#15 Stardust

We are composed of the basic elements.

A few of the basic elements found on earth were created with the Big bang (ex. hydrogyn, helium) whereas all the rest of the elements found on earth come from exploded stars.

That means that we are all stardust.

Image from http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12252

#13 Archbishop Desmond Tutu - an inspiration

Yesterday I mentioned getting to hear Desmond Tutu speak last year. First of all, I realized it was two years ago, second, I decided to dig-up an email I'd sent to my friends about the experience and to post it here:

Otherwise, I'm reconnecting with old friends and things are going well. Which brings me to the experience I had today which prompted me to write in the first place. One of my friends, Gro, had an extra ticket to a lecture at the Nobel Peace Institute today and invited me.

I got to attend a lecture by Archbishop Desmond Tutu!! Yes! THE Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate from 1984 for his work against apartheid in South Africa, peace activist, famous African, former head of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and generally phenomenal man. (For those of you at U of Guelph - Stephen Lewis' lecture last month paled in comparison. :))

Archbishop Tutu is in Oslo to open a new exhibit called Hands that Shape Humanity (http://www.handsthatshapehumanity.org/) and was at the Nobel Peace Institute today to give a lecture about the current state of Africa.

To start with, Gro and I were keeners and sat right down in the second row, right behind the one that was reserved for dignitaries. So when Desmond Tutu entered the room, he ended up sitting in the chair right in front of me. We were so close that I could see every wrinkle on the bald part of his head! He has a presence unlike I've ever experienced. He's much smaller than I thought, probably only up to my shoulder, if that. But when he entered the room there came this glowing energy which made me want to hug not just him, but also the stranger sitting beside me. Just looking at him I couldn't help but smile. The only way I can think to describe it was as an invigorating peaceful presence -it seems like an oxymoron, I know.

Before getting into his lecture he spoke about the difference getting a Nobel Peace Prize made to his life. He chuckled that it was strange because after getting the prize he continued to say things that he'd said before becoming a Nobel Laureate, but that suddenly after being awarded the prize, people suddenly started to listen to those same opinions as though they came from an oracle. He told about what a powerful experience it was, coming directly from Apartheid South
Africa to Norway and going out for dinner in Oslo with his wife, and walking into a restaurant only to have people notice him and give him a standing ovation.

He also talked about his friendship with the Dalai Lama. Of the Dalai Lama Tutu expressed amazement that the man still has such a child-like presence and energy despite having been exiled from Tibet for 40 years. It was noted that they both were in Norway on the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, and that the two of them attended the conference but sat in a back corner together causing a ruckus. He jokingly told that quite often he's had to turn to the Dalai Lama when they are together and shush him, saying "Shhh, try to behave! The cameras are on us. Try to behave like a holy man!" What an image! :)

His lecture started with a depressing overview of the overwhelming violence, TB, malaria, corruption, and HIV/AIDS in Africa, and touched individually on the current troubling situations in nearly every African country. He talked about African leaders and how worrisome it is that so many in positions of power leave a lot to be desired. He mirrored the current corruption to his experiences fighting Apartheid. He said that during the Apartheid struggle people were idealistic, positive and altruistic - and not in the fight for personal gain...but then he qualified his statement by admitting that maybe they were naive since "we are human and succumb to temptations". He talked about the amazing fact that people have been so patient for so long since the end of apartheid, and that they're waiting for the gap between rich and poor to decrease but it hasn't, and instead people have seen others become millionaires, and still they wait with hope. He said that during Apartheid "we though we were struggling to produce a compassionate, caring society where people even in their poverty knew they counted. We haven't gotten quite there." Such open honesty about his own country and the current situation - how difficult it must be to see after a lifetime of fighting.

When Archbishop Tutu began his lecture he started by reminding us of the historical context of things. He pointed-out things that have happened in the west in recent memory: 2 huge wars with Europe as the theatre, political philosophies that caused the deaths of 6 million people, and civil wars across Europe. As recently as the Industrial Revolution people in Europe lived in poverty and child slavery was rampant. A democratic western country was the first to use weapons of mass destruction in Hiroshima, Europe had the first example of ethnic cleansing, and religious hatred continues within Christianity in Ireland. With this in mind, he asked us to think of Africa and it's problems and to see that the west isn't so far from their reality and to remember that it took hundreds of years to achieve the development we currently enjoy. He said "it is human to be noble, but also to be vicious. It's not just African to be corrupt."

He concluded by passionately stating that there is hope for Africa, and that a continent that currently "provides" 50% of the world's refugees once offered refuge to people in danger. He finished by saying that he wants everybody to gather together to yell "Wake up glorious Africa! Look at your glorious past and rise from the ashes like a phoenix!"

The lecture finished with two questions. One was about China's increasing presence on the African continent. Tutu said that he himself is concerned because China could have either a benevolent or a malevolent presence. He worries that China could be a new coloniser
and develop into a new imperialist in Africa. He went on to talk about the role China could take in the world to use it's power for good, for instance in Tibet and Burma. But he worries about China's role in Africa because China has yet to show it's benevolence in those situations.

I was so impressed by Archbishop Tutu, he really made me feel hopeful that despite our human flaws we can bring positive change to the world.

"An enemy is a friend waiting to be made...People are fundamentally good. We are made for love, for generosity, sharing, and compassion, for transcendence. We are made to reach for the stars." - Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I thought you might enjoy hearing about it.

The picture attached is a Desmond Tutu doll. It hangs in the common-area of my friend's apartment...notice the mirror ball reflecting on him. :)

Number 8 - CBC Blows My Mind!

In the past couple of days I have heard the following on CBC Radio 1:

1. The scientists responsible for the discovery of Ardi, the earliest hominid fossil yet discovered (4.5 million years old) were interviewed on Quirks and Quarks. Their findings have just been published in Science. The part that blew my mind was the following:

...the last two papers trace early human evolution and synthesize a new view of our last common ancestor with chimps. One conclusion is that chimps have specialized greatly since then and thus are poor models for that ancestor and for understanding human innovations such as our ability to walk.

Do you realize what that just said? It said that humans didn't descend from chimps,and that chimps descended from humans! How cool is that! According to the article our last common ancestor was more hominid than ape. The examples they cite were interesting, for example that chimps have developed large canines that are not evident in early hominids (canines = male fighting = lack of canines means human social behaviour which is the basis for civilisation) and that along the evolutionary path the chimp hips and lower back became more specialized for tree climbing. There is no doubt that both hominids and apes have evolved significantly, but the common ancestor was basically hominid. So much for the Darwin charicatures.

2. I heard a marvellous interview with Richard Dawkins on Tapestry on Sunday. Mary Hynes interviewed him in a pub about evolution, and they discussed his new book The Greatest Show on Earth. He blew my mind with his eloquence and the facts he used to illustrate his points (synthesis, not direct quotes):

As a scientist I see flowers as much more beautiful than you becasue I not only see the flower, but also understand the complexity in their history.

And then he talked about the argument against grand design:

In the world where we're used to everything around us being designed (microphones, vehicles, computers), so it's automatic for people to be familiar with the idea of complicated things that do something useful being designed and easy to be duped by that illusion. It's hard for people to grasp that you can get the appearance of design without any direction, that comes about by a totally different process.

Then they discussed how problematic the word random is because it leads to arguments such as:"The chance of life arising from pure random chance is tantamount to a hurricane blowign through a junkjard and making a boeing 747". In retort:

Darwinian natural selection is not about random chance, it's the exact opposite. The mutation process is random, and most does not lead to improvement. Natural selection is guiding gene pools through time in directions of improvement. With randomness chances are things will get worse, like if you randomly cut a wire in a radio, chances are it will work worse instead of better. But once in a while there will be an improvement, and those rare improvements survive.

Then on to the cop-out that is a belief in a true creator:

A true creator is not much of a story becaues it's too easy, it's a cop-out. Whereas the Darwinian explanation achieves an explanation where there wasn't one before. It takes simplicity and builds it up into complexity. It's a satisfying explanation.

And finally in response to the Woody Allen quote "If there were a designer, he was an underachiever." they discuss the Giraffe Example:

There is a nerve in all mammals that starts in the brain and ends at the voice box. But it doesn't go straight to its end organ, it goes straight past and down to the chest before looping back up again. In the giraffe this means that the nerve is 15 feet long! A real designer would have jumped that across. But it doesn't because it bears the stamp of history from a fishy ancestor. Where once the most direct route was through the chest, mammal necks have grown and it's no longer a direct route.

And that was just in the first 15 minutes! The interview continued on from there, but for those first fifteen minutes I was listening with rapt attention to his eloquence.

3. Next on my list is the Vinyl Cafe story this week by Stuart McLean called "Planet Boy". It was a repeat, but the first time I'd heard it:

After driving Sam and his friend Murphy to their first school dance, Dave opens his front door to meet Sam's date. Dave returns to the school, planning to introduce Sam to the rudimentary courtesies of dating, but when he sees his young son playing in the hallways instead of dancing with the girls, he decides to leave Sam on “Planet Boy.”

It now ranks up there for me as my second favourite story, right after the water-slide-out-the-second-storey-window story.

As I was on the Vinyl Cafe website I came across one of the best interviews I've ever heard on CBC, one that made me sit down and listen with tears running down my cheeks. It's a conversation Stuart had with Roger Woodward who, as a young boy was carried over Niagara Falls and lived to tell about it. Even though it had nothing to do with what I've heard on the CBC over the last few days, I couldn't resist linking to it.

4. Last but not least, last night I was driving to Toronto to visit a friend and to see a concert. As I was driving there was a repeat broadcast of an interview earlier that day on The Current with Angela Davis:

During the radical protest movements of the 1960's and 70's in the U.S., there was no woman more famous or notorious than Angela Davis. She was active in the civil rights movement ... a member of the radical and often violent Black Panthers.

And in 1970, she was accused of being a co-conspirator in the murder of a white judge and placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. She spent almost a-year-and-a-half in jail. But after a highly publicized trial and a global campaign to free her, an all-white jury acquitted her of murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy.

She talked about her experiences in the 60s and 70s, but it was an especially interesting interview becasue of two things in particular that I've been thinking about ever since:

First, she defined radicalism as an attempt to understand things at the root rather than at the surface.

Second, she talked about her activism for the abolition of prisons. She had some convincing arguments on a conceptual basis, and I was especially intrigued by the idea of prisons being a result of slavery, hence the concept of abolition being applied. I had previously known about prisons being racist, but had never though of their direct link to slavery as a result of newly freed slaves not immediately being given the full rights of free citizens, and how a red thread can be directly drawn to the current situation in American prisons and that 43% of all inmates are black. It seems like an obvious connection now that I've thought about it, so I guess I hadn't thought about it thoroughly enough. She also talked about the fact that the current system does not do enough to hold people accountable for their actions, and the importance of remembering that the majority of prisoners are non-violent. She also briefly touched upon how prisons are gendered.

All interesting and thought-provoking. The interview can be heard here.

All that to say that the CBC has blown my mind over the past few days with the ideas and stories that have been showcased. I'm thoroughly impressed that on four occasions in three days I made new discoveries about the world I live in. I think I need to write them a letter to tell them that they're doing a great job!

Supernova image from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/gamma/cosm_supe.html

Angela Davis image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis

Darwin charicature from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

Number 7 - Being heard

The article:

It turns out the actual article isn't up, but here is a link to the event.

My letter:

To: Maclean's Magazine
Subject: How to fix democracy. Step one...
Date: Sunday, October 4, 2009

Dear Maclean's,
Step one is to allow the voices of women to be represented in debates such as the one documented in your issue this week. I heard talk of the debate on CBC radio, and turned to the article in Macleans with anticipation. Upon seeing the photos and reading the opening I was
immediately frustrated by the lack of women involved, and put the article aside. I did come back to it later because I can't deny that the gentlemen involved in the debate are all well-respected and I was curious about what insight they may provide to the current political situation in Canada. I was not disappointed in that respect, but remain deeply disheartened that there doesn't seem to be a place for Canadian women in such discussions.
Sincerely,
Lindsay
Guelph, Ontario

Their reply:

Date: Monday, October 5, 2009

Dear

Thank you for your letter. Scheduling problems prevented intended female panelists from attending, but ultimately that's no excuse.

All the best,
Maclean's