A Question of Security: Great Resources

Hardly a day goes by when I don't hear either the phrase "pick up a history book" or "I can just go read a history book to know you are wrong." I hear it on the radio and television, I read it in the news and on the internet, I hear it at the local farmer's market from the Piney Woods hippies and the aging Klansmen. And then I check out a copy of the Washington Post this morning:

Glacial Melt in Peru Becomes More Than a Climate Issue

HUARAZ, Peru - Glacier melt hasn't caused a national crisis in Peru, yet. But high in the Andes, rising temperatures and changes in water supply over the last 40 years have decimated crops, killed fish stocks and forced villages to question how they will survive for another generation.

The story goes on to interview the head of the CIA who sees the situation in Peru as a critical moment in (drum roll) US national security. And he should. Millions of displaced people in a region just now getting back on its feet would be a disaster for the hemisphere.

If Peru and its allies don't fund and create projects to conserve water, improve decrepit water infrastructure and regulate runoff from glaciers within five years, the disappearance of Andean glaciers could lead to social and economic disaster, said Alberto Hart, climate change adviser at Peru's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"This will become a problem for the United States," he said. "When you have a dysfunctional country, you have a problem for the entire region."

The reporting on this glacial melt is a part of what is called the National Security Journalism initiative. I would highly suggest a look at their site, as well as an interesting interactive chart on security and climate change. I also found their documents page interesting, with climate security information from the CIA to the Navy, from the World Bank to university scientists.

I guess if we want to know what happens when regions create massive displacement, all we have to do is pick up a history book.

Remembering Ancash: Peru, 1970

It is possible that Haiti will surpass the destruction of what until now has stood as the most devastating quake of the Western Hemisphere in modern times, the 1970 Ancash quake near Chimbote in Peru. At 7.7 (richter) the under coastal quake took out 80% of the structures in the affected area, killing an estimated 60,000 people and displacing perhaps half a million (but probably more) people. The quake also shook loose an 800 meter ice sheet on distant Mount Huascaran that in turn sent 80 million cubic meters of material crushing down on to the countryside below, and the city of Yungay disappeared (though later rebuilt, the original site of the city is a national cemetery). Huascaran is an angry spirit, having smashed the area in 1742 and 1962, making Yungay the dominate municipal area - essentially herding people into a central area and wiping them out in 1970. The Cristo (below) on the cemetery hill (along with the four palm trees below) were the only surviving features in the town of Yungay.

The settling of ground sediment caused massive destruction in Chimbote as well as flooding. Flooding was also made worse by the combination of settling and the avalanche: Rio Santa sent a 20 meter high wave down to coast for a distance of 150 kilometers, wiping out everything on its banks. Here are some pictures from the US Geological Survey of the area.

Peruvian German Chica in Devil Dance With Bolivia - Phew!

Ok, so this was supposed to go up last week after I saw it on the Livinginperu web site, but I never got around to it.

Karen Schwartz, a Peruvian candidate for Miss Universe announced she is going to dance the Diablada dance (see picture). The Bolivians claim it as theirs, the Peruvians responded by saying ""The Highlands cultures are one. If Miss Schwarz is Peruvian, she has the right to wear the 'Diablada' dress.”

So, let me get this straight, we have a euro-Peruvian in a pseudo-dominatrix Bolivian "folk" outfit representing the unity of the Andean highland culture AND the international euro-beauty monopoly at the same time. Sweet. I suppose that beats Mexico's narco-beauty queen.

I love globalization. In fact, for your bubble-gum moment of the day (empty calories and wasted time) see a slide show of many of the national "folk" costumes at the Beauty Pageants blog. The blogger appears to be partial to Miss Japan.

I know that a few years from now there is absolutely going to be a dissertation on this from an Anthropologist. And for good measure, see Rick Lopez's article on the India Bonita contest in Mexico in 1921 as a good academic chaser. (HAHR, 2002).