authoress – Page 10 – education and deconstruction.com

We Were the Future

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The Book of the Week is “We Were the Future, A Memoir of the Kibbutz” by Yael Neeman, published in 2016. Readers might argue that the author and her cohorts were raised in a cult– brainwashed from birth. The kibbutz movement strove for 100% socialism– the economic system in which all the people (not the State) collectively owned everything; and collectively governed themselves.

In 1947, the total population of kibbutzim as a proportion of Israel’s (Jewish) population reached a high of 7%. It waned after Israel achieved sovereignty in 1948. The first half of the 1950’s saw global historical events (the trials of: Prague [1952], the Doctors in the U.S.S.R. and the Rosenbergs in the U.S. [both 1953]) that were jarring to Jews. The kibbutz movement split over ideological disagreements, especially after Stalin died in 1953 and his crimes were revealed in 1956. Adults around the author held zero discussions about this recent history.

Neeman was born in 1960 in Kibbutz Yehiam (founded in 1946) in Western Galilee near the border with Lebanon. Her kibbutz was a branch of Hashomer Hatzair (meaning “Young Guard”), the movement’s umbrella organization that began in 1913. Their motto was, “For Zionism, Socialism and Brotherhood Amongst Nations.” Her children’s group consisted of eight boys and eight girls, who did everything together, every day. She was raised among them by women who collectively took care of the kibbutz’s children grouped by age; she visited with her biological parents, but didn’t live with them in the same building.

The lifestyle encompassed a number of major ideas:

“Family and education in the rest of the industrial world were considered bourgeois institutions.”
“Everyone knew after all, that work [on the kibbutz] was more important than school, more important than anything.”
Egalitarianism for all the people was key– all decisions were made by committee.

Contradictorily:

There was a hierarchical division of labor– upper and lower. The former consisted of high-level positions in the fields and factories; held by the founders of the kibbutz, the (mostly Hungarian) First of May group. The latter consisted of low-skilled, dead-end jobs such as peeling potatoes.
The kibbutz undertook a number of enterprises through the years, including a banana “plantation” which was the most “profitable.” [these words with nuanced meanings were translated from Hebrew, but even so, these were capitalist endeavors.]

Kids whose behavior was troublesome were exiled from the kibbutz, and sent to a “special institution.” At twelve years old, all the conforming kids began to attend what amounted to boarding school, located off the kibbutz campus. They had previously received an eclectic education of hands-on instruction on a myriad of topics. Beginning in adolescence, they were allowed to shape their own education, or lack thereof.

Currently, analogous experiments are underway in American education in which adolescents are placed in front of computer screens with no teachers. Educrats and profiteers expect the software to teach them. At that age, most kids have neither the judgment nor the discipline to acquire the knowledge and skills required for becoming mature, responsible adults who can financially support themselves.

Kibbutzniks were afforded too much freedom and not enough guidance and supervision within their tiny, limited community in their early childhood. So they had a rude awakening when they were permitted (on rare occasions) to see how other kids in the rest of the world lived.

One other interesting factoid: Neeman wrote, “In our biological home, we [she and her three siblings] were already allowed to smoke on Purim when we were in the first grade.”

Read the book to learn about a boatload of other ways Neeman’s upbringing was extremely unconventional due to her fledgling homeland’s exceptionalism.

Propaganda – BONUS POST

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Here’s a parody about the current worldwide situation– especially relevant in wartime.

PROPAGANDA

sung to the tune of “Pop Muzik” with apologies to M (the band) and Robin Scott.

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Low down.

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Radio, video
Buzz with every legal case.
Go living in a courtroom.
Outrage in the prez race.
Celebrities with heartache.
Lies, smears, photos fake.
Boss some, buy some–
attention whores can’t stay mum.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop.
I can’t veriFY it.
Pop goes the idiot box.
It’s a Kool-Aid diet.

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Infiltrated.
Way overrated.

New York Times, CNN, WaPo, Fox slander.
Everybody fooled by propagander.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Reveling in the headlines.
Shuffle all the partisans.
Spin me a cover-up.
Aren’t they artisans?
Wanna be a war monger–
arguments ARE longer.
Blah blah drivel blather.
Get viewers in a lather.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Lying like a rug.
Pop goes the idiot box.
Aiding the thugs.

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Social contagion.
Pop goes the idiot box.
Wily stagin’.

Insidious.

You buy what they’re sayin’.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Swaying the world.
Gullible you are.
At the speed of light.
Hear it in the car.
It can give you a fright.

cog cog cog cog cog cog cog cog cog
cog cog cog cog cog cog
cog cog cog cog cog cog cog cog cog
cog cog cog cog cog cog

Tabloids in the supermarket.
Read it in the magazines.
Messages in movies.
Your face in your phone again.
You get so, EFfing mad
at hypocrites WE’VE had.
Sunlight on the liars.
Deniers, war and fires.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Hard to know WHAT’S fake.
Pop goes the idiot box.
When everyone’s on-the-take.
Poll-you, roll-you nonstop
Hard to know WHAT’S fake.
Pop goes the idiot box.

Insidious.

New York Times, CNN, WaPo, Fox slander.
Everybody fooled by propagander.

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda

Prop-prop-prop propaganda
Prop-prop-prop propaganda

Low down.

Don’t listen!!!

Putting out propaganda
Putting out propaganda…

Shanghai Acrobat

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The Book of the Week is “Shanghai Acrobat, The True Story of Courage and Perseverance from Revolutionary China” by Jingjing Xue, translated by Bo Ai, published in 2021.

Born in 1947 in Zhejiang Province in China, the author was sent to live at an orphanage when he was two years old. He never did find out exactly why, as his biological parents were alive. Anyway, the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe recruited him when he was nine years old. Other members of the group were as old as fourteen. He happened to possess the right temperament to endure its rigorous training (that included corporal punishment) and get good at balancing on his hands in various precarious positions.

There were daily academic lessons, too, and a lot of political ideology thrown in. The instructors constantly emphasized the teachings of Mao Tse Tung, and bragged about what a prosperous, wonderful country they lived in. Mao took the calculated risk of allowing performers and athletes to travel outside China where they might learn about other peoples’ lifestyles and defect– so that he could show off his own people’s greatness.

By the late 1950’s, the author was traveling and performing with the Troupe. In 1960, they went to cities controlled by the Soviets, and ironically, to African countries (such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Guinea and Morocco) whose native peoples were starting to throw off their colonialist yokes.

In the early 1960s, owing a ginormous monetary debt to the Soviets and not wanting to pay it, China decided the Soviets were wrong to stomp on the memory of the great leader Stalin (who had died in 1953 and whose crimes were revealed a few years later); Mao theatrically broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviets.

In 1967, Mao capriciously imposed his new twisted logic (a different set of ideas from that of his previous campaign)– the belief that the lowest economic class (the workers, the peasant-tenants) needed to fight the higher economic classes (the bosses and landlords)– because capitalistic activities were anathema. There were a few occasions in which the author was yelled at for saying the wrong things to some non-Chinese people, even though he thought his comments would jive with Mao’s teachings.

As part of the new campaign (called the Cultural Revolution, begun in 1965) to rid China of the dissidents of the moment– performing acrobatics was out of fashion. The radicals loyal to Mao policed the Troupe, finally disbanded it, and psychologically and physically tortured the director in public self-criticism meetings. The author’s acrobatic career was (temporarily, though he didn’t know it at the time) over. He was sent to the countryside for “reeducation.”

With 20/20 hindsight, the author wrote, “To those of us who had been through the Cultural Revolution, the Watergate political scandal was nothing. We couldn’t understand how the American people could force Nixon to resign for ‘peanuts.’ ” It is unclear what kind of propaganda the author and his contemporaries were fed to come to that conclusion.

For, they might have known nothing of Nixon’s real war crimes. But even if Nixon had been innocent of war crimes, he and his underlings still committed election crimes, and worst of all, violated his numerous enemies’ civil rights– evil actions that were considered against the law in the United States. The last fifty years have seen a bit more moderation in China’s political leadership. And radicalism in the United States.

Human nature is such that there has been some convergence (!) between China’s and the United States’ ideologies in:

surveillance of citizens
incarceration of citizens
economics
education, and
other areas of life.

It’s all in the propaganda fed to the people.

Read the book to learn much more about the author’s life and times, and his fate.

Counsel to the President

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“On the other hand, liberals felt it was intolerable to watch the First Amendment freedoms, the most precious ones bestowed upon us by the Founding Fathers, trampled by know-nothings masquerading as patriots.”

-Clark Clifford, writing of the (Joe) McCarthy Era

The Book of the Week is “Counsel to the President, A Memoir” by Clark Clifford with Richard Holbrooke, published in 1991. This volume was ginormous because the author wrote of the minutiae of interactions of the alpha males who ran the federal government from the 1940’s through the 1980’s.

Born in December 1906 in the St. Louis area, Clifford enjoyed a career in law and politics. In his generation, boys read the “Horatio Alger” book series, the rags-to-riches fairy tales of males who came by their success through hard work and ethical behavior. A bygone era.

In September 1948, Ronald Reagan endorsed Harry Truman for president. In those days, on the Sunday before election day on Tuesday, there was no campaigning. The candidates did not work, else American voters would complain it was the Christian Sabbath. Monday night, the candidates delivered their last radio addresses. On Tuesday, the author went to the home of a friend who had a television, to watch the election returns. Commentators displayed the returns on chalkboards. Battleground states in the 1948 race included Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and California.

In 1949, Truman introduced the Fair Deal initiative, which strove to honor Americans’ human rights, expand the economy and maintain world peace. Also, a Public Affairs department junior-staffer (who risked his career by not “staying in his lane”) pushed for Point Four, despite backlash from the State Department.

Influential speechwriters of the president inserted Point Four (which sought to aid poor nations through modernization) in his inaugural speech. Even so, because it was placed under the auspices of the State Department (which thought of itself as responsible for diplomacy, not charity), the foreign policy initiative went nowhere for more than a year. The speech included three other major themes: the United States’ involvement in the beginnings of the United Nations, Marshall Plan, and NATO.

Through an engaging anecdote, Clifford described the major role that social-drinking played in American society in the 1950’s. Baptist U.S. senator Bob Kerr (D.-OK.), a teetotaler, invited a group of political workers to a dinner party at his home. He duly warned them that he would not be serving alcohol.

A fellow Democrat, Stuart Symington, called all the guests privately, and invited them for pre-dinner drinks at his home. On the appointed evening, all of the guests arrived at the Kerrs’ home, drunk. A good time was still had by all. Clifford’s account strained credibility, however, as he claimed Kerr didn’t detect that his guests had been drinking.

Anyway, the McCarthy Era ended this way:

In 1953, U.S. senator Joe McCarthy (R.-WI) and his evil sidekick Roy Cohn were called out publicly for attempting to pull strings for Cohn’s draft-dodger friend, who had been drafted.
In retaliation, McCarthy used HUAC to brand a certain obscure Army member, a Commie. In March 1954, he pressed an Army general to provide more information on the accused. The general refused.
McCarthy was so incensed, he called for public hearings, to hash out his issues with the Army. Big error.
LBJ, Senate Minority Leader said the hearings should be televised, and so they were, beginning in April 1954. As is well known, McCarthy was called out for having no decency left.

Yet, upon getting elected to public office, LBJ never did divest himself of his significant interests in radio and TV stations in Austin, TX. Unlike profiteering with its attendant political conflicts of interest, one aspect of American culture that is changing significantly, is the increasing tolerance for people of different sexual orientations.

Johnson aide Walter Jenkins, a devout Catholic, was married and had six children. In October 1964, two undercover officers arrested Jenkins, whom they caught committing a homosexual act (which was illegal!) in the old YMCA building near the White House. The incident was leaked to the press. The Republican National Committee deemed Jenkins a threat to National Security. Jenkins was “cancelled.”

Moving on. When he ran for president in 1976, Jimmy Carter made a promise he could not possibly keep: to always be honest with Americans. He also implied that his administration would be benevolent and forthright. Of course, the voting public paid attention, because they wanted so badly to believe Carter was telling the truth– after the McCarthy Era, Vietnam and Watergate. The joke,

Q: What’s the difference between an honest politician and a UFO?

A: People have seen a UFO

is funny because it rings true.

The author then described a key way presidents can be perceived as effective (whether they’re honest is another story):

“They [a president] must summon the nation to share their vision and values, and by their priorities, symbolize their definition of what they want the nation to be.”

Read the book to learn about Clifford’s career, including how and why he flip-flopped on Vietnam in the second half of the 1960’s, and much more on the major historical events with which he and his political contemporaries had to contend.

Oh, My Homes – BONUS POST

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Here’s what Trump is singing now.

OH, MY HOMES

sung to the tune of “Kodachrome” with apologies to Paul Simon.

When I look at all the political crap and how the courts rule,
it’s a wonder they’re allowed to judge at all.

And they’re unfair and un-American, they’ve hurt me some.
They’ve totally defamed me with their gall.

Oh, my ho-o-omes, you gave me tax breaks and loans,
gave me changes in zones.
Helped me build my perfect businesses every day, oh yeah.

I got a bunch of supporters.
I say this IS a Witch Hunt.
So judge, don’t take my magnificent homes away.

You know I didn’t do ANY of the crimes
I’m accused of.
And if you really know HOW to do right,
you’d agree I’m innocent and all my protestations,
AREN’T-inciting racial tensions between black and white.

Oh, my ho-o-omes, you gave me tax breaks and loans,
gave me changes in zones.
Helped me build my perfect businesses every day, oh yeah.

I got a bunch of supporters.
I say this IS a Witch Hunt.
So judge, don’t take my magnificent homes away.

Judge, don’t take my real estate away.
Judge, don’t take my hotels away.
Judge, don’t take my businesses away.

Judge, don’t take my free speech,
Judge, don’t take my mo-ney,
Judge, don’t take my golf courses away.

Judge, don’t take my declassified documents.
Why don’t you leave me the hell alone?

Judge, don’t take my candidacy away.
Judge, don’t take my freedom away. Arrgh.
Judge, don’t take my magnificent homes away.
Hey!

Weed, Inc.

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The Book of the Week is “Weed, Inc., The Truth About THC, the Pot Lobby, and the Commercial Marijuana Industry” by Ben Cort, published in 2017.

In this short volume, the author cleared up many misconceptions about marijuana. He defined “marijuana” (aka “weed”) as the whole plant. The mind-altering substance in marijuana is abbreviated THC. The medicinal substance in marijuana is abbreviated CBD.

In November 2012, the state government of Colorado passed Amendment 64, allowing an “anything goes” mentality in connection with marijuana. In America, it was time for another round of: too many greedy, power-hungry stakeholders (Goliaths who win the battle– profiteers in the form of lobbyists, THC sellers and politicians), and too few informed, politically active people (Davids– who see through the propaganda). The author provided suggestions on how to regulate Colorado’s THC industry. But at the book’s writing in 2017, it was too late, and he was way too idealistic.

The Goliaths reassure the masses that the new laws are gonna be great (via oversimplified, evidence-free, misleading, political talking-points)– bring in lots of revenue to the state, and expand everyone’s freedoms! The author listed examples of the Goliaths’ utterances and counter-arguments, respectively (this is not a comprehensive list):

“It’s just a plant.” but poppies are just a plant– which serve as the raw material for opium and heroin.
“It’s safer than alcohol.” but “safer” is a misused, overused word in rationalizations justifying all kinds of dangerous situations: drugs, the financial markets, transportation, etc. The correct description should be “less risky.”
“Traffic fatalities in Colorado are down.” There is no bright-line blood-THC measurement-amount that is illegal for the few drivers who are tested for THC. It’s a cumbersome process to do testing in the first place. It’s a whole bureaucratic production in which a drug recognition expert must be called to the scene to rule whether to do the blood test.
“Look at all the tax dollars!” For 2015, the total taxes collected on THC activities was one half of one percent of Colorado’s total budget.

Frequently, the sound bites on medical topics in the media are gross distortions (aka propaganda) of a situation, because they omit inconvenient facts. In one situation (one data point in the statistics) in the 2010’s, a young child had significantly fewer seizures when she ingested a CBD solution in oil. A medical doctor went on a major cable network and disseminated the misleading message that “Weed cures seizures. Hurray!” No mention of side effects or possible long-term harm or costs or whether the doctor was paid to say what he was saying, or of any details.

Predictably, in Colorado, weed shops, or dispensaries (that sell extremely-concentrated THC-containing baked goods, candy and sweet beverages) sprung up in poor neighborhoods.

As is well known, matters came to a head on crack-cocaine in the 1990’s, meth in the single-digit 2000’s, and opioids in the 2010’s. Unsurprisingly– to people in-the-know: THC is the newest drug craze which– when the harm in connection therewith reaches critical mass– will result in lawsuits and bad publicity for the industry; it will end up just like the “opioid crisis.” The harm includes not only addicts galore, but also– due to the all-cash nature of the industry in Colorado specifically– robberies and other street crimes, money laundering and other financial crimes.

Read the book to learn much more hard data on THC, the author’s suggestions for sane regulation of marijuana and THC, the nature of marijuana laws that certain states have already passed, his personal experience with addiction and why it is so hard to kick an addiction (hint: “… and he was surrounded by stores, advertisements, the culture of gratification and abuse, and the sheer smell of it [weed].”).

Newsroom Confidential / An Atheist in the FOXhole

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The First Book of the Week is “Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life” by Margaret Sullivan, published in 2022.

The author survived a decades-long career as a journalist and editor. Ironically, her writing was slightly less than perfect. The word “being” was used awkwardly in the middle of sentences throughout the book. Also, she spent a bunch of pages describing the problems with “anonymous sources” but her (presumably nonfiction) book lacked a detailed list of Notes, Sources, References, or Bibliography and an index (!) She did say some of her information was taken from articles she wrote for her employers. This, from a seasoned journalist.

Born in 1957, Sullivan grew up in Lackawanna, a suburb of Buffalo, in northwestern New York State. By her early thirties, she was supervising six journalists in the politics and government division of the Buffalo Evening News newspaper. In autumn 2012, as an ombudsman, she began penning articles critiquing her employer, the New York Times. Her position was that of watchdog– she helped with quality control of its product.

The author described her take on how journalism has changed over the decades with respect to truth, trust and objectivity. As is well known, technology now allows the world to communicate at the speed of light. Especially during political campaigns, many journalists have begun to behave the same way as political workers: workaholics who act like extremely self-absorbed, socially manipulative teenagers who think they’re starring in their own reality show; and they are– it’s called social media.

They feel obligated to interact with their readers by inviting their comments and responding to them; the author included. Inevitably, haters express their opinions offensively and meanly. Everyone wastes untold amounts of time dealing with them, instead of changing the world for the better.

AND, people in the media and political realms aren’t as influential as they’d like to believe they are. Ordinary Americans who don’t work in the media or politics, cannot possibly affix their eyes to all of the infinite writings, photos and videos “out there” in entertainment land 24/7. Some have to work, and others are actually engaged in other activities.

Anyway, in 2017, as a columnist for the Washington Post, the author considered herself an “independent-minded journalist” but came to the rude awakening that, when she asked people from all-walks-of-life about politics, she could no longer find common ground with them on basic issues.

Although the author discussed the legal issues of “anonymous sources” and “equal time” she didn’t cite any legal cases. She did write that in three different instances, media outlets courageously chose to give more time to the truth than to falsity in their 2020 election coverage– by not giving equal time to people who were screaming voter fraud and that Trump had won the election. She hopes there will be more media space devoted to the truth in the future. Good luck with that, all.

Read the book to learn a boatload more about the author’s career trials, tribulations and triumphs, and her recommendations for helping to reverse the current awful trends in journalism so as to save modern civilization.

The Second Book of the Week is “An Atheist in the FOXhole: A Liberal’s Eight-Year Odyssey Inside the Heart of the Right-Wing Media” by Joe Muto, published in 2013.

The author was born in early 1982 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His first job out of college was at Fox News. He detailed the working conditions there from summer 2004 into spring 2012. In October 2004, a story broke about a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill O’Reilly. The main source of evidence consisted of O’Reilly’s voice on audio recordings.

Thereafter, Fox News gave its employees sensitivity training in order to stave off more lawsuits. The two lawyers teaching the classes said that the Fox bosses could legally tell on-air talent what to wear– even mini-skirts and strappy, cleavage-revealing blouses(!)– because they had a right to creatively control their “product.”

As time went on, the author’s employer’s product became more and more inflammatory, cringeworthy, and offensive. As is well known, Fox has toned down its rhetoric due to lawsuits. The number of parties who have the clout and money to sue have finally reached critical mass on the sexual harassment and defamation fronts.

In connection therewith, in the last decade, several obnoxious public figures have disappeared from the American-influence scene. This has help foster a kinder social environment. Nevertheless, hate-spewers and laws favoring them wax and wane in history.

Too, in the last few decades, the entertainment industry has seen a trend of lazy (or untalented) creators, evinced by a boatload of unnecessarily juvenile, expletive-laden, disgusting content. Controversy over free speech has also been ignited by people on each extreme: those who feel they should have the right to say anything they want, and those who take offense at everything that is said, with accusations of discrimination or inappropriateness.

Anyway, read the book to learn about the author’s employment experiences and his fate at the time of the book’s writing.

Trump’s Been Good – BONUS POST

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Trump’s Been Good

sung to the tune of “Life’s Been Good” with apologies to Joe Walsh. This is what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is singing, in a rare moment of honesty.

I have a speakership.
Forget my power.
Got reelected on condition I cower.
I obey my donors, probe Dems, erect walls.
I have taxpayers pay for it all.

They say I’m weak, but I’m GOP-loyal.
I’m just looking for ways to reap all the spoils.
Trump’s been good to me so far.

I get reelected every few years.
I lost my scruples. Now I have no fears.
GOPers have all got my back,
Secret Service here in case I’m attacked.

I bash the liberals, my base they agree.
It’s my last hurrah, obviously.
So I got me an office,
fancy furniture and all.
Need votes or money, I’ll certainly call.

I deserve a medal after all I’ve been through.
(Everybody say, “I’m cool,” “He’s a fool.”)
The media complains about everything I do.
Trump’s been good to me so far.

I’m a hack for my Party sometimes until four.
It’s hard to leave when you’re a political whore.
It’s tough to handle this fortune and fame.
But with Dems gaining power, the nation will change.

They say I don’t do-enough,
but it takes all my time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
My days are numbered,
and we all know why.
Trump’s been good to me so far. Yeah, yeah yeah.

On Shaky Ground

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The Book of the Week is “On Shaky Ground, An Invitation to Disaster” by John J. Nance, published in 1988. Prediction of earthquakes is an age-old issue that can be improved, if enough money and political support is thrown at it, in connection with studying the geologic, tectonic, volcanic and geophysical problems that crop up along fault lines.

Even in 1960 when a major earthquake hit Chile, there was disagreement among scientists over the behavior of underground structures. The opposing theories consisted of “steep vertical fault” and “shallow, sub-horizontal dip-slip fault.”

To that time, ivory-tower “experts” at Caltech relied on only seismograph data for ideas. In the coming decades, graduate students looked elsewhere to disprove the old theories. One young scientist personally, physically surveyed a large swath of the topography of the Alaskan countryside. His data disproved the steep vertical fault theory. Another graduate student became a pioneer in paleoseismology, which identify the substances piled up underground in an earthquake zone, showing how they changed and moved over the course of millennia.

In the early 1960’s, the U.S. government and military were the major employers in the city of Anchorage in Alaska. They were eager to urbanize the place, and construction was booming. They ignored a pesky report issued in 1961 by the U.S. Geological Survey warning that the city’s underground foundation– Bootlegger Cove Clay– would be unstable in the event of an earthquake. Building codes were lax on structural soundness.

Alas, a major earthquake hit the area in March of 1964. The epicenter was under Unakwik inlet in North Prince William Sound, ten miles from Valdez, Anchorage and Seward, Alaska. Many structures collapsed, including but far from limited to: docks, warehouses, a newly opened J.C. Penney store and a Four Seasons apartment building.

The underground clay became liquid, causing the location of oil, army and cannery docks, and railroad yards to shift many feet. Fortunately, there had been regulation of natural gas lines. They had been programmed to shut off in an emergency, and they did, preventing explosions and fires. However, wooden buildings swayed instead of collapsing, but they burned in fires when a Texaco fuel tank exploded.

As fate would have it, the Seismological Society of America happened to be holding its annual meeting in Seattle, on the campus of the University of Washington on that very day. But news of the disaster in those days took hours to reach them. As is well known, communications technology has come a long way since 1987, when there were different radio systems for Los Angeles’ more than one hundred and forty police and fire jurisdictions.

The seismic waves generated vibrations in numerous other places around the world. The quake’s severity was “off the charts” given the existing technology for measuring such activity. Four tsunamic waves spanning twelve thousand square miles of Alaska’s sea floor was felt as far away as Hawaii, and swamped Vancouver Island. Seward’s economy was ruined, as it was based on oil, fishing, import/export, railway transportation, and boating.

Sadly, human beings have short memories; possibly because they’ve become desensitized to cautionary tales. Greed eventually results in business as usual. Political candidates in at-risk communities are loath to spend precious campaign time on safety regulations– their donors benefit financially from disasters. In recent decades, American communities have become wise to the fact that they can always apply for federal aid when they are hit by a disaster (whose loss of life and property damage could have been minimized!).

Anyway, read the book to learn about additional disasters in China, California, Mexico, South Carolina, and much more about the science of earthquakes, and the mentalities of the people in connection therewith.

Cuba on the Verge

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The Book of the Week is “Cuba on the Verge, 12 Writers on Continuity and Change in Havana and Across the Country” edited by Leila Guerriero, published in 2017.

After Cuban leader Fidel Castro died in November 2016, there was a slight relaxation of economic restraints on the common people. Under the one-party rule of Castro’s brother Raul, Cubans could engage in entrepreneurial pursuits– serving tourists through renting out their homes or turning their cars into taxis, supervised by the government. Americans have begun doing the same in the last two decades, but through centralized corporate entities such as Airbnb and Uber.

Ironically, under Fidel’s leadership, Cuba developed a reputation for literacy and affordable, quality healthcare; during which time, America developed a reputation for deleterious (greedy!) practices in education and healthcare.

At the book’s writing, Cuba required working mothers to take paid maternity leave halfway through their eighth month; the paid leave continued for four and a half months after the births. An additional year was optional, for which mothers received sixty percent of their wages. Further, abortions were not only legal, but used as a form of contraception, with neither shame nor emotional hysteria generated by political activists, attached. On the other hand, the Cuban government spies on its people 24/7.

Cuban children are taught sex education beginning in the fifth grade. So kids are sexually precocious, as they learn from their older siblings. They are casual about relationships, so there are no hard feelings when families become fragmented, but there are many latchkey children, and males dominate.

After the Soviet Union broke up, Moscow’s government no longer funded Cuba’s economy. Beginning in the 1990’s, this “Special Period” saw severe shortages of basic consumer goods such as health and beauty aids and clothing, not to mention food. Unsurprisingly, domestic violence spiked.

People sold their jewelry at government trading posts in order to survive. They received mostly Panamanian goods in return. They adopted casual dress all the time– flip-flops, shorts, T-shirts– even where formal clothing had been worn previously, such as the theater. Counterfeit big-name goods flooded the market, sourced mostly from Miami, Panama, Madrid and China.

Yet another cultural change included males’ taking on of domestic chores and child-rearing, as more women could earn money through prostituting themselves. Socially-skilled men collected and sold coconuts from private properties, or sought out sexual relationships with visiting of out-of-town women who paid their everyday expenses.

Read the book to learn of the numerous other ways Cuba changed in the 1990’s, and ways it hasn’t– such as in its practices of numerology and witchcraft and in its love of baseball.