The Bookstore closes its doors

LIVING LIGHTLY:

Mud Pies and Purple Onions

Recipe of the month: Fall’s vegetable bounty

DIALOGUE: LETTERS

A small notice that The Bookstore is closed permanently evoked many memories for me.

I have been a patron for many years, always impressed with the good service and enjoying the ambiance of the new store. The Bookstore was one of Connections earliest and most faithful advertisers.

I can only mourn the loss of yet another local business, pushed out by the "big boxes". Do we really need two "big box" bookstores? (Maybe they'll kill each other off!)

Say all you want about "competition." When the behemoths come in with their deep pockets, the people lose. All our money is sucked away to big corporations. When will the bleeding stop?

— Myrtle Osner

By MYRTLE OSNER

You thought not much was going on in local elections didn't you? Oh, how wrong can you be?

Surprise, surprise, 13 candidates want to be on the Modesto City Council, vying for 3 seats. Three want to be mayor.

There are elections for nearly all the school boards in Stanislaus County. Probably the most hotly contended are the three seats vacant at Modesto City School Board. Sylvan School District, which covers the next largest area in Modesto, may be the next contender for voter interest. And, a sleeper: the City of Modesto has some charter amendments.

What does it all mean? Let's take the charter amendments first: These are the product of a Charter Review Committee which cussed and discussed all sorts of proposals but ended up with just a few non-controversial ones. This is the way the broad rules of government get updated. The one charter amendment that generated the most heat was a proposal to elect council members by district. In the end, the committee members decided not to propose this one, and the City Council agreed.

Stanislaus Connections has a long-standing policy of not accepting political ads. As much as many people would like for us to support or oppose candidates, we know that there are all sorts of opinions out there, and want to let each of you make up your own minds.

One of the best ways to help you make an informed decision is to attend the League of Women Voters candidate forums. They are strictly non-partisan and run in the most fair way possible. You may attend any of the three which will be broadcast live on Cable Channel 8, and usually re-run the following Saturday night. All forums are held in the Modesto City Council Chambers at l1th and H. Street at 7 p.m. They should last about an hour, although the 13 candidates may take a little longer.

Forum schedule: Wednesday, Oct. 6, City School Board candidates.

Monday, Oct. 11: candidates for Mayor; Wednesday, Oct. 13, candidates for City Council. These are sponsored solely by the League of Women Voters.

We hear there will be forums held for other races, but at press time we did not have any final information. Most groups who sponsor forums use the League of Women Voters format if they are non-partisan.

Many clubs, however, hold their forums specifically as a way of judging whether they will take positions on the candidates. You will then see campaign literature which says: "So and so club supports such and such a candidate. "Your judgment as to whether to take these support positions as recommendations needs to be based on what you know about the organization.

Some of the best advice for judging candidates comes from the League:

• See through the images: Slogans, name recognition, and personality are often all that come through on campaign literature.  Ask yourself: What did you learn from the ad? Did you find out anything about issues? Be aware that candidates target audiences, sending one message to one group (such as women) another to a different group (such as a minority).

• Recognize distortion: don’t be sidetracked by rumor-mongering, attacks on other candidates (what does this practice say about the candidate himself/herself?) If the candidate doesn't tell you what his/her beliefs are, be suspicious. Don’t miss the fact that some candidates campaign on blaming others.

Another tool for voters just now available to anyone with access to the internet (and if you don't have it, use the library internet access free!)It is:

SMART VOTER, a cooperative effort between the League of Women Voters and the County Elections Dept. Stanislaus County, is one of 18 counties in California implementing this award-winning program. All candidates for public office are asked to send in a statement to be posted on the website. Since we have a host of local races , this is your chance to read all about them.

SMART VOTER also has another neat feature: if you have lost your sample ballot and don't know your polling place, you can access the website to find out. From my experience, this is one of the most common questions I get on election day. Calling the elections department on election day is an exercise in futility.(the line is always busy). Smart Voter is a comprehensive online election guide and can help any voter in more ways than one.

The SMART VOTER website opens October 7 at www.smartvoter.org

By ELAINE GORMAN

How much thought and effort have you put into Y2K? Do you fear computer crashes, disrupted financial transactions, or long lines at the grocery store? Whether or not these things happen, Y6B is already upon us. This year is the Year of 6 Billion.

The United Nations has established October 12, 1999 as the Day of Six Billion. This is an approximation of the date when the 6 billionth person presently on the planet will be born. The ramifications of 6 billion people include resource depletion, water and air pollution, urban sprawl, overcrowded classrooms and increased waste production. Y2K pales in comparison.

Until recently, overpopulation has been the "silent" environmental problem. We tend to focus on the effects of overpopulation, rather than address the causes of those problems. Yet Y6B presents us with an opportunity to take a close look at quality-of-life issues that face our families, towns, country and planet.

The population of the planet has grown dramatically since 1804, when earth’s population was 1 billion. The following illustrates population growth:

1927 — 2 billion (123 year interval)
1960 — 3 billion (33 year interval)
1974 — 4 billion (14 year interval)
1987 — 5 billion (13 year interval)
1999 — 6 billion (12 year interval)

In my lifetime, earth’s population has more than doubled. And if people ignore the Y6B challenge now, we’ll be talking about Y12B in just 50 years.

Imagine where this 6 billionth person will be born. She has about a 33 percent chance of being born in China or India, developing countries with a multitude of environmental problems. If she is born in a developing country, her life expectancy will be low, her family will experience high infant mortality, and she will have only a 64 percent chance of becoming literate. All children need health care, clean air and water, food, and a loving family. Which of these needs are likely to remain unmet for this 6 billionth child?

As the United States is the third most populous country in the world, the 6 billionth child has a pretty good chance of being an American. There is a 60 percent chance that she will be an unintended child. And since the U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy in the industrialized world, her mother may very well be a teenager. If that is the case, the 6 billionth child will most likely be born into poverty.

Zero Population Growth, along with other organizations concerned with population and resource issues, believes it is imperative to support voluntary family planning world-wide. As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said, these programs "raise the status of women, stem the flow of refugees, protect the environment, promote economic growth, and reduce abortion." ZPG wishes for every child, including the 6 billionth, to be planned and wanted. This will insure a higher quality of life for all of Earth’s inhabitants.

ACTION: Contact Zero Population Growth at 1-800-POP-1956, or www.zpg.org for educational materials, reading lists, and Y6B information. Call Elaine Gorman at 524-7630 for population education workshops.

By NEIL TANGRI

The Swiss pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. topped a list of the leading corporate criminals of the 1990s. The list was released recently at a press conference by Corporate Crime Reporter, a legal publication based in Washington, D.C. Each of the 100 top corporate criminals on the list pled guilty or no contest to crimes and was criminally fined. The corporate criminals on the list were ranked by size of criminal fine.

Earlier this year, Hoffman-La Roche pled guilty and was fined $500 million for leading a worldwide conspiracy to raise and fix prices and allocate market shares for certain vitamins sold in the United States and elsewhere. Rounding out the top ten were:

2) Daiwa Bank Ltd. (financial crime, fined $340 million),
3) BASF Aktiengesellschaft (antitrust crime, fined $225 million),
4) SGL Carbon Aktiengesellschaft (antitrust crime, fined $135 million),
5) Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping (environmental crime, fined $125 million),
6) UCAR International Inc. (antitrust crime, fined $110 million),
7) Archer Daniels Midland (antitrust crime, fined $100 million),
8) Banker’s Trust (financial crime, fined $60 million),
9) Sears Bankruptcy Recovery Management Services (bankruptcy fraud, fined $60 million), and
10) Haarman & Reimer Corp. (antitrust crime, fined $50 million).

The 100 corporate criminals fell into 14 categories of crime: environmental (38), antitrust (20), fraud (13), campaign finance (7), food and drug (6), financial crimes (4), false statements (3), illegal exports (3), illegal boycott (1), worker death (1), bribery (1), obstruction of justice (1) public corruption (1), and tax evasion (1).

"Every year, business magazines like Fortune and Forbes put out their surveys tracking corporations by sales, assets, profits and market share," said Russell Mokhiber, editor of Corporate Crime Reporter (CCR). "They make the point that the 1990s was a decade of a booming economy and a booming market. But the 1990s was also a decade of rampant corporate criminality.

With The CCR 100, we hope to focus public attention on the much neglected dark side of the marketplace."

Mokhiber called on Attorney General Janet Reno to publish a yearly report on corporate crime.

"Every year, the Justice Department puts out its Crime in the United States report," Mokhiber said. "This report deals primarily with street crimes — burglary, robbery, and arson. Yet, most corporate criminologists agree that corporate crime and violence inflicts far more damage on society than all street crime combined. A yearly Justice Department report on Corporate Crime in the United States is long overdue."

The author can be reached at : ntangri@essential.org

By TINA ARNOPOLE DRISKILL

The 9th Annual International Festival Oct. 2 from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. in Modesto’s Graceada Park promises more than ever to connect Stanislaus and San Joaquin area residents with the glorious rainbow of diversity that makes up our multi-ethnic community at the dawning of a new global millennium.

Close to 50 cultural and ethnic groups will be represented in this year’s mix of international entertainment, cultural and hands on arts displays and ethnic food booths. More than 400 performers will entertain festival goers on 4 stages, including three headline concerts throughout the day.

The festival will kick off at 11 a.m. on the Mancini Bowl Stage with the Americana opening concert featuring local country-western singer Shelley Streeter, excerpts from Damn Yankees and the Yes Company’s East of Eden, and introductions of global ambassadors and national representatives in native attire.

The Celtic sounds of Cailin’ Rua, formerly Immigrant Roots, will perform during a mid-afternoon concert at 3 p.m., also in Mancini Bowl.

Street Sounds will Headline and cap-off the day-long festivities at 7:20 p.m. in Mancini Bowl. The A Capella quintet’s repertoire includes African chants, jazz, rap, rhythm and blues, gospel and soul. Kauluhaimalama Hula Hale, Polynesian dance, and A Few of God’s Men, gospel and soul, will precede Street Sounds beginning at 6 p.m.

The Global Village returns for a second year, offering opportunities to learn about the culture and peoples of more than 16 individual countries. Students in Stanislaus County’s 27 school districts will receive Passports to Learning, which can be stamped as they tour the village. Modesto Sister Cities International will display information for each of its five sister cities—Khmelnitskiy, Ukraine; Vernon, Canada; Aguascalientes, Mexico; Vijaywada, India and Kurume, Japan.

An expanded children’s area will feature such international folk arts as gyotoku (Japanese fish painting), Hawaiian leis, ojo de dios (god’s eyes), mask making (African, Native American, Mexican, Chinese), paper pysanky (Ukrainian egg art drawing), Ukrainian clay sculpture, paper rose maling (Norway), Akuba dolls (Ghana), beading, singing, games and more. All are free and geared toward elementary age children.

New this year will be hockey and skating clinics in the tennis courts area.

Festival attendees will be treated to numerous returning entertainment favorites and can welcome many newcomers, including Kimera (Latin, Salsa, Meringue and Cumbia) with the Castillon Sisters, the Indian Cultural Society Dancers, Joe Fusco’s Italian Band, Rondalla Voces de Lecuerdo (15-member Mexican/Spanish instrumental and singing ensemble), Ukrainian Bandura Ensemble, Cal Sky Hawk (Cherokee-Choctaw dancer), Romanian Dancers, Pnaca Culture (dancing), Hathor Caravan Dancers, Khmer Club Cambodian Dance Group, Suite 3 Irish Dancers and the Modesto City Schools 21st Century Learning Center Hip Hop Crew. The Greek Orthodox Dancers will return to the festival stage this year, as well.

Ethnic foods will be available at a variety of international food booths, and those who "love to shop" can browse the booths of the international arts and crafts vendors and the new multi-cultural book faire.

Awards will be presented to The Modesto Bee (1999 In-Kind Media Sponsor of the Year), George and Dianne Gagos (Angelica M. Wiinekka Award) and David and Julie Lyon (1999 Volunteers of the Year Award).

"This is truly a community event with close to 30 non-profit groups participating," says Raul Garcia, event coordinator, who encourages all members of the community to come, learn and enjoy. For more information call 521-3852.

By TINA ARNOPOLE DRISKILL

Ukrainian iconography and folk art sculpture will be featured in the Modesto area this month through the sponsorship of the 9th Annual International Festival and Modesto Sister Cities International.

Iconographer Mykola Benedyshchuk will open his first United States exhibit with 25 of his works at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation on Tokay Avenue in Modesto beginning with a reception at 7 p.m. Friday Oct. 1. The display will continue from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday Oct. 2 and 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday Oct. 3, prior to moving to the Jock McDonald Photography Studio in San Francisco from Oct. 7-10.

Ukrainian folk art sculpture artist Halyna Homa will exhibit 30 of her sculptures from Oct. 1 through 10 in the McHenry Museum, 14th and I Streets, Modesto. The exhibit opening will be Oct. 1 from 5-7 p.m.

Benedyshchuk is the founder of the first Ukrainian Icon Painting School since 1917, when "the bloody Russian Revolution started the...barbaric destruction of churches, temples, monasteries, and cathedrals," says Sergei Samborski, vice president of the Modesto Sister Cities Khmelnitskiy Committee. Benedyshchuk was able to bring back the ancient tradition to his country through studies at the Icon Painting Institute in Thessalonike, Greece.

An iconography master, Benedyshchuk "uses traditional linden tree, tempera, silver and gold," explains Samborski, to create masterpieces which "are treasured in the Vatican, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Presidential Palace in Ukraine, and in numerous monasteries, cathedrals and churches."

Homa’s works depict everyday life and traditional holidays in Ukraine through the medium of clay. Homa, whose works have been displayed throughout Europe and Scandinavia, also has had careers as a physicist and an interior designer.

By WILLIAM BISHOP

The tragedy at Littleton and the Sund-Pelloso Massacre in Yosemite were fading into the background as I prepared for my summer vacation. I was seriously troubled by the havoc being wreaked upon our nation by individuals who would abuse the Second Amendment, and I hoped that my trip to Washington, D.C. would prove inspirational. Thankfully, inspiration came in great abundance.

Purely by chance, family business brought me to Charlottesville, Virginia: 20 miles west of Thomas Jefferson’s home. It was while touring Monticello that I realized that the problem I was having with the Second Amendment was because the Second Amendment had nothing to do with the issues at hand. After the tour, I took a quick drive through the campus of the University of Virginia which Thomas Jefferson helped found. I was reminded once more that Mr. Jefferson, more than anyone else, was the Father of the American Intellectual Tradition. In a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, Jefferson wrote "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

The key to the troubles afflicting America is the long venerated "Populist Tradition." This one-time tradition of ennobling and empowering the common man has degenerated over time to become what it is today: the adulation of idiots, bigots and cowards. "He stopped to think once, and never got started again!" This is the new anthem of populism. Today’s perceived "enemies" are Science, Education and the Federal Government.

To combat Science, the Populists have countered with Creation Science. The added benefit of Creation Science is that it doesn’t require anyone to think. And it is here that the line is drawn in the sand: "If you’re not one of us, you’re one of them." If you don’t buy into this pseudo-religious nonsense, you’re not one of "the people."

The solution to the Education problem is home schooling – the ultimate in intellectual incest. A Jesuit priest once said that "you can tell when you have created God in your own image – He hates the same things you do!" The added benefit of home schooling is that your children are not exposed to ideas that run counter to your own.

And to ward off the Federal Government, there is the Second Amendment (as a "last resort"). The taking up of arms as a "last resort" is an idea straight from the NRA’s web page. The problem here, however, is that nowhere on that web page did I see any attempt to define this "last resort," or even to suggest that the taking up of arms should be directed against the Federal Government. From this, I could easily see how the man going down to the Micky D’s with his Uzi could feel that he had been pressed to the "last resort," and that the Second Amendment justified his behavior.

Thomas Jefferson wrote that men are divided into two parties: "1. Those who fear and distrust the people… [and]… 2. Those who identify themselves with the people." It doesn’t require much thought to figure out to which party belong the folks who need to bear arms against their neighbors. I am reminded of the politician in Sacramento who was so fear-stricken upon hearing his wife climbing their darkened stairs in the middle of the night that the only response he was capable of was to reach for the loaded pistol in his night stand and shoot the woman as she entered the bedroom. I have no doubt that the NRA would argue that as tragic as this was, this was, none-the-less, the price we need to pay for constant vigilance. But against what?

We have a major contradiction in our public policy. We have outlawed opium, and the truth is undeniable: "when opium is outlawed, only outlaws will have opium." We have outlawed opium not because opium addicts people to it. We have outlawed opium because people become addicted to opium. And yet, we turn right around and argue that we shouldn’t outlaw guns because guns don’t shoot people, people shoot people!" The poor, innocent gun.

Thomas Jefferson also wrote that, "The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead." Jefferson was extremely reluctant to enact laws governing the behavior of those yet to come, for he felt they had the right to enact their own laws of self-government. It was this sense which lay behind his belief that "I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical." It may well be that the time has come for us, the people of the 21st century, to write our own laws of self-governance.

We already know the price we are paying: too many slaughtered children. We need to demand an accounting of just what it is we are getting in exchange. Chuckie Heston’s double-talk on the NRA web page doesn’t cut it. We need to recognize that guns are indeed weapons of deadly intent and that gun ownership is not an entitlement but a serious undertaking fraught with responsibility. We need to pass legislation spelling out the legal obligations of those who would possess firearms.

Among such legislation, I suggest that any gun-owner who loses a weapon in a burglary should forfeit his privilege of gun ownership. I further suggest that anyone who loses a gun to a burglar should be held by law to be an accomplice to any crime in which that stolen firearm was used. And I certainly would think that trigger guards ought to be made mandatory.

An appeal for a moratorium of the death penalty by the year 2000

from the Comunità di Sant'Egidio, Rome, Italy

Although we believe in the necessity of completely abolishing capital punishment, while waiting for this to be achieved, we propose a suspension of executions.

We address those who already believe in this struggle so that his/her opinion not remain isolated. We also address those who think differently from us and those who are still undecided: in the midst of your uncertainty, join us in asking for a moratorium of the death penalty, beginning in the year 2000. A moratorium is just a "cease fire", but it will help people to reflect, it will open a debate on a practice which cannot be accepted light-heartedly, even by its most convinced supporters.

The Community of Sant'Egidio, together with Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking (the movie which touched consciences all over the world) has already started collecting thousands of signatures for our appeal, in Italy, in the USA, on all the continents. We want to have millions of them in order to have more "weight" when we present the appeal to the most significant institutional bodies, beginning with the UN, through its secretary general, Kofi Annan. Those signatures will constitute the moratorium proposal to be made to all nations represented at the UN.

Our objective is ambitious, but it is possible. Amnesty International and other important lay and religious organisations are working with us. What is most important is that the initiative encounter and reflect the desire and personal commitment of thousands of citizens.

Ninety-one countries still use the death penalty, whereas 103 have abolished it (by law or de facto). It is an important achievement. Today, for the first time in the history of humanity we can dream of a society without capital punishment. We are aware that this terrible penalty is still maintained in important and significant (or "respectable"?) countries. We promote any initiative to open a dialogue which could bring about the moratorium.

We are aware that violence has deep roots in this world and that the abolition of the death penalty will not be sufficient to destroy it. But this struggle is a start. It is an important first step. We believe that the State cannot take life away, for whatever reason. To those who are not convinced by ethical reasons we point out that court-ordered death by the electric chair, lethal injection or firing squad have never worked as a deterrent for the most serious crimes. On the contrary, statistics demonstrate that where the death penalty is in force homicides have increased.

Join us. Sign the appeal against the death penalty. If you agree with this effort, help us to reach the largest number of people. There is only one year left before the year 2000, only a few months before our proposal will be presented to the United Nations.

To support the petition below by mail, send your name, address, and signature to the address below; or support online at: http://www.santegidio.org/solid/pdm/ades_eng.htm

Comunità di Sant'Egidio - Piazza S. Egidio 3/a - 00153 Roma - Italy.

Tel. (39) 06585661 - Fax. (39) 065800197 - email: m2000@santegidio.org

We the undersigned, are convinced that the death penalty:

• Is the denial of the right to life, which is universally recognized
• Is the final, cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment, no less horrible than torture
• Is inadequate to stop violence; it actually legitimizes the most complete violence which cuts off human life by the state and society
• Dehumanizes our world by putting vengeance and reprisal first, it eliminates clemency, forgiveness and rehabilitation by the justice system

We invite all, even those who support the use of the death penalty, to reflect in a serene way on the need for the suspension of executions. In fact:

• Today more than half of the countries of the world do not use the death penalty; some have abolished it completely, while others do not apply it
• The United Nations recognizes that there is no data that can demonstrate that its use is an effective deterrent against even the most hideous crimes
• In those places where the death penalty has been reintroduced capital crimes have not been reduced
• There are effective alternative methods to protect society from those who commit the most horrible crimes
• The cruel logic of "a life for a life" is considered to be archaic and is unacceptable to many on the planet
• Almost everywhere the judiciary system is trying to find ways to do away with this inhumane way of dealing with people who committed crimes, even the most horrible ones
• In democratic countries, the cost of the death penalty is higher than life imprisonment

No matter how nice it may be, ritual coverage of Labor Day doesn’t begin to make up for routine media themes the rest of the year. We’re accustomed to a negative spin about American labor. In other contexts, we might recognize those themes as signs of implicit bias, outright prejudice or even bigotry.

For instance: Most of them are fine as individuals. But as a group, they’ve got to know their place. Otherwise, they could gain control and undermine our country.

News accounts may portray workers as admirable — but when they struggle in an organized way, in solidarity with each other, it’s often a different story. And when American workers encounter an iron fist from on high, quite a few leading pundits are inclined to hail the suppression as a triumph for the national interest.

The widely syndicated New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is still rejoicing that Ronald Reagan busted the PATCO union early in his presidency. "The most important thing Mr. Reagan did was break the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike, which helped break the hold of organized labor over the U.S. economy," Friedman claimed last month.

Like many of his colleagues, Friedman goes along with the notion that much of this country’s economic strength depends on keeping uppity workers in line. "U.S. companies are quick to absorb new, more productive technologies because they can easily absorb the cost of the new investment by laying off the workers who used to perform that task," he wrote in an Aug. 20 column. "And as the overall economy becomes more productive, those workers get rehired elsewhere."

For a pundit who is contemptuous of labor, it doesn’t matter that much suffering results — for fired employees and their families — when corporations quickly "absorb the cost of the new investment by laying off the workers." The human anguish is a mere trifle. Nor is it worth mentioning that for the workers who eventually "get rehired elsewhere," the new jobs frequently pay lower wages.

Like other members of despised groups, workers are often handy scapegoats. Friedman looks across the Atlantic and turns up his nose at undue solicitude for employees. In the exalted realm of ultra-modernization, he clucks, "the Europeans have moved slower because their rigid labor laws make it very hard, or very costly, to lay off workers."

What we rarely hear from American mass media is that downsides for corporate investors are apt to be important upsides for working people. In Germany, for example, the "rigid labor laws" include a 35-hour work week — a monumental victory for the German labor movement, won with a wave of strikes early in this decade.

In the United States, longtime labor journalist David Bacon points out, mass media outlets avoid exploring more humane alternatives — even within capitalism — such as "an economic system that relies on high wages and limits the work week in order to promote employment." Despite all the rosy economic reporting, many Americans are not counted as unemployed because they’ve stopped looking for work. Millions of others are working longer hours than ever while real wages remain stagnant.

"There’s a bias in the media which reflects a discomfort with workers organizing to try to change conditions rather than just being victims of them," says Bacon, an associate editor at Pacific News Service. The major media are functioning with a constricted range of vision — "a blindness to inequality in the workplace and inequality in the economy."

Considering the sources that dominate the news frame, that blindness is not surprising. And the problem extends well beyond the corporate-owned media. In a recent study of public television programming, Vassar College sociologist William Hoynes found only faint glimmers of light from labor.

"Coverage of the economy is, more than international or domestic political coverage, dominated by one social sector — the business class," Hoynes concluded after assessing programs on PBS stations. "Corporate representatives account for more than half of the sources," while 20 percent of sources represent Wall Street. Overall, "three-quarters of the sources in economic stories are from the corporate or investment world." In sharp contrast, non-professional workers and labor representatives together account for less than 3 percent of the voices on the air.

Hello from Israel!

(Editor’s note: Tirza Hollenhorst and Chris Johnson, newlyweds, are spending a year researching environmental fellowships in Egypt, Ecuador, Thailand and New Zealand. Tirza is the daughter of Rochelle Rosen, special education teacher with Modesto City Schools, and Glen Hollenhorst, a biology instructor at Hughson High School. Chris hails from Atlanta, GA. The following continues the letter which appeared in last month’s Connections

Chris

We have wrapped up the research in Egypt and are visiting with Tirza’s family in Tel Aviv. It is nice to be in a first world country for a change, even though the cell phones are terribly annoying.

Our research in Egypt is focused on water projects along the Nile. We are looking at the distribution of costs and benefits of water projects and how that relates to the project’s sustainability and success. It has been a really powerful learning experience — seeing the role of the environment in the third world, the cultural nuances which have made Egypt what it is today, and where water fits into this fragile balance of life in a desert. Field research is difficult in such a short time, especially in an Arab country. People are willing to talk to us, but it is very hard to get an accurate picture because many people paint an overly-optimistic picture for us. Nevertheless, we have enjoyed our experience and learned to be a little more patient with the system here.

Coming to Israel is a shock to the system after Egypt. Just to remind us what it was all like, we got stuck on the Egyptian side of the border for hours with absolutely nothing happening. Frustrated and bored, we walked towards the Israeli side and told them to do something, and they did.

Israel is a bustling quasi-European place. Everyone here seems naked compared to Egypt, and the cost of living is much higher (though worth every shekel). We have been to Jerusalem and the Old City and had a wonderful tour. The tour guides here go through a rigorous selection routine (that involves two years of study to train for the job) and are very knowledgeable about everything related to this country for the past 5000 years. It was a great feeling to watch the guide fill in all the holes from our history classes or tie things together we hadn’t previously seen.

Being in the Old City, a center of the world’s history and religions, is a bit overwhelming. I was surprised to see the people living in the Old City, the tourist trap bazaar, and people at the Western Wall interrupting their prayer to answer a cell phone. It is such a refreshing feeling to see all of the information and museums (user friendly) here that make learning a pleasure. Egypt was entirely the opposite, even though it has such a fascinating history.

Tirza

Well, the research is finished. I was surprised at how many people, even high ranking officials, took time out of their day to speak with us. They did tend to feed us a lot of rose smelling (stories). We learned that in order to get what we really wanted, we had to ask tough questions, again and again, rapidly cutting them off if they strayed off topic. It’s tough to be harsh, when you know someone is struggling with the language.

Egyptians, culturally, don’t have the concept of maintenance. When pressed, they would often tell us that they were a poor country and couldn’t afford it. We talked to some very bitter people at USAID (U.S. Aid for International Development) who had watched over a billion dollars worth of infrastructure fall into disrepair in less than five years. I am afraid no amount of conservation will prevent disaster, if Egypt doesn’t control its population. I think I would rather put my future efforts into protecting the wetlands in Ethiopia from a thirsty Egypt than attempt to help curb Egypt’s thirst.

Before we left Egypt, we traveled to Luxor and Aswan. Luxor was a terrible tourist trap. I feel a deep sense of loss for a community turned into deceptive liars for the sake of working extra pounds out of the hoards of pink-legged tourists who pour out of air conditioned buses.

Aswan is so lovely. We were befriended by a Nubian man who took an interest in our project. He invited us to stay at the Jamaica family compound. This family owns 7 feluca boats, sail boats that take tourists up the Nile. We stayed on an island with the Jamaica family for three days after taking a feluca across the Nile. We watched the old man with 1/2 inch calluses on his feet, who ran the boat, drink straight from the Nile just after sewage from a cruise boat floated by. Talk about some serious bowels of steel!

The Nubians are wonderful people. They once lived in the area that is now Lake Nasser. A people displaced by the Egyptian government through the building of the Aswan Dam, they live separately from the Egyptian mainstream, maintaining quiet, simple ways. We were welcomed into their home. The island was an oasis of mango trees, date palms, and other agriculture.