Fascinating Facts and Trivia.

Ten Events in the Past Decade More Important Than 9/11

In August, Foreign Policy analyst and blogger David Rothkopf compiled a list of 10 Events More Important Than 9/11 in the Past Decade. Hist list?

 

10. “The American response to 9/11 … [which] was both vastly bigger in scope and in consequence than the events that triggered it.”
 
9. “The ‘Arab Spring,’ … [It has] “toppled more governments in the region than either al-Qaida or the United States could.”
 
8. Asia’s “rebalancing … [which includes] the U.S. embrace of India.”
 
7. “The stagnation of the U.S. and other developed-world economies.”
 
6. “The invention of social media.”
 
5. “The proliferation of cell phones and hand-held computing devices.”
 
4. Wall Street’s “crash of 2008.”
 
3. “The Eurozone crisis and the crash of 2011-2012.”
 
2. A “failure to address global warming.”
 
1. “The rise of China and the other BRICs [Brazil, Russia, India and other emerging markets].”
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9/11’s Most Controversial Photo

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I had never seen this picture until recently, but it’s certainly a fascinating example of photojournalism, depicting a group of young Americans seemingly relaxing and enjoying themselves in the sun while the World Trade Center burned on 9/11. The photo was so controversial that the photographer refused to publish it for five years after the event.

From the Guardian:

 

The critic and columnist Frank Rich wrote about it in the New York Times. He saw in this undeniably troubling picture an allegory of America’s failure to learn any deep lessons from that tragic day, to change or reform as a nation: “The young people in Mr Hoepker’s photo aren’t necessarily callous. They’re just American.”
 
In other words, a country that believes in moving on they have already moved on, enjoying the sun in spite of the scene of mass carnage that scars the fine day. Indeed, I can’t help thinking the five apparently unmoved New Yorkers resemble the characters in the famous 1990s television comedy Seinfeld, who in the show’s final episode are convicted under a Good Samaritan law of failing to care about others.
 
Rich’s view of the picture was instantly disputed. Walter Sipser, identifying himself as the guy in shades at the right of the picture, said he and his girlfriend, apparently sunbathing on a wall, were in fact “in a profound state of shock and disbelief”. Hoepker, they both complained, had photographed them without permission in a way that misrepresented their feelings and behaviour.
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Angry Germans!

From the New York Times:

 

They are called “Wutbürger.” And they have become the bane of every political party in Germany.
Loosely translated as “enraged citizen,” the Wutbürger has stepped outside the classical political and parliamentary system by organizing demonstrations and town-hall meetings, protest marches and sit-ins.
“It’s as if the post-1945 consensus of Germans accepting the status quo and the conventional structures of the main political parties is coming to an end,” said Andrea Römmele, a professor at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. “These new trends should be seen as a strength, not as a threat to democracy,” she added.
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You Say Crick, I Say Creek

Actually, it seems like not very many Americans use either of those terms, according to this study by Derrik Watson, who traced the geographic distribution of names for contiguous flows of water in the United States. It’s certainly an interesting look at the lasting differences in the way that various regions of the country describe things.

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Click on the picture for a better view.

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Breakdowns Versus Foreshocks

The most thorough look at this issue from the perspective here is Thomas Homer-Dixon’s The Upside of Down. He argues “that our circumstances today are surprisingly like Rome’s in key ways. Our societies are also becoming steadily more complex and often more rigid. This is happening partly because we’re trying to manage-often with limited success-stresses building inside our societies, including stresses arising from our gargantuan appetite for energy…. Eventually, as occurred in Rome, the stresses may become too extreme, and our societies too inflexible to respond, and some kind of economic or political breakdown will occur…. “People often use the words `breakdown’ and `collapse’ synonymously. But in my view, although both breakdown and collapse produce a radical simplification of a system, they differ in their long-term consequences. Breakdown may be serious, but it’s not catastrophic. Something can be salvaged after breakdown occurs and perhaps rebuilt better than before. Collapse, on the other hand, is far more harmful…. “In coming years, I believe, foreshocks are likely to become larger and more frequent. Some could take the form of threshold events-like climate flips, large jumps in energy prices, boundary-crossing outbreaks of new infectious disease, or international financial crises.”” Homer-Dixon argues that foreshocks and breakdowns can lead to positive change if the ground is prepared. “We need to prepare to turn breakdown to our advantage when it happens-because it will,” he says.24 Homer-Dixon’s point is critically important. Breakdowns, of course, do not necessarily lead to positive outcomes; authoritarian ones and Fortress World are also possibilities. Turning a breakdown to advantage will require both inspired leadership and a new story that articulates a positive vision grounded in what is best in the society’s values and history.

-James Gustav Spaeth, The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability (2009)

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