Arctic Mars

NASA’s Phoenix probe landed successfully in the polar region of Mars and a very cool person had a birthday today. Of course, I only got to look at pictures of either event. It’s not like I’d ever get to be there or anything. Typical. Ces’t la vie.

The Phoenix Probe is also pretty cool and, as the icy soil is scraped into the probe’s ovens, it will be heated and maybe, just maybe, some organic vapors will be detected. I’m sure astrobiologists everywhere are glued to the internet right now.

Here’s a funny note. When I applied to graduate school I only applied to one place. It took them so long to respond after the interview, I got worried and decided I better send in an application somewhere else too in case I got turned down. So I applied to the Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington because I thought it would be really awesome to build a career in a relatively new and exotic field. Alas, I don’t think I had enough microbiology or oceanographic experience to impress them but it was totally worth the $25 just to say I applied to an astrobiology program. Back then my interest in astrobiology was in verifying or nullifying the presence of frozen microbes or biologic constituents on the surface of Europa. In preparation for an interview, which I never got, I even spent a couple of weeks designing a probe for just such an expedition. Sure, the surface is made of ice, but at those temperatures its as hard as granite. In fact, I wanted to soundly determine whether there really was a fluid ocean or not. I’m sure my probe design was pretty rudimentary but I learned a lot nonetheless.

とのかく、伊東美咲さんはおたんじょうびおめでとうございます。

- Just a peasant

Photo from NASA TV website

Chengdu

Chengdu was struck by an earthquake and thousands are dead now. I was just coming to terms with my frustration over the cyclone victims in Myanmar. On that day, all day long, people asked what was wrong with me. Why was I so quiet?

I stared through the microscope all day long but I don’t remember looking at anything. I was on auto-pilot. I couldn’t get my mind off all those people that died in and around Chengdu. People at my work said things to me but I don’t remember what they said. I called a company to check on some hormones. The company put me on hold and so I sat there feeling really sad for all those people. For all those people that would have to identify their dead loved ones over the coming days. I thought about all the lacerations, concussions, fractures, amputations, punctures, suffocations, and internal hemorrhaging. I didn’t even realize that I had been on hold for 30 minutes. I hung up.

After work I sat in a dimly lit room and stared at the wall for a couple of hours – thinking about Chengdu. I thought about peoples’ arms sticking out of the rubble. About dead faces covered with cardboard or blankets. About all those people that wouldn’t be coming home that night. I don't actually get phased by things very much but this started to sink in for some reason. I tried not to cry – I really did. But I just couldn’t help it.

I haven’t felt much like writing since then.

I’m numb.

- Just a peasant

A winter picture in China from Jian Shuo Wang's blog

Myanmar’s Junta and Josef Fritzl: one and the same

Josef Fritzl is correct: he is “no monster.” And while his behavior may be frightening and disgusting, Josef Fritzl has demonstrated a behavior found in many humans: a pathological and perverse desire to control others. This behavior may seem monstrous, but it is a part of the human condition. To make matters worse, this same pattern of behavior is reflected, in varying degrees, in the institutions of government. Some governments are worse than others.

People like Josef Fritzl and the military junta of Myanmar control others by either imprisoning or isolating them from outside contact. Josef Fritzl imprisoned his own daughter while the government of Myanmar isolates its citizens from outside interactions and influences. Then comes the violence and rape. Without prying eyes Josef Fritzl could beat and rape his daughter at will – when ever the mood struck him. Without prying eyes, the junta of Myanmar can kill and torture those citizens who voice their displeasure about the regime and then rape the economy of the country to satisfy their own comfort and luxury.

But it doesn’t end there. Included in this perverse human behavior is always the justification that it is being done for good reasons. That this imprisonment, torture, and rape is for the welfare of the victim. Josef Fritzl believes that he was doing something good for his daughter. He was protecting her from the adversities of the outside world. Drugs, violence, a broken heart. The government of Myanmar believes this too. That they are helping the people of Burma. They are protecting them from the evils of the international community. And I’m pretty sure, that both Josef Fritzl and the military junta of Myanmar also believe that these people should appreciate and worship their efforts to save and protect them from the world. Already, Myanmar’s military is confiscating foreign aid resources and refusing the entry of foreign aid workers. You understand of course, that they must maintain the illusion that they are the saviors of the Burmese people. You can’t have foreign aid workers undermining that much less giving the people food and water. (If you think I'm exagerrating check out this update from the very next day May 10th).

And do you think this ‘control freak’ behavior is limited to Josef Fritzl and the government of Myanmar? No way. Religious cult leaders and serial killers also use this strategy. Strange government leaders too: Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and until his death in 2006, Saparmyrat Ataýewiç Nyýazow of Turkmenistan. Isolating people from outside influences in an attempt to control them occurs in China and India as well. Even the United States does this as it has by expelling foreign news journalists from Iraq. And in each and every case, it is done under the guise of protecting people from bad things, bad ideas, and even themselves.

No Josef Fritzl you are no monster and you aren’t insane. Nor are you – the leaders of Myanmar. You are simply the worst of human nature.


- Just a peasant

Photo from Channel4.com of a torture cell used at the Ba-ath Party Headquarters in Iraq.