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In this issue (No. 4 - Fall 2020) :
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"Profile: Wildlife Photographer Michel Rawicki": Exclusive interview of one of the world's leading travel and wildlife photographer with his photos
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"Briefing: War in Nagorno-Karabakh" by David Vauclair author, Professor, ILERI, Sciences Po - Paris.
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"Disconnecting from Bangkok to reconnect with Nature: the Adventure of Happy Grocers, an Organic and Youth-led Food Startup" by Sofia Cavalleri and Moh Suthasiny
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"Understanding the situation in Belarus".
By Oleg Kobtzeff, Associate Professor, American University of Paris. A situation very different from politics in Ukraine. |
and don’t miss our permanent features: The Comparative Government Project, our book review section, and our elctronic library, the N&C portal.
Editorial
Since we wrapped up our Spring issue, we were preparing for the presidential elections in Belarus expecting a crisis that we knew as inevitable. Would the Belarussians succeed in ousting their dictator? Would this lead to an international conflict as bad as when the Ukrainians took to the streets? N&C - Nature & Cultures answers this in this Summer-Fall 2020 issue in "Understanding the Situation in Belarus". Other events caught up with us. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan prompted us to ask the brilliant young scholar and writer David Vauclair to contribute his surgically precise "Briefing: War in Nagorno-Karabakh". But meanwhile, other dramatic events began to unfold, this time in the United States. Nothing of the sort has been seen in North American cities since the 1960s. We spent much time in soul searching, not only here at Nature & Cultures, but at The American University of Paris, where young people demanded that we address the grievances of millions of Black people. But how does a campus publication such as ours decently address something as big and tragic as the chronic suffering from systemic racism, and its inherent acts of discrimination, violence and even murder? How do you quickly summarize thousands of thoughts on something so enormous? How to say something significant and compassionate without sounding naïve after thousands of highly intelligent analytical pieces and editorials have appeared in hundreds of leading news outlets, in hundreds of lesser known publications and on thousands of pages of the social networks? How to present our feature "Black Voices"? How to stay humble without remaining silent?
And then it struck us. While diving into research during this summer to see how to produce the most scholarly, readable, yet concise feature for our Nature & Cultures No. 4 Fall 2020 issue, we discovered a treasure. We discovered the thousands of transcribed words of elderly people in their 80s and 90s -- former slaves interviewed in the mid 1930s many of whom (almost exclusively those visited in Alabama by the Roosevelt administration) were photographed. And then we revisited the life and writings of Frederick Douglass. As we continued to descend deeper and deeper into this treasure of history, we realized how powerful are these texts and (especially when you read Douglass), and how intensely relevant they are for our times. We were so fascinated that we began to forget our major assignment: write an article to tell how Black lives matter to Nature & Culture. And then it dawned on us: what more powerful statement about Black lives than to let THESE Black voices speak for themselves. So for our feature "Black Voices" we have selected, among thousands of pages, twelve short excerpts of interviews chosen for the photographic portraits that accompany them and for the power, the dignity, the resilience and the historic significance of the words recorded. These excerpts are interspersed among the paragraphs of the full text of "Oration delivered in Corinthian Hall, on the 5th of July" by Frederick Douglass.
"Profile: Wildlife Photographer Michel Rawicki" will bring joyful inspiration and color to this issue. We are grateful to Michel, one of Europe's leading travel and wildlife photographers in this field for being a subscriber and contributor to our N&C - Nature and Cultures Facebook group, for accepting to share his amazing photographs and be grilled by our N&C interviewer. It is a true honor.
"Disconnecting from Bangkok to reconnect with Nature: the Adventure of Happy Grocers, an Organic and Youth-led Food Startup" by by Sofia Cavalleri and Moh Suthasiny is the story about the birth of a youth-led food start-up based in Bangkok -- a small but inspiring initiative that appeared to us as a brilliant example of what could be done concretely and very practically to improve agricultural methods, food distribution and food consumption in a way that could improive both the lives of owners of independent family farms and the natural environment around those farms.
And do not forget to visit our permanent features: our ongoing project The Comparative Government Project , a country-by-country alphabetically listed collection of tables succinctly describing in detail the government systems of states from different continents, and our The N&C - Nature& Cultures e-library.
And then it struck us. While diving into research during this summer to see how to produce the most scholarly, readable, yet concise feature for our Nature & Cultures No. 4 Fall 2020 issue, we discovered a treasure. We discovered the thousands of transcribed words of elderly people in their 80s and 90s -- former slaves interviewed in the mid 1930s many of whom (almost exclusively those visited in Alabama by the Roosevelt administration) were photographed. And then we revisited the life and writings of Frederick Douglass. As we continued to descend deeper and deeper into this treasure of history, we realized how powerful are these texts and (especially when you read Douglass), and how intensely relevant they are for our times. We were so fascinated that we began to forget our major assignment: write an article to tell how Black lives matter to Nature & Culture. And then it dawned on us: what more powerful statement about Black lives than to let THESE Black voices speak for themselves. So for our feature "Black Voices" we have selected, among thousands of pages, twelve short excerpts of interviews chosen for the photographic portraits that accompany them and for the power, the dignity, the resilience and the historic significance of the words recorded. These excerpts are interspersed among the paragraphs of the full text of "Oration delivered in Corinthian Hall, on the 5th of July" by Frederick Douglass.
"Profile: Wildlife Photographer Michel Rawicki" will bring joyful inspiration and color to this issue. We are grateful to Michel, one of Europe's leading travel and wildlife photographers in this field for being a subscriber and contributor to our N&C - Nature and Cultures Facebook group, for accepting to share his amazing photographs and be grilled by our N&C interviewer. It is a true honor.
"Disconnecting from Bangkok to reconnect with Nature: the Adventure of Happy Grocers, an Organic and Youth-led Food Startup" by by Sofia Cavalleri and Moh Suthasiny is the story about the birth of a youth-led food start-up based in Bangkok -- a small but inspiring initiative that appeared to us as a brilliant example of what could be done concretely and very practically to improve agricultural methods, food distribution and food consumption in a way that could improive both the lives of owners of independent family farms and the natural environment around those farms.
And do not forget to visit our permanent features: our ongoing project The Comparative Government Project , a country-by-country alphabetically listed collection of tables succinctly describing in detail the government systems of states from different continents, and our The N&C - Nature& Cultures e-library.
In our past issues:
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Emergency responses, policy strategies and outcomes have been very variable.We begin with our digest section, "Stopping coronavirus" which includes two articles:
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Julio Vincent Gambuto who has been very friendly to N&C gave us permission to reproduce the very inspiring article, gone viral in a few days (two million readers) : "Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting" and its sequel "The Gaslighting of America Has Begun." which warn us about how ""The treadmill you’ve been on for decades just stopped. Bam!", that everything will be done to give us an "all clear" signal and make us believe that life of the consummer society is back to normal after the pandemic. The articles explain why we must resist the temptation.
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City in a Park, City by the Sea: My Helsinki is American University of Paris associate professor Oleg Kobtzeff's unapologetic love letter to the capital of Finland in which he describes it as being "more a park than a city." The author does explore, however, some of its darker aspects like Helsinki's ambiguous relation to its past, including its 98 years of Russian rule and a civil war, or alcohol abuse. He wonders, nevertheless at the ability of Helsinkites culture o inclusiveness and diversity.
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Renewable Energy and the Reindeer: Norway’s solution to mitigate climate change is threatening an age-old way of sustainability, by American University graduate Signi Livingstone-Peters, a Communications Officer at the International Science Council (ISC). How to implement sustainable energy solutions without harming the ecosystem and eradicating an indigenous people's traditional sustainable economy and way of life?
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The Comparative Government Project is a country-by-country alphabetically listed collection of tables succinctly describing in detail the government systems of states from different continents. This is the result of a collective class project produced by students of the Comparative Politics class of Spring 2020 (International Comparative Politics Dept., The American University of Paris) during their experience of remote virtual classroom activities.
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Our national parks need visitors to survive by by Susan Moore, Murdoch University; Betty Weiler, Southern Cross University; Brent D. Moyle, Southern Cross University et Paul F. J. Eagles, University of Waterloo. "We have to get more people into national parks if parks are to have a future" argue authors by Susan Moore, Murdoch University; Betty Weiler, Southern Cross University and Brent D. Moyle, both of Southern Cross University and Paul F. J. Eagles of the University of Waterloo. N&C has included a link to an article that argues the contrary.
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and
- IR Theory, Historical Analogy, and Major Power War has been recently published by our own American University of Paris Professor and prolific author Hall Gardner, former Chair of the International Comparative Politics Department.
- Containing Contagion: The Politics of Disease Outbreaks in Southeast Asia by Sara E. Davies is more than relevant in this period when Asian countries' approaches to the Covid 19 pandemic has been either decried, or on the contrary presented as an example of what should have been the model for Western countries that have been overwhelmed by the situation.
- Alaska Native Games and How to Play Them: Twenty-Five Ancient Contests That Never Died by Tricia Nuyaqik Brown & Joni Kitmiiq, beautifully illustrated by Roy Corral (Photographer), a book for junior high and high school kids is our special love-at-first-site review for this issue.
plus our permanent feature: The N&C - Nature& Cultures e-library, your portal to the best websites on human and physical geography, geopolitics, natural history, travel, discovery, environmental science, environmental politics and outdoors activities.
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"Lavapiés" , an old central neighborhood of Madrid, according to Wikipedia, with "its large immigrant population has given it an exotic, cosmopolitan flavor and it draws many visitors from other parts of Madrid, as well as foreign tourists". Katy Dycus and photographer Rubén González, a native, explore Lavapiés beyond that description and go deeper in representing the atmosphere of the neighourhood that they know so well.
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"The Cosmopolitan District" is the 7th Arrondissement (district) of Paris". "Turkish food stands, Chinese art exhibits, languages I've never heard before walking by a certain embassy. The expectancy of foreigners is the first and most striking experience of the seventh arrondissement. Of the twenty resplendent Parisian districts, none receive quite as much touristic attention as the Seventh. What is it that makes this district stand out?" Marko Milic, a young writer and AUP student answers this question and tells us all about the quarter of the Eiffel Tower but also, of numerous other museums, diplomatic institutions and... the American University of Paris
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More Dangerous Than Terrorism? The Problem of Maritime Piracy" (with a special focus on Somalia) by Alia Intably
"Maritime piracy affects major shipping lanes, and puts at risk the lives of seafarers and merchant seamen from all over the world, of whom hundreds are taken captive each year. Millions of dollars in ransom payments are paid to pirates. It is believed that these payments are divided between the pirates, their leaders and those who finance them." (Interpol). N&C reporter and AUP alumni Alia Intably reveals the seriousness and extent of one of the gravest secand most undderestimated dangers of the post-cold war world. |
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"Val Gardena and the Ladin languages" text and photos by Isabelle Prinoth
What is Ladin?. Yes, "LaDin", not Latin. Discover an almost lost civilization of Europe hidden in a valley of the Alps as narrated by a native to the area, Isabelle Prinoth, bringing to N&C one of the exceptional cultural experiences that create the unique diversity on the campus of the American University of Paris |
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"The Arctic: A New Middle-East?" text and photos by Oleg Kobtzeff
"The Friendly Arctic" - the title of a book by explorer and scholar Vilhjalmur Stefansson was meant to provoke the public into realizing that the Arctic regions are far from being the unlivable wastelands represented by popular belief. But once public opinion realizes how livable the Great North really is, will it remain protected from the excesses of development? |
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"Zoos: Who Needs Them?" by Alan Aftonfalker and Yaroslav Rovenskikh. Photos by Alan Aftonfalker.
Costa Rica's ban on zoos this summer coinciding with the centennial of the death of Karl Haggenbeck, one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of museology and zoology (and show business in the tradition of Barnum and Bailey?...), would be an excellent occasion to raise an important question relevant to animal rights, science and education, and to the issue of the representation of nature: should zoos be banned? Or are they a necessary haven for some animals that are too threatened in the wild? |
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"100 Years Ago: the Battle of Verdun". "Imagine, if you can, a storm, a tempest, a downpour constantly rising where the raindrops are nothing but cobblestones, and where the hail is nothing but blocks of stone”. Wrote from the front, during the Battle of Verdun, a soldier, one of those “hairy ones” (“poilus” in French) -- a name given to the men in the trenches who rarely had a chance to shave or get a haircut. French University professor and author David Vauclair takes us back to those trenches and explains why this tragedy is still politically relevant a century later. (page under construction)
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"The Black Man's Burden" by Leigh Mathews
is a photographic essay or an illustrated poem in prose that reveals at the same time her sensitivity towards the local populations but also her self-criticism, her refusal of all sentimentality and her harsh comments on modern humanitarian Western values as the politically correct version of old colonial and missionary paternalism. |
Digest section: Are there too many inhabitants on the planet?
The world's population rose from 3 billion in 1959 to nearly 7 billion in the summer of 2010 and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2042. How is it possible not to fear consequences for the safety of the planet if this trend continues? With permission from the United Nations University and the authors to reprint these interesting items, N&C presents two unusually original essays on population, consumption and resource scarcity. They are unusual because, while strongly environmentalist and aware of the catastrophic consequences of overpopulation, they propose an alternative opinion to the views of Malthus made popular in our times by authors such as Paul R. Ehrlich, author of the 1968 classic The Population Bomb, or Robert Kaplan, author of the more recent but no less famous article, to become a turn of the century classic in its augmented book form, "The Coming Anarchy".
And don't miss these features: our book review section, our elctronic library, the N&C portal (a rich portal on nature and human geography)
The world's population rose from 3 billion in 1959 to nearly 7 billion in the summer of 2010 and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2042. How is it possible not to fear consequences for the safety of the planet if this trend continues? With permission from the United Nations University and the authors to reprint these interesting items, N&C presents two unusually original essays on population, consumption and resource scarcity. They are unusual because, while strongly environmentalist and aware of the catastrophic consequences of overpopulation, they propose an alternative opinion to the views of Malthus made popular in our times by authors such as Paul R. Ehrlich, author of the 1968 classic The Population Bomb, or Robert Kaplan, author of the more recent but no less famous article, to become a turn of the century classic in its augmented book form, "The Coming Anarchy".
And don't miss these features: our book review section, our elctronic library, the N&C portal (a rich portal on nature and human geography)
PARIS, OUR HOME TOWN (left) - a hub of international relations and news. Above: a view from the Eiffel Tower over Paris' 7th district - an area crowded with embassies and international organizations (the most important one is UNESCO) and home to The American University of Paris and N&C. About the 7th district read "The Cosmopolitan District" by Marko Milic in the archives of N&C.
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