste des impressions. ”

Ses amis parlent de lui …

Copyright: http://www.fralo.info/

———————————————————-

Olivier de Kersauson -Audio file - (in French)

(Entretien avec Jacques CHANCEL – 57′16”).

Radioscopie – 17/12/1976

Hans Rosling:

Global health expert;

data visionary

© Gapminder Foundation

As a doctor and researcher, Hans Rosling identified a new paralytic disease induced by hunger in rural Africa. Now he looks at the bigger picture of social and economic development with his remarkable trend-revealing software.

Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.

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About

We are a modern “museum” that helps making the world understandable, using the Internet. Gapminder was founded in Stockholm by Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Hans Rosling on February 25, 2005.

Gapminder is registered as a Foundation at Stockholm County Administration Board (Länstyrelsen i Stockholm) with registration number (organisationsnummer) 802424-7721. (The constitution can be found here) Economic administration Gapminder Foundation c/o Ekonomi Klara Papper AB (att: Johanna Englund) Box 22 312 SE-104 22 Stockholm Office c/o Karolinska Institutet, Division of Global Health Nobels väg 9 SE- 171 77 Stockholm Sweden Organisation number 802424-7721 Gapminder does not award any grants.

It is an operating foundation that provides sevices as defined by the board, sometimes as collaborative projects with universities, UN organisations, public agencies and non-governmental organisations.

The initial activity was to continue development of the Trendalyzer software. This software unveils the beauty of statistical time series by converting boring numbers into enjoyable, animated and interactive graphics. The current version of Trendalyzer is available since March 2006 as Gapminder World, a web-service displaying time series of development statistics for all countries.

n March 2006 Google acquired Trendalyzer from the Gapminder Foundation and the team of developers who formerly worked for Gapminder has joined Google in California since April 2007. (History of Gapminder) Gapminder Foundation now fills the Trendalyzer with statistical content and use the resulting animations to fulfill our aim by: Making time series freely available in Gapminder World and Gapminder Countries.

Producing videos, Flash presentations and PDF charts showing major global development trends with animated statistics and colorful graphics.

All with the intention of being a “fact tank” that promotes a fact based world view.

© Gapminder Foundation