Chapter 23 & 24:

You could have guessed which section that I found very interesting in the final reading for the semester… There has been a worldwide struggle for independence for a long time but the past century has definitely bore fruit for many nations.

South Africa has a very interesting history. The Dutch and British settlers attempted to gain control of the country, as the natural resources are immense. The white settlers really caused problems for the black people the moment that they set foot on the land. The Dutch and British were also in a serious conflict for control. The Anglo Boer War is a perfect example of that. The British were the wealthier group and the Afrikaners were the politically dominant group.

Apartheid was designed to keep the minority, white people, in control while keeping the majority, black people, scared and living under terrible conditions. There was even a pass system that stopped black people from being in the cities and towns at night. Regions were created for the black people to live. These were typically in areas that nobody would ever want to go to and they had to commute to work every day which could take several hours each way. The white people committed atrocious violations of the black people’s rights. This was definitely not a golden era for South Africa.

I hope that the current situation, a revenge seeking nation, will come to an end soon as it is causing many highly qualified professionals to emigrate which causes a drain to the nations intellectual capital. It was Nelson Mandela’s 92^nd birthday yesterday and the entire country celebrated it. The hosting of the Soccer World Cup was a huge success and brought together the various races in an amazing environment. I hope this is a glimpse of what is to come for South Africa.

Chapter 21 & 22:

I enjoy the reading more that covers more recent history. It seems easier to identify with and understand the underlying facts.

The section that really grabbed my attention was the Great Depression. It showed important similarities with what is going on at the moment. The women are definitely the rising sex in the corporate world, unemployment is increasing, billions of dollars are being spent on the wars and debt seems to be rising uncontrollably with China. The economy is not looking particularly promising and reached ridiculous levels.

The Capitalist societies really unraveled around 1929. This type of economy provided the base for a wonderful 19^th century but showed its teeth in the 20^th century. The situation in the USA was unique. The country was largely unaffected by WWI but was still producing huge amounts of goods that quickly created a massive surplus. Germany and Austria were dependant on the USA for loans to repay their reparation payments. This was the recipe for the disaster that followed shortly.

Everyone should see the movie: Cinderella Man. I highly recommend seeing it. It really shows what life must have been like at that time in the USA.

Chapter 17, 18 & 20

Chapter 17, 18 & 20:

You may have noticed that I seem to get most of my work done in the evening. It’s great when there is peace and quiet in order to get the job done.

I learned about the French Revolution during high school in South Africa. We read a book entitled The Tale of Two Cities and our teacher felt that she should get as graphic as possible in her explanations of the atrocities that took place before and during between the rulers and peasants. I recommend reading it if you have not yet done so. The section reminded me about reading about South Africa when it stated that the clergy and nobleman, who owned all the wealth, were only about 2% of the population of France - some things just do not change. The social conflicts at the time fueled the fire and terror broke loose. Peasants burned castle, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed and thousands of people were beheaded on the guillotines. The revolutionaries even wanted to start a new calendar unlike the Americans who wanted to build on what there once was.

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain which was unplanned and unexpected but they were the most commercialized country in Europe at the time which probably made the transition easier due to funding being available. Everything seemed to fall in place with the steadily growing population adding the work force required for the revolution. The religious toleration that was established in 1688 also allowed skilled workers to work in Britain which obviously added much to the quality of the workforce. The government also favored locally made products to keep Indian textiles from swamping the market. Europe’s Scientific Revolution also started in Britain, almost as expected as success breeds success. The Royal Society was greatly influential in scientific breakthroughs and better understanding of science. It was quite obvious though that a country with a vast supply of coal and iron would be at the forefront of these revolutions as the required energy and steel. This enabled Britain to become the first industrial society.

I grew up in a society in South Africa that was very much influenced by European rule due to conquests to South Africa after the Dutch had settled there in 1862, hence the Anglo-Boer Wars. Both sides of my family were involved in both sides of the war... Long story. The book talks about racial separation due to the European settlers being worst in South Africa. I grew up there and saw that first hand a long time since these problems started. The separation that took place in South Africa, as well as many other places, was due to fear of an uprising and the need to establish firm authority by the minority that believed that they should rule. People of color, non-caucasian, were not allowed being in the cities at night, had to use separate restrooms and had to drink water from separate taps. Many people argue that the British introduced an economy into Africa as is seen in Kenya and South Africa but we recently learned in class that there was trading taking place on a serious scale long before the British decided to interfere. The atrocities that have taken place in Africa since the colonization by the British specifically have destroyed any short or medium term hope of building a society of mixed races and cultures that can function peacefully together.

Stephen Hawking

For those interested, I have posted a link below to the first of a series of videos that I found very interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFjwXe-pXvM

Chapter 14 - 16

Chapter 14 - 16:

I wish the weekends would go by slower and allow us to rejuvenate in order to deal with the week ahead. I found this reading particularly interesting. The parts that I enjoyed the most are discussed below.

I still can’t believe that Zeng He’s fleet was allowed to deteriorate in the fashion that it did. It was the most impressive naval fleet of all time and they could have conquered many more areas. I do understand that they seem to have been happy with what they had but it is a very typical human characteristic to think that there is never enough. I was relieved to read that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they were able to expand their empire. It also seems to be that the Confucian way of live was eventually victorious in comparison to any other system. People do say that offense is the best form of defense. China was the perfect example of that in obtaining security by conquering the surrounding areas.

The Dutch East India companies resemble modern day business in the ocean export and import industry. The companies were privately owned and were able to raise money - I guess this was the start of venture capital :) The businesses were even granted monopolies by their respective government. I never realized that the Dutch were so ruthless in their acquisition of new suppliers of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and mace. I am sure there are some businesses out there in the modern era that have ridiculous profit margins but making fourteen to seventeen times the cost price is just mind blowing. It was interesting to see the transition from predominantly luxury goods being traded to bulk goods for the mass market - as is the case predominantly in the modern era. I found it fascinating to learn about the slave trade in class last week. It is always a topic of heated debates that America was at the forefront but in actual fact they were only a small player in the industry...

The clash between religion and science is a topic that I have been forced to deal with in the past few years as I am a biology major which involves studying evolution in detail and extensive reading from Darwin to Hawking. The acts of the Catholic Church were quite horrific and definitely have been a dampener on their reputation.I never realized that there were Africanized versions of Christianity that had spread to various parts of the world due to the slave trade. It makes me curious to think how on earth were these people able to combine drumming, animal sacrifice, ritual dancing with going to church and using candles and crucifixes...

Chapter 11-13

Chapter 11-13:

I find it interesting that Muhammad, who was frustrated with the current religious problems and religions, spent some time in the hills and miraculously heard the words of Allah... It raises a few questions in my mind. The World of Islam grew rapidly and still occupies a very large area. I enjoyed reading about the Sufi’s who did not believe in warfare but rather represented Islam’s mystical dimension. It’s amazing how Anatolia eventually offered converts material rewards and opportunities in the public office but the exact opposite eventually happened in Spain. What I do like about Islam is that they believe no person can be between a believer and Allah and this is a massive improvement on the Catholic system.

The nomadic tribes such as the Mongols seemed to treat the women with much more respect and were often involved as political advisors. This was very different to the Chinese or Muslim people. I found it quite entertaining that Khan’s soul stayed around for 700 years after his death as the soul exists for as long as the banner is attached to the end of a spear at the grave site. They definitely did master the environments that were thought to be unsuitable for agriculture. I liked the fact that the new lands that the Mongols had conquered, they didn’t enforce any specific religion of their own on the people and the people were able to maintain whatever they believed in.

The Mongols must have been quite intelligent as the different encounters show with the Chinese, Russians and Persians. They fulfilled very different roles in each.

The hunting and gathering, herding and agricultural village societies stuck around for a really long time especially in America, Australia and Africa. Many of these groups were actually still prominent in the 1800’s.

Chapter 8-10

Chapter 8 - 10:

I am relieved to be back after the MCAT exam last week, hope you guys didn’t miss me too much ;) If any of you are considering medicine, do not underestimate the entrance exam...

These chapters were more interesting than the start of the book to me. I found it fascinating to read about how trading really started on a large scale. I found it interesting that the book speaks about trade having diminished the economic self-sufficiency of local societies. I believe this is true but looking at the bigger picture, this was a minute sacrifice as the rewards were so great. The Buddhist faith actually changing to due monks making money and no longer requiring begging bowls etc. The statues even changed by starting to have greek features.

Disease caused havoc in many areas that had not struggled with plagues before such as Constantinople where 10,000 people passed away each day for 40 days...

Using the monsoons to travel across the Indian Ocean was a genius plan. It’s amazing how they realized the winds would change and allow them to travel in various directions at a higher speed. It would be interesting to see what their ship yards looked like and how they worked.

Borobudur is clearly proof that religion had increasingly spread due to the oceanic trade routes.

Neoconfucianism is again proof that religions seem to change to suit the current environment. This new form of Confuncianism was an attempt at restoring it’s previous following by incorporating Buddhism and Daoism into it.

The new scholarly drive really had an impact on education. The testing facilities were very much like the ones that we now go to. The examinees were searched, only numbers and no names were used to avoid cheating and special treatment.

It was also interesting to see how Korea, Vietnam and Japan resisted being completely like the Chinese but they did participate in the tribute system and learned from many of the Chinese values.

Byzantium seemed to be quite a remarkable place as the rest of the Roman Empire had fallen. The church and state acting together was alarming and the start of the split between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.