Les engages sont-ils les plus blesses, les plus hysteriques? S’ ils ne croient pas a tout casser et ne le font pas, ce sont des passiones raisonables.
Posts Tagged ‘Mediterranean Sea basin’
Notes and tidbits posted on FB and Twitter. Part 87
Note 1: I take notes of books I read and comment on events and edit sentences that fit my style. The page is long and growing like crazy, and the sections I post contains month-old events that are worth refreshing your memory.
Note 2: If you are Not tri-lingual, you will stumble on Arabic notes, written in Latin characters and with numbers representing vocals Not available in Latin languages.
Any knowledge of “History of Geography” or world maps?
Do you know that the Chinese cartographers oriented the southern hemisphere to be on the top of maps? Why?
The northern hemisphere (close to where they lived), was very cold and foggy, and the Moguls invaded China from there, thus, devaluing this northern hemisphere and relegating it to the bottom part of a map.
The Arab cartographers adopted the Chinese orientation.
For example, in 1157, Al Idrisi sent a most complete map of 70 double pages to King Roger II of Sicily. The map detailed the Mediterranean Sea basin.
Obviously, you have to turn the map upside down to visualize it as we currently see it. For example, if the concept of civilized and barbaric countries were prevalent in these ancient times, as it is now, the southern countries will boast to belong to the southern civilized hemisphere!
In Medieval Europe, top of maps represented the eastern side of the world. Why?
According to the Bible, East was the Eden because Cain was chased eastward toward the void. Additionally, a belt of fire cordoned off the East portion, not to be accessible to entrance. Christopher Columbus described the Antilles Islands (East of Asia in his mind) as Eden where people roamed completely naked and rich in exotic fruits.
Mercator, a Dutch cartographer (1512-1594), re-oriented the maps, on the ground that the southern hemisphere is “heavier” than the northern counterpart according to the Greek tradition. Europe was to be located in the center of the world.
Do you know that continents were categorized in two major groups and intermediate regions?
For example, you had the “solid regions” (Sub-Sahara Africa, Northern America, Southern America, Asia, Europe, and Antarctica) and the malleable autonomous regions such as (India, Australia, Russia, and the island of Madagascar). The other regions were shared portions such as (North Africa, Turkey, Mongolia, Middle East, Central Asia, Central Europe…). You can guess the geopolitical theme for this division of the world.
Do you know that, even recently in the 60’s, the world was divided as solid geography, liquid geography, and gaseous geography?
For example solid geography (founded by Paul Vidal de la Blanche, 1923) relied on the material objects such as mountain chains, raw materials, types of rocks…in order to describe a country?
The Anglo-Saxon description of geography was of the “liquid kind”, emphasizing space and modeling…a flux representation.
In the 80’s, description of geography included the time-line or history of a region, and thus, gaseous geography!
Fernand Braudel demonstrated the interconnections between Time (history of a region) and the Space (land facts) in describing a region…
In this globalization period, the world is divided among the developed countries (West Europe, USA, Japan, China, Russia), the fast developing countries (Brasil, India, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia…supplying the cheap work force), and the third world supplying the raw materials and minerals.
For example, I tend to believe that major rivers, much more than mountain chains, are the determining dividing lines among autonomous countries and representing the character of people.
It is toward major water sources that mankind agglomerated and settled and founded urban centers. Within two decades, water resources will be scarce and the most important element for survival. Countries controlling the origin or sources of major rivers will enjoy huge leverage in the geopolitical tag of war. (Read link in note)
For example, China will never relinquish Tibet: The Himalaya mountain chains are the sources of most of the major rivers flowing in China, South-East Asia, and even in the Ganges (India).
Turkey control the sources of the Euphrates and Tiger rivers flowing into Syria and Iraq.
Ethiopia control the Nile water source…
Note 1: Article was inspired from an article in the French monthly Sciences Humaines, and written by Christian Grataloup
Indeed, Why the “Arabs” in the US are the most educated and the richest? Part 2
Posted by: adonis49 on: May 30, 2011
Part 2. Why the “Arabs” in the US are the most educated and the richest?
The latest statistics performed in the US, generated from the latest census, have sent shock waves in the US communities because of widespread discrimination of “Arabs” in the medias. The statistics demonstrated the following facts, relative to the 5.3 million US citizens of “Arabic” descent:
1. 61% of the US Arabs earned the highest university degrees versus 30% of the average US citizens. The Arab citizens are mainly Lebanese (40%), Syrians (12.3%), Egyptians (12%), Palestinians (6%), Iraqis, North Africans… earned the highest university degrees versus 30% of the average US citizens
2. The average “Arab” in the US earn $54,000 versus $43,000
3. 57% of the “Arabs” in the US own single family homes versus 43% of the average ratio.
4. The Arabs in the US hold the highest posts and the most private businesses than the other US minorities, including European, Japanese, and Chinese.
John Stewart Kenneth said:
“The Arabs are starting to scare us with their intelligence and competitiveness. Even our thinking are challenged and changed. Once opportunities for freedom, justice were available to the US Arabs, they advanced in accelerated speed. The US Arabs came from poor countries and reacted to their former indignities in their original countries by showing us to the second rank in our society.”
Moses Naeem, founder of “Foreign Policies” in the USA wrote an article saying: “Why Arab descendents are more successful than most ordinary US citizens? Why are they more intelligent and richer? Why in such a hurry?”
Indeed why?
First, we need to differentiate among the Arabic speaking people, if explanations are to get to target. The “Arabs” mentioned in the statistics are 70% from the Levant or Near East States (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine). This trend is not restricted to the US: it is predominant in Europe, Latin America, Australia and in most developed countries where “Arabs” had to immigrate to.
Simply because of the availability in opportunities for “freedom and justice”? Is it that simple?
It is more complicated than this simplistic concept monopolized by the Western States.
The first immigrants at the turn of the century to the US were Lebanese and Syrians, called “Turks” because they held Ottoman passports at the time. Immigrants had bought tickets with the intention of specifically “going to America, the USA”.
Most of them were diverted to Africa, Latin America, and to islands by ship captains, for efficient turnover of customers, at every port. They were fleeing economic hardship, before starting to immigrate for political reasons after WWII.
The most educated and well-to-do among immigrants went to Palestine, and particularly to Egypt at the turn of the century, where they were the vanguard in creating daily presses, translating scientific research and the newer technologies, and disseminating the notion of freedom of expressions and promoting the values of Western Europe in matters of democracy, republic, equality, constitutional political systems, and justice to all under the law…
In the 20’s and 30’s, Lebanese settled in Palestine: Business was brisk, schooling was expanding and needing educators, and agricultural lands were relatively inexpensive compared to Lebanon.
People in the Levant and Egypt were, since antiquity, the backbone of civilization for millennium. They remained the source of civilization and culture during the Islamic hegemony for 9 centuries after 640 AC.
Basically, the Levant was a crossroad to all the immigrants fleeing from the east, due to wars or economical hardships. In period of coming calamities, the settled immigrants in the Levant would venture further westward, around the Mediterranean Sea basin.
These historical facts may not be relevant to the subject matter, but it is worth mentioning. The human brain is flexible and adaptive: Any second generation immigrant, supported by a network of extended family, from any origin he happened to be, is likely to succeed in communities with vast available opportunities in education, work, and sustainable and stable law and order institutions.
Why the Arabs of the Levant in the US are being so successful?
Never under-estimate the delicious varieties of the Lebanese cuisine: “satisfy the stomach, and abiding by customs and traditions would follow“. The immigrants constituted tight family communities, and barely diverted from the guidelines of visiting frequently and sharing in the frequent festivities. The second generation witnessed the hardship and determination of their parents for securing the best education and immersion in the local communities.
The extended family community kept the children close to the nucleus and got all the practical and financial aid they needed to succeed. Everybody in the extended family shared in the expenses and the success stories.
Traditionally, what were considered good educational disciplines were engineering, medicine, and law. Most important of all, babies drank politics from early childhood: Political discussions were scenes of heated debate and the world was its theater. Thus, you are brought up to know a lot of geography and history. Learning more than two languages was a must and communication is not a major problem.
The Levant immigrants have high feeling of competition and drive to acceding to higher status compared to the neighbors (whoever is the neighbor): Humility is not their strongest trait (not many earned Nobel Prizes!)
The Levant immigrants are not famous for creating sustainable institutions, associations or organizations. It is these frequent gathering of the extended family, for one occasion or another and sharing good food, that provide the basis for this large network of “soft power” among acquaintances for referrals and disseminating intelligence pieces of new programs, policies, and regulations that facilitate grabbing opened opportunities to wants and wishes.
Note: With the influx of immigrants from the Levant countries, Egypt became the main State for writing Arabic books and magazines.
In the 1950’s Lebanon became the printing press for the region. It is thanks to the Iraqi people, the most voracious readers that the cycle of writing and publishing flourished.
It is because the Iraqis were the most learned in the region that Iraq had to be destabilized, invaded and dismantled…