Ch. 24

Ch. 24

Strayer’s final chapter left me with feelings of some hope, but mostly despair.  Despair for our future generations where the rich rule the world.  I also fear for my family.  Our country’s political choices have made us targets for many organizations and countries.  Debt has become astronomical and yet we continue to spend with reckless abandon.  Politicians are more preoccupied with matters of religion and women’s reproduction than with stabilizing the economy and making the “American Dream” attainable for more than just 1% of the nation.  Things seem pretty grim right about now.

The world has seen staggering global economic growth in the last century.  The problem is the disappearance of the middle-class.  The ratio of income from the top and bottom 20% of the world’s population in 1820 was three to one and in 1991 it was eighty-six to one.  What this says, is that the rich are getting filthy rich and the poor are still just poor.  This is not to say that there has been no improvement in the lives of many of the less fortunate.  The UN Human Development Report tells us that “in the past 50 years, poverty has fallen more than in the previous 500”, but the great divide between the “haves” and “have nots” is growing with no real end in sight.  I was born and raised in San Francisco and now rent a house on the peninsula since my divorce.  My plans were to rent for a little while until I could qualify as a first time buyer again and buy myself a little house for me and my two young boys.  In the last year or so I have seen home prices and rents skyrocket to the point where if I am forced to have to move from where I am now, I will either have to move in with my parents or probably out of state.  I make a decent wage and live paycheck to paycheck, I don’t understand how people survive on minimum wage.  My favorite quote in the book was by the Mexican Subcomandante Marcos, who described globalizations as a “process to eliminate that multitude of people who are not useful to the powerful.”  In my estimation, that would be the middle-class as the rich need the poor to exploit.

What also makes me uneasy about the future is the position of the United States and its “informal empire”.  The nation has spent so much money over the last century in maintaining order all over the world that we are now massively in debt to other countries.  In maintaining order we have effectively stuck our nose into so many peoples’ business that it has literally bit us in the behind.  We know that the attacks on the twin towers on September 11, 2001 was in response to the United States’ military presence in Islamic holy lands.  It scares me that we have a constant target on our back.  It frustrates me to think how that money could have been better spent.  Our education system in the United States ranks pretty low in comparison to most countries.  It seems like at least once a week I see a headline about how seeking a higher education in this country will most likely put a person into debt from which many people will likely never recover from.  I act very positive for my kids, but deep down I worry about their future.

One ray of hope is our environment.  I do believe that all nations will eventually come to the realization that we need to come together and be proactive in caring for the earth.  The wealthy are smart enough to know that without a healthy planet, all their riches would be for not.  I know that many nations have seen a slowing in population growth and an increase in education.  I am confident that new forms of energy will eventually replace fossil fuels.  At Oracle, where I work, I received an email last week announcing the installation of electric car charging stations at multiple Oracle facilities around the Bay Area and the intention to install them in many other locations around the globe.  Employees will be able to charge their cars for up to 6 hours for free with a minimal fee for every hour thereafter.  This is the wave of the future and employers are now giving us employees the ability to make the switch to these alternative fuel vehicles.  Pretty awesome and a definite move in the right direction!

Ch. 21-23

Chapters 21-23

I enjoyed chapter 21 in that it seemed to clear up a foggy memory of my adolescence.  I remember learning about the World War I and II, communism, socialism and the Iron Curtain but not too much of the details.  As a child of the 70’s and 80’s, the nuclear threat from the Russians was very real and very scary.  It seemed like in the 80’s, Russians or Germans were the bad guys in every movie Hollywood produced.  Every now and then when I come across one of them on cable, it seems so silly.  I supposed for my kids it will be the same with Iraq or Afghanistan.  I pray that the upheavals in these countries will have the same relatively underwhelming transition to a more democratic state as East Germany and the Soviet Union did.

What I didn’t grasp or comprehend as a child and what I found most interesting was that one of the major outcomes of the World Wars was that the United States emerged as the global super power by 1945.  After World War I, much of Europe was destroyed physically and economically.  The United States on the other hand was relatively untouched.  Their booming productivity had given them the unique advantage of being able to help Europe pick up the pieces.  They exported a myriad of products that Europe was unable to produce themselves.  At that time the United States was producing 50% of the world’s production.  They also lent money, about twelve billion dollars to rebuild infrastructures.  Lastly, they provided the military backing to protect nations from communism.

Strayer describes this notion as “empire by invitation”.  I think it perfectly describes what was happening around the world post war.  The United States had become the “step-father” so to speak to many of the recovering nations.  They had come to depend on the United States for products and services as well as financing for projects and military might.  All these things an empire would provide its colonies.

As the United States became this quasi new empire and democracy was becoming wide spread, Europe’s actual empire was crumbling in Asia and Africa.  The empires’ second and third generation, western-educated men as well as the Europeans themselves, saw colonial rule as something unnecessary.  They could no longer rationalize the rampant racism, exploitation and poverty with their Christian beliefs.  One of the last countries to find freedom was South Africa.  Strangely, South Africa was not even a colony.  Its problem was extreme segregation imposed on them by the “Afrikans”, or white Africans who had complete political and economic control of the country.  Native Africans had no political voice and were forced to live on reservations completely apart from the whites.  Their fight to be accepted as “civilized men” lasted for decades.  Apartheid finally ended after years of global political pressure and economic boycotts.  I remember when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and subsequently elected president.  Pretty awesome!

Lastly, what I found interesting about the reading was the varied links with feminism and communism.  In Russia, women were given full legal and political equality in regards to marriage, divorce, abortion, labor, etc.  In China, “The Marriage Law” decreed free choice of marriage, easy divorce, the end of concubinage, child marriage, widows remarrying and property rights for women.  There are other examples in which communism was not all bad.  Cuba for example has one of the best public education and health care systems in the world.  Perhaps the United States could learn a little something from Cuba given how low we rank in either category.

Ch. 11-13

Chapters 11-13

Having studied Islam in a previous religion class, something new that I learned was how they respected Jews and Catholics during their spread across Eurasia.  They did not force conversion upon them.  They were regarded as “people of the book” and considered “dhimmis” or protected subjects.  I don’t think the Catholic crusaders were as considerate.  I wonder if that Muslims of the twenty-first century still have this view.  As a Roman Catholic and having experienced Catholic school for twelve years, I would say I grew up very ignorant to the commonalities of the various religions based on the God of Abraham.  I believe it would be incredible if we could all see that we are interrelated and that together we could literally change the world.  I have a really good friend who is Jewish and we get along great.  We believe so many of the same things and we respect the parts in which our religions differ.  I have known him for more than twenty years and I don’t think we’ve ever had a religious argument and that’s because of the respect we give each other.  I wish everyone could have this philosophy.  

Also what I found most interesting in the readings was how it was spread through conquest.  They actively pursued the capture of enormous trade routes and in doing so Islam was transferred among merchants and travelers almost organically.  By the twenty first century about 22% of the world’s population was Muslim which seems astounding to me.  Through the media, one would think that Islam was a small cult-like religion found only in small middle-eastern nations.  In reality what we see in the news is only a small sampling of extremists that unfortunately give all Muslims a bad rap.

I enjoyed reading about the Mongols tremendously.  They just seemed so haphazard and in a way they were, but they were really smart.  The world underestimated the “barbarians” by a long shot because of their nomadic way of life.  They became the world’s largest land-based empire solely because they could.  They realized very quickly that they were really, really good at conquering.  They mastered horseback riding and along with advanced weaponry, this made them a military force to be reckoned with.  I think that if they would have had a motto it would have been, “Get er Done!”.  They had an innate ability to organize their subjects and take advantage of their abilities and resources to maintain the empire.  The empire was finally defeated by disease, but it makes me wonder what would have become of the Mongols had they been able to keep it together.

In the fifteenth century, the Sunni Muslims of the Ottoman Empire had its “second flowering”.  They captured Constantinople, Persia, West-African Savannas and the Indian peninsula.  Also during this time the era of long-distance maritime travel was initiated with Vasco de Gama’s trip around the southern tip of Africa.  This opened the door to other voyages that we know led to global colonization and the decimation of native populations.  Again, it makes you wonder what would have become of the Inca and Aztec Empires had Europe/Asia minded their own business….

Chapters 17-18-20

Chapters 17-18-20

In my opinion, the phrase that would sum up these three chapters is, “Liberty and justice for all… sort of.”  In Chapter seventeen we are introduced to the era of “revolution” and to the “enlightenment” theorists putting their money where their mouth is.  It all begins with the American Revolution in North America.  The Declaration of Independence is enacted and the British are defeated unifying the 13 colonies into the United States of America.  The Declaration of Independence was the first of its kind document, in that it guaranteed all citizens certain rights and equality… sort of.  It certainly did this for white males, but not so much for women and far less for slaves or any other ethnic group.  France quickly followed suit and many others, such as Haiti, México and South America defeated Spanish and Portuguese rule.  As a natural progression to the idea of all men being created equal, slavery was soon seen around the world as directly violating this rationale.  Slavery was soon abolished in the United States and elsewhere.  The attention was now aimed at universal suffrage and equal rights for women, which also occurred in phases around the globe.

Independence was exercised differently from country to country with different results.  The United States was exceptional in that what it was creating was a brand new nation made up of a diverse cultural background.  They knew what they didn’t want and went about making it happen relatively unhindered.  In Haiti, México and South America, the sizeable native or mixed populations resulted in a different outcome.  They had to recreate trade agreements and figure out what they were going to export and import.  They relied heavily on financing from abroad and eventually made it work, but did not come close their economic achievements pre-revolution.  By comparison, the power and wealth that the United States was building was and is unequaled.

The Industrial Revolution that followed transformed the globe.  It multiplied outputs of goods and services exponentially.  It also created unbelievable wealth for those pioneering countries.  What it mostly created was GREED.  This greed led to a new wave of colonization in Africa that resembled that of North and South America before their independence.  Africa was quickly divided up among a few different nations.  What followed was an era of unbridled slavery and brutal domination of the native Africans by the colonizing nations.  It made me sick to read all the atrocities that the natives endured in the name of capitalism.  It blows my mind how someone who is supposed to be educated and a Christian could possibly rationalize what they did in the name of the almighty dollar, pound or peso.  What was awesome was how the natives came to realize that education was their salvation.  The colonists soon realized their error but by then it was too late.  The Africans’ western education, along with the new grouping of tribes was used as an instrument of unification.  The colonizers’ grouping the natives by commonalities into tribes was meant to be derogatory, but it actually gave them a reason to come together and help one another.  It was really inspiring to see that despite the colonists’ best efforts to subjugate them, the native Africans were not going to be defeated.

Chapters 14-16

Chapters 14-16

The two words I would use to best describe these chapters are “globalization” and “knowledge”.  In chapters 14 and 15 we see the global colonization and trade over virtually every inch of the planet, from Siberia to South America and everywhere in between.  The conquest and colonization of the Americas as well as the forcing of itself into the Indian Ocean trade market made Europeans a force to be reckoned with in the early modern era.  Many other empires saw prosperity and growth as well, like China, the Ottomans and Russia to name a few.  Not all was sunshine and roses.  The human toll was devastating in many parts of the world, but none more so than in the Americas. 

               As a Mexican-American, what I found most interesting about this week’s readings is how the different cultures evolved in the Americas.  I’ve always known that my parents and the majority of the people from where my parents originate in México are creoles or mestizo.  A small percentage of the population is actually native.  Here in the United States, the natives are also a very small percentage of the population but unlike México and Central and South America, there really aren’t any mixed race populations to speak of.  I’m not saying there aren’t any, but nothing comparable to what we now call Latin America has.  I had never really thought about this, but it probably explains why whenever people ask me what nationality I am and I reply, “Mexican”, they are astounded.  They can’t believe that someone fare skinned can be full blooded Mexican.  Now I realize that I’ve never thought of it from their perspective.  In the United States, the colonists did not mix with the natives to the same degree that the Spanish did in México and Central and South America and this is because the colonists that arrived at Plymouth Rock came with their women and the Spanish did not.  Therefore, I will no longer be so critical of people who are taken aback by nationality.  J

               In Chapter 16 we see the different world religions solidify their place in history and the world, but the most interesting to me was the perfect storm that led to the scientific revolution of this era.  The author asks, “Why Europe?”  I was wondering the same thing; why not in the great empires of China or Islam?  The answers seem so obvious now.  China was too focused on education for civil service only and the Muslims were only interested in the study of the Quran.  Europeans on the other hand, were not oppressed by religion for the first time in a long time.  They had the time and interest to pursue other ideas and methodologies.  During this era many of the fundamental theories and discoveries made in math, astronomy, geometry, anatomy and more are still those that we learn today in the twenty-first century.  I think this is incredible.  China, Japan and the Muslims didn’t feel compelled to pay any attention to what the Europeans were doing for some time, but they eventually came around.