Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 29, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba V new fro the w est comment editor Gerald flood 697 7269 Gerald. Flood free press. My. Ca a n d b e y o n d a 15 Winnipeg free press saturday july 29, 2006 w Hen i was a kid my father used to buy the new yorker Magazine and i would always look at the cartoons. I still get the new yorker left Wing rag though it has become via a circuitous route passed on through two former colleagues now retired. The cartoons dont seem to be As Good As they used to be when i was a child perhaps my sense of Humour was More uninformed then but now i also read the articles so it kind of balances out. Sometimes cartoons can say something More powerfully than words can. Longer ago than i care to remember the Magazine ran a cartoon picturing an anthropologist captured by cannibals in Africa or the South seas or some such place. The anthropologist thought he could Awe them with his advanced technology perhaps even make them think he was a god by producing fire out of his hand. So he danced around pulled out his cigarette lighter and lit it up pure magic. The Cannibal King pulled out a cigarette and said thanks. One suspects that this sort of thing happens All the time to anthropologists to explorers to social scientists although perhaps in a less dramatic fashion. Just because the fellow facing you is wearing a loin cloth and you Are attired in a pith helmet and an absurd pair of shorts that does not mean that he is less sophisticated than you. It May be that he lacks the technology to make a pith helmet and silly shorts but it might also simply mean that he is More sensibly dressed for the weather than you and May be looking Down his nose right Back at you. People also frequently make a big Deal of discovering the obvious. You can find the discovery of the obvious in almost every newspaper every Day children Benefit from living in Happy two Parent families is a Story that frequently appears. The British anthropologist Ashley Montague actually gave a clinical name to the tendency of social scientists to discover the obvious How ironic is that. He called it the aha syndrome. When european explorers arrived in North America beginning with Columbus in 1492 when they discovered it As they liked to claim they arrived at a destination that Many europeans had known existed for at least 500 years and had often visited. Columbus knew that As did John Cabot and most of the others. Delusion that is a harmless enough delusion discovering things that other people already know Are there is what most of us do most our lives. I think its called a learning curve. Two More harmful and contradictory delusions that europeans made when they discovered America were to assume that the natives were woefully primitive and unintelligent because they lacked the kind of technology the europeans enjoyed or that they were blissfully innocent Noble Savages because they lacked the kind of technology the europeans Laboured under. The first delusion led to the physical enslavement and Slaughter of a race which has now mercifully stopped. The second led to the enslavement and crippling of the Western imagination a romantic foolishness which sadly continues today. Western romantics believed then and still believe today that so called primitive cultures have some kind of communion with nature some kind of reverence for the environment that others dont. Thatus a fond and foolish fancy. Every culture exploits the environment to the limits of its technology. The slash and Burn agriculture Practised by South american indians before Columbus arrived is really no different than the Clear cutting of forests by loggers from b. C. To Brazil today the Only difference is the limits of technology. It also appears that in our arrogance even archaeologists have underestimated native technology. In a fortuitous coming together of a discovery of something that people already knew was there but which casts a new Light on the sophistication of ancient native cultures Kevin Brownlee an archaeologist with the Manitoba museum of nature discovered ancient trenches in Northern Manitoba that show that hundreds perhaps thousands of years ago natives were mining for Quartz. And like the strip miners of today they left their scars on the Earth. The natives in the area knew the trenches were there. Brownlee identified them As Long ago mines an expression of sophisticated native technology. This really was a fortuitous coming together of two cultures and a useful expansion of our knowledge and our humility. Tom. Oleson free press. My. Ca Tom Oleson aha Ive discovered the obvious k Kinshasa Congo i knew there might be serious trouble when a Man chased by a Hail of gunshots ran past me with a cast Iron door balanced on his head. It was thursday afternoon and i admit i was looking for action. This is the democratic Republic of Congo and so far the mood Here during the country is first democratic elections had been tame considering that the United nations says this is ground Zero for the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The moment i saw a Church go up in flames at a political rally and looters pillaging the joint for goods it hit me again this baby democracy might have some very severe growing pains unlikely to fade anytime soon. The rally was for one of the or cos main presidential candidates Jean Pierre Bemba. It was expected to be violent and incendiary because Bemba has repeatedly said he believes the election process is rigged in favour of the or cos incumbent president Joseph Kabilka. On my Way to the rally at an Arena huge packs of Young men ran through the streets ripping Down posters of Kabilka surrounding and screaming Bembas name. My Lingala translator a Mother of five halted at the front Entrance of the stadium and turned Back As did the freelance Canadian photographer i was with perhaps taking the Sage advice of a French in officer guarding the perimeter who said entering the stadium was lunacy. However i found myself in the Back Garden of a Home nearby with two congolese friends who said the eyed accompany me and then getting a firsthand View of the mania that can grip a crowd and turn a quiet neighbourhood into a mob scene of shooting and looting. Boy was i glad i stayed. On thursday Bemba had his Chance to Shine and Shine he did. While supporters outside the stadium where he gave his speech firebombed military vans chased away riot police and burned Down nearby a Church and government buildings with banners endorsing Kabilka Bemba played chef simultaneously sauteing and roasting his main enemy adding sizzle to a race Many congolese believe is headed for a predestined conclusion tomorrow. Perhaps its because the front runner in the presidential race Joseph Kabilka is noted More for his fathers talents than his own prowess governing the country for the last four years. A former chauffeur for a congolese Rock Star Kabilka inherited his current non elected presidential spot of the Drc from his father Laurent Kabilka a famed rebel military commander who was assassinated in 2001. While he might have a list of significant business interests and career politicians behind him few have forgotten that Kabilka Practised close door politics two press conferences in four years before finally bowing to International pressure for open elections. When i was 40 years old i a snot still living at my fathers House taunted Bemba making fun of a Bilaus legacy and launching a wave of guffaws from the 60,000 crowded in the blistering heat As thick Clouds of Black smoke billowed up behind the stadium. I later discovered the smoke came from a burning military Van where id consulted with the French in agent Only hours earlier Bemba also had Pithy insights into the decrepit infrastructure and dire economic circumstances most Kino is face leaving listeners impressed by the specific policy suggestions in his speech. Bembas Sharp sense of Humour obviously had Kabilka on the defensive at his own rally yesterday. While Kabilka pulled roughly the same 60,000 person crowd the tone was noticeably different perhaps due to truckloads of Security guards staking out a 10 Kilometre radius from the Fairgrounds where the event took place. You can say Ive reached my goal to bring my people elections said Kabilka whose diminutive stature and nasal voice aggravated by a squeaky sound system indicated a Man who is shall we say Charisma challenged. He made no mention of the fact the elections were slated to take place two years ago but were delayed twice by his government. Finally we can say that were Here is How he put it. His promises of peace made Little Impact on the under energized crowd. After a six hour wait for his speech most excitement generated came from kerfuffles Over the few available Lawn chairs. Fistfights broke out whenever trucks pulled up to deliver Kabilka trinkets. Somewhere Between watching the crowd Jostle for Kabilka trinkets and observing a japanese photographer and congolese to cameraman in a kicking fight Over who would get the Best podium space i realized that an element of trouble is an integral part of any successful political event Here. While no one likes looting or violence it was reported As Many As six looters and Security people had been kill edit seems to have energized the race for the Leader of the country whipping up Media sparking discussion among congolese about candidates and indicating to the country there is in fact an alternative to Kabilka who could win if the fight is fair. The City May now be at a boiling Point according to a headline i saw in a local French newspaper today but the article also acknowledged the City routinely reaches a boil. Kino is Are used to tension in their City. Tomorrow is election Day. It will be tense hopefully not too tense. Free press reporter Gabrielle Giro Day is in democratic Republic of Congo to observe the elections tomorrow. Kinshasa is seven hours ahead of Winnipeg time. Gabrielle. Giro Day free press. My. Ca Schalk Van Suydam / associated press a burning bottle filled with fuel flies through the air during a rally in Kinshasa Congo earlier this week. E mail from Kinshasa Gabrielle Giro Day r received j uly 28, 5 29 p. M. Looting shooting routine six killed As election rallies turn ugly the economist n of Many 25 year Olds can claim to have changed the world. The ism personal computer which was launched in 1981 and celebrates its 25th birthday next month is a rare exception. Other personal computers had been launched before but it was the ism pc that ended up defining the Standard around which a vast new Industry then coalesced. Ism the Titan of the computing world at the time quickly lost control of its own creation allowing others to reap the benefits. 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